RocketDevs vs Arc.dev
Arc.dev publishes freelance rates of $15 to $110+/hr on its own pricing page and charges 20% of annual salary to place someone permanently. RocketDevs publishes three hourly rates, from $9.99/hr, with no percentage-of-salary fee to hire directly.
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Is RocketDevs a good Arc.dev alternative?
RocketDevs is a solid Arc.dev alternative for teams that want one assessed developer at a published price. Both are vetted networks rather than open marketplaces; Arc.dev covers freelance and permanent hiring. RocketDevs assesses every developer for 6 to 8 hours, rejects over 98%, and admits the top 2% (1.95% in 2025). Rates are $9.99/hr, $21.99/hr, and $30.99/hr, with time tracked by screenshots every 3 minutes.
RocketDevs vs Arc.dev: full feature comparison
4 things you'll check before hiring a remote engineer, and where RocketDevs and Arc.dev land on each. Hover any row for the detail.
- Yes
- Limited
- No
| Decision | RocketDevsRecommended FROM $9.99/HR · 24H MATCHING | Arc.dev |
|---|---|---|
| VettingQuality bar | 6-hour multi-stage, Top 2% pass Real humans review code, communication and culture, and every score is on the profile. | Pre-vetted, acceptance rate not published Arc.dev screens before you see a profile but does not publish an acceptance rate, so there is no like-for-like number to compare. |
| RateTotal cost | From $9.99/hr · three published tiers The same rate card for every client, no per-role quote. | Published $15 to $110+/hr Arc.dev’s own freelance pricing page, covering budgets from very small to senior-heavy. |
| Permanent hireConversion | $0, no placement fee Hire your developer directly at any time, with no percentage of salary. | 20% of annual salary Arc.dev’s published fee for permanent technical placements. It runs alongside the freelance product on separate terms. |
| GuaranteeRisk | 14-day money-back guarantee Refund or replacement if the match is wrong. | Risk-free freelance trial up to two weeks Arc.dev’s pricing page offers a freelance trial of up to two weeks. Permanent placements run on different terms. |
Figures last checked against public sources on June 2026. Competitor terms can change without notice, see the sources below.
Show sources (2)
- Arc.dev published rates Arc.dev
- RocketDevs rates, guarantee and terms RocketDevs
Can I really get my money back?
Yes. If it is not right within 14 days, you get your money back.
- 14-day risk-free trial, 100% honoured.
- No contract. Cancel anytime.
- Pay only if the work is right.
On-boarding included, not billed
Week-one onboarding into your workflow and tools, at no cost.
A price you can put in a budget
Three published tiers, billed against tracked hours. No quotes, no surprise invoices.
What clients say after switching from Arc.dev
“Their hiring process is extremely selective. The developer that I work with are on par with devs that cost companies $185,000 a year.”
“I don't write code. My fear was paying for 'mystery hours'. I love RocketDevs for solving that problem!”
“Swapped agencies for RocketDevs and it's night and day. Velocity doubled and comms are crisp.”
“Hired a React+Node dev in 5 days. Shipping faster without burning runway.”
“I found RocketDevs while searching for how to hire African developers, and I got exactly what I needed. Great in house to help manage my tech startup. These guys really helped me grow while maintaining a lean budget. I highly recommend RocketDevs, great company to find talented developers.”
“I hired a developer from RocketDevs and he was great. We built my automation software together and I'm impressed at the how incredibly talented this developer is. I'll highly recommend RocketDevs because they're the company every start-up needs when it comes to software development. Amazing job guys.”
“RocketDevs has been instrumental in helping us scale our development team without breaking the bank. The caliber of developers they offer is impressive, and the cost savings are substantial compared to hiring in-house or using other outsourcing options. Thanks to RocketDevs, we've been able to accelerate our product development timeline and focus on growing our business.”
“I got to commend RocketDevs on their customer service. My first dev didn't work out and they replaced him within 24 hours.”
“Weekly demos, zero 'mystery hours'. Best offshore experience I've had in 10 years.”
“I wanted devs from other regions in Africa. Took a while for me to find a match but it was worth it. and I think they need to expand their pool of devs as well.”
“I only decided to hire from rocketdevs because I was too occupied to handle the hiring of fiverr and it turned out to be better. The meeting with the project manager was very productive, seeing as I got 2 developers that completely matched my expectations.”
“I'm not experienced with building software, much less managing contracted developer, however Rocketdevs's platform was surprisingly efficient and distilled the process down to me only having to make the decisions. The initial vetting process was on point.”
Where Arc.dev is the stronger choice
No platform wins on every count. These are the places Arc.dev is genuinely the better call, taken from its own published material and from independent reporting, so you can weigh them yourself.
Freelance and permanent on one platform
Arc.dev handles contract matching and permanent technical placement side by side. RocketDevs does not do permanent placement at all, so if you want one vendor for both, that is a real gap on our side.
A broad published rate range
Arc.dev publishes freelance pricing of $15 to $110+ per hour on its own pricing page, which covers budgets from very small to senior-heavy.
Risk reversal for freelance buyers
Arc.dev offers a risk-free freelance trial of up to two weeks, and third-party reporting describes a 90-day replacement guarantee on permanent placements.
RocketDevs vs Arc.dev: Common questions
- Yes. Arc.dev is a vetted remote-developer network offering both freelance and full-time hires. RocketDevs covers both shapes too, part-time or full-time on the same published rate card, drawn from the top 2% of applicants, at rates published up front rather than quoted per role.
- RocketDevs charges $9.99/hr for Associate, $21.99/hr for Mid-senior, and $30.99/hr for Senior, which is about $1,598 a month for a full-time Associate. Arc.dev publishes its own numbers: freelance rates of $15 to $110+ an hour depending on role, location, and experience, and a permanent-placement fee of 20% of annual salary. Compare like for like, the freelance range against our hourly card, and note that the RocketDevs contractor model carries no percentage-of-salary placement fee.
- Both filter before you interview. RocketDevs runs 6 to 8 hours of vetting per developer across five stages (experience verification, technical screening, AI-assisted skill analysis, live technical interviews, and soft skills screening), and rejects over 98%. Our 2025 figures: 11,422 assessed, 223 placed, 1.95% accepted. We publish our own numbers and do not speak for theirs.
- Both, and you can change the hours as the work changes. For the hours you book the developer sits inside your team rather than delivering to a scope. Working hours are listed per profile, so you pick for the overlap your team needs rather than taking a network-wide promise.
- Time is tracked with screenshots every 3 minutes, so every invoiced hour has visible work behind it. If the match still misses, the 14-day money-back guarantee applies: refund or replacement, your call. Arc.dev publishes its own risk reversal, a risk-free freelance trial of up to two weeks, so compare what each one covers before you sign.
- One flat fee, not a percentage of salary. That is the substantive difference here: Arc.dev publishes a permanent-placement fee of 20% of annual salary, which rises with every dollar of the offer, while our fee does not move with the offer you make. Hiring in-house can be contract-to-hire or a direct placement. You give RocketDevs prior written notice and agree a reasonable wind-down period for the developer, which may be 30 days. The cooling off period is twelve months, covering the developer’s work for you plus 12 months after, or 12 months from introduction if you never engage them, and it applies only to the individual developer introduced to you rather than our wider network. After that window there is no fee at all.
Vetted like Arc.dev, with no placement fee on top.
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