Offshore software developers cost about $15 to $76 an hour in the published sources we checked on 10 November 2026, depending on region, seniority and how you buy them. The low end is a junior developer on an Indian agency's own rate card; the high end is a senior in Europe in a survey of development firms. For comparison, the median wage for US software developers was $135,980 in May 2025, which is about $65 an hour before benefits and about $93 with them, by our arithmetic.
Every rate below comes from a page that publishes it: a marketplace's own fee or rate page, an agency's own rate card, or the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. Where we use a third-party survey we label it, with its date and a link. Many vendors publish nothing. Toptal, and most of the Eastern European and Latin American agencies we checked, quote only after a call, so they appear here as "not published" rather than as a guess.
Offshore developer rates at a glance
| Region | Source (type) | Lower band | Senior | Top band |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| South Asia: India | Aalpha rate card (agency, Oct 2026) | $15 junior, $18 mid | $22 | $25 lead |
| Southeast Asia: Philippines | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $23 | $35 | $35 |
| Southeast Asia: Indonesia | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $25 | $35 | $41 |
| Southeast Asia: Philippines | Full Scale (agency, staff augmentation) | Not published | From $35, fully loaded | Not published |
| Eastern Europe: Poland | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $33 | $41 | $53 |
| Eastern Europe: Ukraine | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $30 | $40 | $48 |
| Eastern Europe: Romania | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $30 | $42 | $49 |
| Latin America: Brazil | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $35 | $42 | $50 |
| Latin America: Mexico | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $30 | $40 | $47 |
| Latin America: Argentina | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $26 | $41 | $50 |
| Latin America: Colombia | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $26 | $34 | $43 |
| US onshore: contractor | Lemon.io contract data (developer rate) | $46 | $68 | $76 |
| US onshore: employee | BLS, May 2025, wages only | $39.64 (10th percentile) | $65.38 (median) | $103.21 (90th percentile) |
All figures are US dollars an hour. Lemon.io's rate index (Q3 2026) splits developers into mid-level (2 to 5 years), senior (5 to 8 years) and strong senior (8+ years). It states that every figure is a developer rate on an active contract and "not a client price", so what a client pays through Lemon.io is higher, and the margin is not published. Aalpha's rate card, updated 21 October 2026, prices India-based developers at 160 hours a month: $2,400 for a junior (1 to 3 years), $2,900 mid (3 to 5), $3,500 senior (5 to 8) and $4,000 for a lead or architect (8+), which it calls indicative. Full Scale publishes one number: $35 an hour and up for a full-time senior engineer, fully loaded. The BLS hourly figures are the annual wages divided by 2,080 hours, our arithmetic; percentiles describe pay spread, not job titles.
Third-party survey ranges
Two surveys are widely quoted. They describe what development firms charge or list, so they run higher than the developer rates above.
| Region (Accelerance's grouping) | Junior | Senior | Change in a year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latin America | $33–$45 | $60–$75 | Down 7.1% |
| Europe | $31–$39 | $64–$76 | Down 4.4% |
| Asia | $24–$31 | $31–$41 | Down nearly 8% |
Third-party survey: Accelerance, published 24 November 2025, based on a survey of 60 software development partners. The article does not list which countries sit in "Europe" or "Asia", though it discusses Central and Eastern European hubs and names India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Third-party listing: Clutch's pricing page, updated 21 September 2026, shows agencies in India, the Philippines, Ukraine and Mexico most often at $25 to $49 an hour, and in Poland and the United States at $50 to $99. Our guide to custom software cost uses the same Clutch data for project budgets.
Rates by engagement model
The same engineer costs different amounts depending on who employs them, who manages them and what the fee covers.
| Model | Example | Published price | Fees and terms |
|---|---|---|---|
| Freelance marketplace | Upwork | Typical $10–$100 an hour; entry $20–$40, intermediate $40–$70, expert $70–$150+ | Client fee 5% (Basic) or 10% (Business Plus); 3% or 8% for eligible US clients paying by checking account; Basic adds a $0.99–$14.99 contract initiation fee |
| Vetted marketplace | Arc | $15–$110+ an hour for freelancers | 20% of annual salary for a full-time hire |
| Vetted marketplace | Toptal | Not published | Trial period: not charged if the freelancer is not a fit |
| Staff augmentation | Full Scale (Philippines) | From $35 an hour, senior, fully loaded | $0 recruiting fees; two-week money-back guarantee |
| Dedicated team | Aalpha (India) | $2,400–$4,000 per developer a month, 160 hours | Indicative; AI/ML roles at the upper end |
| Embedded team | Gigabit (Dhaka) | $3,000–$7,500 per engineer a month | 2–4 week trial, no lock-in, 30-day notice |
Sources: Upwork's client pricing and its software developer rate page, which describes typical ranges from historical contracts worldwide; Arc's pricing; Toptal's hiring page, which asks you to book a call for cost; Full Scale and Aalpha as above. Full Scale says its rate covers salary, mandated benefits, HR, payroll, equipment, workspace and management.
Freelance means you hire, manage and review one person by the hour. Staff augmentation means a vendor employs the engineer and you direct the work. A dedicated team is a group a vendor assigns to you full time, usually with a lead. An embedded team works inside your sprint board, Slack and repositories, with the vendor accountable for technical oversight. Our comparison of embedded teams and IT staff augmentation sets the models side by side on cost, time to first shipped change and who owns the system later.
What moves the rate
- Seniority. In Lemon.io's data, moving from mid to senior adds about 32% and from senior to strong senior about another 22%.
- Region. Lemon.io's senior medians are $40 an hour in Latin America, $44 in Europe and the UK and $68 in the US.
