Compare

Fractional QA engineer vs in-house hire vs a QA agency

Short answer

A fractional QA engineer, on this site, is Mate Ajduković working inside your team without becoming an employee. An in-house QA hire is someone on your headcount. A QA agency is a company you contract for testing capacity. QA Patrol is the first of those: one lead QA engineer, 10+ years, ISTQB certified, remote from Sinj, Croatia, across mobile, web, and APIs. Embedded QA is described as working the backlog the way a hire would, without the headcount commitment.

Book a 30-min call Or send a message QA pricing

Side by side

The fractional column is taken from QA Patrol’s own pages. The other two columns describe the kind of arrangement, not a survey of salaries or of named agencies.

Fractional QA at QA Patrol compared with an in-house hire and a QA agency
	Fractional QA (QA Patrol)	In-house QA hire	QA agency or outsourcing
Who does the work	Mate Ajduković, one lead QA engineer. Also a member of Toptal’s top 3% network, with those extra clients under NDA.	An employee the company recruits and manages.	A company. This site does not describe how a given agency staffs a project.
Contract	Direct contractor, or an EOR such as Deel or Remote.com.	Employment. The site’s line for embedded QA is that you get the participation without the headcount commitment.	A contract with that firm.
Time	Full-time, part-time, or hourly for embedded work. Consulting, training, and mentoring are separate shapes.	The role you open. The site does not estimate how long recruiting takes.	The term you agree with the agency. No retainer comparison is published here.
Inside the team	Embedded QA joins standups, sprint planning, and retros, and works the full backlog.	A teammate in those same rituals. That is the comparison the homepage draws.	Whatever that firm’s model is. QA Patrol does not state it.
Scope	Mobile (iOS and Android), web, and APIs. Manual and automated. Also strategy, team training, and 1-on-1 mentoring.	The job description the company writes.	The scope the company buys from the agency.
Where	Remote, any timezone. Based in Sinj, Croatia.	Wherever that employee works.	Wherever that firm operates.
Price	Hourly $40. Audit from $800. Automation setup from $2,400. Part-time from $1,600/month. Half-time from $3,200/month. “From” prices follow the final scope.	Salary and employment cost. This site does not estimate them.	The agency’s quote. This site does not estimate it.

How to read this

Choose embedded QA when you want a senior tester in the sprint without opening a permanent role. The homepage marks that shape most popular, and describes it as dropping in for a sprint, a quarter, or longer.

Choose an in-house hire when you want an employee. QA Patrol’s wording treats that as the thing embedded QA resembles in the day-to-day, and differs from on headcount.

Choose an agency when you want a company, and possibly a group of people, between you and the testing. QA Patrol is not that company. It is one engineer’s practice.

The page does not quote an in-house salary band, an agency markup, or a percentage saving. QA Patrol’s own rates are on the pricing page. Named results stay the ones already published: Carb Manager at 8M+ users and a testimonial about fewer regressions, Matchbook’s framework built from zero, and Waves Labs’ AI-assisted workflow in production from day one.

Pricing

Hourly QA is $40. A one-off QA audit (about 20 hours, findings report) is from $800. Test automation setup (about 60 hours, framework and first suites) is from $2,400. Fractional QA is from $1,600 a month at about 10 hours a week, or from $3,200 a month at about 20 hours a week. “From” prices depend on the final scope.

The full list is on the pricing page, in US dollars. The Croatian page lists euro prices, which are set amounts, not a conversion. Companies hire Mate directly as a contractor or via an employer of record (Deel, Remote.com, and similar).

Questions

What is a fractional QA engineer?

On this site, it is Mate Ajduković, a lead QA engineer you can embed full-time, part-time, or hourly, or hire for consulting, training, or mentoring. He is based in Sinj, Croatia, works remotely in any timezone, and has 10+ years across mobile, web, and APIs.

How is this different from outsourcing to a QA agency?

An agency is a company that supplies QA. QA Patrol is Mate’s own practice. You contract him directly or via an EOR such as Deel or Remote.com. The site does not claim agencies are slower or more expensive by any measured amount.

How is this different from an in-house QA hire?

Embedded QA joins the same rituals a hire would: standups, sprint planning, retros, and the backlog. The difference the site states is headcount. He is a contractor, not an employee.

Can the engagement be full-time?

Yes. Embedded QA is explicitly full-time, part-time, or hourly. The site says he is currently accepting new engagements.

Which results are fair to repeat?

Carb Manager: Lead QA, May 2021 to June 2025, 8M+ users, Cypress web suite, and Michael Xavier Vinoth’s August 2023 note that testing strategies reduced regressions. Matchbook: mobile automation built from zero on real devices in CI. Waves Labs: AI-assisted QA in production from day one. No other percentages are published.