Offshore development teams range from excellent to catastrophic, and the hourly rate tells you nothing about which you have. Plenty of outstanding engineers work at rates far below Western norms, and plenty of expensive local firms are worse. What matters is whether the arrangement produces a system your business can rely on, and the honest variables are specification quality, timezone overlap and who is accountable when something goes wrong.
| Dimension | offshore development | Kamo |
|---|---|---|
| Hourly rate | Substantially lower, often by a factor of three or more | Higher |
| Total cost | Depends almost entirely on specification quality and management overhead | Higher rate, typically less rework and less of your own time |
| Who writes the specification | You, usually in far more detail than expected — ambiguity is built literally | We do, as discovery, and we push back on the parts that do not make sense |
| Timezone overlap | Often a few hours or none, so each question costs a day | Full working-day overlap for European and American hours |
| Operational accountability | Typically ends at delivery | We can operate what we build, and write the runbook if we do not |
| Domain challenge | Usually builds what was asked for | Will argue with the brief, including talking you out of the project |
| Capacity | Large teams available quickly | Small team, limited concurrent engagements |
When offshore development is the better choice
- The specification is genuinely complete and unambiguous, and the work is execution rather than design
- You have an experienced technical manager in-house who can run the relationship properly
- You need to scale headcount quickly for a well-understood body of work
- Budget is the binding constraint and the system is not business-critical
The honest verdict
The cost advantage is real and it is conditional. It holds when the specification is complete and you have someone competent managing the relationship; it evaporates when requirements are discovered during the build, because every ambiguity costs a day of timezone latency and frequently a rewrite. If you know exactly what you want, offshore can be excellent value. If you need someone to work out what you want and then argue with you about it, that is a different purchase.
Questions we get asked
Other comparisons
Tell us what you are trying to do
A short conversation is usually enough to tell whether we are the right people. If we are not, we will say so and point you somewhere better.