Forward-deployed engineers cost $220K+ a year. Boutique SI quotes hit $180K and 12 weeks per scoped integration. Ballet generates the integration code on demand and runs it as reviewable, version-controlled workflows, so the integration backlog ships this quarter, not next year.
Ballet replaces scoped contracted integration work, not your engineering team. Your team briefs Ballet in plain English; Ballet generates the integration code; your engineers review the diff; your security team approves the run. One FDE-month buys you one of these workflows from an SI. Ballet ships four in the same budget, and the fifth costs almost nothing. Your platform stays yours.
Each of these is the kind of scoped integration work an SI quotes as a 4–8 week project. In Ballet these can ship within a day.
Salesforce + Stripe + Okta + product DB + Zendesk.
Typical SI quote: ~6 weeks, ~$90K.
SSO + billing + seats + data export + finance ledger + CSM notify. Backed by Brainfish's SOC2 Type II compliance.
Typical SI quote: ~8 weeks, ~$140K.
Stripe + NetSuite + Salesforce contract + customer comms.
Typical SI quote: ~4 weeks, ~$70K.
ERP inventory + Salesforce + Stripe pricing + quote/contract + email.
Typical SI quote: ~5 weeks, ~$80K.
 Ballet | n8n / Zapier | Claude Cowork & Code | Contracted FDE | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Approach | Deterministic workflows + agents, written as code | Preset workflows | Task-based agents | Custom code, scoped |
| Output consistency | 100% where it matters, agentic where it helps | 100% accurate | Varies between runs | Deterministic |
| Handles complex multi-system work | Yes | Caps out past 100 nodes | Limited | Yes |
| Time to first workflow | 30 minutes | Hours–days | Fast start, slow to ship | 12 weeks + $180K |
| Connects to any API | Yes, automatic | Partial (manual) | No | Yes (manual) |
| Inspectable code | Yes; generated code, version-controlled | Visual graph | No | Yes |
| Evals on every step | Yes | No | No | No |
Those tools cap out at their connector library. Ballet writes the connector you need, the moment you need it, and the workflow runs as deterministic code, not a visual graph that breaks on upgrade.
Those are task-based agents. Outputs vary between runs. Ballet writes deterministic workflows as code, with agentic reasoning only where it helps. Code you can read. Runs you can replay.
We replace the contractor's scoped integration work. The contractor is fine, just slower. Your engineering team keeps the platform.
Generated code is visible and version-controlled. Every run is replayable. Approval gates are first-class. Ballet is part of Brainfish and covered by Brainfish's SOC2 Type II compliance. Details are in our Trust Center. SSO/SAML at Enterprise.
Any system with an API. We've shipped against SAP, internal ERPs, legacy supply-chain tools. Systems without APIs aren't us.
Brainfish is the knowledge layer. Ballet is the execution layer. Customers run Ballet workflows triggered from Brainfish, but Ballet works standalone too.
Most design-partner workflows ship within two weeks of the initial review. The integration is generated in minutes; the bulk of the time is your team scoping and approving.
No SOW. No scope creep. Your dedicated specialist runs it with you.
