Most companies price a software team as “a developer’s salary”. In practice, shipping a product takes several roles, and every hire costs much more than the number on their contract once benefits, equipment, software, office space and recruitment are counted. Use the calculator to see what the team you need costs in-house, compared with an outsourced team, using assumptions you can change.
Calculate your team cost
Set the team you need and adjust the assumptions to match your own numbers. Results update as you go.
In-house team
$62,400/ month
$748,800 a year
With DataVolve
$15,000/ month
$180,000 a year
Potential difference
$47,400/ month
$568,800 a year
| Estimate | USD | EUR | GBP |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-house, monthly | $62,400 | €54,725 | £47,112 |
| In-house, annual | $748,800 | €656,698 | £565,344 |
| DataVolve, monthly | $15,000 | €13,155 | £11,325 |
| DataVolve, annual | $180,000 | €157,860 | £135,900 |
| Difference, monthly | $47,400 | €41,570 | £35,787 |
| Difference, annual | $568,800 | €498,838 | £429,444 |
Currency conversions are indicative and may change (1 USD = 0.877 EUR = 0.755 GBP). Estimates are for planning only and are not a quote or a guaranteed saving.
Want these numbers checked against a real plan? Send us the team you need and we will reply with actual rates and availability.
What does an in-house product team cost?
A product team is rarely one person. To take an idea from design to a reliable product in production, you typically need:
- UI/UX Designer: research, user flows, wireframes and the interface.
- Software Engineers: front end, back end, APIs and integrations.
- QA Engineer: test plans, automated tests and release checks.
- DevOps Engineer: cloud infrastructure, deployment pipelines, monitoring and security.
- Project Manager: scope, sprint planning, priorities and reporting.
- AI/ML Engineer: when the product uses language models, automation or data science.
The calculator uses an illustrative fully-loaded benchmark of $60 an hour. At 40 hours a week for 52 weeks a year, that is:
$60 × 40 hours × 52 weeks ÷ 12 ≈ $10,400 per person per month (about £7,852 or €9,121).
That is a planning benchmark, not a claim that every employee earns $10,400 a month. “Fully loaded” means salary plus everything else the employer pays for that person. Actual costs vary a lot by country, city, seniority and role, which is why every assumption in the calculator is editable. For reference, our guide to hiring remote developers puts a fully-loaded senior developer at roughly £6,500–£10,000+ a month in the UK and $14,000–$22,000+ in the US, so the default is moderate rather than high.
The hidden cost of hiring developers internally
Salary is the visible part. These are the costs that turn a salary into a fully-loaded figure:
- Employment taxes and benefits. In the UK, employer National Insurance, pension contributions and any health or life cover. In the US, payroll taxes, health insurance and retirement contributions.
- Recruitment. Agency fees are commonly charged as a percentage of first-year salary, and a senior hire can take months, during which the work waits.
- Hardware. A developer laptop, monitors and peripherals for each person, replaced every few years.
- Software and tools. Design tools, code hosting, project management, testing services, cloud environments and AI coding tools, often priced per seat.
- Office space. Desk rent or co-working, utilities and the space itself, even for hybrid teams.
- Paid time off. You pay for 52 weeks but get fewer productive ones after holidays, bank holidays and sickness.
- Management and HR. Line management, onboarding, reviews, payroll and compliance time.
- Turnover. When someone leaves, you pay to recruit again and lose knowledge in the process.
None of these appear on an offer letter, which is why comparing a salary with a supplier’s monthly rate usually understates the in-house cost.
What roles can you outsource?
Every role in the calculator can be outsourced, individually or as a complete team:
| Role | What they own | Often outsourced when… |
|---|---|---|
| UI/UX Designer | Research, flows, prototypes, interface design | You need design for a new product or a redesign, not full time forever |
| Software Engineer | Web, mobile app and back-end development | You need to ship faster than you can hire |
| QA Engineer | Test plans, automated tests, release checks | Bugs reach customers because nobody owns testing |
| DevOps Engineer | Cloud, CI/CD, monitoring, backups, security | Infrastructure is handled by whichever developer has time |
| Project Manager | Scope, sprints, priorities, reporting | Founders or managers are running delivery on top of their day job |
| AI/ML Engineer | LLM features, AI automation, data pipelines | You need AI skills for a project, not a permanent research team |
In-house vs outsourced development
| In-house team | Outsourced team | |
|---|---|---|
| Time to start | Weeks to months per hire | Usually days to a few weeks |
| Cost shape | Salary plus taxes, benefits, equipment, office, recruitment | A monthly rate per resource |
| Flexibility | Hard to scale down; notice periods | Add or remove roles as the project changes |
| Skills coverage | Limited to who you can hire | Designers, QA, DevOps and AI specialists on demand |
| Knowledge retention | Strong, if people stay | Needs good documentation and code ownership in your name |
| Culture and proximity | Same office, same time zone | Depends on overlap hours and communication habits |
| Management | Your line managers | Shared: the supplier manages delivery, you own priorities |
Many companies do both: a small in-house core that owns the product and the architecture, plus an outsourced team for design, build, QA and DevOps. Our software development outsourcing guide covers engagement models, contracts and red flags in more depth.
