Distyl AI vs Cognition (Devin)
Side-by-side from the Top 11 rankings of Forward Deployed Engineer vs AI Engineer: 11 Best Firms to Hire in the United States in 2026 and Forward Deployed Engineer vs Full Stack Developer: 11 Best Firms to Hire in the United States in 2026. Last verified August 30, 2026.
The short answer
Distyl AI ranks higher on Top 11 (#4 vs #11) for Founders, chief executives and chief technology officers in New York, San Francisco and the wider United States deciding whether their next hire or vendor should be a forward deployed engineer embedded in the business or an AI engineer building models and products. / 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.. Fortune 500 agentic deployment at scale, hires FDEs openly, $175M Series B at $1.8B.
At a glance
| Distyl AI | Cognition (Devin) | |
|---|---|---|
| Top 11 rank | #4 / Forward Deployed Engineer vs AI Engineer: 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) | 7.9 | — |
| Best for | Fortune 500 agentic deployments with FDEs on site | Teams testing whether an agent can absorb well specified backlog work |
| Pricing | pricing undisclosed; enterprise engagements | $ to $$$ (a $20 a month Core plan plus usage billed in agent compute units, with enterprise contracts quoted) |
| HQ | San Francisco, CA (office in New York, NY) | San Francisco, California |
| Founded | — | 2023 |
Distyl AI
Fortune 500 agentic deployment at scale, hires FDEs openly, $175M Series B at $1.8B.
distyl.aiCognition (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.