If you're looking to expand your internal team's capabilities or reduce development costs, offshore Salesforce development might be the right move. As the Salesforce ecosystem continues to evolve—becoming more powerful and complex—many companies are turning to external partners to keep up with demand, implement new functionality, and streamline operations.
Hiring Salesforce developers through offshore or nearshore firms can be a smart way to scale your technical resources, but there are trade-offs to understand. This guide walks you through exactly what offshore Salesforce development entails, what these companies offer, and how to find the right partner for your business, whether you’re based in the US or elsewhere.
Let’s break it down.
What is offshore Salesforce development?
Offshore Salesforce development refers to the practice of hiring a development team based in a different country (usually one with lower labor costs) to build, maintain, or enhance your Salesforce environment. This could include everything from custom Apex coding and Lightning component development to third-party integrations and full application builds on the Salesforce platform.
To understand the full picture, it helps to distinguish between offshore, nearshore, and onshore Salesforce development:
Onshore means working with developers in the same country as your business. If you're a US-based company, onshore Salesforce development involves partnering with teams in the US. This often offers the most alignment in terms of language, culture, and time zone, but it’s also the most expensive option.
Nearshore Salesforce development typically involves working with teams in nearby countries with minimal time zone differences—for example, US companies partnering with teams in Latin America. This model offers better real-time collaboration while still reducing costs.
Offshore Salesforce development means working with teams in regions like Eastern Europe, South Asia, or Southeast Asia. These partners often offer the most competitive pricing and can provide solid technical capabilities, but managing communication and project alignment can be more challenging.
Typical locations for offshore Salesforce development companies include:
Latin America: Ideal for both nearshore and offshore models depending on your location. Countries like Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil have large pools of Salesforce talent and overlapping work hours with the US.
Eastern Europe: Poland, Ukraine, and Romania are known for high-quality technical expertise and strong English proficiency.
Asia: India and the Philippines have long been dominant players in the offshore development space, especially for larger outsourcing firms.
What offshore Salesforce development companies provide
Offshore Salesforce development companies offer a wide range of technical services designed to extend, customize, and streamline your Salesforce lifecycle. These teams can operate as a fully managed unit or serve as an extension of your in-house team, depending on your needs.
Here’s a breakdown of the key services most firms provide:
Apex and Lightning component development
At the heart of any custom Salesforce solution is Apex—Salesforce’s proprietary programming language—and Lightning components, which provide the modern user interface Salesforce is known for. Offshore teams can build complex backend logic using Apex triggers, classes, and batch jobs, while also creating custom Lightning Web Components to enhance the user experience.
Salesforce integration
Integrating Salesforce with your CRM, ERP, marketing platforms, payment processors, and third-party tools is a high-value service. Offshore Salesforce developers are often tasked with API-based and middleware-based integrations that allow organizations to connect their Salesforce orgs to essential business systems.
Custom app development on the Salesforce platform
Salesforce isn’t just a CRM—it’s a development platform. Offshore teams frequently build full-scale apps on the Salesforce Platform, using declarative tools like Flows alongside programmatic tools (like Apex and Visualforce) to deliver scalable applications aligned with your business goals.
Migration and replatforming services
For organizations moving away from legacy systems or consolidating multiple Salesforce instances, offshore Salesforce development providers often handle:
Data migrations
Schema consolidation
Metadata transfers
Replatforming
These initiatives help modernize tech stacks and reduce long-term maintenance overhead.
Support and optimization of existing Salesforce orgs
Many companies—especially those using Salesforce development in the US—bring in offshore or nearshore support to clean up technical debt, improve performance, and maintain existing features. Whether your system needs regular QA, bug fixes, or performance tuning, an offshore team can handle those tasks while your in-house team focuses on growth and strategy.
It's worth noting that these Salesforce development services are not unique to offshore firms. A Salesforce developer in the US or a nearshore partner in Latin America have the potential to offer the same technical capabilities. The real difference lies in how the team is managed, how communication is handled, and the level of risk you're comfortable taking.
