Holdfast vs Lemon.io
The core difference
Lemon.io places a freelance engineer into your team and you direct the work. The unit you buy is a week of someone’s time. Holdfast sells you a shipped feature, ready in production, by a date written into the contract. With Lemon.io you keep the engineering management. With Holdfast we take it.
How time is billed
Marketplaces bill per week of effort because that is the only thing they can guarantee. Holdfast charges per shipped feature because that is the only thing a founder actually wants to buy. If the work takes us longer, that is our problem.
Continuity and management
A marketplace freelancer is usually solo, with no senior review and no second pair of eyes on the work. A Holdfast Sprint includes a senior engineer plus the founder reviewing every change. The difference shows up at handoff, when the codebase has to keep working without us.
The differences, line by line.
| Dimension | Holdfast | Lemon.io |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | Fixed price per shipped feature, 9,500 dollars | Weekly rate per matched freelancer |
| Minimum commitment | One sprint, or month to month for embedded | Set per match, typically open-ended |
| Conversion fee to hire | Zero, hire anyone any time | Conversion terms vary by match |
| Delivery guarantee | Next Sprint free if we miss day 14 | None |
| Who runs your intro call | The founder, every time | A sales or account team |
| AI tooling transparency | Published toolchain, AI time-saved logged per sprint | Not disclosed |
When to choose Lemon.io
Choose Lemon.io if you have spare engineering management capacity, you want hands you can direct yourself, and a per-week rate is what fits your budget. For a well-run team that just needs another contributor, a marketplace freelancer is direct and efficient.
Holdfast vs Lemon.io, in short.
No. We staff the Sprint with our own senior engineers. The engineer is named in your contract and the founder reviews every change.
Think Holdfast is the fit?
Send a one-page brief. A fixed price and a ship date back by morning, with no marketplace contract.