Is it acceptable for a researcher PhD or PostDoc to pay a freelancer to re-implement a Benchmark I have heard of PhD students struggling to re-implement a Benchmark paper. Many of those I know struggle hard to do this on their own which could take up to 2 semesters or more, in some cases. Others pay programmers to re-implement their benchmark paper for reasons of insufficient skill, time, etc. For the latter, is this acceptable especially when the student is not paying the programmer to implement his PhD contribution?
This is a typical case of "ask your supervisor". He is the one who decides whether it is acceptable or not in your case.

A lot of research is carried out by multiple persons, and hiring someone is simply a case of adding an additional contributor to the research: there is nothing  wrong with that as long as you are honest and make it absolutely clear what your own work was and what was done by others. But, as said, your supervisor may not WANT to add another person to the research (many possible reasons for that exist), so ask him/her.