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Freelancing Remote Work
The True Cost of Offshore Freelance Development
Hiring remote developers can save you money, but only if you know what to look for. Here is how to find a remote engineering partner you can actually trust.
5 min readPal Patel
"I hired a cheap offshore developer and they ruined my codebase."
As a remote freelance engineer based in India, I hear this story constantly. The appeal of geo-arbitrage is strong, but filtering solely by the lowest hourly rate is a mistake.
You Are Buying Communication, Not Just Code
When you hire a remote developer, writing code is only 50% of the job. The other 50% is asynchronous communication, setting expectations, and understanding business requirements.
What to Look For in a Remote Partner
- They Ask Questions Before Giving Estimates
- They Have Opinionated Tech Stacks
- They Document Everything
Hiring a communicative remote developer will always be cheaper than hiring a cheap developer and having to rebuild the product six months later.
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