When comparing costs, it's essential to look beyond just salaries vs. hourly rates. Consider factors like recruitment time, missed opportunities, project delays, training, and employee benefits, which can add up to 30% of an employee's annual salary. Taking these into account, outsourcing can be more cost-effective. Additionally, in high-cost cities like Boston, New York, and San Francisco, higher salaries and better benefit packages are required. Outsourcing to regions with a lower cost of living allows access to high-quality, pre-vetted talent while saving costs and maintaining alignment on time zones.

While most companies have in-house dev teams, they often use outsourcing services for various reasons. Outsourcing is ideal for one-off projects where building a permanent team isn't feasible, projects with hard deadlines that don't allow time for recruiting, and long-term flexibility to respond to shifting workload demands more agilely.