Comparison
| Staff augmentation | Managed services | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | People’s time and skills | An outcome (uptime, response times, deliverables) |
| Pricing | Per person, hourly or monthly | Monthly fee per service, user or device |
| Accountability | You manage and own results | Provider owns results under an SLA |
| Flexibility | High: redirect people any time | Defined by the contract scope |
| Best for | Product development, projects, skill gaps | Ongoing operations: IT support, monitoring, security |
Which do you need?
- Building or changing software? Staff augmentation or a dedicated team.
- Running and supporting systems? Managed services. For managed IT, see The IT Solutions.
Many companies use both: managed services for operations and augmented engineers for product work.
