Dedicated Team Calculator
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About This Calculator
Estimate dedicated team costs by role mix, hourly rates, utilization, and engagement duration. Includes overhead assumptions and scenario analysis for nearshore/onshore/offshore blends.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a dedicated team model and how does pricing work?
A dedicated team is a group of remote professionals exclusively assigned to your project, managed either by you or a vendor project manager. Pricing typically uses a monthly fee per developer that includes salary, benefits, workspace, equipment, and vendor margin. Example: A senior full-stack developer in Eastern Europe costs $4,500-7,000/month; in India $2,500-4,500/month; in Latin America $4,000-6,500/month. Total team cost = sum of individual rates + management overhead (10-15%) + tooling. A 5-person team (2 seniors, 2 mids, 1 QA) in Ukraine might cost $22,000-28,000/month vs $55,000-75,000 for equivalent US-based talent.
How do I estimate the right team size for my project?
Start with scope and timeline, then work backwards. Rules of thumb: A typical web application MVP needs 2-4 developers for 3-6 months. An enterprise platform needs 5-10 developers for 6-18 months. Include supporting roles: 1 QA per 3-4 developers, 1 DevOps for teams of 5+, 1 project manager for teams of 4+, 1 designer per team. For feature velocity: a senior developer completes roughly 30-40 story points per sprint (2 weeks). If your backlog has 500 story points, a 3-developer team needs approximately 500/(35×3) = 4.8 sprints (10 weeks). Add 30-40% buffer for bugs, technical debt, and scope changes. Common mistake: understaffing QA and DevOps leads to quality issues and deployment delays that cost more than the saved headcount.
What is the difference between dedicated team and staff augmentation?
Dedicated team: vendor provides a complete, self-managed unit (developers, QA, PM, designer) working exclusively on your project. You define requirements; the team handles execution. Best for: long-term projects (6+ months), when you lack internal tech leadership, or building a product from scratch. Staff augmentation: individual developers join your existing team, managed by your team leads. Best for: short-term skill gaps, scaling existing teams, specific expertise (ML engineer, iOS specialist). Cost comparison: dedicated teams typically cost 15-25% more than equivalent augmented staff due to management overhead, but reduce your internal management burden. Hybrid approach: start with augmented staff during discovery, transition to dedicated team for build phase.
How do onshore, nearshore, and offshore rates compare?
Rate ranges for senior developers (monthly, 2025): Onshore (US/UK/Australia): $10,000-15,000/month — same timezone, no cultural barriers, highest cost. Nearshore (Latin America, Eastern Europe): $4,500-8,000/month — 1-4 hour timezone overlap, good English, moderate savings. Offshore (India, Philippines, Vietnam): $2,500-5,000/month — 8-12 hour timezone difference, largest savings but requires more management overhead. Blended team example: 2 onshore leads ($12K each) + 4 nearshore developers ($6K each) + 2 offshore QA ($3.5K each) = $55K/month vs all-onshore equivalent of $96K/month — 43% savings. Consider hidden costs: timezone overlap meetings, additional documentation needs, cultural training, and travel for kickoff/quarterly reviews ($5K-10K per trip).
What factors affect dedicated team utilization rates?
Utilization rate = billable hours / total available hours. Target: 80-90% for dedicated teams. Factors that reduce utilization: (1) Onboarding period — new team members operate at 40-60% for first 2-4 weeks while learning your codebase and processes. (2) Context switching — working on multiple projects simultaneously drops utilization to 60-70%. Dedicated teams avoid this. (3) Communication overhead — timezone gaps of 6+ hours can reduce effective collaboration time by 20-30%. (4) Holiday/PTO differences — Ukrainian developers have ~20 holidays/year vs 10-15 in US; plan for regional calendars. (5) Technical debt and environment setup — budget 10-15% of sprint capacity for maintenance. To maximize utilization: provide clear requirements, maintain a groomed backlog (2+ sprints ahead), minimize ad-hoc meetings, and invest in development environment automation (CI/CD, local dev setup scripts).