Vietnam
The Philippines
India
India has about nine times as many developers on GitHub as Vietnam or the Philippines. The Philippines ranks 46 places above India on English. The Philippines shares the most working hours with Sydney, and India the most with London.
Each country wins on a different measure, so the right choice depends on where your team sits and what it needs most. This comparison of offshore developers in the Philippines vs India and Vietnam puts the public data side by side, so a US, UK or Australian team can pick on facts rather than reputation.
- India had 26.7 million developer accounts on GitHub in early 2026, against 3.0 million in Vietnam and 2.8 million in the Philippines.
- On EF's 2025 English index, the Philippines ranks 28th, Vietnam 64th and India 74th of 123 countries.
- Median software engineer pay on Levels.fyi is about $13,100 a year in Vietnam, $15,400 in the Philippines and $31,600 in India.
- On a standard local day, none of the three shares a working hour with New York. In July, Sydney gets 3.5 to 6 shared hours and London 2 to 4.5.
Talent pool: how many developers each country has
No government counts software developers the same way, so the cleanest cross-country measure is GitHub’s Innovation Graph, which publishes developer accounts per economy each quarter. We read its developer file on 12 October 2026.
| Country | GitHub accounts, Q1 2026 | Growth in the past year | Growth since Q1 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| India | 26,727,004 | 38.8% | 6.4 times |
| Vietnam | 2,972,715 | 35.2% | 5.9 times |
| Philippines | 2,815,527 | 41.3% | 6.8 times |
India is in a different size class. GitHub’s Octoverse 2025 report ranks it second in the world and projects 57.5 million developers there by 2030. The industry body NASSCOM, in its Strategic Review 2026, puts direct employment in India’s technology sector at about 6 million in fiscal 2026, a net addition of 135,000 people.
Vietnam and the Philippines are close to each other in size, and the Philippines grew fastest of the three last year. The Philippine IT and business-process industry employed 1.9 million people in 2025, its industry association IBPAP told the Philippine Star, though most of those jobs sit outside software.
For a buyer, pool size matters most for niche hires. A team that needs one PHP or Java engineer will find strong candidates in all three countries. A team that needs ten engineers with the same uncommon framework will find the deepest bench in India.
English: offshore developers in the Philippines vs India and Vietnam
English is where the Philippines leads. The EF English Proficiency Index 2025 ranks 123 countries and regions, and its country pages, read on 12 October 2026, give these results:
| Country | EF EPI 2025 rank | Score |
|---|---|---|
| Philippines | 28th | 569 |
| Vietnam | 64th | 500 |
| India | 74th | 484 |
India’s 484 sits 4 points under the global average of 488 shown on its EF page. The index ranks national populations, not engineers, and much of the daily work in software (documentation, code comments, pull requests) runs in English in all three countries.
The gap shows up in live conversation: client calls, standups with product managers, and written specs that leave room for interpretation. Those are the moments to test for in an interview.
We test every offshore developer at C1 or above before you see a profile, whichever country they are in. A country average does not tell you about the individual, and the interview is where you confirm it. Our guide on how to vet offshore developers covers how to test communication in a technical interview.
What software engineers earn in each country
Levels.fyi publishes total compensation for the same “Software Engineer” title in every country, from salaries its users submit. We read its Vietnam, Philippines and India pages on 12 October 2026 and converted them to US dollars at that day’s ExchangeRate-API rates.
| Country | Median, local currency | Median, US dollars | Salary submissions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Vietnam | VND 339,543,750 | about $13,100 | 304 |
| Philippines | PHP 969,264 | about $15,400 | 96 |
| India | INR 3,059,656 | about $31,600 | 21,896 |
India’s median is twice the other two, which surprises buyers who expect India to be the cheapest. The likely reason is who submits: India’s 21,896 entries lean toward engineers at global technology firms and product companies, where pay runs above the local average.
Vietnam’s and the Philippines’ samples are far smaller, so their medians move more between readings.
