Should You Hire a Local or Offshore Development Team?
How much money will you save money by hiring offshore developers? Although offshore developers can cost significantly less than local developers, they may not always be the best option. I wanted to have a custom keyboard app developed based on a prototype I built, so I posted my project on Upwork, LinkedIn and reached out to a few developers I knew for quotes. I selected the best offer based on skill set, delivery time and cost. After sorting through the quotes, I end up with two offers I liked best. One company, based in New York, gave me an estimate of 3 ½–4 months for $44,800 — $51,200 to complete. Another offshore team, based in India, quoted me the same timeline for delivery with a quote of $10,000. Just looking at the numbers, I would save a fifth of the amount of money for the same delivery date, so financially, the more obvious route was the offshore developers.
Even though pricing is very enticing, there are factors you have to keep in mind before deciding whether an offshore team is right for you. Some of the key factors are quality of work, on-time delivery, and communication, because where you may save in cost you may lose in other areas. Based on the amount of work and cost, the offshore team fit because it was a very simple project, wasn’t time sensitive, had straight-forward functionality and didn’t involve unknown cultural norms.
I’ve come up with a list of questions to ask yourself to help decide if an offshore developer will be right for you and your project.
Local Developer
- Will your project require cultural understanding?
- Do you have intellectual property that needs protection?
- Will you need support hours consistent with your local timezone?
- Is this your first project?
- Will you need post-launch support?
- Does code quality matter? Will you need to build a new feature or update this project again in the future?
Offshore Developer
- Do you have a very tight budget?
- Will you need around the clock support for your app or website?
- Is delivery time not very important?
- Is your project completed detailed out, including prototypes for UI, detailed requirements and workflow?
In general, if you are starting off with your first project where you need to be more hands-on, are looking for creative input from a developer, or have a complicated project. I would recommend a local developer. If you are a more seasoned entrepreneur where you have had a few applications built, need a very simple prototype built, or have extremely clear and detailed requirements. I would recommend an offshore developer because you’ll have a better understanding of what to look out for.
