Index.dev
Human-led five-stage vetting and a separate unit for PhD-level AI work
What is Index.dev?
Index.dev is a London company, founded in 2019 according to its own job ads, trading under the legal name Index Soft Limited. It calls itself an AI-first engineering talent platform. Its main network has more than 30,000 engineers in Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe, and a separate AI unit supplies Master's and PhD-level people for LLM fine-tuning and RAG work. Every engineer goes through five stages of vetting run by people, including a live screening call and technical validation, and Index.dev says about 1% are accepted. All placements come with a 30-day trial and a full refund if the match fails.
Index.dev works primarily with clients in SaaS, Fintech, E-commerce, Healthcare, AI labs sectors. Its primary differentiator is: A 30-day trial with full refund on every placement.
Index.dev tech stack and services
| Service area |
|---|
| LLM Engineers |
| RAG & GenAI |
| ML Engineers |
| Trial Period |
| Nearshore LatAm |
| Eastern Europe Talent |
| Direct Hire Option |
Index.dev pricing
Short answer: Index.dev uses a monthly rate per engineer; direct-hire fee option; 30-day trial with refund; rates on request pricing approach. Minimum engagement is not publicly disclosed; a discovery call is required.
| Engagement model | Typical range | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Dedicated engineer | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
| Dedicated team | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
| Direct hire | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
| Trial period | Variable; depends on team size | Large programmes or team augmentation |
Index.dev pros and cons
| Advantages | Things to consider |
|---|---|
| +The 30-day refundable trial is the most generous published trial on this page | -Vetting is human-led but not specifically run by ML engineers |
| +A separate AI unit for advanced work such as fine-tuning | -Network figures and acceptance rates are company claims |
| +Clients can hire directly as well as contract | -Founding date only appears in job listings |
Index.dev vs alternatives
How Index.dev compares to the other top AI Engineer Staffing companies.
| Company | Best for | Key difference | Rating | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tensorway | CTOs who want an engineer, not a recruiter,... | Senior AI engineers run a code review and a specialization-specific task on every candidate | 4.8 | Full comparison |
| deepsense.ai | Teams that need a senior ML researcher who... | A research-heavy bench of about 120 employed AI specialists with ten years of production work | 4.6 | Full comparison |
| Toptal | Engineering leads who need one senior freelance ML... | Multi-stage screening that ends with interviews by senior engineers and a test project | 4.5 | Full comparison |
| Proxify | European companies that want a vetted ML or... | Senior-engineer interviews with live coding after an automated skills test | 4.4 | Full comparison |
| InData Labs | Product teams that need a computer-vision or NLP... | Ten years of computer-vision and NLP delivery in an AI-only company | 4.4 | Full comparison |
| Quantiphi | Enterprises that need many AI roles filled at... | The biggest AI-only bench here, sold through a named staffing program with AWS | 4.3 | Full comparison |
| Neurons Lab | Banks and insurers that need agent or LLM... | A 500-engineer network managed by a small AI-only core team in London | 4.3 | Full comparison |
| Vstorm | Teams whose LLM agent prototype needs engineers who... | A team that works almost entirely on LLM agents and RAG | 4.2 | Full comparison |
| Turing | Companies that need many remote ML and data... | Automated vetting and matching across the largest developer pool on this page | 4.1 | Full comparison |
| Andela | Companies building a long-term remote engineering group outside... | Assessment tooling from its 2026 Woven acquisition plus an in-house AI training academy | 4.1 | Full comparison |
| Uvik Software | Python-heavy teams that want employed senior engineers rather... | A no-freelancer policy with senior Python engineers who average seven years or more | 4.1 | Full comparison |
| SciForce | Healthcare data teams that need NLP or data... | Medical data science experience plus a documented multi-year placement engagement | 4.0 | Full comparison |
| Fusemachines | Cost-conscious companies that want mid-level ML engineers from... | Its own AI education programs feed an employed bench in emerging markets | 4.0 | Full comparison |
| Addepto | Industrial and automotive companies that need data engineers... | Data and ML engineers with industrial and automotive client history | 4.0 | Full comparison |
| Folio3 | Teams that need an MLOps or computer-vision engineer... | Very fast start times with a two-week trial and offshore pricing | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| Azumo | U.S. teams on a tight budget that need... | The lowest published hourly band on this page with full U.S. time-zone overlap | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| BairesDev | U.S. companies that need ML engineers alongside a... | Thousands of Latin American engineers available in U.S. time zones | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| N-iX | Large companies that want ML and data engineers... | Scale and two decades of history in Central European delivery | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| Svitla Systems | Mid-size companies that want one supplier for ML... | Engineers in both Latin American and European time zones from one supplier | 3.9 | Full comparison |
| Data Science UA | Companies that want to hire Ukrainian ML engineers... | A large AI community and conference series that feeds its recruiting | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| Tribe AI | Leadership teams that want a part-time senior ML... | Part-time access to senior ML practitioners from large tech companies | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| Strider | U.S. startups that want to hire a Latin... | Hiring plus retention support for Latin American developers | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| Coderio | U.S. teams that need a managed nearshore squad... | Squads assembled within seven days, with managed delivery as an option | 3.8 | Full comparison |
| Qubit Labs | Cost-conscious teams that can write a precise brief... | Recruiting across several lower-cost Eastern European countries | 3.7 | Full comparison |
| micro1 | AI teams that need many vetted contributors quickly... | Automated AI interviews that screen candidates in high volume | 3.7 | Full comparison |
| Mercor | AI labs and research teams that need specialist... | AI-run interviews and matching built for high-volume expert hiring | 3.7 | Full comparison |
| Harnham | Companies hiring permanent data or ML staff in... | Twenty years of recruiting only in data and analytics | 3.7 | Full comparison |
| KORE1 | U.S. companies that want a local agency to... | A U.S. staffing agency with contract-to-hire terms for AI roles | 3.6 | Full comparison |
Index.dev FAQ
What is Index.dev?
Human-led five-stage vetting and a separate unit for PhD-level AI work
How much does Index.dev charge?
Index.dev uses monthly rate per engineer; direct-hire fee option; 30-day trial with refund; rates on request pricing. Minimum engagement is not publicly disclosed. A discovery call is required to get project-specific quotes.
What tech stack does Index.dev use?
Index.dev works with Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow, LangChain, Hugging Face, OpenAI, AWS, Google Cloud. Primary industries served include SaaS, Fintech, E-commerce, Healthcare, AI labs.
Is Index.dev right for enterprise?
Startups that want a 30-day refundable trial before committing to a remote ML engineer. 30,000+ network team size. Key consideration: Vetting is human-led but not specifically run by ML engineers.
What are the best Index.dev alternatives?
The best alternatives to Index.dev depend on your use case. Top options are:
- Tensorway: senior ai engineers run a code review and a specialization-specific task on every candidate
- deepsense.ai: a research-heavy bench of about 120 employed ai specialists with ten years of production work
- Toptal: multi-stage screening that ends with interviews by senior engineers and a test project
Compare Index.dev with other AI Engineer Staffing companies
Verify all details directly with Index.dev before making a decision.