Offshore vs Onshore Development Calculator: True Cost After Overhead and Rework
The headline hourly rate difference between offshore and onshore developers rarely survives contact with real project economics once timezone overlap loss, management overhead, and attrition-driven rework are added in. This free offshore vs onshore development cost calculator models the true monthly cost of a delivery location choice, not just the blended rate, so you can compare options on an apples-to-apples basis. Enter your FTE count, location, and three friction factors, and the tool returns the true monthly and annual cost of each delivery model, letting you decide with the full picture rather than the rate card alone.
Your numbers
Blended hourly rate for the delivery model, including the vendor or agency margin.
100% represents onshore, same-timezone baseline productivity.
Cost of onboarding replacements and redoing work lost to team turnover.
Your results
Timezone overlap, overhead, and rework figures vary widely by vendor maturity and team stability. Use your own historical data where available for a more precise comparison.
Get your true delivery cost model
Get a location-by-location true cost comparison for your project scope, plus a 30-minute review with a Netray delivery architect on the right blended team structure.
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Blended rates are the starting point, not the answer
Onshore US development typically blends to $85 to $105 per hour fully loaded through an agency or staff augmentation firm. Nearshore Latin America commonly runs $45 to $65 per hour with strong timezone overlap. Offshore Eastern Europe runs similarly at $45 to $60 per hour with partial overlap depending on region. Offshore South and Southeast Asia typically runs $30 to $45 per hour but with the least timezone overlap for US-based teams, which is exactly where the productivity adjustment in this calculator matters most.
- Onshore US: $85 to $105/hr blended
- Nearshore Latin America: $45 to $65/hr blended, strong overlap
- Offshore Eastern Europe: $45 to $60/hr blended, partial overlap
- Offshore South/Southeast Asia: $30 to $45/hr blended, minimal overlap
Timezone overlap productivity loss is the hidden multiplier
A team with only two to three hours of daily overlap with the requesting organization loses meaningful velocity to asynchronous back-and-forth on requirements, code review, and blocking questions, commonly reducing effective productivity to 70 to 85 percent of an onshore baseline. Nearshore teams with five or more overlap hours typically retain 90 to 95 percent of onshore productivity. This is not a knock on offshore developer skill; it is a structural cost of low-overlap coordination that most rate comparisons ignore entirely.
- 5+ hours overlap (nearshore): 90 to 95% effective productivity
- 3 to 4 hours overlap: 80 to 90% effective productivity
- Under 3 hours overlap: 65 to 80% effective productivity
- Async-friendly practices (detailed specs, recorded demos) can partially recover lost productivity
Management overhead and rework are real, recurring costs
Distributed teams, especially offshore ones managed through a vendor, typically add 10 to 20 percent management overhead for coordination, quality oversight, and vendor relationship management that would not exist with a co-located onshore team of the same size. Attrition, which runs notably higher at many offshore staffing vendors than onshore direct-hire teams, adds a further 5 to 15 percent in rework and ramp-up cost as replacement developers relearn the codebase.
- Vendor coordination and QA overhead: 10 to 20% of labor cost
- Attrition-driven rework and ramp-up: 5 to 15% of labor cost
- Offshore staffing vendor attrition often exceeds 25% annually at lower price points
- Codebase documentation quality strongly affects rework cost after attrition
How Netray builds blended delivery teams that avoid these traps
Netray staffs engagements with a blend of onshore architects and fractional experts alongside nearshore or offshore delivery capacity chosen for genuine timezone overlap with your team, not just the lowest rate card. For SyteLine, LN, and Baan work specifically, where institutional ERP knowledge is scarce, we prioritize continuity and documentation practices that keep rework cost low even as individual contributors rotate, and we size delivery location using the same true-cost framework in this calculator rather than headline hourly rates.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much cheaper is offshore development really, after overhead?
Offshore South and Southeast Asia rates run 55 to 65 percent below onshore US rates on paper, but after adjusting for timezone overlap productivity loss (typically 15 to 35 percent), management overhead (10 to 20 percent), and attrition-driven rework (5 to 15 percent), the true cost gap often narrows to 25 to 40 percent rather than the headline rate difference. Nearshore options frequently deliver a better true-cost outcome than pure offshore despite a higher blended rate.
What is timezone overlap productivity loss and why does it matter?
Timezone overlap productivity loss measures how much effective output a distributed team delivers relative to a co-located onshore baseline, driven by delays in requirements clarification, code review turnaround, and blocked work waiting on the next overlap window. Teams with under three hours of daily overlap commonly retain only 65 to 80 percent of onshore productivity per hour worked, which materially changes the true cost per unit of delivered software.
Is nearshore development usually cheaper than offshore once true cost is calculated?
Not always on raw rate, but frequently on true cost. Nearshore Latin America teams typically retain 90 to 95 percent of onshore productivity due to strong timezone overlap, while offshore Asia teams with minimal overlap often drop to 65 to 80 percent productivity. That gap can offset a large portion of the raw rate advantage offshore holds, especially on projects requiring frequent synchronous collaboration.
How much does developer attrition add to offshore project cost?
Attrition-driven rework and ramp-up typically adds 5 to 15 percent to effective project cost, driven by lost institutional knowledge and time for a replacement developer to become productive. This cost is proportionally higher at lower-cost offshore staffing vendors, where annual attrition frequently exceeds 25 percent, compared to more stable onshore or nearshore direct-hire arrangements.
Should ERP-specific development work go offshore?
ERP platforms like Infor SyteLine and LN require deep institutional knowledge that is expensive to rebuild after attrition, so continuity matters more than raw rate for this work. A blended model, onshore or fractional architects who retain institutional knowledge paired with nearshore or offshore delivery capacity for well-specified implementation work, typically outperforms a pure offshore team on ERP-specific engagements.
Get a true-cost delivery model comparison across onshore, nearshore, and offshore options for your specific project.
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