AstraStaff AI vs. Traditional Recruiting Agencies
Agencies charge $12,000+ per hire. AstraStaff charges $1,000. Here's exactly why the math works.
Traditional recruiting agencies use a contingency model: 15-25% of the hire's first-year salary. For an $85,000 senior engineer, that's $12,750 to $21,250 — paid by you, the hiring company. AstraStaff AI charges a flat $1,000 per successful placement, running the entire pipeline autonomously.
| Feature | AstraStaff AI | The alternative |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per $85k hire | $1,000 | $12,750–$21,250 |
| Upfront cost | $0 | $0 (contingency) or $5k+ retainer |
| Time to first shortlist | < 24 hours | 5–14 days |
| Interviews per candidate | AI, unlimited | Human, ~30 min each |
| Replacement warranty | 30 days included | 30–90 days (varies) |
| Candidate PII masking | Yes, server-side | No — full profiles sent |
| Client can steal candidate | Blocked by design | Common risk |
| Scales to 100 roles simultaneously | Yes, no human bottleneck | No — recruiter capacity limits |
// verdict
For any company hiring 5+ people per year, AstraStaff saves $60,000–$100,000 annually while delivering faster shortlists and eliminating the "candidate poaching" risk that plagues agency-based recruiting.