labs@atheron:~/compare/freelance$ diff ./us ./them
Us or a freelancer
One person you choose, or a small team that commits.
A good freelancer is often the fastest and cheapest way to get a small, well-defined job done. A bigger build needs more than one pair of hands. Here is where each one fits.
// In one sentence
What each one is
Atheron Network Labs
A small Canadian development studio that builds web and mobile apps, AI systems, bots and blockchains, and runs products of its own. Every estimate comes from a published rate card.
A freelancer
An independent developer you hire directly or through a marketplace, usually paid by the hour or by the job.
// Prices
What it costs
Ours come from our rate card through the estimator, the same numbers a visitor gets there. Theirs are published figures, with the source linked and the day we read it.
Atheron Network Labs
A fixed-price MVP web app sprint, priced from the rate card in force. Every other build is priced by the estimator from the same card.
MVP web app sprint, fixed price: ≈ US$37,600CAD 53,500
Prices in your currency are estimates from today's Bank of Canada rate. All invoicing is in CAD or USD.
Theirs
Each freelancer sets their own rate, and marketplaces add their own fees, which they publish on their own sites. We print no figure for either: it is quoted on request by the person you hire.
Quoted on request
// Side by side
Point by point
A price you can see before you talk to anyone
Atheron Network Labs
Yes
The estimator on our site prices any build from our rate card.
A freelancer
Depends
Depends on who you hire.
Free to start
Atheron Network Labs
No
Estimates are free. Building is paid, with a deposit.
A freelancer
No
A delivery date committed in the quote
Atheron Network Labs
Yes
Every quote commits to the end of its range.
A freelancer
Depends
Depends on who you hire.
Years of client work behind it
Atheron Network Labs
No
A new studio. Our own products are our case studies.
A freelancer
Depends
Depends on who you hire.
A Canadian company on the contract, in CAD
Atheron Network Labs
Yes
A Canadian company in Kelowna, British Columbia. Quotes in Canadian dollars.
A freelancer
Depends
Depends on who you hire.
// Said plainly
What a freelancer does better
- Small jobs, cheaply. For a fix, a plugin or a landing page, one good person costs less than any studio, us included.
- You choose the exact person. You read their history and talk to them before you hire, and they are the one who does the work.
- Start this week. There is no proposal, no milestones and no deposit schedule to agree first.
// Choosing
Who should pick which
Pick them if
Pick a freelancer for a small job with a clear edge to it, when you can judge the work yourself and you are comfortable depending on one person.
Pick us if
Pick us when the build needs design, engineering, testing and someone to run it afterwards, and you want a fixed price, a committed date and a company accountable for all of it.
// Sources
How we checked
- A figure about anyone else is printed only where we read it on a public page, linked here with the day we read it.
- Agency rates are Clutch's published ranges, from its verified client reviews. They describe the firms Clutch lists, not any one firm.
- Where a route is many firms or people, the honest answer is often that it depends, and the table says so.
- Names are used to compare, nothing more. We are not affiliated with any company named on these pages.
October 3, 2026. US dollars converted at 1.4246 USD/CAD, the Bank of Canada daily average for October 2, 2026. Our conversion, not their price.
// Next step
Price your build
The estimator prices it from the same rate card as every number on this page, in a few minutes, with no call.