Gun.io vs Cognition (Devin)
Side-by-side from the Top 11 ranking of Forward Deployed Engineer vs Full Stack Developer: 11 Best Firms to Hire in the United States in 2026. Last verified September 3, 2026.
The short answer
Gun.io ranks higher on Top 11 (#10 vs #11) for Founders, chief executives and chief technology officers in New York, San Francisco and the wider United States who have a stalled AI project, a budget for one senior hire, and no clear idea whether they are shopping for a forward deployed engineer or a full stack developer.. A Nashville engineering guild, roughly 1,000 vetted engineers, and concrete public stack counts.
At a glance
| Gun.io | Cognition (Devin) | |
|---|---|---|
| Top 11 rank | #10 / Forward Deployed Engineer vs Full Stack Developer: 11 Best Firms to Hire in the United States in 2026 | #11 / Forward Deployed Engineer vs Full Stack Developer: 11 Best Firms to Hire in the United States in 2026 |
| Score (out of 9.4) | 5.6 | — |
| Best for | One senior freelance developer in a named stack, managed by you | Teams testing whether an agent can absorb well specified backlog work |
| Pricing | $$ (rates not published; engagement based) | $ to $$$ (a $20 a month Core plan plus usage billed in agent compute units, with enterprise contracts quoted) |
| HQ | Nashville, Tennessee | San Francisco, California |
| Founded | 2013 | 2023 |
Gun.io
A Nashville engineering guild, roughly 1,000 vetted engineers, and concrete public stack counts.
gun.io/Cognition (Devin)
Automating the specified half of the job, which is exactly why the unspecified half is getting expensive.
cognition.com/Methodology and scoring weights live at /methodology. No vendor pays for placement — see about.