The world gave attention to the blockchain when they first heard the term “Bitcoin”, the world’s first decentralized currency. Since then, the blockchain hasn’t been just limited to cryptocurrencies but has found its use cases in various industries. Enterprises and businesses of every kind have realized the true potential of blockchain and leveraging its decentralized, distributed, and public-ledger technology. There has been a huge demand for the offshore blockchain development services.

For blockchain development services, businesses often get confused about whether they should go for onshore blockchain development or offshore blockchain development. In this article, we will comprehensively cover both these approaches, analyze the underlying differences, and identify which approach would be highly suitable for you. Let’s begin with the basics.

Onshoring vs. Offshoring: What Do They Mean for Blockchain Development?

Onshoring

Onshoring in the blockchain development services refers to hiring the blockchain development team within the same country. For instance, if you are a US-based company and want to hire a blockchain development company for your project, you go to hire blockchain development companies within the US itself. This is called onshore blockchain development. In this approach, the time zones of operations are the same with no advantages over cost efficiency.

Offshoring

Offshoring in blockchain development services refers to outsourcing the blockchain project to an overseas blockchain development company. It means you are hiring blockchain developers from a company located in another country, potentially in a different time zone. India is one of the most popular destinations for outsourcing blockchain development projects due to its cost efficiency and flexibility.

Pros and Cons of Onshore Blockchain Development

Pros

1.      Communication

In onshore blockchain development, the foremost benefit you get is communication. The onshore company will be located within your country i.e. in your time zone, thus you won’t face any language barrier or any time zone barrier. You can ask for updates and conduct meetings whenever you prefer.

2.      Legal Compilation

As the onshore development company is in your country, they would be well aware of the legal obligations for a project or the contract. They would also be aware of local regulations and standards which is of utmost importance if the blockchain is of finance, healthcare, or any other specific industry. It will help you avoid legal and regulatory issues and ensure the project meets all the requirements.

3.      Real-time collaboration

In some extreme cases, there may be a need to have a physical meeting with the blockchain development team. This is easily possible with onshore blockchain development. Since the company is located within your country even in a different state, it is easier to travel there than overseas.

4.      Quality Assurance

Since the team has a clear vision of the project, it is much easier for them to implement things correctly. The overall communication and physical meeting leave no room for misunderstood requirements.

5.      Increased Flexibility

There will be high flexibility in onshore blockchain development through close collaboration with the client, rapid response time, scalability, etc. These factors can ensure that the project stays on track and meets all client needs.

Cons

1.      Higher Cost

In comparison to offshore blockchain development, onshore blockchain development is always expensive. It is because, in countries like India, you can get high-quality development services at affordable rates. But if in your native country, the living costs are high, then you have to pay higher prices accordingly. Another major factor is compliance with local regulations, which increases the time of development and costs.

2.      Limited Talent Availability

There is a limited pool of talent in most of the countries. When it comes to blockchain, you require high-quality talent which may not be present everywhere. It will lead to high competition in the rates, limited expertise, hauls in the project, and other issues.

3.      Limited Scalability

The companies may require help with the limited scalability due to the small pool in the local area. Thus, they may have to face problems like scale-up or down as per the project requirements. It will also increase the recruitment time and costs.

4.      Backdoor Offshoring

We always recommend doing proper research about the company before hiring them. You just don’t blindly hire a company because of the fact that it is an onshore blockchain development company. Multiple organizations are onshore but internally transfer the project offshore for cheaper and faster development. Backdoor offshore is a bad practice for clients.

Pros and Cons of Offshore Blockchain Development

Pros

1.      Cost Savings

If you hire offshore blockchain developers from other countries like India, it will reduce the project development costs to a great extent. They will charge you the hourly rates as per their standard of living which will be much lower than your country. In countries like India, Vietnam, China, and Ukraine, the IT development rate is much lower but there is no sacrifice or compromise on the quality or level of expertise.

2.      Access to Top Quality Talent

In hiring offshore talent, you will get access to the best team with quality skills in development, design, and testing. The process also gets easier to implement as the team is more familiar. You can also guide them to include the desired things during the development; they can also help with that.

3.      Faster Project Delivery

Since there are so many companies available in the market, they compete with each other in terms of services. They leave no stone unturned to deliver faster services and projects. But that doesn’t mean they compromise on the quality.

4.      High Scalability

The development process is mostly arduous. The process may not have a defined completion time, but you can estimate the development time. When you choose an offshore development company, you can easily increase the number of developers and accelerate delivery.

5.      Access to Latest Technologies

We have observed that offshore development companies are well-equipped with the latest technologies and trends. They keep updating with new tech stack to provide the services. Furthermore, the tech infrastructure of the offshore blockchain development companies is also highly reliable. In the offshore blockchain development approach, you will get well-trained developers who can help do the work more appropriately and with the best results.

6.      Improved Focus on Core Business Activities

After outsourcing your project to offshore development companies, you don’t need to take any hassle of your blockchain project. You get exonerated from all the friction or difficulties of tech and can focus primarily on your business.

7.      Quick Turnover

Offshore development can help companies gain quick turnover as you can get all the projects done in time with better results. This can help get frequent new projects and increase the visibility of the company, resulting in more benefits.

Cons:

1.      Communication Challenges

Since you are outsourcing your project to a company located in another time zone, then communication issues may arise. Firstly, the native language of the company may be different than yours, and the second issue is less overlapping of working hours. In India, the project managers are fluent in English and also provide services during EST working hours.

2.      Security Risks

You may feel security risks while partnering with an offshore company. Professional and reputed companies like us sign contracts and give ultimate protection to client’s data and privacy. We also signed a contract to not share your app idea to another company.

3.      Legal and Regulatory Issues

When you give your project to a different country, they will require assistance in determining the laws and regulations that must be followed during development. They must conduct extensive research, which may take additional time.

Cost Comparison: Onshore vs. Offshore Blockchain Development

There will be a significant cost difference between both of these approaches. If you are a US-based company, you will realize the development rates of on-shore development companies are way too high. They will charge you as high as $120-$180 per hour. However, if you go for offshore blockchain development services and hire companies from India, they will charge you $30-$80 per hour.

Thus, with this significant difference in hourly rates, there will be a difference of thousands of dollars in a blockchain project.

Wrapping Up

In this article, we have gone through the major aspects of onshoring and offshoring blockchain app development. At A3logics, the best blockchain development company in India, we can provide you with the best offshore blockchain development services.

Our team handles the data of our clients just like our own and provides regular updates during their working hours. Our hourly rates are highly competitive with unmatchable blockchain consulting services. Let us know your requirements.