Maybe you chose Magento as your e-commerce shop platform from the start, or perhaps you need to switch to Magento from another solution. Or perhaps you run a software development agency seeking to provide services for the most dynamically growing e-commerce market? In any case, you might need to hire a Magento developer to bridge a skill gap, implement custom functionality for your product, or extend your in-house team. The point is, finding such talent rapidly is quite tricky.
As a Magento outsourcing development company, we at IT Delight know this challenge firsthand. Finding certified Magento developers is difficult to impossible, and working with freelancers can be unpredictable.
Freelancers left aside, you have just two choices: outstaffing or outsourcing. We explain the difference between the two and list the benefits of working with an outsourced development team versus outstaffing Magento developers.
Without further ado, let’s delve into the details.
Outstaffing vs. outsourcing: which to choose?
Before comparing outstaffing and outsourcing, we need to mention freelancers. Of course, working with freelancers through TopTal, Upwork, Clutch, and other platforms is still a thing. However, it requires much more time and effort on your part to ensure timely task completion. In addition, there are no guarantees that freelancers will deliver an impeccable quality product. Yet, if you’re prepared to take the risk, there’s always a chance you’ll find a reliable freelancer — though we still recommend choosing between outstaffing and outsourcing.
When outstaffing, you keep control over your project’s outcome within your team. You hire Magento developer to perform some tasks, but you define the scope, the roadmap, and the timeframe for these tasks — and responsibility for project outcomes remains with your team.
A main advantage of outstaffing vs. working with freelancers is that your technology partner is contractually obliged to deliver the expected results. An outstaffing company will replace a Magento developer should they fall ill, take a vacation or family leave, and so on to ensure your project is completed on time, whether it requires Magento speed optimization services or anything else.
In contrast, when working with an outsourced development team, you delegate some aspects of the project to the remote talents from end-to-end, including planning the roadmap, delivering the product, and providing ongoing support, if need be. This way, your technology partner is responsible for the outcome of their work. Outsourced teams usually plan their tasks and manage themselves, making sure to work in accordance with your general project timeframes and scope of work.
You can go with any of these routes, so choose the one that best fits your project needs. Now, you may be wondering whether outsourcing or outstaffing is more cost-efficient.
How much does Magento outstaffing vs. outsourcing cost?
Outstaffing costs a bit less than outsourcing. With the former, you hire Magento developers (whether they be full- or part-time), and all the rest of the processes remain on your side, which reduces the scope, and therefore the cost of outsourced Magento development. With the latter approach, you pay the outsourcing development company for project management, business analysis, QA, deployment, and back-office expenses, in addition to Magento development.
Unless you have an established in-house team with polished processes, outsourcing is a better approach, as it covers all your project needs and processes from start to finish. Another thing to keep in mind is that the cost to hire a Magento developer depends on the level of seniority, certification, and geographical location.
Adobe provides in-depth Magento certifications, which affect developers’ pay level. The more Adobe certifications an expert has, the more complex tasks they can take on. But be ready to pay more as the certifications do increase the developer’s salary. The same goes for seniority: a senior Magento developer will cost more than a junior or middle— but certifications are the most important driver of salaries in each case.
As for geographical location, hiring from various countries is cheaper than hiring in the US, but the price tag differs quite a bit across the EU and the UK. This table covers the average annual rate you can expect to pay for a mid-level Magento developer, based on public data from Glassdoor, Monster, Indeed, Jobs, Payscale, and DOU, a leading Ukrainian job portal.
| the USA | Canada | UK | Germany | the Netherlands | Switzerland | Ukraine |
| $92,140 | $75,050 | $45,400 | $52,500 | $46,380 | $61,000 | $25,000 |
As shown, you can save up to 70% on Magento development if you hire a dedicated team in Ukraine, compared to hiring a US team. This is not the only benefit when working with a Ukrainian team, and we will explain others in more detail later.
Let’s now explore your options regarding the team scope when outstaffing or outsourcing to a technology partner.
Standalone Magento developers
Sometimes you may just need to integrate some additional Magento plugins with your platform or develop some custom functionality. A single Magento developer working full-time or part-time can complete these project tasks. The employment model depends only on your project timeframes.
Under this approach, you can ensure that there is always an expert on hand to perform needed maintenance for your e-commerce platform functionality. But sometimes, one Magento developer is simply not enough, so you’ll need an entire team.
Dedicated engineering team
When the scope of a project includes implementing complex functionality quickly, like writing a custom plugin or API integration. In such cases, you may need to hire an engineering team of two to five experts to accomplish all the project requirements.
Why does IT Delight recommend you to hire a dedicated team in Ukraine? Because Ukraine’s developers have rich technical backgrounds, a convenient geographical location that overlaps US time zones, a good command of English, and Western business culture. Ukrainian developers have made quite a name for themselves in many domains, Magento development included.
But what if you’re a software development agency aiming to provide services to customers and don’t want to repeatedly fire/hire Magento developers? A remote Magento development center is exactly what you need.
Magento development center
IT Delight is ready to provide a remote R&D center for your agency. We’ll organize five or more certified Magento developers into long-term cross-functional teams dedicated to your projects. This will ensure continuity of knowledge, optimal resource allocation, and a reliable software delivery process. Instead of going through an onboarding process every time you need to expand your team, you can provide your customers with cohesive resources that deliver value from the start.
Summary
Wrapping up, when you need to extend your in-house Magento development team, you can:
- Work with freelancers
- Hire a Magento developer or two under the outstaffing model
- Hire an outsourced development team (2-5 developers)
- Create a remote Magento development center (5+ experts)
Should you decide to hire a dedicated team in Ukraine, you can choose from a wide selection of certified Magento developers with extensive experience delivering all kinds of solutions for businesses, large and small. It’s better to work with a formed team, as in that case, your remote employees will have established workflows and seamlessly integrate them into your development and communication process.
IT Delight provides such teams, along with end-to-end Magento development and Magento consulting services, update, and customization services. Should you need to move to the latest Magento version, implement some custom functionality, integrate your platform with some other software, or provide such services to your customers, IT Delight is ready to help!
Contact us, and let’s talk business!
