What is testing by hand costing you?
Move the sliders to see what your team spends each year on the first pass of every ticket. Most teams have never added it up, because the hours are spread across developers, product managers, and QA.
Valued at $50 per hour, the U.S. median wage for QA analysts and testers (BLS, May 2025), over 26 two-week sprints. First pass only, before your Smoketest plan.
How the math works
It only counts the first pass, so the real number is usually higher.
- 1
Your tickets
How many tickets reach QA in a sprint, across the whole team.
- 2
Your hours
How long someone spends checking each one, including setup.
- 3
The hourly rate
$50 an hour, the U.S. median wage for QA analysts and testers.
- 4
The year
Those hours across 26 two-week sprints. Benefits are not included.
What the options cost
Each one takes the first pass off your team. They differ in when they start and what you pay for.
Market figures from BLS, May 2025, QA agency rate listings, and Vendr. Your quote will vary.
Questions about QA costs
Weighing other options? See them side by side
The U.S. median salary for QA analysts and testers is $104,300 a year (BLS, May 2025). Benefits, tools, and the hiring loop come on top of that.
Agencies usually publish rates from $25 to $99 an hour. Managed services run higher: Vendr reports a median of $83,100 a year for one of the largest.
Only the first pass of each ticket, at $50 an hour. It leaves out exploratory testing, regression passes, and the cost of a bug that reaches customers.
Not necessarily. Those hours are the ones your team can spend on other work, such as exploratory testing, or building the next thing.
No. It is a starting point built on a median wage. Put in your own numbers, and we will go through them with you on a call.
It starts at $399 a month for 1,000 runs. Each run is up to 10 minutes, and a longer test counts as two runs or more, one for every 10 minutes. If your team needs more, we design a Scale plan with you, so you stop buying extra runs.
Bring your numbers to the call.
We will go through them with you and run a real ticket, so you can see what the first pass looks like.