RAG vs Fine-Tuning — Which Should You Choose?
The right choice depends on your team, timeline, and product — not hype. I help founders and CTOs pick the stack that ships, then own delivery.
Direct answer
The right choice depends on your team, timeline, and product — not hype. I help founders and CTOs pick the stack that ships, then own delivery.
What affects price and timeline
Scope, integrations (payments, maps, AI APIs), compliance requirements, and team involvement all shift the range. Most rag development services engagements I take fall between $25K–$150K for production-quality delivery.
When to hire a senior engineer
Hire when the cost of delay exceeds the cost of expertise — failed MVPs, rewrite cycles, and AI demos that never reach production are more expensive than scoped senior delivery.