How the cost calculator works
- Choose your team. Use the + and − buttons (or type a number) for each role. The total number of resources updates as you go.
- In-house cost per person is hourly fully-loaded cost × hours per week × weeks per year ÷ 12. The defaults are $60, 40 hours and 52 weeks.
- In-house team cost is that monthly figure × the number of resources, and × 12 for the annual cost.
- DataVolve cost is the monthly cost per resource × the number of resources. The default of $2,500 is an illustrative starting point; real rates depend on role, seniority, hours and engagement length.
- Potential difference is the in-house cost minus the DataVolve cost, monthly and annually. If your assumptions make outsourcing more expensive, the calculator says so.
- Currencies. Everything is calculated in US dollars and converted to euros and pounds at indicative rates (1 USD = 0.877 EUR = 0.755 GBP), which change over time.
The calculator uses one average rate for every in-house role. In reality a project manager and an AI/ML engineer are paid differently, so treat the hourly figure as a blended average for your team. It is a planning tool, not a quote or a guaranteed saving.
Example product team
The calculator’s default team is a typical set-up for building and running a web product:
| Role | Headcount |
|---|---|
| UI/UX Designer | 1 |
| Software Engineer | 2 |
| QA Engineer | 1 |
| DevOps Engineer | 1 |
| Project Manager | 1 |
| AI/ML Engineer | 0 |
| Total resources | 6 |
With the default assumptions:
| Monthly | Annual | |
|---|---|---|
| In-house ($60/hour benchmark) | $62,400 | $748,800 |
| DataVolve ($2,500 per resource default) | $15,000 | $180,000 |
| Potential difference | $47,400 | $568,800 |
In pounds, that is about £47,112 a month in-house against £11,325; in euros, €54,725 against €13,155. Change any of the inputs above and the numbers follow. For an MVP, a smaller team (one designer, one or two engineers, part-time QA and project management) is often enough.
When outsourcing makes sense
- You need to start now. A hiring process takes months; an outsourced team can often start within weeks.
- You need a full team, not one hire. Hiring a designer, QA and DevOps engineer for one product is hard to justify full time.
- The workload changes. Build phases need more people than maintenance phases.
- You are building an MVP. You want to validate the idea before committing to permanent headcount.
- You need specialist skills, such as AI/ML or DevOps, for a project rather than forever.
Keep it in-house when the software is your core product and you need a permanent team building deep knowledge, when regulation requires employees to handle the work, or when constant in-person collaboration is essential. A hybrid of a small in-house core and an outsourced team is often the practical answer.
What DataVolve can provide
DataVolve provides dedicated engineers and complete product teams covering every role in the calculator: UI/UX design, software engineering, QA, DevOps, project management and AI/ML engineering. We operate from the United Kingdom and Pakistan, work in your tools, and join your stand-ups.
- Custom software development: business systems, portals and integrations built end to end.
- MVP development: a focused first release to validate an idea, with validation MVPs from $999.
- Dedicated remote engineers and product teams: senior developers, or a full squad with a designer and project manager.
- AI automation and AI agents: AI/ML engineers for LLM features, calling agents and workflow automation.
- Web and mobile app development: iOS and Android apps from a shared codebase.
- Project management and delivery: discovery, prototypes, weekly demos and releases.
- Maintenance and support: monitoring, fixes and changes after launch; see typical running costs.
You own the code, the cloud accounts and the domain from the first commit. Rates are confirmed in writing for your specific roles and seniority before any work starts. If you would like to check the calculator’s numbers against a real team plan, calculate your team cost and then talk to DataVolve.