Offshore Software Development Center in Vietnam
Your own dedicated engineering team in Ho Chi Minh City, from 10 engineers, working only on your product. InApps hires, employs and runs the center. You own the code, the roadmap and the technical calls. Core team running in 6-8 weeks.
Trusted by engineering teams in 15+ countries, including Prudential in South-East Asia.
Dedicated Offshore Development Center vs Shared Vendor Teams
why offshore teams fail
A dedicated offshore development center differs from a shared vendor team in one way that drives every other result: the engineers work only on your product. Most offshore failures trace back to shared attention, opaque reporting and churn, not to the country.
Shared engineers. A "dedicated" developer at a typical vendor splits time across five clients.
Opaque stand-ups. Nobody can say what shipped or what is blocked.
Timezone lag. A two-hour question becomes a two-day delay.
Churn. The engineer you onboarded leaves. The replacement has never seen your code.
Green sprints, failed reviews. The metrics close. The code does not pass.
Vendor babysitting. Your seniors spend ten hours a week managing the vendor.
What Is an Offshore Development Center (ODC)?
and how the InApps model works
Your own engineering center in Vietnam
A branded team on a dedicated floor
An offshore development center (ODC) is a dedicated engineering team in another country that works only for your company. InApps recruits, employs and houses your team in Ho Chi Minh City, and runs payroll, HR, the office and local compliance. You control the roadmap, the architecture, the sprints and who joins. No legal entity to register in Vietnam.
ODC vs In-House Hiring vs Offshore Vendors
three ways to add engineers
| Criterion | InApps ODC | In-house | Typical vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cost | 40-70% below US/EU loaded cost | Salary plus ~30% benefits (BLS, June 2026), then recruiting, equipment and office | Low rate card, extra fees for PM, QA and tools |
| Speed | Core team running in 6-8 weeks | 45-50 days per US software hire, 60-90 for senior roles (source) | 2-8 weeks, bench-heavy |
| Quality | 4-stage vetting, 3% pass rate | Varies by market | Mixed, often from the bench |
| Communication | B2+ English, tested in vetting | Native, co-located | Inconsistent |
| Flexibility | Scale up or down on 30 days' notice | Rigid headcount | Minimum commitments |
| Engineers | Work only on your product | Yours | Often shared across clients |
| Who manages | You lead tech. We run HR, payroll and the office. | You run everything | A vendor PM sits between you and the devs |
| IP ownership | 100% yours, assigned in contract | Yours | Depends on contract |
| If someone leaves | Replaced in 3-4 weeks, no fee, 2-week handover | You re-hire from zero | Bench swap, no handover |
What's Included in Your Offshore Development Center
people, place, process
Team
Dedicated to your product, led by you.
- Senior engineers across web, mobile (iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter) and backend stacks, working only on your product
- Tech lead, optional if you have none onshore
- QA engineer: test automation and regression
- Engagement manager: HR and team health, not your tech direction
- Project manager, optional, if you prefer not to run ceremonies
Security
Your code and data stay under your control.
- ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certified ISMS
- Access-controlled floor, company-managed devices
- VPN, SSO and segregated network
- NDA and background check for every engineer
HR & operations
We handle operations so you can focus on product.
- Recruitment, payroll and benefits
- Local labor compliance
- Performance reviews and retention plans
- Office, equipment and facilities
Process & tools
Your tools, your cadence, your rituals.
- Your Jira, Slack and GitHub
- Your sprint cadence and ceremonies
- Weekly team-health report
- Direct access to every engineer
AI engineering inside your ODC
Add AI capability without a separate vendor.
- Engineers experienced with LLM APIs, retrieval and agent workflows join the same center
- Same security perimeter: your keys, your cloud accounts, your data policies
- Same retainer model, no separate AI contract
- Example: AI-native engineers on the Citizen Debt Services fintech platform, shown in the results below
How We Vet Engineers: 4 Stages, 3% Pass Rate
then your own interview
Live coding & system design
- Real-world coding challenge
- System design interview
- Code quality and problem solving
Communication & English
- Technical communication
- Client-facing scenario
- Written and spoken English
Agile collaboration & ownership
- Agile mindset and teamwork
- Ownership and accountability
- Adaptability and growth mindset
Final review & reference check
- Technical panel interview
- Reference and background check
- Culture and values alignment
How to Set Up an Offshore Software Development Center
from brief to first sprint in eight weeks
Setting up an offshore software development center with InApps takes 6-8 weeks: requirements and contracts in weeks 1-2, recruitment in weeks 2-5, onboarding in weeks 5-8. You receive a written role map within five days of the first call.
Requirements & setup
Roles, team shape and contract written down before anyone is sourced.
Recruitment
We shortlist and screen, you interview. Nobody joins your team without your yes.
Onboarding
Your codebase, your tools, your rituals. First pull request within two weeks of start.
