Alternatives to Hiring Developers Locally: Nearshore, Asia, Your Own Hub or Africa
When local hiring is too slow or too expensive, European companies usually look at four alternatives: a nearshore partner in Eastern or Southern Europe, an offshore partner in Asia, their own hub abroad, or professionals in Africa through a partner. They differ in time zone, language and cost, and above all in who carries the staffing side and how often the people change. In a 2025 study of 652 Dutch supplier relationships, turnover at the supplier was named as a weakness in 22% of them; at Tunga, about 1 in 56 placements ended in 2025 because the professional left for another job. Many companies already have one of these routes; a second one then mostly serves to spread risk and to have somewhere to go when the first can't staff a role.
What to compare, apart from location
Comparisons between countries tend to focus on rates and talent pools. For the day-to-day experience, these questions usually matter more:
- Time zone. How many working hours you share with the team.
- Language. Whether people work comfortably in English, or in French if your company works in French.
- Who directs the work. Whether the people join your team and work under your direction, or the provider delivers a project and directs it.
- Who carries the staffing side. Finding and vetting, contracts, payments and compliance, absence, and replacement when someone leaves.
- How often the people change. In the Eraneos/Whitelane Dutch IT Sourcing Study 2025, turnover at the supplier was named as a weakness in 22% of 652 supplier relationships.
At Tunga, about 1 in 56 placements ended in 2025 because the professional left for another job, and none so far in 2026. Where the match not working was the only reason a placement ended early, it happened in 1 in 200 placements; including cases where a budget cut or a project winding down played a part, it was 1 in 40.
Hiring locally remains the first alternative to compare with; that comparison has its own page, on hiring locally or through Tunga.
Nearshore in Eastern or Southern Europe
Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia, Ukraine, Portugal and Spain have mature developer communities and have been the usual nearshore choice for Western European companies for well over a decade. Time zones are 0-2 hours from Central European Time, and within the EU the same data protection rules (GDPR) apply.
Most nearshore partners offer both team extension and project delivery. In Ukraine, the war affects how some companies weigh continuity.
Offshore in Asia
India, Vietnam, the Philippines and other countries have very large developer pools and well-established outsourcing industries. The time difference is larger: India is 3.5 to 4.5 hours ahead of Central European Time and Vietnam 5 to 6 hours, depending on the season, so the shared working day is shorter.
Offshore work is often organised as project delivery, with the provider directing the team. That suits work that can be specified and handed over as a whole; it asks more of you when the people need to work inside your own team every day.
Your own hub abroad
Some companies set up their own team in another country, through their own entity or an employer of record. This gives the most control over who is hired and how the team works, and builds knowledge inside your own company.
It also means the staffing side moves abroad rather than off your plate: you recruit, employ and keep people under that country's rules, and you need someone locally who runs the team. A hub tends to pay off when the team is large enough to justify that.
Professionals in Africa
Developer communities across Africa have grown quickly; the largest are in Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya and South Africa (Google and Accenture, Africa Developer Ecosystem 2021). Most African countries are 0-2 hours from Central European Time. Professionals work in English, and in French in countries such as Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroon.
The ecosystem is younger than in Eastern Europe, so the depth of senior talent varies by country and stack. Because few European companies have a local entity there, payments and compliance usually run through a partner. The page on working with professionals in Africa goes into this in more detail.
If you already have a nearshore partner or your own hub
A second route rarely means replacing the first. Companies add one to spread risk across more than one supplier or country, to have a flexible layer for peaks without growing the core team, or as a fallback when the existing partner can't staff a role.
A useful question to ask your current partner: how often has someone on your team changed in the past year, and what happened when they did? When someone does leave at Tunga, the replacement comes at no extra cost and without a time limit.
If your current partner or hub covers everything you need and the people stay, there is no reason to add another.
Where Tunga fits
Tunga takes the staffing side off the plate of companies that need digital professionals: software engineers, AI operators, product managers and other digital roles, from across Africa. The client directs the work. Tunga handles finding and vetting, contracts, payments and compliance, onboarding, keeping people, and replacing them when someone leaves or it isn't working. The professionals are independent freelancers contracted by Tunga and work remotely from their own country; the client has one contract, with Tunga, and a delivery manager who checks in with both sides. In 2025, about 1 in 56 placements ended because the professional left for another job. Founded in 2015; 3,500 professionals across 38 African countries and 300+ client companies, as of September 2026.
Tunga is not the right fit when the role has to be on site, when the work means talking to your clients in a language other than English or French, or when saving on cost is the main reason you're looking.
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