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A team one border away
Nearshoring is the middle road between hiring at home and sending work across the world. For a company in the Netherlands, Germany, France or the United Kingdom, a team in Belgium is nearshore: the same working day, a train ride or a short flight away, and inside the same legal framework or close to it.
The term sits between two others. Onshore means a supplier in your own country. Offshore means a supplier far away, often in Asia or Latin America, with a large time difference and lower rates. Nearshore trades part of offshore's price gain for working together during the same hours. How the three compare in hours, law and total cost is in nearshore vs offshore, and the cost gap inside Europe in Eastern vs Western Europe developers.
Why buyers came back from offshore
Nearshoring grew out of the offshoring wave of the 1990s and 2000s, when Western companies moved IT and call centre work to countries with lower wages. Many ran into the same problems: meetings at the edges of the day, misunderstandings over language and expectations, and data leaving the legal area they knew. The answer was to look closer to home. In Europe that meant Central and Eastern Europe, Portugal and Spain, and for some buyers neighbours such as Belgium, where rates are not lower but distance, languages and law are shorter.
How the work runs across a border
You agree the work with a supplier in the nearby country: a project with a fixed scope, a dedicated team that works only for you, or individual developers added to your own team. You work in shared tools, meet online daily or weekly, and visit in person when it matters, for the kick-off or a difficult phase. Because the working day overlaps, a question in the morning gets an answer the same day.
Between onshore and offshore
In your own country
- No time difference, your own language
- Highest hourly rate
- Same law and habits
Far away, such as Asia
- Four to seven hours of time difference
- Lowest hourly rate
- Other law, meetings at the edges of the day
Further away: lower rates, more distance
Nearshoring trades part of offshore's price gain for working on the same working day.
Labour cost per hour in IT across Europe
Rates differ more than any other factor. The fairest comparison across countries is what an employer pays per hour worked in IT, from Eurostat, for 2024:
| Country | Labour cost per hour in IT, 2024 | Time zone versus Brussels | Inside the EU |
|---|---|---|---|
| Belgium | 58.70 euros | Same | Yes |
| Netherlands | 58.00 euros | Same | Yes |
| Portugal | 26.60 euros | One hour behind | Yes |
| Poland | 26.30 euros | Same | Yes |
| Romania | 23.70 euros | One hour ahead | Yes |
These are employer costs, not what an agency charges: an agency adds management, tools and margin. What developers and agencies quote is in web developer hourly rates, and the full comparison of countries in best countries to outsource software development.
The table also shows the honest point: Belgium is not a low-cost country. A buyer from the Netherlands or Germany does not choose Belgium to save on the hour; they choose it to save on distance, misunderstandings and rework.
Which work suits a nearby team
It fits when the work needs a lot of conversation: a new product or an MVP, a platform that grows with your business, a site in several languages where wording matters, or a client portal your customers use every day. It fits less when the task is fully specified and repetitive, where offshore price wins. It fits best when data protection matters: inside the EU, personal data moves freely under the GDPR, while a supplier outside the EU needs extra safeguards, such as a data processing agreement with transfer clauses.
A Dutch distributor and a Belgian team
Take a Dutch distributor that wants a customer portal in Dutch, French and English for its clients in the Benelux. An onshore agency in Amsterdam quotes high; an offshore team quotes low but works while the distributor sleeps. A Belgian team works the same hours, speaks the three languages its customers speak, and keeps the data in the EU. The team visits once for the kick-off and once before launch; the rest happens in weekly calls and a shared board. That is the case nearshoring was made for.
Compare the contract, not only the rate
Ask who owns the code, where the data is hosted, what happens if a developer leaves, and how changes are priced. A low rate with unclear terms costs more than a fair rate with clear ones.
What buyers abroad ask
What is the difference between nearshoring and offshoring?
Nearshoring goes to a nearby country, in or close to your time zone; offshoring goes far away, often with several hours of difference and lower rates. Nearshore trades some of the price gain for working during the same hours.
What is nearshore outsourcing?
The same thing: handing work, such as software development, to a supplier in a neighbouring country or region. It can be a project, a dedicated team or individual developers in your team.
Is Belgium a good nearshore location?
For buyers in the Netherlands, Germany, France and the UK it is close in time, travel and law, and many Belgian teams work in Dutch, French and English. It is not a low-cost country: you choose it for proximity and language, not the lowest rate.
What are the risks of nearshoring?
The same as any outsourcing: unclear scope, unclear ownership of code and data, and dependence on a few people. A contract that settles those points, and regular demos, keep the risk small.