Through Hire Offshore the price does not change with the country. A full-time offshore developer costs $2,499 to $5,999 a month all-in in Vietnam, the Philippines or India, set by stack and seniority. That covers salary, employment, payroll and equipment, so the choice between countries comes down to the other factors on this page. For how all three compare with Latin America and Eastern Europe, see our nearshore vs offshore cost comparison.
Time-zone overlap with New York, London and Sydney
Vietnam runs on UTC+7, the Philippines on UTC+8 and India on UTC+5:30. None of the three changes its clocks, so the gap with US, UK and Australian cities moves twice a year when those cities do.
In January the picture shifts by an hour. New York and London fall back to standard time, and Sydney moves to daylight time.
| Offshore city | New York, July / January | London, July / January | Sydney, July / January |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ho Chi Minh City | 11 / 12 hours ahead | 6 / 7 hours ahead | 3 / 4 hours behind |
| Manila | 12 / 13 hours ahead | 7 / 8 hours ahead | 2 / 3 hours behind |
| Bengaluru | 9.5 / 10.5 hours ahead | 4.5 / 5.5 hours ahead | 4.5 / 5.5 hours behind |
On standard local hours, January overlap with London drops to 2 hours for Vietnam, 1 for the Philippines and 3.5 for India. With Sydney it becomes 4, 5 and 2.5 hours.
Australian teams get the easiest arrangement with the Philippines and Vietnam: most of a normal day, with no shifted hours. UK teams get the most natural overlap with India, and a short morning window with the other two. US teams get no overlap from any of the three without a shifted schedule.
That shifted schedule is normal practice. Offshore developers who work with US teams agree their hours before the offer, and the result is 4 to 6 hours of overlap with a US workday. Night work carries a pay premium in Vietnam and the Philippines, which our guide to managing offshore developers sets out with the rest of the daily routine.
What each country requires of an employer
All three countries add statutory costs on top of salary. The rates differ, and so do the caps that stop them growing with pay.
| Vietnam | Philippines | India | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Main employer contribution | 21.5% of salary for social, health and unemployment insurance | 10% to SSS, up to a PHP 35,000 monthly salary credit | 12% of wages to the Employees’ Provident Fund |
| Other contributions | Included in the 21.5% | PhilHealth premium of 5% of basic salary; Pag-IBIG 2% of fund salary up to PHP 10,000 | Gratuity, under the Labour Codes |
| Cap | Social and health insurance on salary up to 20 times the reference level, VND 46.8 million a month | PhilHealth on salary up to PHP 100,000 | Employer may limit the provident fund share to the wage ceiling, now Rs 25,000 |
Vietnam. From 1 July 2025 employers pay 17.5% into social insurance, 3% into health insurance and 1% into unemployment insurance, per EY Vietnam. Social and health insurance stop at 20 times the reference level of VND 2,340,000, or VND 46.8 million a month, about $1,800 at 12 October rates. For a senior engineer that cap keeps the employer cost well under 21.5% of pay.
The Philippines. The SSS rate rose to 15% on 1 January 2025, with 10% from the employer and 5% from the employee, and the maximum monthly salary credit rose to PHP 35,000, Forvis Mazars reported. PhilHealth’s Advisory 2025-0002 keeps the premium at 5% of monthly basic salary, between a PHP 10,000 floor and a PHP 100,000 ceiling. Pag-IBIG’s Circular 460 raised the maximum fund salary to PHP 10,000 in February 2024, with employers paying 2%, per Forvis Mazars.
The cost buyers miss is the 13th month. Presidential Decree 851 requires it to be paid no later than 24 December each year, so a budget built on 12 monthly salaries comes up short in December.
India. Employers and employees each contribute 12% of wages to the provident fund, and the employer may restrict its share to the statutory wage ceiling, BDO India explains. On 16 September 2026 the Union Cabinet approved raising that ceiling from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 a month, which it expects to bring more than 51 lakh (5.1 million) additional employees under mandatory coverage.
The four Labour Codes took effect on 21 November 2025, replacing 29 central labour laws, according to the Press Information Bureau. Every worker now gets an appointment letter, IT and ITES staff must be paid by the 7th of each month, and fixed-term employees qualify for gratuity after one year.
