The Cost of Hiring Pre-Vetted LatAm Developers in 2024

Profile Picture of Damien Filiatrault
Damien Filiatrault
Founder & CEO
LatAm software developers with the symbols for PHP, JavaScript, and Python

More than ever before, US tech companies are hiring globally. And it’s a trend that will likely continue throughout the decade as demand for software developers rises and the cost of hiring increases as well.  

According to Insider, US companies that can hire remote employees are looking at international markets in order to cut costs. One tech recruiting platform found that 75% percent of US companies hiring software engineers looked at sourcing talent from Latin America – a 20% percent increase from the year before and a 50% percent increase since before the pandemic. Companies around the world are catching onto global hiring, too. In 2022, the number of employers in Asia Pacific looking to hire remote workers internationally increased by an estimated 227%

It’s not surprising that these organizations are seeing the value in hiring developers from international markets. Regions like Latin America now have thriving tech industries with large, untapped talent pools of skilled workers, and with lower rates on average than North American developers. These benefits, among others, are especially enticing for organizations that want to scale their team with cost-effective hiring solutions without sacrificing code quality. 

The important decision employers must make now is choosing a region to hire from. Along with cost, considerations include developer skill level, time zone compatibility, and English communication. But with so many emerging global markets, it can be difficult to know which to prioritize.

We’ve gathered and analyzed data from the 26,000+ profiles in our network of software developers to help. In this article, we’ll unpack the hourly rates of developers broken down by region to give you a better understanding of the market. We’ll take a deeper look at why Latin America is becoming the go-to region for US companies hiring developers, including the many benefits the region offers. And we’ll share our insights from more than 12 years of experience in the software staffing industry to provide an accurate look at hiring remote developers in 2024. 

Table Of Contents

How Much Does It Cost to Hire a Developer in LatAm vs. Other Regions?

Let’s start by looking at the costs of hiring pre-vetted software developers in Latin America versus other geographies. From our data, we analyzed the hourly rates from 16 different regions to see how LatAm stacks up.

A table with the average hourly rate of Latin American developers compared with global regions.

Across all software roles and skill levels, freelance developers in the U.S. have the highest hourly rates, with an average of $82.50 per hour. While this is the country-wide average, rates tend to increase significantly in areas with tech hubs like San Francisco and New York. Hourly rates in Canada and Western Europe are comparable with averages of $77.00 and $76.50 per hour, respectively. 

Originally published on Feb 3, 2021Last updated on Feb 29, 2024