Hiring a Dedicated Development Team in 2026: When to Consider This Model

In 2026, projects are evolving faster, with tighter deadlines and higher expectations for quality and user experience. Dedicated development teams solve these pain points: providing access to proven experts without months of hiring and onboarding, ensuring the flexibility of in-house scaling without operating costs, as well as predictability instead of freelance chaos. 

In this article, we will explore the benefits and challenges of a dedicated development team model, explain why you should opt for this approach, and discuss the average costs of hiring a dedicated development team.

Whether you are a startup striving to build your first MVP and looking for a remote dedicated development team or an established enterprise seeking to increase your productivity, this post will provide you with insights to make an informed decision.

What is a dedicated development team model?

A dedicated team model is a software development approach where a group of skilled specialists is assigned to collaborate on a single project for an extended period. This means that a dedicated development team is not shared with other clients and stays focused to deliver quality results within the agreed timeline. Like an in-house team, a dedicated development team remains involved throughout the entire development cycle, except that you don't have to worry about operational overhead, team setup, onboarding friction, and day-to-day management. You can participate in the development and management process as much or as little as you want. 

The process of hiring a dedicated development team can be compared to renting the workforce. You can tap into a global talent pool and hand-pick professionals based on your project's complexity, specific requirements, deadlines, budget, and many other factors. This type of collaboration provides you with flexibility as you can easily scale up or downsize a dedicated development team, tailoring it to your current project needs.

In other words, hiring dedicated development teams is suitable for a wide range of software development projects, from projects with tight deadlines to innovation-driven ones.

Dedicated development team structure

There’s no one-size-fits-all format when it comes to the dedicated development team structure as it can vary depending on the specific project goals.

Benefits of hiring dedicated development team

A few numbers set the scene:

• The software development outsourcing market size is estimated to reach USD 618.38 billion in 2026, growing from USD 564.22 billion in 2025, with projections for 2031 showing USD 977.04 billion, growing at a 9.60% CAGR from 2026 to 2031.

• The average time to hire an in-house developer is typically 35 to 45 days, and for some specialized or leadership roles, it can be 90 days or more.

• Hiring a dedicated development team is a popular practice for businesses of all sizes, with 92% of G2000 companies and 37% of small businesses outsourcing projects to external providers.

Below are seven reasons why you can benefit from collaborating with a remote dedicated development team:

1. Cost-effectiveness

If you’re looking to get the most bang for your buck, partnering with a dedicated development team is an excellent way to maximize cost-effectiveness. Instead of hiring an in-house development team, you can only pay for the team members you need.

Furthermore, having experienced professionals on board ensures that development projects are completed quickly and accurately without any unnecessary delays along the way. So if budget constraints are holding you back from starting a software development project, consider collaborating with dedicated developers.

2. Relevant expertise

As software solutions advance at an unprecedented pace, it’s vital that your development team has up-to-date skills and expertise. Do you need to spend resources and time waiting for your in-house development team to improve their knowledge? Well, the answer depends on your company’s individual situation. However, businesses that want to stay ahead of the curve are increasingly choosing to hire relevant specialists right away, without wasting time.

When recruiting dedicated developers, you can search beyond your geographical region. By throwing your nets wider, you're more likely to find specialists with a deep understanding of the latest technologies, development methodologies, and industry best practices. This is indeed a smart move on the way to building a high-quality product.

Plus, if you gather a dedicated development team that has experience working on similar projects, they will have a better understanding of the potential roadblocks and address these challenges more efficiently.

3. Flexibility

Flexibility is one of the significant advantages of hiring a dedicated development team. You have the ability to modify the team's size and composition, and adjust the scope of tasks, or timeline, to make sure that everything aligns with your business objectives and market conditions.

If you have a trusted development provider, there’s no need to worry about investing any resources in the recruitment process. You may simply request to make changes to the development team composition, and your provider can quickly accommodate this. Put simply, a dedicated development team is like a lego transformer that can be adapted and rebuilt to ensure that the project is delivered on time and within budget. With such a dedicated development team, you have the flexibility to make changes as needed, when focusing on achieving your business objectives.