Through Hire Offshore, all of these sit inside the monthly fee, so the cost you see is the cost you pay. Our Vietnam, Philippines and India pages cover leave, notice periods and other local rules in more detail.
Holidays that slow delivery
Each country loses its biggest block of working days at a different point in the year. Apart from Christmas Day, the main breaks do not line up with US, UK or Australian holidays.
Vietnam. The government approved a seven-day Tết break from 4 to 10 February 2027 and a four-day National Day break from 2 to 5 September, Viet Nam News reported on 2 October 2026. Expect the week of Tết to produce little work, and plan a release for either side of it.
The Philippines. Proclamation 1427 makes 25 and 26 March 2027 regular holidays for Holy Week, with 27 March a special non-working day. In December, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Rizal Day on 30 December and 31 December are all holidays, OneNews reported. The last fortnight of the year is the slowest.
India. Diwali falls on Friday 29 October 2027 in the central government’s 2027 list, a DoPT memorandum dated 16 July 2026. State lists can move the date, and many people take leave around it.
A team spread across two of these countries rarely loses everyone in the same week. Our guide to managing offshore developers covers how to put each country’s calendar into team planning.
Which country for which team
The data points in different directions, so match the country to your team’s constraint.
Choose the Philippines when
- Your team is in Australia and wants a shared working day without shifted hours.
- The role talks to customers, product managers or non-technical staff in English every day.
- You work in PHP and Laravel, React or Node.js, stacks we hire for in the Philippines, including Filipino offshore PHP developers.
Choose Vietnam when
- Your team is in Australia, or in the UK and happy with a morning window.
- The work is product engineering, mobile or QA, with clear written specs and code review in English.
- You need Java or React engineers, including Vietnamese offshore Java developers, and you can plan around Tết.
Choose India when
- Your team is in the UK and wants 3.5 to 4.5 shared hours on a normal day.
- You need depth in one stack, such as Java, Python or data engineering, or several engineers with the same skills.
- You are hiring for niche frameworks where the size of the pool matters more than anything else.
For a US team the time difference is similar across all three, from 9.5 to 13 hours, and every option needs a shifted schedule. Decide on English, stack and pool size instead.
Some teams hire in two countries on purpose: it widens the candidate pool, spreads holiday risk and gives longer combined coverage across the day.
Hire offshore developers with Hire Offshore
We shortlist 6 to 8 vetted offshore developers in Vietnam, the Philippines or India within 24 hours and complete the hire in 2 weeks. In Vietnam and the Philippines we employ each offshore developer; in India, employment is arranged by us through a local employer in India. The monthly fee of $2,499 to $5,999 is the same in all three countries and covers salary, statutory contributions, payroll and equipment, with a 90-day replacement guarantee.
See how it works, check pricing or send us the role.
FAQ
Are offshore developers in the Philippines or India better?
Neither is better across the board. The Philippines ranks 28th on EF’s 2025 English index against India’s 74th and shares more hours with Australia. India has a far larger developer base, 26.7 million GitHub accounts against 2.8 million, and more overlap with the UK.
Is Vietnam or the Philippines better for hiring software engineers?
They are close on pool size and pay: about 3.0 million and 2.8 million GitHub accounts, and Levels.fyi medians of about $13,100 and $15,400 a year. The Philippines leads on English, 28th against Vietnam’s 64th. Vietnam is an hour closer to London; the Philippines is an hour closer to Sydney.
Which country has the best time zone for a US team?
None gives meaningful overlap on a standard local day. India is 9.5 hours ahead of New York in July, Vietnam 11 and the Philippines 12. Offshore developers who work with US teams agree a shifted schedule, which gives 4 to 6 hours of overlap.
Does it cost more to hire offshore developers in India?
Local pay data suggests India’s engineers earn more: the Levels.fyi median is about $31,600 a year, against about $13,100 in Vietnam and $15,400 in the Philippines. Through Hire Offshore the monthly fee is the same in all three countries, $2,499 to $5,999 all-in.