Pick a starting shape
Begin from a template like a founder's first team, a sales pod, or an engineering pod, or start empty and add roles one at a time. Set the quantity for each role you need.
Free tool
Nearshore team cost calculator
See what a whole offshore team from Latin America costs compared with building the same team in-house in the US. Add the roles you need, pick a market, and get your full team budget with annual savings in seconds.
Built for founders and operators planning a first nearshore team or a new pod, who want an honest budget before they start hiring.
- Free to use
- Templates for common teams
- No signup required
Team builder
Estimate the cost of your nearshore team
Start from a template or add roles by hand, choose a market and US overhead profile, and watch the full budget update instantly.
Team builder
Build your nearshore team
Start from a template or add roles one at a time, pick a market, and set your US overhead profile. The full budget updates as you go. Treat the numbers as a planning range, not a quote.
Roles
Most markets sit within one to three hours of US time zones.
Estimated annual team savings
$125,400
- Team size: 3 people.
- US in-house cost: $201,600 per year ($16,800 per month, fully loaded).
- LavaStaff nearshore cost: $76,200 per year ($6,350 per month).
- That is about 62% lower, or $376,200 over three years.
| Role | Qty | US per year | Nearshore per year | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Assistant | 1 | $72,800 | $25,200 | $47,600 |
| Customer Support Representative | 1 | $63,000 | $23,400 | $39,600 |
| Bookkeeper | 1 | $65,800 | $27,600 | $38,200 |
Why it matters
A team budget tells a different story than a single hire
Looking at one role at a time hides the real opportunity in nearshore hiring. A single seat saves money, but the saving feels modest next to the work of finding and managing a person abroad. The picture changes when you cost a whole team. Because every seat carries the same 50 to 70 percent gap against a fully loaded US hire, the savings stack as the team grows. The budget that would buy you two or three US employees can often fund a full nearshore team of five or six people who work the same hours as you. That is the number that actually moves a hiring plan forward, and it is the number this calculator is built to show.
The reason the math works is the same reason a single nearshore hire works, applied at scale. Local salary benchmarks and cost of living across Latin America are lower than in major US metros, so a skilled professional can earn a strong local wage while still costing your company far less than a domestic hire. When you build a team through a managed provider, the scattered overhead that inflates a US payroll, things like payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, software, and recruiting, is already bundled into one monthly rate per seat. You are not stacking line items on top of a base wage for each person. You are paying one clear number that already covers the cost of employing each member of the team well.
This tool starts from a median US base salary for each role, applies the overhead profile you choose so the in-house figure reflects a realistic total cost, then compares that against a typical all-in nearshore rate for the same role, adjusted for the country you pick. It does this for every seat on the team and adds them up. The result is an apples-to-apples comparison of total team cost to total team cost, which is the only comparison that helps you build a budget you can defend to a partner or a board.
How it works
Three steps to a full team budget
Choose a market and overhead
Select a Latin America country to reflect local rates and a US overhead profile so the in-house comparison includes taxes, benefits, equipment, and recruiting, not just salary.
See the whole budget
The calculator rolls every seat into one number: total monthly and annual cost on both sides, the percentage you save, and a cost-by-role breakdown for the team.
Reference table
What common nearshore teams cost
Based on a standard 40 percent US overhead profile and the Latin America regional average. Load any of these as a template in the calculator above, then adjust the roles and market to fit your plan.
| Team | People | US in-house, per year | Nearshore, per year | Nearshore, per month | Annual savings | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Founder's first team | 3 | $201,600 | $76,200 | $6,350 | $125,400 | 62% |
| Back office pod | 3 | $207,200 | $79,800 | $6,650 | $127,400 | 61% |
| Sales development pod | 4 | $302,400 | $120,000 | $10,000 | $182,400 | 60% |
| Customer support team | 4 | $298,200 | $115,800 | $9,650 | $182,400 | 61% |
| Engineering pod | 5 | $809,200 | $340,800 | $28,400 | $468,400 | 58% |
| Marketing team | 4 | $309,400 | $116,400 | $9,700 | $193,000 | 62% |
Figures are directional planning estimates compiled from public US salary benchmarks and typical nearshore managed monthly rates. They are meant for budgeting, not as a live quote.
