The real numbers most vendors don't show you — salary, benefits, recruiting, onboarding, and the opportunity cost of a 6-month hiring cycle.
US Hiring Costs
| Item | Annual Cost |
|---|---|
| Senior AI Engineer salary (SF/NYC) | $180,000–$240,000 |
| Employer payroll taxes (7.65%) | $13,770–$18,360 |
| Health insurance (employer share) | $8,000–$15,000 |
| 401(k) match (4%) | $7,200–$9,600 |
| Equipment & tools | $3,000–$5,000 |
| Recruiting fee (20–25% of salary) | $36,000–$60,000 (one-time) |
| Onboarding & ramp time (3–6 months at 50% productivity) | $45,000–$60,000 cost |
| Total Year 1 | $293,000–$407,000 |
And that's if you find the right person. Average AI engineer hiring time in the US: 3–6 months. That's 3–6 months of your product roadmap stalled while recruiters search for a unicorn who knows LLMs, RAG, and production systems engineering.
NKKTech Pricing
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Senior AI engineer (Vietnam, full-time) | $5,000–$8,000/month |
| Project management included | $0 |
| Recruiting & HR | $0 (we handle it) |
| Benefits & taxes | $0 (our cost) |
| Equipment | $0 |
| Onboarding time | 2-week kickoff guaranteed |
| Annual cost (dedicated team) | $60,000–$96,000/year |
Savings vs US hiring: $233,000–$311,000 per engineer per year.
That's not a typo. When you factor in salary, benefits, recruiting, onboarding, and ramp time, offshore AI development with NKKTech costs 65–75% less than building the same team in-house in the US.
Full Comparison
| Criteria | US In-House | India Offshore | Vietnam (NKKTech) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Senior engineer annual cost | $180K–$240K | $25K–$40K | $60K–$96K (all-in) |
| Time to first line of code | 3–6 months | 4–6 weeks | 14 days |
| AI/LLM specialist availability | Low (6-month search) | Medium | High (ready now) |
| Communication quality | Native | Variable | Direct, clear, proactive |
| EST overlap | Full | Low (9–12 hr difference) | 4–6 hrs |
| Fixed-price guarantee | No | Rarely | Yes (always) |
| Clutch-verified reviews | N/A | Varies | 5.0 / 5.0 |
| IP protection | Strong | Medium | Strong (VN law + contract) |
| Scalability | Slow & expensive | Fast but quality varies | Fast & 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 4–6 hours with EST daily, 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. We're built for $20K+ engagements 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 10 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.