.NET technology has quickly risen to the top in terms of popularity right after its creation by Microsoft in 2002. Since then the demand for experts in this framework and its supporting tools only grew due to the numerous advantages of .NET software development. Naturally, salaries for .NET programmers with real experience and expertise are pretty high, even compared to other IT professionals. But in this post, we will try to figure out the most cost-effective way for hiring specialists in this technology without draining your salary budget.

Freelance

If we are talking about saving some portion of the salary budget, the first thing that comes to mind is freelance. It is true that you can find .NET developers for any budget on sites like Upwork or Fiver, but there are a lot of concerns associated with this hiring option. First of all, you can end up with an underqualified tech specialist who wasn’t entirely transparent about their level of experience. Also, there are troubles with communication and sticking to deadlines that a lot of freelancers have, especially ones in different time zones than you are. Of course, there is always a chance that you will be in luck and find IT professionals who will meet all your requirements through freelance, but to be honest, this is pretty unlikely. .NET framework is used in an overwhelming number of projects and most of the qualified developers with necessary expertise are unlikely to actively search for work. But remember, there is no harm in using all talent pipelines available to you, so post a job description on all major sites for freelancers, just don’t make it your main option.

Outsourcing vendors

As we mentioned earlier, salaries for .NET software developers are pretty high and can be a real issue for your app’s budget. For example, in the USA the average salary varies from state to state but basically stays in the range of 100 to 130 thousand dollars per year. So, if you are not locked on hiring local programmers for full-time in-house work in an office, you can try offshore .NET developers recruiting. The most popular choice for this type of cooperation model is an outsourcing vendor. You just need to choose a hiring destination that suits you and start searching for companies that work with IT professionals from this region. Outsourcing vendors will provide you with already pre-screened and vetted software engineers, so you won’t have to worry about that part. Also, their employees will overlook the project and monitor the progress on your behalf. Of course, you will have to pay extra for their services, but with .NET developers from some point on the map charging up to five times less than their US counterparts, this is still an extremely budget-friendly option.

Dedicated team

This model of cooperation is pretty new and sometimes hard to describe clearly. Basically, instead of assembling a development team by yourself, you hire an existing group of IT professionals who worked together in the past. There are numerous outsourcing vendors who provide this option for their clients, but you also can find independent teams for hire online. This option also allows you to work with foreign developers, and as we mentioned earlier, their salaries are much lower due to a number of economical factors. Also, there are IT companies located in popular outsourcing destinations that offer their employees for outside projects as dedicated teams. With thorough research, you can find some great tech talents for a more than reasonable price.

Remote workers

If you have a big project on your hands with a long development process, it makes sense to hire full-time .NET programmers, but there is no need to blow the salary budget out of proportion still. With remote work skyrocketing in popularity in the post-COVID world, you can hire top tech talent from different countries to develop your app from a distance. It is not even necessary to bring on professional recruiters. You can try finding viable candidates on your own through social media and numerous communities dedicated to .NET on sites like Reddit, GitHub, or StackOverflow. Because of constant updates to the framework and additional tools from Microsoft, the online community around .NET is pretty active, so you won’t have any issues with finding places developers chat and share an experience. And even if you decide to hire local software engineers, with remote working you won’t need to rent office space and pay for any additional expenses, so this option is cost-effective anyway.

Hiring destinations

We already established that if you are located in the United States, hiring .NET software developers near you can be really pricey. But what about other hiring destinations? Even if you look at Canada or the UK, countries with traditionally high salaries for IT professionals, .NET experts there are paid from 75 to 90 thousand dollars per year, so even those options will be more budget-friendly. In Latin America and Western Europe, you can find qualified programmers with annual salaries from 40 to 60 thousand dollars. And in Eastern Europe, one of the most popular outsourcing regions for a good reason, .NET developers will charge you something in the range from 20 to 30 thousand dollars. Finally, software engineers in some regions of India are ready to work for as little as 10 thousand dollars per year. So, research every hiring destination and make your choice based not only on price.

Conclusion

.NET framework is extremely popular for a reason and there is almost no way around using it in your app development. But finding expert developers with knowledge of this technology can be pretty difficult due to extremely high demand. And even if you find the perfect candidate they can cost you an arm and leg. In this post, we tried to describe all of the most cost-effective options, most of which include hiring software engineers offshore. Remember, not limiting yourself to the local talent pool and using different talent pipelines at once can really help you in your search.