By the numbers
What building a nearshore team usually looks like
50 to 70%
Typical cost reduction versus a fully loaded US team
1 to 3 hrs
Time zone offset from US business hours
2 to 4 wks
Common time to a shortlist per role through a managed provider
Team shapes
How teams actually grow on Latin America talent
Founders building leverage
A first team of an assistant, customer support, and a bookkeeper removes the recurring work that keeps founders out of the things only they can do.
Teams scaling revenue
Sales development reps, an appointment setter, and marketing support fill the top of the funnel without the cost of a full US sales floor.
Product teams shipping faster
An engineering pod of backend, frontend, and DevOps talent plus a project manager extends a small product team at a fraction of US engineering cost.
Most teams do not appear all at once. They grow in a sequence that follows the work. The first hire usually protects the founder’s time, because the founder is the most expensive and most constrained resource in any young company. An assistant who owns the inbox, the calendar, travel, and research gives that time back. The second hire tends to protect the customer, since a slow support queue quietly costs revenue and reputation. The third hire often protects the numbers, because a founder doing their own books is a founder not selling or building. The founder’s first team template in the calculator follows exactly this pattern, and it is a sensible starting point even if your order is different.
From there, teams branch based on where they are trying to grow. A company pushing for revenue adds a sales pod: sales development reps to prospect, an appointment setter to book meetings, and a marketing coordinator to keep the funnel fed. A company scaling a product adds an engineering pod: backend and frontend developers, a DevOps engineer, and a project manager to keep delivery moving. A company drowning in tickets adds a support team that covers the queue across the day with a manager owning quality. Each of these is a template you can load, adjust, and price in the calculator, so you can compare the cost of two or three different growth paths before you commit to one.
Markets
Where to base your nearshore team
Time zone overlap is the quiet advantage of building a team in Latin America. Most of the region works your hours, so a team feels like a team and not a handoff.
Mexico and Central America
Mexico, Costa Rica, and Guatemala align closely with US Central time, which makes them a natural base for a team that needs full overlap with a US workday.
Colombia and the Andes
Colombia, Peru, and Ecuador sit on or near US Eastern time and offer deep talent pools for support, finance, marketing, and engineering roles.
The Southern Cone
Argentina, Chile, and Brazil run a few hours ahead of US Eastern time and are known for strong technical, design, and senior engineering talent.
When you build a team rather than hire one person, time zone fit matters even more. A single contributor twelve hours ahead can work in isolation on clearly scoped tasks. A team needs to talk to each other and to you during the day. That is where Latin America pulls ahead of farther offshore regions. When your people in Mexico City, Bogota, or Buenos Aires are online during your workday, a standup is a standup, a question gets a same-day answer, and a blocker gets cleared before it costs a sprint. That overlap is the reason so many US companies now treat the region as the default place to build support, sales, finance, and engineering teams rather than scatter them across the globe.
Cost differences between countries are real but modest next to the gap against a US team. Markets like Argentina, Peru, Guatemala, and Ecuador tend to run slightly lower on average, while Mexico, Costa Rica, and Brazil sit near the regional baseline. The calculator reflects these differences with a country adjustment, so you can compare the same team in two markets side by side. For most teams, the choice of country comes down to time zone fit, the depth of English, and the size of the local talent pool for the skills you need, not a few hundred dollars of monthly cost per seat.
From budget to team
Turn the estimate into a hiring plan
A team budget is most useful when it becomes a plan. Once the calculator shows a number you can live with, the next step is to sequence the hires rather than try to fill every seat at once. Pick the one role that will relieve the most pressure this quarter and start there. Hiring a team in order lets each new person settle in, prove the workflow, and help onboard the next hire, which is far smoother than absorbing five new people in the same week. The total budget tells you the destination. The sequence tells you the route.
For each role, write a short scope before you start: the outcomes you want in the first ninety days, the tools the person will use, and the hours of overlap you need with your team. Clear scopes are what turn a budget line into a real hire, and they make a shortlist arrive faster because a provider knows exactly who to look for. If you are unsure whether a role should be full-time, start with the part-time version of the work and expand once the fit is proven. Building a team this way keeps your risk low while still removing the work that is slowing the company down.
