Aegis Edge compared with your other options
Local hiring, freelancers, nearshore vendors and large offshore firms all have their place. This is where we fit and where we do not.
Side by side
| Aegis Edge | Hiring locally | Freelancers | Nearshore (PL, RO) | Large Indian IT firms | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contract under EU law | Yes | Yes | Depends | Yes | Rarely |
| Cost compared to a local hire | 40 to 60% lower | Baseline | Varies a lot | Somewhat lower | Lower, with overhead |
| Time until work starts | About 2 weeks | 3 to 6 months | 1 to 2 weeks | 3 to 6 weeks | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Who is accountable for output | Our senior lead | You | The freelancer | Usually the vendor | Account team |
| Time difference to CET | 3.5 to 4.5 hours | None | Varies | None | 3.5 to 4.5 hours |
| GDPR transfer paperwork | Signed upfront | Not needed | Rarely | Usually | Usually |
| Replacing someone | Free, about 2 weeks | New hiring round | Find another | Depends on contract | Slow |
| Smallest engagement | 1 engineer | 1 hire | 1 person | Often 3 or more | Often large teams |
| Good choice when | You want EU contract safety and Indian cost | The role is core and long-term | The task is small and short | You need the same time zone | You run a large enterprise program |
Typical ranges from our experience and public salary data. Your situation may differ.
Why offshore projects fail, and what we do instead
What usually goes wrongWhat we do
- Personal data leaves the EU without proper paperwork
- We sign a DPA with Standard Contractual Clauses before any access.
- The contract is under Indian or US law
- Your contract is with Aegis Edge, an EU company in Romania, under EU law.
- Junior engineers presented as seniors
- Every team has a named senior lead you interview. Associates are called associates.
- Questions wait overnight
- Shifts cover most of the CET working day, so reviews happen the same day.
- Nobody owns the result
- One contact in Romania for commercial matters and one senior lead for the code.
- The vendor leaves and nobody understands the code
- The same people stay across releases, and documentation is part of every sprint.
Time zones: India works well for Europe
Most time-zone complaints about India come from US companies, where the gap is close to half a day. From Germany or the Netherlands it is 3.5 to 4.5 hours. A team in India that starts a little later covers almost your whole working day.
Germany, Netherlands, France (CET)3.5 to 4.5 hours behind India
Finland, Baltics (EET)2.5 to 3.5 hours behind India
United Kingdom4.5 to 5.5 hours behind India
US East Coast9.5 to 10.5 hours behind India
We are a good fit when
- You have a product and need more senior capacity
- You want an EU contract without EU salary costs
- You are an agency that needs white-label engineers
- You want to start with one or two people
We are not the right fit when
- You need people in your office every day
- You need 100 engineers next month
- You want the lowest hourly rate on the market
- The work needs a national security clearance
Tell us your stack and team size. We reply within a day.
A 15-minute call with Saurav or the delivery team. You leave with a view on fit, a proposed team and a written quote.