Situation

First QA hire or a QA service

At some team size the question is real. This page is the trade-off without a thumb on the scale: what a hire gives you that a service cannot, and the reverse.

Termsverdict (a one-word release result (pass, pass with findings, fail) with the findings and the checklist version behind it) · two-user test (sign in as one user, create a row, then try to read or change it as another user; pass is nothing comes back) · webhook (a message a provider such as Stripe sends to your server when something happens, like a payment) · fault injection (making a dependency fail on purpose in staging to see what the user and the logs show) · CI (the pipeline that builds and tests every change before it can be merged or deployed) · protected branch (the git branch that cannot be pushed to directly and is the only source of production deploys) · migration (a scripted change to the database schema that ships with a release and should be reversible) · store sandbox (Apple's and Google's test environments where purchases run without real money) · LLM feature (a product feature that calls a large language model, such as an assistant or a summariser)

The situation

A hire brings product knowledge that compounds, presence in every conversation, and exploratory judgement. A service brings a defined scope from day one, a checklist and a suite that exist before the person is hired, and a monthly cost that stops with 30 days' notice. Many teams do both in sequence: service now, hire when the work exceeds the scope.

What to do this week

An ordered sequence from the checklist. Each item links to its pass criterion.

Day 1
List the last ten releases and who tested what. The gap you find is the job description, for a person or a service.
- DR-05Release notes carry the checklist version and verdictlow
Day 2
Run the three highest-severity automated items yourself. If they fail today, the first month of either option is the same work.
- SC-01No secret keys in client bundlescritical
- AC-02Policies deny cross-tenant reads and writes when tested as another usercritical
- AU-02Server actions and API mutations re-check authentication and authorizationcritical
Day 3
Decide whether performance and LLM items are in scope. They change the plan (Growth) and the hire (automation skills).
- PF-01Critical flows within agreed budgets under baseline loadhigh
- LM-01Spend cap enforced per user and globallycritical
Day 4
Rehearse rollback and a migration reversal. Both need doing regardless of who owns testing.
- DR-02Rollback rehearsed on the previous releasehigh
- DM-01Migrations are reversible with a tested down pathhigh
Day 5
If there is a mobile app, run a purchase in sandbox. Mobile gates are the item most teams underestimate when sizing either option.
- MB-01Purchase flows verified in sandbox on target OS versionscritical

Which plan

Starter $2,900/mo

Starter is the smallest defined scope: 2 releases a week, 30 flows, one environment, $2,900 a month, cancel with 30 days' notice. It is the cheapest way to have the answer while you decide about a hire.

Limits, inclusions and what is not included.

Email about Starter

What happens without it

For market context, one vendor's published estimate puts traditional QA outsourcing at $4,000 to $6,400 per tester per month at 2026 rates and AI-native QA-as-a-service at $2,500 to $5,000 a month flat. Our prices are on the plans page; this figure is that vendor's estimate, cited as market data.

Bug0 estimates traditional QA outsourcing at $4,000 to $6,400 per tester per month at 2026 rates, a three-tester team plus lead at about $18,000 per month, and AI-native QA-as-a-service at $2,500 to $5,000 per month flat.

Source: Bug0, 2025-09-18 · verified 2026-09-21

Questions

Hire QA engineer vs QA service

A hire compounds product knowledge and covers exploratory work; a service gives a defined scope, an existing checklist and suite, and a cost that stops with notice. Sequence is common: service first, hire when the work exceeds the plan's scope. The limits table tells you when that is.

In-house QA vs outsourced QA cost

Compare total cost against scope, not salary against fee. A plan's scope is the limits table (flows, releases, surfaces, environments); a hire's scope is whatever you assign, minus ramp-up. Market figures other vendors publish are on the evidence page with dates; we do not publish salary estimates.

True cost to hire a QA engineer

We do not publish an estimate; figures vary by market and are easy to find with a source you trust. What we publish is our own price and scope, so the comparison on your side is honest.

Should a startup outsource QA?

If releases are frequent, the product is mostly AI-assisted, and nobody owns testing today, a service with a published scope is the fastest way to have someone own it this month. If the product needs deep exploratory testing or on-site hardware, hire. Many do the first and then the second.

Start with the audit

5 business days, $1,200, credited to the first month.

Start with the audit Read the checklist

Other situations