Offshore Software Development Rates by Country (2026)
Published sources put offshore software development at about $24 to $41 an hour in Asia, $31 to $76 in Europe and $33 to $75 in Latin America, according to Accelerance's survey, reported November 24, 2025. Clutch's review data, updated September 21, 2026, places India, the Philippines, Ukraine and Mexico in a $25 to $49 band and the United States at $50 to $99. The hourly rate does not show the seniority mix, the management time or the rework, and those decide the total cost.
Every figure below comes from a source opened on October 3, 2026. Where no source covers a country, the table says so.
What are offshore software development rates by region in 2026?
Three sources with a stated method put North America and Western Europe highest. Accelerance and GoodFirms place Asia lowest, while Lemon.io's contractor data shows Asia, Eastern Europe and Latin America within a few dollars of each other. The numbers differ because the sources measure different things.
| Region | Accelerance, survey of 60 partner firms (November 24, 2025) | Lemon.io, 2,500+ contracts (April 25, 2026) | GoodFirms, survey of 100+ firms (updated September 28, 2026) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Asia | Junior $24–$31; senior $31–$41 | Asia and Middle East average $42 | South Asia: under $20 and $20–$50; Southeast Asia: $20–$50 |
| Eastern Europe | Europe: junior $31–$39; senior $64–$76 | $39–$42 | $20–$50 |
| Latin America | Junior $33–$45; senior $60–$75 | Average $39 | $20–$50 |
| Western Europe | Included in the Europe figure | Not given as one figure | $50–$100 (Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic); $100–$250 (UK, Germany, France, Netherlands) |
| North America | Not covered | Senior median $64 | $100–$250 |
All figures are US dollars per hour. Sources: Accelerance, Lemon.io, GoodFirms.
What each source measures:
- Accelerance surveys the software firms in its own partner network. Its blog post describes "our survey of 60 software development partners from around the world." These are agency rates from firms it has vetted.
- Lemon.io reports "actual hourly rates paid by vetted companies to senior software engineers and developers" on its marketplace from January 2024 through April 2026. These are rates for individual contractors.
- GoodFirms asked software companies what they charge. Its survey ran "between September and October 2025", and 56.3% of respondents put themselves in the $20 to $50 band. These are self-reported asking prices.
What are the rates by country?
Country-level figures with a stated method are scarce. Two sources publish them: Clutch as wide bands for agencies, and Lemon.io as ranges for senior contractors.
| Country | Clutch, custom software companies (updated September 21, 2026) | Lemon.io, senior engineers (April 25, 2026) |
|---|---|---|
| United States | $50–$99 | $28–$100 |
| Canada | $100–$149 | $30–$95 |
| Australia | $100–$149 | Not listed |
| United Kingdom | "Unknown" | $30–$77 |
| Germany | Not listed | $25–$65 |
| Poland | $50–$99 | Not listed |
| Romania | Not listed | $25–$80 |
| Ukraine | $25–$49 | Not listed |
| Spain | $25–$49 | Not listed |
| Mexico | $25–$49 | $25–$55 |
| Brazil | Not listed | $25–$80 |
| Argentina | Not listed | $26–$60 |
| India | $25–$49 | Not listed |
| Philippines | $25–$49 | $25–$55 |
| Vietnam | Not listed | $25–$55 |
| Indonesia | Not listed | $22–$47 |
| Bangladesh | No country figure | Not listed |
All figures are US dollars per hour. "Not listed" means the public page gives no figure for that country. Sources: Clutch, Lemon.io.
Clutch's bands are coarse and change by service line. The same site, on the same date, puts United States companies at $50 to $99 for custom software and at $25 to $49 for mobile app development. It puts Australian companies at $100 to $149 for custom software and at $25 to $49 for AI development. Treat a band as a starting point for questions.
Where does Bangladesh sit?
None of the sources we opened publishes a Bangladesh-specific hourly rate with a stated method, so we do not give one. This is what the sources do say.
- Accelerance names the country in its Asia figure: "Asia remains the cost leader, with average rates for junior developers as low as $24–$31 per hour and senior roles between $31–$41, thanks to massive talent pools in places like India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh."
