Offshore developers for Australian businesses: Pakistan vs the Philippines vs India

Most comparisons of offshore locations for Australian businesses look at two countries: the Philippines and India. Pakistan rarely makes the list, even though it now exports more IT services than ever. This guide puts all three side by side on the things that decide whether an offshore engineer works out: time-zone overlap, English, the depth of the talent pool, cost and how your data is protected.

A disclosure before we start: LoudlyDev's engineers work from Lahore, so we have an interest in Pakistan. We've tried to give you the numbers and the trade-offs straight, including where Pakistan comes second.

The short answer

• The Philippines has the best time-zone overlap with Australia and the strongest English scores of the three. It is the most common choice for Australian teams, especially for support and operations roles.
• India has by far the largest pool of engineers and the most vendors to choose from, with the widest range of quality.
• Pakistan has a fast-growing software export industry, stronger English test scores than India, and overlap with an Australian afternoon. It suits teams hiring senior engineers who want a smaller, more focused vendor market.

For software engineering specifically, the individual engineer and the vendor's vetting matter more than the country. Use the country to shortlist, then judge vendors on the questions at the end of this post.

Time zones: how much of your day overlaps

Australian eastern states move between AEST (UTC+10) and AEDT (UTC+11, from October to April). None of the three countries change their clocks.

If everyone keeps a normal 9 to 5 or 9 to 6 day, the overlap with a Sydney office is:

The Philippines wins this clearly. In practice, though, many offshore engineering teams shift their day to match the client, and ours do. An engineer in Lahore who starts at 7am covers your midday standup and your afternoon. Ask any vendor what hours their engineers will actually work, and get it in the contract. For Perth, which stays on UTC+8 all year, every gap is two to three hours smaller.

English

The EF English Proficiency Index is the most widely cited comparison. In the 2025 edition, which covers 123 countries and regions:

Two cautions. The index measures people who took EF's test, not software engineers, and engineers working for international clients usually write and speak English every day. Treat the index as a rough guide to the wider workforce, not a promise about any individual. A short video call and a written task tell you far more.

The talent pool

India's engineering workforce is by far the largest of the three, which means the most choice and also the widest spread in quality. The Philippines is best known for customer support and back-office outsourcing, with a smaller but growing software sector.

Pakistan's software industry is smaller than India's but growing quickly. Its IT exports reached a record $4.6 billion in the 2025-26 financial year, up about 21% on the year before, according to State Bank of Pakistan figures, and freelancer earnings passed $1 billion for the first time. Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad are the main hubs.

What this means for you: in all three countries, the gap between a great engineer and an average one is far bigger than the gap between the countries. A vendor that vets for your stack matters more than the flag.

Cost

Rates overlap heavily across all three countries, and published averages vary so much between sources that we don't find them useful. What matters is the price for a vetted engineer at the seniority you need, with management and replacement included.

That's why we publish ours. At LoudlyDev, a senior engineer costs from $3,200 USD a month for about 160 hours, and every role and seniority is on our public rate card. Whatever vendor you speak to, ask for a monthly price per seniority level in writing, and ask what is not included: recruiting fees, notice periods, overtime and replacement if someone leaves.

Protecting your data and IP

If your offshore engineers will see personal information about your customers, the Australian Privacy Principles apply. APP 8 requires you to take reasonable steps to make sure an overseas recipient handles personal information in line with the APPs, and in many cases you stay accountable for what they do with it. In practice that means:

• a contract that binds the vendor and each engineer to confidentiality and to your privacy obligations
• engineers working in your systems, with access you can switch off, rather than copies of your data on their laptops
• test data instead of real customer data wherever possible
• all code and IP assigned to you from the first commit

These steps are the same whichever country you choose. Get advice for your own situation if you handle health, financial or government data.

Questions to ask any offshore vendor

1. What hours will the engineers work? Ask for the exact overlap with your office, in writing.
2. Can I see the price before the first call? A vendor that hides its rates will negotiate them.
3. How do you vet engineers for my stack? Look for a practical task and a technical interview run by a senior engineer, not only a recruiter.
4. What happens if an engineer isn't working out, or leaves? Ask about replacement time and any guarantee period.
5. How will I know what was done each week? Ask to see a sample report. Ours is the Loud Report.
6. Who owns the code, and where does it live? The answer should be "you" and "in your repositories".

Where to go from here

If you are still deciding between adding engineers to your own team and handing a project to a vendor, read our comparison of staff augmentation and outsourcing. If you know the role you need, the hire builder shows the price and start date for any role, from React developers to AI engineers.