What is offshore software development?
Put simply, offshore software development implies transferring work to a third-party service provider. In other words, an interested party entrusts implementing a part of the project (or the whole project) to a competent software service provider or a person. There is a vast of tech-related services that can be outsourced. Mobile app development, web development, UI/UX design etc.
If you want to delegate the whole project to a third-party, you should rather look for a full-cycle software development company than a freelancer. That's because the freelancer may have a good expertise in one or several related areas (e.g. programming). While to create, let's say a mobile app, you need at least one skilled designer, QA engineer, and software developer.
Talking about offshore software development company, you should be ready that its headquarter may be placed somewhere in Eastern Europe or Asia. These are the most popular outsourcing destinations with the lowest pricing on the market and qualified workforce.
If you don't want to cooperate with a firm situated so far away, you may consider a variant of onshore and nearshore outsourcing. Let's consider them in more details:
Offshore software development implies that the headquarter of a company you cooperate with is placed somewhere far away from your native country. As a rule, there is a significant time zone difference.
Nearshore outsourcing means that the company is pretty close to your native country. Respectively, the time zone difference is insignificant or absent at all.
Onshore outsourcing implies that the company you work with is placed within your native country.
This way, the outsourcing model depends largely on the location of you and company you partner with. If you're from the US and you outsource, let's say, to Ukraine -- it means you use offshore software development services as the time zone can differ significantly. In case you're from Sweden -- it's nearshore outsourcing as the time difference is just one hour and these two countries are close to each other (flight time is about 2 hours).
Offshore software development benefits
First, let's consider the main benefits for you as a customer in case you decided to use offshore development services.
Reduce costs on development
As a rule, offshore software development companies are concentrated in regions with low fees and cost of living. That's the reason why the cost of software development services is lower than in most countries. For instance, in Ukraine you will pay $15-50/h, while in the US this number ranges between $50-200/h, in the UK $50-100/h etc. Besides, many offshore software development companies strive to create the best conditions for their customers and provide certain services at no cost. For instance, at our company, we don't charge money for business analysis & consulting as well as provide free marketing bonuses.
Qualified specialists
No doubts, the offshore software development company should be competent. This means it should be placed in a country with a big number of specialists. If you compare the quality of tech specialists in the US or other countries to European ones you won't find any significant differences. For example, there are over 40K of annual tech graduates in Ukraine and this number is growing. Such a wide talent pool is one of the reasons why companies from all over the world open their headquarters and R&D centers in this region.
Scale with ease
Offshore software development model makes it easy for you to scale up and down. Development is a tricky thing and you never know exactly how many developers one or another stage of the project may require. Respectively, if you have too much or little developers involved in a project, it's a matter of a message to solve this problem. This way, you avoid overpayment as well as time-consuming searches of candidates.
Employees training
Let's say you hire an offshore web development company to help you with a real estate web application. Then, there is no need to waste your time on employees training as your partner company will take care of it. What's more, many offshore software development companies try to form a team in accordance with their employees' expertise in a certain industry.