- GoodFirms lists "South Asia (India, Bangladesh, Pakistan)" among the regions in its "Under $20" band, which 12.5% of respondents chose. It also lists South Asia in the $20 to $50 band.
- Clutch lists 857 software development companies for Bangladesh as of October 2, 2026. Each profile shows its own rate band, and the site publishes no country average. Bangladesh is absent from its pricing-by-location table.
- PayScale reports an average base salary of ৳353,749 a year for a software engineer in Bangladesh, "Based on 132 salary profiles (last updated Jan 14 2026)". That is employee pay in local currency from a small sample. It is not a billing rate.
Many vendor blogs quote hourly ranges for Bangladesh. We found none that states how the figures were collected, so none is used here.
What does the hourly rate not tell you?
The rate leaves out three things that decide the total: who does the work, how much management it needs, and how much has to be redone.
Seniority mix. A single quoted rate is often a blend of junior and senior people. In Accelerance's Europe figures, a senior costs about twice a junior ($64–$76 against $31–$39). Lemon.io found that "Senior engineers earn 28–45% more than mid-level developers" and that engineers with eight or more years of experience are about 13% of its market. Ask for the named roles and the seniority of each.
Management overhead. Someone has to write specifications, review work and answer questions across time zones. Part of that is the vendor's project manager, which may or may not be in the rate. The rest is your own team's time, which is in no quote. Vendor management is a weak spot for many buyers: in Deloitte's 2024 Global Outsourcing Survey of more than 500 executives, 70% reported that their vendor management function "is not fully mature."
Rework. The Accelerance post warns that "Companies lured in by bargain rates often encounter scope creep, rework, and project delays that wipe out any up-front savings." In the GoodFirms survey, "65.6% of the survey respondents reported that scope creep typically increased project cost by 10-25%." At national scale, CISQ's 2022 report estimated the cost of poor software quality in the US at "at least $2.41 trillion".
Output per hour. Accelerance's Olivier Poulard puts it this way: "Hourly rates are a poor measure of the true cost of software development". A team at $30 an hour that needs twice the hours costs the same as a team at $60.
How do you compare two offshore quotes?
Compare total cost for the same scope, with the same roles. The rate is one of four inputs.
Total cost = hours × blended rate + your management time + rework
A worked illustration, using an assumed team of four people for six months at 160 hours a month each, which is 3,840 hours:
| Published rate | Cost of 3,840 hours | With 10–25% scope creep (GoodFirms) |
|---|---|---|
| $25 an hour (bottom of Clutch's $25–$49 band) | $96,000 | $105,600 to $120,000 |
| $49 an hour (top of that band) | $188,160 | $206,976 to $235,200 |
| $99 an hour (top of Clutch's United States band) | $380,160 | $418,176 to $475,200 |
The team size and duration are assumptions. The rates and the scope-creep range are the published figures above.
Questions that make two quotes comparable:
- Which roles are included, and how senior is each person?
- Are project management, QA and DevOps inside the rate or billed separately?
- How many working hours overlap with your team each day?
- Is the contract time and materials, fixed price or a dedicated team? In the GoodFirms survey, 81.3% of companies named time and materials as a pricing model and 65.6% named fixed price.
- Who owns the code and the accounts from the first day?
- What has the vendor shipped that you can see running?
Are offshore rates going up or down?
They fell over the past year in all three major regions, according to Accelerance. Its November 24, 2025 post reports rates down 7.1% year on year in Latin America, "nearly 8%" in Asia and 4.4% in Europe, which it attributes to competition and AI-assisted development.
Demand has not fallen with them. Deloitte's 2024 survey found that 80% of executives planned "to maintain or increase investment in third-party outsourcing", while 70% had "selectively insourced scope that was previously with a third-party" over the previous five years. Buyers are keeping outsourcing and moving work in both directions.
Wage gaps explain why offshore rates stay lower. The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey reports that "The median salary for an Engineering Manager in the US is $200,000, compared to $118,000 in Germany and just $52,000 in India." The US Bureau of Labor Statistics puts 2025 median pay for US software developers, QA analysts and testers at $64.44 an hour, before employer costs.
Key takeaways
- Asia is the lowest-priced region for agency work in Accelerance's survey, at $24 to $41 an hour.