- Skill. AI work costs more. Lemon.io's AI engineer medians are $45 mid, $55 senior and $81 strong senior, and Aalpha's calculator adds 20% for AI/ML roles.
- Hours assumed. A monthly price usually assumes about 160 hours. Check the number before you compare it with an hourly rate.
The hidden costs
Management time
Every external engineer needs someone on your side to set priorities, answer questions and review code. Nobody publishes a reliable figure for how much, so price it yourself. Example: if a US senior engineer spends 10 hours a week on it, at the loaded BLS median of $93.39 an hour that is 10 × 52 × $93.39 = $48,563 a year. Freelancers need more of this time than a team with its own lead.
Time zones
| Hub | Hours ahead of New York, winter | Hours ahead, summer |
|---|---|---|
| Dhaka | 11 | 10 |
| India | 10.5 | 9.5 |
| Manila | 13 | 12 |
| Kyiv | 7 | 7 |
| Warsaw | 6 | 6 |
| São Paulo, Buenos Aires | 2 | 1 |
| Bogotá | 0 | −1 |
| Mexico City | −1 | −2 |
Latin America shares most of the US working day. Europe shares a few morning hours. South and Southeast Asia share almost none unless someone shifts their day, so the work runs async with a short agreed overlap. In one published engagement, updates posted at 5:30 PM in Dhaka reached the US team at 7:30 AM Eastern, and stand-ups ran twice a week in a two-hour overlap. Get the overlap hours in the contract.
Turnover and replacement
We found no reliable cross-country turnover study, so we quote none. What you can compare are the terms vendors publish: Full Scale's two-week money-back guarantee, Toptal's trial, South's free replacement for Latin American hires, Gigabit's 2–4 week trial and 30-day notice. Ask how fast a leaver is replaced, who pays for the overlap, and whether the code is documented well enough for a newcomer to pick up.
IP and contracts
Under US law, a work made by a contractor is a "work made for hire" only if it falls in one of nine listed categories, such as a contribution to a collective work, and both sides sign a written agreement saying so. Software usually does not fit those categories, so you need a signed assignment of rights from the vendor, and from its developers to the vendor. Also settle which country's law governs, who owns the repositories and cloud accounts, and how personal data is handled. This is general information, not legal advice; have counsel read the contract.
Fees on top
Marketplace fees add 3% to 10% on Upwork, and a placement fee of 20% of salary on Arc. Bank and currency charges vary by provider, so ask for invoices in US dollars.
Worked example: three senior engineers for a year
Example. We assume three senior engineers, full time, for 12 months: 2,080 hours each a year for hourly rates and 12 invoices for monthly prices. The rates are the published figures above; where a source gives a range, which point we use is our choice.
| Option | Arithmetic | Example cost a year |
|---|---|---|
| US employees at the BLS median, with benefits | 3 × $135,980 ÷ 0.70 | $582,771, before recruiting |
| Upwork freelancers at $70 an hour, Business Plus | 3 × $70 × 2,080 × 1.10 | $480,480 |
| Accelerance survey, Latin America senior | 3 × 2,080 × $60 to $75 | $374,400 to $468,000 |
| Lemon.io senior median, Poland (developer rate only) | 3 × $41 × 2,080 | $255,840, plus a margin Lemon.io does not publish |
| Full Scale, Philippines | 3 × $35 × 2,080 | From $218,400 |
| Aalpha, India, senior | 3 × $3,500 × 12 | $126,000 |
| Gigabit embedded team, Dhaka | 3 × $3,000 to $7,500 × 12 | $108,000 to $270,000 |
The US line uses the BLS finding that benefits are 30% of total compensation for private-industry workers (June 2026), a figure for all workers, not developers. On the Basic plan the Upwork line would be $458,640. If you hired the three US engineers through Arc, its 20% fee on $135,980 is $27,196 each, or $81,588. Then add the management example of $48,563 to any option where your own people do the reviewing.
The spread is wide because the lines buy different things. The lowest rates come with the most management on your side. A higher monthly price that includes a lead, replacement and code review can cost less in total. As a published data point, one HR-tech client paid Gigabit $14,400 a month for three engineers and had first pull requests in five days.
When offshore is worth it
Offshore works when the backlog is clear, you have senior reviewers, and a few hours of overlap plus good async habits are enough, which is true of most product work. Nearshore Latin America suits work that needs live collaboration all day. Hiring suits work that is core to your product for years and seats you can fill. If seats have sat open for months, read when to hire vs embed, and for the wider decision see build vs buy vs embed.
Offshore is the wrong choice when nobody on your team can review the work, when the job is a one-off that a fixed price would cover better, or when your data may not leave the country.
How to compare quotes
- Ask for the all-in monthly price per named engineer and the hours it assumes.
- Ask what it includes: benefits, equipment, management, code review and replacement.
- Put the overlap hours and the meeting cadence in writing.
- Get a signed IP assignment and confirm you own the repositories and cloud accounts.
- Check the trial, the notice period and any minimum term.
- List every fee on top: platform, placement, initiation, currency.
What Gigabit charges
Gigabit's engineering hub is in Dhaka. Embedded AI Teams cost $3,000–$7,500 per engineer per month, by role and seniority, with a 2–4 week trial, no lock-in and 30 days' notice. A pod is assembled in about two weeks, opens its first pull requests by Day 5 and reaches full sprint velocity by Week 4. Roles include AI/ML engineers, prompt engineers, agent engineers, full-stack engineers who build with AI, and MLOps engineers, with a delivery lead and around 2–3 hours of overlap with US Eastern time. You sign one US contract and get one invoice in US dollars.
For a defined build rather than ongoing capacity, we quote a fixed price after scoping; see offshore software development from Dhaka and our pricing page.
