Build Sprints vs Toptal & Upwork
Toptal and Upwork are marketplaces: they find you a person, and you manage the work. A Build Sprint sells an outcome: a scoped deliverable at a fixed price, built by a senior team, handed over with the repository.
Toptal & Upwork, as published
Toptal publishes no rates: engagements are hourly, part-time or full-time, with no recruiting fee and a no-risk trial. On Upwork, freelancers set their own rates; Upwork takes a 0–15% freelancer service fee per contract and charges clients separate marketplace fees.
Checked October 2026 · their pricing page
Build Sprints
A discounted $990 Pilot Week, then a flat $1,500 per sprint week; sprints run 2–4 weeks. Scope and price are agreed before work starts.
See Build SprintsSide by side
| Toptal & Upwork | Build Sprints | |
|---|---|---|
| What you buy | A person's time | A scoped deliverable |
| Pricing | Hourly or weekly rates plus platform fees | $990 pilot week, then $1,500 per week, fixed |
| Who manages the work | You | We do, against the written scope |
| Scope change | More hours | Re-quoted before work starts |
| Handover | Depends on the freelancer | Repository, deployment assets, documentation |
Where Toptal & Upwork is better
- A very large pool of individual talent across almost every skill and timezone
- Hourly or part-time help for small, open-ended tasks
- You choose and interview the specific person you work with
- Fast to start when you already know exactly whom you need and can manage them
Where Build Sprints is better
- A fixed price for a defined deliverable, not a rate times however long it takes
- Changes are re-quoted explicitly, never absorbed into a growing invoice
- Code in your GitHub org from the first week, handed over with deployment assets and documentation
- Built on components we already own, so you don't pay to build plumbing from zero
So which one
Choose Toptal & Upwork if…
Choose Toptal or Upwork if you need ongoing hourly help, a specific specialist for an open-ended role, or someone to sit inside a team you already manage well.
Choose Build Sprints if…
Choose a Build Sprint if you know what needs building, want the price fixed before you commit, and don't want to project-manage a freelancer to get it done.
Last reviewed 23 October 2026. If something here is out of date or wrong, tell us and we'll fix it — engineering@resolutexhq.com.
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