Tips to Negotiate Better Hourly Rates for Staff Augmentation Services
Did you know you can save up to 20% on nearshore services by negotiating better hourly rates for staff augmentation services with your vendor? There are lots of ways to get additional discounts, which makes hiring remote engineers an absolute bargain.
Unlike most nearshore vendors who overlook the benefits you can gain over time, we prioritize transparency. That’s why, in this blog, we’re sharing valuable tips to help you secure the best possible deal.
Tip #1: Ask for Volume Discounts
One of the best-kept secrets about nearshore software development is that service providers are often willing to offer significant discounts when clients scale their teams. Very often, our clients ask: How much is your devs hourly rate? The answer is it depends… on how many devs you hire.
The more team members you hire, the better the rates you can negotiate.
For example, at Ewents, we provide ultra-competitive, volume-based discounts:
- 3-5 team members: 5% total discount
- 6-10 team members: 7% total discount
- 11-20 team members: 10% total discount
- 20+ team members: 12% total discount
If you plan to scale your team, negotiating a volume discount can lead to major cost savings in your IT budget over time. So, openness to offer volume discounts is a green flag to look for when you hire a nearshore software partner.
Tip #2: Bring Referrals in Exchange for Perks and Discounts
If you’ve had a great experience working with a software vendor, or even if you just met a potential partner and liked their approach, you can leverage referrals to negotiate discounts.
Many nearshore providers offer referral programs, where they reward clients who introduce them to new business. At our company, we encourage referrals and offer exclusive perks in return:
If you refer us to another company looking for a nearshore software provider and they become a paying client (minimum 6-month engagement), we give you:
1 part-time person or 80 hours of development work for FREE for 3 MONTHS on a 6-month or longer engagement
(up to $8,400 total value *if the referral becomes a paying client, and we have a billed project for a minimum of 6 months).
It’s a win-win.
Tip #3: Consider Part-Time or Fractional Engagements
One major advantage of working with an outsourced nearshore dev team is flexibility. You don’t have to commit to full-time hires for every role. Instead, you can optimize your budget by blending full-time, part-time, and fractional roles.
In our company, we offer three allocation models:
- Full-time (40 hours per week)
- Part-time (20 hours per week)
- Fractional (<15 hours per week)
This flexibility allows you to scale up or down as needed. For instance, you could hire a full-time React/Node.js engineer for six months, then transition them to a part-time role once the workload decreases. A mixed allocation strategy ensures that you’re only paying for the capacity you actually need.
Tip #4: Hire Blended Teams (LatAM)
If you’re hiring LATAM software engineers, consider forming a hybrid team with a mix of bilingual and Spanish-speaking engineers to save an additional 10-20%.
Some roles, like Project Managers and Product Owners, require high English proficiency since these people will have to either be client-facing or have many team meetings where communication and language requirements are critical. However, there are roles like backend developers or QA testers where just knowing how to read and answer emails in English may be enough. Here’s what a blended team looks like:
Example of a Blended Team:
- Tech Leader (Fully Bilingual)
- Project Manager (Fully Bilingual)
- Senior Full-Stack Developer (Basic-Intermediate English)
- Two Mid-Level Full-Stack Developers (Basic-Intermediate English)
- Part-Time Manual QA Tester (Basic-Intermediate English)
Tip #5: Negotiate Long-Term Engagement Discounts
Gartner published a fascinating article on how to negotiate better IT contract terms, suggesting IT decision-makers like CIOs, CTOs, and VPs of Information Technology should use economic data and cost simulations to negotiate deals and choose longer-term engagements to secure better contract terms.
After speaking with hundreds of CTOs, we’ve learned that one of the hardest things to find when outsourcing software development is finding a long-term partner that will keep attrition low. Nearshore vendors typically charge higher rates for short-term contracts because of the overhead involved in onboarding new clients. If you anticipate a long-term partnership, we encourage you to use that argument to negotiate lower hourly rates for your company.
For example, a 1-year or longer engagement could result in an additional Hourly Rates For Staff Augmentation Services discount compared to a short-term (3-6 month) contract. Software companies in Latin America appreciate long-term commitments and will often provide better rates in return.
Tip #6: Hire Trainees and Develop Their Career Path
Not every role requires a senior developer with 10+ years of experience. Sometimes, an entry-level engineer or a recent graduate can handle simpler tasks while supporting senior engineers.
If your project has room for junior talent, consider hiring LATAM engineers with 0–1 years of experience. Since they require training and mentorship, nearshore providers are often willing to offer discounted rates for these roles. Even better, growing junior engineers within your team can lead to higher retention rates and lower long-term hiring costs, as they become more skilled and valuable over time.
Get Discounts on Hourly Rates For Staff Augmentation Services
Ewents is a boutique nearshore software development agency that believes in full transparency—especially when it comes to pricing. We offer unmatched discounts, referral perks, and flexible engagement models to help our clients get the best possible rates.
Want to see how these discounts apply to your specific case?
Contact our team now to get a detailed breakdown of potential savings based on your hiring needs.
