What to include in the in-house cost
- Employer on-costs: payroll taxes or National Insurance, social security, pension or 401(k) contributions, health insurance and other benefits. These vary by country, so use your own figures or ask your accountant.
- Overheads: laptop, software licences, office space, training and management time.
- Recruitment: agency fees, job ads and interview time.
- Hidden time: holidays, sickness and the time it takes a new hire to get fully up to speed.
When outsourcing tends to make sense
- The work is specialist, occasional or seasonal.
- You need it in a country where you don’t have a company.
- You want to scale up or down quickly.
- You need cover across several skills that one hire couldn’t provide.
When the work is core, constant and needs close day-to-day control, hiring often wins. Many businesses use a mix of both.
Next step
Use the project brief builder to request quotes, then plug the real numbers back in here.
Last updated: 16 October 2026
