Software and web apps
Developers for your Dutch platform or web app, without the false self-employment risk
A team in Ghent that builds, tests and ships in your repository. You buy a result with a price per part, not hours under your authority.
If you hire developers in the Netherlands without the risk of false self-employment, you buy a result and not hours under your own authority. Since 1 January 2025 that is no longer theory: the Dutch tax authority (Belastingdienst) enforces the DBA law (Wet DBA) again, has imposed penalties since 1 January 2026, and can claim back payroll taxes going back to 1 January 2025. A freelance developer who runs along in your team for months, picks up your tickets and joins your stand-up is the textbook case of what the tax authority can treat as employment.
This page is written for companies in the Netherlands that work in English: a scale-up in Amsterdam or Eindhoven with an international team, a Dutch branch of a foreign group, a founder who moved to the Netherlands. You have three routes: a freelancer by the hour, a developer seconded through an agency, or a project with an agency that directs the work itself. Below they sit side by side, with the prices the market asks, the DBA law, and what makes a project with an agency in Ghent different: English or Dutch as the working language, the same time zone, code in your repository and a fixed price per part after a first conversation.
Looking specifically for someone for a Next.js site or app? Read hire Next.js developers. If you hire from further away, from the US or the UK, the wider picture is on hire developers in Europe.
Freelancer, secondment or a project, on five points
Freelance developerby the hour, in your team
Secondmentthrough an agency, under your lead
Project with an agencya result, a fixed price per part
Who directs the work
Freelance developerOften you, and that is where the risk sitsSecondmentYou, but the agency is the employerProject with an agencyThe agency, you approve the resultRisk of back payroll taxes
Freelance developerWith you, if the work looks like employmentSecondmentWith the agency as the employerProject with an agencyNobody works under your authorityIllness or holidays
Freelance developerThe work stopsSecondmentThe agency finds a replacementProject with an agencyThe team carries onHow you pay
Freelance developerHours, total unknown up frontSecondmentHours, with the agency's marginProject with an agencyA price per part, up frontWhat stays afterwards
Freelance developerThe knowledge leaves with the personSecondmentThe same, unless you agree a handoverProject with an agencyCode in your repository, with documentation
Which route fits when
| Route | When it fits | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance developer by the hour | a short, defined job with a clear result, or a specialist who helps your own team for a week | authority, embedding and duration: the longer and the more inside your team, the bigger the risk |
| Secondment | you want someone in your team under your own lead, for months | the agency is the employer; you pay its margin on top of the salary |
| Project with an agency | you want a platform, a module or an app built, with an end and a price | a good description of what you want, and who decides on your side |
The general version of this choice, for any country, is in freelancer or agency; what adding people to your own team means as a model is under staff augmentation.
What hiring developers costs in the Netherlands
The market gives the range. On Freelance.nl, clients offered an average of 89 euros an hour for development and implementation in the first quarter of 2026; freelancers asked 107. For architecture it was 97 and 117 euros, for testing 85 and 97 euros. For comparison: an hour of work by an employee cost a Dutch employer an average of 47.90 euros in wages and charges in 2025, according to Eurostat, across all sectors.
| What you buy | Price signal | What comes on top |
|---|---|---|
| Freelance developer, development | 89 euros offered, 107 euros asked per hour, first quarter of 2026 | direction, review and testing by you |
| Freelance architect | 97 euros offered, 117 euros asked per hour | the same |
| Seconded developer | the salary plus the agency's margin | direction by you |
| Project with an agency | a price per module or per part, after a first conversation | direction, review, testing and release by the agency |
How rates compare across Europe is in software developer hourly rates. VBS does not work with an hourly rate: we agree a fixed price per project or per module after a first conversation. How we split a project into modules and what that costs is in custom software development cost.
Why a project keeps the DBA law out of your team
The tax authority looks at whether someone works under your authority, whether they must do the work in person, and whether they are embedded in your organisation: work that employees also do, for a long time, in your team. In a project with an agency nobody works under your lead. You describe what you want and approve the result; the agency decides who builds it, how and when, and covers illness and holidays itself.