If your objective is to save money while scaling fast, offshore development may be a strong fit. But if real-time collaboration, strategic input, or a high-touch product experience is critical, a nearshore Salesforce development model might better align with your goals.
Pros and cons of offshore Salesforce development
Before you decide to outsource your Salesforce projects, it’s important to weigh the potential upsides against the risks. The right model depends on your objectives, team structure, and how much operational oversight you’re equipped to handle.
Pros of offshore Salesforce development
The pros of offshoring include:
Cost savings: Offshore teams typically come with lower hourly rates.
Access to global Salesforce talent: Offshore firms often have deep experience across Salesforce products and industries, and may offer specialized developers not readily available in your region.
Scalability: Need to quickly scale up your team to meet deadlines? Offshore firms can ramp up resources fast without the delays of local hiring.
24/7 development cycle: With teams working in different time zones, some companies benefit from “around-the-clock” progress on deliverables.Focus on strategic work: Offloading routine tasks like bug fixes, custom report building, or legacy refactoring can free up your in-house team to focus on product strategy or customer experience.
Cons of offshore Salesforce development
The potential cons of offshoring are:
Communication challenges: Time zone gaps, language barriers, and asynchronous workflows can lead to delays and misunderstandings. Workstyles, decision-making norms, and expectations around feedback and deadlines vary across cultures. These misalignments can result in friction or missed cues unless managed carefully.
Lack of strategic alignment: Many offshore teams are execution-focused. If you’re looking for a partner who contributes ideas and drives product direction, this model can fall short.
Onboarding and ramp-up time: Even experienced offshore Salesforce developers need time to understand your org, workflows, and goals. Initial productivity may be slower than expected.
Inconsistent quality or oversight: Not all offshore vendors follow the same QA practices or development standards. Without clear expectations and checkpoints, quality can slip.
Security and compliance risks: Depending on your industry, working with teams in different jurisdictions may raise data privacy or compliance concerns.
When nearshore Salesforce development makes sense
While offshore Salesforce development offers attractive pricing and access to large talent pools, it’s not the best fit for every company. For organizations that value closer collaboration with dedicated salesforce developers, real-time communication, and faster feedback loops, nearshore Salesforce development is often the better option.
Here’s when nearshore makes more sense than offshore:
You need regular live collaboration
You want fewer cultural and language barriers.
Your team lacks bandwidth for heavy oversight
You're managing a hybrid team
You want a strategic partner—not just task execution
How to choose the right offshore or nearshore Salesforce development firm
Selecting a Salesforce development partner—whether offshore or nearshore—is a high-stakes decision. You're not just looking for coders. You're looking for a team that can understand your product vision, align with your business goals, and contribute to long-term success inside the Salesforce ecosystem.
Key criteria for choosing a Salesforce development partner:
Start with their Salesforce-specific training and experience
Look for managed teams—not just freelancers
Vet their development methodology
Evaluate communication and transparency
Request technical samples and case studies
Understand their collaboration model
Assess strategic alignment—not just execution ability
Clarify data security and IP ownership
The right Salesforce development firm isn’t necessarily the one with the biggest team or flashiest website—it’s the one that follows best practices, matches your goals, collaboration style, and capacity for oversight. Be thorough, ask the hard questions, and don’t compromise on fit.
Why DevSquad is a strong partner for Salesforce development
Choosing between offshore, nearshore, or US-based Salesforce development shouldn’t just be about cost or code. You need a partner that offers clarity, structure, and a team that understands your business goals—not just your backlog.
At DevSquad, you don’t just hire salesforce developers, you get fully managed Salesforce development teams.
We give you a high-performing squad—complete with technical product managers, QA engineers, and DevOps support—dedicated to helping you optimize, integrate, or scale within the Salesforce ecosystem. Whether you need a custom Salesforce app, improved workflow automation, or complex third-party integrations, we bring structure, speed, and product-minded thinking to every engagement.
Let us handle the heavy lifting so you can focus on growth.