Operations
A delivery cadence you can plan around, and a team that scales with the roadmap.
How Much Does an Offshore Development Center Cost?
one retainer, one setup fee, no extras
InApps prices an offshore development center as a monthly retainer per engineer plus a one-time setup fee for your dedicated facility. Seniority, stack and team size set the rate. Your monthly cost is the sum of the engineer retainers. The setup fee is paid once.
| Role (senior, USD per hour) | North America | Vietnam / SE Asia |
|---|---|---|
| Full-stack engineer | $120-200 | $30-50 |
| DevOps / cloud engineer | $130-200 | $35-55 |
| AI / ML engineer | $140-220 | $40-65 |
2026 ranges compiled from three published rate surveys, the same benchmark as our staff augmentation rates. Market ranges, not an InApps quote. Your written proposal sets the actual rate.
First-year cost = 12 × monthly cost + one-time setup fee
Included in the monthly fee
- Salary, insurance and 13th-month bonus
- Office, devices and facilities
- Recruitment, HR and payroll
- Engagement manager and team-health reporting
Not included
- Onshore travel and visits
- Third-party licenses you choose
- Cloud and infrastructure costs on your own accounts
Results From Our Offshore Development Clients
starting with the center
Prudential · ODC Model
Insurance operations platform
Prudential needed engineering scale across multiple markets, but could not absorb the overhead of local recruitment in a regulated environment. We built a compliant, multi-squad offshore engineering center for one of South-East Asia's largest insurance groups - faster product delivery without the cost and risk of direct hiring.
Two Raw Sisters · Dedicated Team
Food & wellness app takeover
TRS needed the broken app fixed. Their previous team had left unresolved critical bugs and an active user base already hitting failures. We took over a critically underperforming food and wellness app from a failed vendor and rebuilt it into a scalable ongoing product.
Citizen Debt Services · Staff Augmentation
AI-integrated fintech platform
CDS needed senior talent fast, with English fluency and AI capability to contribute from week one. We reinforced a Vietnam-based team with AI-native offshore engineers on full timezone overlap, closing skill gaps without slowing an active development roadmap.
Artixo · Fixed-Price Model
AI drawing tutorial app
Artixo needed a vendor who could own the full scope without scope creep or budget surprises. We designed and delivered a custom AI-powered drawing tutorial app for proprietary Android tablets.
What Clients Say on Clutch
verified reviews, not picked quotes
From verified Clutch reviews. Clutch interviews clients directly, and we never see the draft.
Is an Offshore Development Center Right for You?
or worth a no, early
A dedicated center is the wrong shape for plenty of good projects. Here is where it works and where we will point you somewhere else.
This works well if
- You need ten or more engineers working full-time on one product.
- You want to reduce hiring cost without adding management work.
- You want a long-term engineering branch, not a three-month contractor pool.
This is not a fit if
- You need fewer than ten engineers. A dedicated team (3-8) or staff augmentation (1-2) fits better, and we will say so.
- You need someone shipping next week. Standing up a center takes six to eight weeks.
- You have a fixed scope and want it handed back finished. That is our fixed-price model.
ODC vs Dedicated Team vs Staff Augmentation
pick the model that fits your team size
| Criterion | ODC | Dedicated Team | Staff Augmentation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Typical size | 10+ engineers | 3-8 engineers | 1-2 engineers |
| Daily management | InApps runs the center under your technical direction | Your product owner with an InApps team lead | Your engineering manager |
| What you get | A branded center with its own HR, security and culture | A standing squad on one product line | Individual engineers in your sprints |
| Time to first commit | 6-8 weeks | 4-6 weeks | 1-2 weeks |
| Commercial model | Monthly retainer plus setup fee | Monthly retainer per engineer | Time and materials |
| Exit path | Build-operate-transfer to your own entity from year two | Grow into an ODC past eight engineers | Move to a dedicated team as the squad grows |
Compare ODC, dedicated team and staff augmentation in detail
Offshore Development Center FAQs
Still deciding?
Send us the roles you cannot fill locally and we will tell you honestly whether a dedicated center is the right shape for them - including when it is not.
Book a discovery callWho manages the engineers day to day?
What is the time zone overlap with Vietnam?
What happens if an engineer leaves?
What is the minimum team size?
How much does an offshore development center cost?
How long does it take to set up an offshore software development center in Vietnam?
Do we need a legal entity in Vietnam?
Who owns the code and IP?
How does InApps protect our data?
What is the difference between an ODC and a dedicated development team?
Can we take the team in-house later?
How much notice do we need to scale down?
Ready to scope your development center?
Tell us about your product - no pitch, no obligation. We will map the roles, the timeline and a cost range, and tell you plainly if a dedicated center is not the right shape for it.
Send us a project brief
The more of the shape you give us, the more useful the first reply is. If the answer is that you should hire locally, or that another firm fits better, we will say that instead.