What does a 10-person engineering team cost in your market, versus Portugal?
Four calculators, one question: how does hiring locally in Germany, Switzerland, Austria or the Netherlands compare to building the same team with an Aubay nearshore partnership in Portugal? Every number is editable and sourced from public 2025/2026 benchmarks.
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GermanyvsPortugal
What a 10-person engineering team costs over 3 years, hired in Germany versus built with Aubay in Portugal. Defaults come from 2025/2026 public benchmarks, and every figure is editable.
Every figure below is editable: start from our researched defaults, then plug in your own numbers.
A 10-person engineering team hired locally in Germany costs roughly €2.07M over three years once you add employer social contributions and recruitment fees. The same team, engaged as an Aubay nearshore partnership in Portugal, runs closer to €1.18M, a difference of about 888.000 €.
Every cost component behind the numbers above, for your 10-person team, side by side.
| Cost component (whole team) | Local | Portugal nearshore |
|---|---|---|
| Gross salaries | 539.880 € | 254.260 € |
| Employer social security | 113.375 € | 60.387 € |
| Recruitment / partner fee | 107.976 € (once) | 78.662 € / yr |
| Year 1 total | 761.231 € | 393.308 € |
| Year 2 / Year 3 (each) | 653.255 € | 393.308 € |
| 3-year TCO | 2.067.740 € | 1.179.925 € |
What changes when you go nearshore
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Common questions about nearshore vs. local hiring
For a like-for-like national-average software developer profile, yes for most markets. Our model shows 39-63% lower 3-year total cost of ownership for a 10-person team, driven mainly by the salary gap and each market's own recruitment fees and social-cost base.