That does not make a project a free pass. If you still have an agency send one fixed person who only does your tickets, under your lead, it looks like secondment, with the rules that come with it. How your assignment runs in practice counts more than what the contract says. For the legal side of your own situation, go to your accountant or a lawyer.
English as the working language
Many Dutch tech teams already work in English, and so can a project with us. Analysis, tickets, code comments, documentation and meetings in English; Dutch where your users or your board need it.
| Part of the work | Language |
|---|---|
| Meetings, analysis and tickets | English or Dutch, as your team works |
| Code, commits and documentation | English |
| The interface of the app | the languages of your users: our transport platform has a driver app in three languages |
| Contracts and invoices | English or Dutch; invoices through Peppol where the client needs it |
How we build in your repository
- Code that is yoursIn your repository, with your own branch rules, or in ours and handed over at delivery. With documentation, so a next developer can step in.
- Tests before every mergeOn the transport platform of DA Logistics, 1,396 tests across 117 files run before anything goes live.
- Live without downtimeOur platform releases switch over in 2 to 6 seconds, with a backup and a way back.
- In English or DutchMeetings, analysis and tickets in your team's language, in the same time zone. Ghent is an hour's drive from Breda.
- A price up frontA fixed price per module, agreed after a first conversation. Anything extra we price separately before we build it.
Platforms that people work on every day
The proof is in software that runs. For DA Logistics we built a platform for fuel, fleet and planning: about thirty drivers and 34 vehicles work with it daily, with a driver app in three languages. The same core has run since 14 September 2026 for Zuco Logistics, with its own fuel model; domain, certificate, site and API were live in 57 minutes. For Business Centrum we replaced a spreadsheet with a management platform of its own, with two-factor authentication and encryption.
That is the kind of work you hire us for: a web application, an app for your people on the road or custom software that replaces a spreadsheet, built by a team that also keeps it running.
An agency in Belgium for a Dutch company
| Agency in Ghent | Freelancer in the Netherlands | Agency in Eastern Europe or Asia | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Language | English and Dutch | Dutch and often English | mostly English |
| Time zone | the same | the same | one to seven hours apart |
| DBA law | nobody under your authority in a project | your risk if it looks like employment | nobody under your authority in a project |
| Market price per hour | Belgian labour costs sit above Dutch ones | 89 to 107 euros on average | lower |
| Law and privacy | European law, data in the EU | Dutch law | other rules outside the EU |
Belgian labour costs are among the highest in Europe, so per hour we are not cheaper than a Dutch freelancer. What you gain is a team instead of a person, a fixed price instead of an open bill, and no relationship of authority in your own team. To put the countries side by side, read nearshore software development and best countries to outsource software development.
A project in five steps
- ConversationYou tell us what you want to build and what already exists. We read your code or your spreadsheet before we name a price.
- Modules and priceWe split the work into modules, each with its own price and its own delivery.
- Building in sprintsEvery two weeks something you can click through, in a test environment with demo data.
- Live with a way backReleases with a backup, a measured switch-over and a route back.
- Keeping it runningUpdates, security and what your users ask for, if you leave that with us.
Before you hire developers
- May I still hire a freelance developer?
- Yes. Make sure they work as an entrepreneur: a defined result, their own way of working, no fixed place in your team for an open-ended period. The longer and the more under your lead, the bigger the risk of a back-tax claim. What to check before you pick a team is in how to choose a software development company.
- Is a project with a foreign agency different from a freelancer?
- In a project nobody works under your authority; the agency directs its own people. If a fixed person runs along in your team, it looks like secondment.
- Do you work with an hourly rate?
- No. We agree a fixed price per project or per module after a first conversation.
- Can you work in our existing code?
- Yes. We first read and run the code, take a small first ticket to learn your conventions, and then the big work.
- Who owns the code?
- You do. It sits in your repository or is handed over at delivery, with documentation.
Web application
How VBS helps you with this
We build software in the browser for your whole team, on every computer and phone, around the way you work.
- Roles and permissions per person
- Links to your accounting and your email
- Releases without downtime, with backup and rollback
How we approach it is on our page about Web application.
Tell us where you stand.
A few sentences will do. We reply within 24 hours with a proposal for a first call.
Rather get in touch right away?