When you’re looking around for a software agency to build your MVP, you have to be really careful about the supplier STUFFING BODIES into the quote and inflating the price.
You will quickly learn that “nearshoring” to Asia tends to be – on paper – a lot cheaper than outsourcing to Eastern Europe. About 2.5 times cheaper.
However, that assumes both parties are proposing a project that has the same number of people on it. What can happen (I say “can happen”, this will happen to you) is that the agency with the lower cost-per-hour will put more people on the project.
This sound good, but the only ABSOLUTE SOLD GOLD NATURAL LAW of software development is putting more people on a project doesn’t get you better results. Nine pregnant humans can’t make a baby in one month.
It is not automatically better to have more engineers on your project. It is not automatically cheaper to go with an agency that has a lower hourly rate. You need to achieve a higher level of sophistication in how you’re assessing your options.