- Eastern Europe and Latin America overlap, from about $31 to $76 depending on seniority.
- Clutch's country bands are $25 to $49 for India, the Philippines, Ukraine and Mexico, and $50 to $99 for the United States.
- No source we opened gives a Bangladesh-specific rate with a stated method.
- Seniority mix, management time and rework change the total more than the headline rate shows.
- Compare quotes on total cost for the same scope and the same roles.
Frequently asked questions
What is the average offshore software development rate?
There is no single average. Clutch reports that the average cost to hire a software development company "ranges anywhere from $25–$49/hour" across its reviews. In the GoodFirms survey, 56.3% of companies placed themselves between $20 and $50 an hour.
Which country has the cheapest software developers?
GoodFirms places its "Under $20" band in South Asia, parts of Africa and smaller Eastern European hubs. Lemon.io names Latvia, Indonesia and Vietnam as its least expensive countries for senior roles. The lowest rate is not the lowest total cost if the work has to be redone.
What are software development rates in Bangladesh?
No source we opened publishes a Bangladesh-specific rate with a stated method. Accelerance includes Bangladesh in its Asia range of $24 to $41 an hour, and GoodFirms names it in the South Asia group of its lowest bands.
What is a blended rate?
A blended rate is one hourly price for a whole team, averaged across junior and senior people. It is easy to compare and hides the mix. Two vendors can quote the same blended rate and staff the work with very different levels of experience, so ask for the rate and seniority of each role.
Why do rate surveys disagree?
They measure different things. Accelerance surveys vetted agencies, Clutch groups agency reviews into wide bands, Lemon.io reports what companies pay individual contractors, and GoodFirms asks vendors what they charge.
Is a fixed price safer than an hourly rate?
A fixed price moves the risk of overruns to the vendor, who prices that risk in and holds the scope tightly. Hourly billing is flexible and puts the risk on the buyer. Either works when the scope is clear and the roles are named.
Easital Technologies Ltd. is a software engineering company based in Dhaka, Bangladesh, that builds and operates software for clients in other countries. Our offshore software development page covers what to check in any offshore partner and how we work across time zones, and hire AI developers covers dedicated engineers. Products we have built are listed under our work.
Sources
All sources were opened and checked on October 3, 2026.
- Accelerance, "2026 Outsourcing Rates: Global Costs Are Trending Down", Peter Griffin, November 24, 2025. https://www.accelerance.com/blog/2026-outsourcing-rate-trends-asia-europe-latam
- Clutch, "Software Development Company Pricing Guide 2026", Hannah Hicklen, updated September 21, 2026. https://clutch.co/developers/pricing
- Clutch, "AI Pricing Guide 2026", Anna Peck, updated September 21, 2026. https://clutch.co/developers/artificial-intelligence/pricing
- Clutch, "Mobile App Pricing Guide 2026", Hannah Hicklen, updated September 21, 2026. https://clutch.co/directory/mobile-application-developers/pricing
- Clutch, "Top Software Developers in Bangladesh", ratings updated October 2, 2026. https://clutch.co/bd/developers
- GoodFirms, "Custom Software Development Cost Survey 2026", Jini Maxin Nepoleon, updated September 28, 2026. https://www.goodfirms.co/resources/custom-software-development-cost-survey
- Lemon.io, "Software Developer Salary Report 2026", Lemon.io Research Team, April 25, 2026. https://lemon.io/salary-report/
- PayScale, "Average Software Engineer Salary in Bangladesh", last updated January 14, 2026. https://www.payscale.com/research/BD/Job=Software_Engineer/Salary
- Deloitte, "Global Outsourcing Survey 2024", 2024. https://www.deloitte.com/global/en/issues/work/global-outsourcing-survey.html
- Consortium for Information and Software Quality (CISQ), "Cost of Poor Software Quality in the U.S.: A 2022 Report", 2022. https://www.it-cisq.org/the-cost-of-poor-quality-software-in-the-us-a-2022-report/
- Stack Overflow, 2025 Developer Survey, Work section, 2025. https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2025/work#salary
- US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Outlook Handbook, "Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers", last modified August 27, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/software-developers.htm