Outsourcing Software Development to Thailand: Models, Costs and How to Choose (2026)

Finding good developers in Belgium or the Netherlands takes months, and once you find them they are expensive. That is why more European companies look further, to Eastern Europe, India, Vietnam or Thailand. This guide is about Thailand: how outsourcing works in practice, which ways of working exist, what they cost, and what to check before you choose a partner. We are a Bangkok-based studio founded by a Belgian, so we will also show our own prices, and tell you when we are not the right fit.

Why companies outsource to Thailand

• Capacity without hiring. You get experienced developers in weeks, without recruitment fees, notice periods or employer charges.
• Time zone. Bangkok is 5 hours ahead of Belgium and the Netherlands in summer, 6 in winter. Your morning overlaps with the Thai afternoon, and work can continue while you sleep.
• A regional base. For companies that also sell in Asia, a Bangkok team knows the region and its languages.

Outsourcing is not automatically cheaper or better. It works when the partner communicates well, works the way your team works, and is honest about what it can and cannot do.

Four ways to work with an outsourcing partner

Model	How it works	Best for
Fixed-price project	A clear scope and a fixed price; changes are quoted first.	A well-defined product or website
Time and materials	You pay for the days worked, and steer as you go.	Projects where the scope will change
Monthly hours	A fixed number of hours each month for maintenance and improvements.	Keeping an existing product healthy
Dedicated team	Full-time developers, designers or testers who work in your team, with your tools and rituals.	Long-term extra capacity

What it costs

Prices vary a lot between partners and countries, so we can only speak for ourselves. These are our published prices in euro, excluding VAT:

Model	Price	Terms
Emergency help	€75 per hour	No minimum; a senior developer starts the same day
Strip card	€910 for 14 hours	Hours on the shelf for small jobs
Monthly hours	€480 (8 h), €1,920 (32 h) or €3,840 (64 h) per month	At least 3 months, then 3 months' notice
Projects	€495 per day (senior developer), €695 per day (lead developer)	Fixed price or time and materials
Dedicated developer	€6,900 (medior), €9,900 (senior), €13,900 (lead) per month	6-month minimum, then 3 months' notice

Dedicated designers and QA testers start at €5,900 a month. Commit to monthly hours for 6 months and you get 5% off, for 12 months 7.5% off.

What to check before you choose a partner

1. Who will actually work on your project? Ask to meet the developers, not only the salespeople.
2. How do they communicate? Which language, which tools, how often, and who is your contact?
3. Who owns the code? It should be you, from day one, in your own repository.
4. How do they test and release? Code reviews, automated tests and a staging environment should be normal.
5. What does it cost, all in? Rates, minimum terms, notice periods and what happens to unused hours.
6. Can you start small? A small first project tells you more than any sales call.
7. What do other clients say? Ask for references you can call.

When outsourcing is not the right choice

If your product is your core business and you are building it for years, you will eventually want your own team, perhaps with an outsourcing partner next to it. And if you cannot spend time on clear priorities and feedback, no partner, local or far away, will build the right thing. Outsourcing works best when you treat the partner as part of your team.

How we work

We Do Dev Work is a Bangkok-based team of developers, designers and project managers, founded by Vincent Trienpont after years of running a consultancy in Belgium. We work for clients across Europe and Asia, in English, and you own the code and designs we make for you. If you want to try us first, start with a strip card or a small project.