Our dedicated developers methodology

How were the criteria chosen for nearshore teams?

The criteria follow the decisions a buyer must make before adding developers to an existing engineering team. Who assigns work? What has each candidate demonstrated? What will the invoice cover? Can the team work together during the hours you need?

Start with the work you need done and the manager who will own it. A dedicated development team needs a place in your planning process, access to your tools and a clear backlog. Decide who will review code and accept work before comparing hiring promises.

Opus finds, vets and installs the whole team; the client keeps operational control. The team works inside the client's process, tools and backlog. The client chooses the finalist and manages day-to-day work. The hiring process describes that division of responsibility.

That distinction sets the scope of the comparison. Team augmentation suits a buyer who will manage the engineers. A fixed-scope project agreement answers a different question: who takes responsibility for delivering a defined project? Do not treat those arrangements as interchangeable.

We use criteria that a buyer can test against a written agreement or a candidate interview. A broad claim about quality carries less decision value than a clear account of the assessment, its relevance to your role and who reviewed the work.

The method does not assign a universal weight to each criterion. Set your own requirements before you hire dedicated developers. If your engineering lead needs daily overlap, a schedule mismatch may rule out an option regardless of price.

What does each scorecard row mean, and what supports it?

Each row should answer a separate buying question. Keep the claim, its scope and the next check together. A published policy describes the service; your signed agreement establishes the terms you accept.

Read the hiring model before the price

Compare services that cover the same work. A search-only engagement and an ongoing monthly arrangement have different cost boundaries. Ask who remains involved after the candidate accepts and what your own team must handle.

Write those responsibilities into the comparison. Otherwise, a lower headline fee may simply cover fewer tasks. Avoid adding assumed services to a provider's row.

Check the assessment against your stack

When you hire dedicated React developers, ask how the assessment tests the work in your backlog. A candidate should be able to explain relevant code and discuss the tradeoffs behind it. Use your own requirements to judge the answer.

Apply the same rule when you hire dedicated mobile developers or .NET engineers. Name the platform, framework and production responsibilities in advance. A count of screening stages cannot tell you whether someone can maintain your application.

For a whole team, assess how the roles fit together. Decide who owns architecture and who can review another engineer's changes. Several strong individual interviews do not answer every question about team coverage.

Compare the full fee

Opus charges one flat monthly rate per hire. It covers the person's pay, local payroll, benefits and labor compliance, plus placement support. There is no separate recruiting fee. The rate depends on role, seniority and location. See the pricing terms.

Published dollar rates: Not published.

Ask for a written quote for the same role, seniority and location across each option. Confirm the billing currency, payment schedule and what can change the rate. Ask how equipment, overtime and time away affect the invoice rather than assuming they are included.

Keep salary and the client invoice in separate fields. If you use a salary benchmark, record what it measures before comparing it with a fee that covers other costs.

Keep hiring milestones separate

A candidate introduction, an accepted offer and a first working day are different events. Record the start and endpoint beside each timeline claim.

Ask whether the clock starts when you submit a role or when the provider accepts the search. Confirm how interview delays and candidate notice periods affect the plan. Use the agreed start date when scheduling access, onboarding and the first sprint.

If a provider reports an average, ask which hires it covers and over what period. Do not convert that average into a deadline for your role.

Read Opus's guide to hiring a nearshore development team.

Check overlap using the actual city

Mexico City uses UTC-6 without daylight saving time. Tijuana observes daylight saving time. A country name alone therefore does not define a developer's schedule. See the IANA North America time zone data.

Bogotá uses UTC-5 without daylight saving time, while Buenos Aires uses UTC-3 without daylight saving time. Check these offsets against the US team's seasonal schedule using the IANA South America time zone data.

Then agree on working hours. A time zone offset does not establish attendance at your standup or availability during an incident. Record any on-call expectations separately from ordinary overlap.

Read the replacement remedy

Every Opus placement carries a lifetime replacement guarantee with no cap and no time limit. The guarantee terms describe restarting the search at no extra cost if a hire stops working out.

Keep the remedy separate from delivery planning. Ask how to start a replacement request, who handles the handover and what happens to billing during the search. Confirm any refund or credit terms in writing.

A replacement policy does not remove your need to manage access, documentation and code ownership. Plan those controls before the team starts.

Read reported outcomes with their definitions

Treat company-reported outcomes as company claims. To compare retention, you need to know which placements count, when measurement begins and how departures are classified.

Hiring volume answers a different question from performance on your stack. Ask for relevant examples and assess your finalists directly. Neither a large customer count nor a broad retention figure establishes how a particular developer will work in your team.

How often do we re-check?

Treat a comparison as a dated assessment. This page is dated November 9, 2026. That date does not turn a published price or policy into a contractual promise.

Re-check commercial terms before signing and whenever a provider changes the relevant policy. Pricing, replacement conditions and service scope deserve another check when you renew or add roles. A new location may also change the terms you need to review.

For working hours, repeat the check when either team's schedule changes or seasonal clocks move. Confirm the candidate's agreed hours again before the start date.

When a comparison changes, preserve the difference between a correction and a new policy. An error needs corrected wording. A policy change needs its effective date so buyers can understand which terms applied when.

Do not carry an old value forward simply because it appeared in a previous comparison. Ask the provider to confirm the terms that will govern your agreement.

Disclosure

Ownership should inform how you read the recommendations. Evaluate the stated criteria against your requirements and apply the same questions to every option.

An editorial recommendation expresses a judgment about fit. It does not certify a candidate's skills or settle the terms of your contract. Keep provider claims separate from the results of your own interviews.

For Opus, the operating model remains team augmentation. Your organization retains responsibility for daily direction and the backlog. Plan for the engineering management that the team will need.

How to report a correction

A useful correction identifies the page, the exact row and the wording that needs to change. Include the proposed replacement and a dated public link supporting it.

For a pricing correction, specify the role or plan and whether the amount is monthly, annual or a one-time fee. For a timeline correction, identify both milestones. For a guarantee, include the conditions as well as the duration.

Distinguish a factual error from a disagreement with the recommendation. A changed fee can be checked against a published policy. A different view of fit should explain which buyer requirement changes the conclusion.

Keep private candidate details and confidential contract information out of a public correction. Use public terms where possible, and confirm your own agreement directly before committing to a hire.

Read Opus's guide to hiring a nearshore development team.

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