If you haven’t reviewed outsourcing pricing since the pandemic, brace yourself. Rates have changed — a lot. Between inflation, remote work normalization, and AI-driven productivity shifts, the global outsourcing map in 2025 looks very different from what it did even two years ago.
At Pynest, we’ve tracked rates across 30+ vendors and platforms to help our clients plan budgets. Here's what you need to know if you're entering outsourcing negotiations this year.
Eastern Europe: Still High Quality, But No Longer Cheap
Average rate (2020): $30–45/hour
Average rate (2025): $45–65/hour
Popular destinations: Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia
Why the change? The region has matured. Developers now expect parity with Western peers, especially in cities like Warsaw or Bucharest. Many firms pivoted from outsourcing to product development during 2022–2023, reducing labor supply.
Still a good fit for: Complex backend development, security-sensitive fintech products, long-term team extension.
South & Southeast Asia: The Volume Play
Average rate (2020): $18–28/hour
Average rate (2025): $22–35/hour
Popular destinations: India, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Philippines
What’s new: AI and RPA have hit this market hard. Some vendors now include AI agents (for testing, support, even frontend builds) as part of their offering, which changes the cost/value equation.
Risk: Talent fragmentation, high churn, communication gaps.
Best for: Scalable frontend builds, QA/testing, L1 support automation.
Latin America: The Nearshore Growth Story
Average rate (2020): $25–40/hour
Average rate (2025): $40–60/hour
Popular destinations: Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia
What’s driving the jump: U.S. demand. As North American companies seek timezone-aligned teams, LATAM engineers have become hot property — especially bilingual full-stack devs.
Ideal for: Real-time collaboration with U.S. teams, Agile product teams, bilingual client-facing roles.
China: More Product, Less Service
Average rate (2020): $25–40/hour
Average rate (2025): $35–55/hour
Trend: Many top-tier engineers now work in AI product startups or cloud-native companies, not agencies.
Bottom line: Good engineering is available, but cultural/linguistic barriers and IP concerns remain for Western clients.
Africa: Emerging But Patchy
Average rate (2025): $15–35/hour
Key markets: Nigeria, Kenya, Egypt, South Africa
Worth noting: Governments are investing in digital talent. Programs like Andela helped create a visible pool of strong devs, but availability and maturity vary wildly by provider.
Best for: MVP builds, mobile apps, AI labeling/data work.
AI’s Role in Pricing
Here's what we’re seeing first-hand:
- LLMs now assist in low-level code generation → reducing hours required, especially for CRUD-heavy features.
- Mid-level devs now work faster with AI support, which means pricing models are shifting from hourly to milestone- or outcome-based.
- Agencies that haven’t integrated AI internally are pricing themselves out of the market.
“We used to charge for 200 hours of QA. With AI-powered regression tests, it’s now 60 — and more accurate,” — says Roman Rylko, CTO of a Software Development Outsourcing company Pynest.
Takeaway: You can still save with outsourcing — but you need to account for the true productivity, not just hourly rates.
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