Finally, decide how you want to run the team. A managed model bundles sourcing, vetting, onboarding, payments, and ongoing support for every seat into one monthly rate, which is the figure this calculator uses, and keeps the whole team on one contract and one invoice. That is usually the easiest path when you are standing up several roles at once, because it removes the compliance and payroll work that most small teams are not set up to handle in multiple countries. With a budget, a sequence, and a support model in hand, you have everything you need to bring a real hiring plan to a provider and start building.
Methodology
How these team estimates are built
Transparency matters when the budget is one you will defend to a co-founder or a board, so here is exactly how the numbers are produced. Each role on the team is priced with the same engine that powers the single-role hiring cost calculator, then the roles are added up. The US figure for each seat starts from a median base salary for that role, drawn from public US compensation benchmarks, and then applies the overhead profile you select. The lean profile adds 25 percent for light benefits and a remote setup, the standard profile adds 40 percent for typical benefits, payroll taxes, and tooling, and the fully loaded profile adds 60 percent for rich benefits, office space, and recruiting. The result is a total cost of employment per seat, not just a salary line.
The Latin America figure for each seat uses a typical all-in monthly rate for that role through a managed nearshore model, adjusted by a country index so markets that tend to run lower or higher than the regional average are reflected. The team total is simply the sum of every seat on both sides. Annual team savings is the US team total minus the nearshore team total, and the three-year figure projects that gap across thirty-six months. Because each role uses the same logic as the single-role tool, the two calculators never disagree, and a team you price here will match the sum of the seats you price one by one.
These are planning estimates, not quotes. Real compensation varies with seniority, English level, niche skills, and the exact scope of each role, and the right number for your team can land above or below the model. Treat the output as a credible starting range that helps you decide whether and how to build. When you are ready to commit, a scoped quote will confirm the figure for the specific roles and people you hire.
Questions
Nearshore team cost, answered
How much does it cost to build an offshore team in Latin America?
It depends on the roles and the size of the team, but a typical four-person nearshore team of support, admin, and finance roles runs roughly 8,000 to 11,000 US dollars per month all in, while an engineering pod with several developers runs higher. The same team hired in-house in the US, fully loaded with taxes and benefits, usually costs two to three times that. Use the calculator above to model the exact roles you plan to hire and see the team budget for your shortlist of countries.
Is it cheaper to hire a whole team in Latin America than a few US employees?
Almost always. Because each seat saves 50 to 70 percent against a fully loaded US hire, the gap compounds as the team grows. A budget that buys two or three US employees can often fund a full nearshore team of five or six people who work your hours. The calculator rolls every role into one number so you can see the total budget rather than guessing seat by seat.
What roles should I include in my first nearshore team?
Start with the work that is slowing your team down today. For most founders that is an assistant to protect their time, customer support to handle the queue, and a bookkeeper to keep the numbers clean. As you scale, common next additions are sales development reps, marketing support, and engineering. The calculator includes ready-made team templates for each of these patterns so you can start from a sensible shape and adjust.
Does the team budget include payroll taxes, benefits, and management?
The US side uses an overhead profile you select, which layers payroll taxes, benefits, equipment, software, and recruiting on top of base salary. The Latin America side uses an all-in managed monthly rate per role, which already bundles sourcing, vetting, onboarding, payments, and ongoing support. So you are comparing a true total cost of employment on both sides, not a salary line against a managed rate.
Can I build a team across more than one Latin America country?
Yes. Many US companies hire across several markets to reach the deepest talent for each role. The calculator models one market at a time so you can compare, for example, an engineering pod in Argentina against the same pod in Mexico. In practice a managed provider can place each role in whichever country has the strongest candidates and still keep the team on one contract and one invoice.
How accurate is the team cost estimate?
The figures are directional planning estimates built from public US salary benchmarks and typical nearshore managed rates. They are designed to help you build a credible budget and business case, not to serve as a binding quote. Real pricing depends on seniority, English level, niche skills, and the exact scope of each role. Request a scoped quote to confirm the figure for the specific team you want to build.
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