US wage data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics next to NKKTech's published rates — and what each figure includes.
US Wage Data
| Item | Annual Cost |
|---|---|
| Software developer, San Francisco metro — mean wage¹ | $193,430 |
| Software developer, San Francisco metro — 75th percentile¹ | $219,670 |
| Software developer, New York metro — mean wage¹ | $165,870 |
| Software developer, New York metro — 75th percentile¹ | $205,970 |
¹ US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates, occupation 15-1252 Software Developers, metropolitan areas San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA and New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ. Retrieved October 2026. Wages only, before benefits, payroll taxes and recruiting costs.
NKKTech Pricing
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Senior engineer (Vietnam, full-time)² | From $3,500/month |
| Dedicated team (2–6 engineers + PM)² | From $8,000/month, 3-month minimum |
| Project management included | $0 |
| Recruiting & HR | $0 (we handle it) |
| Benefits & taxes | $0 (our cost) |
| Equipment | $0 |
| Onboarding time | 2-week kickoff |
| Annual cost per engineer, at our starting rate | From $42,000/year |
Difference at our starting rate, wages only, before benefits: $151,430 (about 78%) below the San Francisco mean; $123,870 (about 75%) below the New York mean.
² Published rates on our dedicated-teams and pricing pages; your quote depends on seniority and team size.
Full Comparison
| Criteria | US In-House | Vietnam (NKKTech) |
|---|---|---|
| Annual cost per engineer | $165,870–$193,430 mean wage (New York–San Francisco)¹ | From $42,000 (published starting rate)² |
| Time to first line of code | Depends on your hiring pipeline | 14 days |
| AI/LLM specialist availability | Depends on your local market | Confirmed at discovery, before signing |
| Communication quality | Native | Direct, clear, proactive |
| EST overlap | Full | 4 hrs daily (8 AM–12 PM ET) |
| Fixed-price scope agreed upfront | No | Yes |
| Clutch rating | N/A | 5.0 · 10 reviews |
| IP protection | Strong | Strong (VN law + contract) |
| Scalability | One hiring search per role | Add engineers by agreement (senior-only) |
Honest Take
We believe in earning trust through honesty. Offshore AI development isn't right for every situation. Here are three scenarios where we'd tell you to look elsewhere:
If your project requires physical presence — whiteboard sessions every day, hardware integration, or co-located pair programming — an in-house team or local contractor is a better fit. We overlap 4 hours daily with US Eastern Time (8 AM–12 PM ET), which is enough for most async-first teams, but not for full-day in-person work.
If you're working on US government contracts (FedRAMP, ITAR) or in highly regulated industries requiring all data processing and personnel to be onshore, offshore development won't meet your compliance requirements. We follow SOC 2-aligned practices, but can't satisfy onshore-only mandates.
At that budget, the overhead of discovery, scoping, and team assembly means a freelancer or a no-code solution may be more cost-efficient. Our smallest engagement is an AI Pilot ($3K–$15K, one use case, 3–4 weeks); full builds start at $10K, where the architecture, quality, and long-term maintainability justify a senior engineering team.
Real Results
A Series B fintech needed LLM-powered document processing for KYC/AML compliance. They estimated $250K+ for a US-based team. NKKTech delivered the system for $85K in 11 weeks — and saved them $200K/year in ongoing labor costs.
ROI in under 12 months.
Read full case studyA Series A SaaS company needed AI automation for their sales pipeline. Their US agency quoted $120K and 6 months. NKKTech built it for $42K in 8 weeks — and the client saw 226% pipeline growth within 60 days of launch.
ROI in 60 days.
Read full case studyTell us what you're building. We'll send a fixed-price proposal within 3 business days — no obligations, no sales pressure.