4. Transparent workflow

As a rule, partnerships with dedicated developers imply greater regulation and transparency. Dedicated development teams typically use various task management tools such as Jira, Trello, and ClickUp to stay on the same page about the development progress and monitor performance. You can set up these tools to keep yourself updated by getting notifications when tasks are completed.

Additionally, you can negotiate some communication terms with the dedicated development team. Whether it's sending regular progress reports or scheduled weekly calls, maintaining open communication with your dedicated development team will save you the guessing game and give you peace of mind that your project stays on track.

5. Faster time-to-market

A successful launch of a new development project requires some speed advantage. It’s no secret that any business wants to meet all deadlines and start generating revenue as soon as possible. This is when hiring dedicated development team can come in handy.

A well-composed development team will have all the resources necessary to get your software product out on schedule. Since they work exclusively on your project, they can dedicate their full attention and effort to ensure success when the launch day arrives. In case speed is crucial for launching your product, investing in an experienced dedicated development team crew is a nice option.

6. Focus and knowledge retention

A dedicated team works exclusively on your product, without switching between clients or projects. This improves code quality and minimizes errors. Over time, the team gains a deep understanding of the codebase, user behavior, and business logic. 

It also reduces the “bus factor”: the product doesn’t rely on one person’s memory because knowledge is shared, documented, and reinforced in every sprint. Dedicated teams’ exclusive focus on a single product is a core trait of the engagement model.

7. More reliable and stable than a team of freelancers

If a specialist suddenly drops out of the process (due to illness, family circumstances, or force majeure), the project either slows down, or you have to search for a replacement with the necessary skill set, conduct a selection process, and spend time bringing them up to speed.

In the dedicated development team model, stability is built in from the start. If someone is temporarily unavailable, your partner will quickly connect a pre-selected developer with comparable skills and competencies to maintain the pace of work, deadlines, and quality without having to “restart” the team.

Cons of hiring a dedicated development team

However, partnering with a dedicated development team has its flip side of the coin. Here’re some of the common challenges you may face:

1. Cultural gaps

Different countries have varying communication styles, work expectations, and business practices. This can sometimes lead to misunderstandings, delays in decision-making, or mismatched expectations about project priorities and feedback loops.

How to mitigate? Choose vendors from culturally aligned regions: European teams offer excellent cultural fit with US and EU clients, strong English proficiency, and business practices closer to Western standards. Agree on communication protocols upfront: daily stand-ups during overlapping hours, defined escalation paths, and shared tools like Slack/Jira for real-time alignment. 

2. Non-universal solution

Working with dedicated software development teams doesn’t suit any project requirements as it depends on several factors such as the type of project, budget, deadlines, and business goals.

For short-term projects, for instance, it may be smarter to go for a fixed-price model and hire freelancers to get the work done. Similarly, if you need only a few developers for your project, hiring a dedicated development team may not be cost-effective.

When a dedicated development team is the right model for your business?

Now let’s figure out scenarios when a dedicated development team approach can be a perfect fit for your business.

You’re a rapidly growing startup

Typically, startups have limited resources. It’s always a good idea for rapidly growing businesses to have a dedicated development team on board. They can provide the scalability needed to keep up with changes as well as ongoing maintenance for the developed software.

As such, if you’re a startup looking to build long-term relationships with your customers, outsourcing makes perfect sense and brings fresh ideas into play as a bonus.

Your project is large-scale

Unlike short-term projects where you can rely on a team of freelancers, launching a complex long-term project requires consistency and stability. You need a close-knit development team that can dive deeper into your project's goals, requirements, and processes to work together in the long run.

Since these professionals are solely devoted to one particular project, you can expect consistency throughout its duration as well as shorter turnaround times when making updates during its lifespan.

The cost of failure is high

If a mistake is expensive – financially, legally, or reputationally (healthtech, security, personal data, B2B products with strict SLAs) – a dedicated team is a safer choice than a mix of freelancers or an ad hoc project team. 

With a dedicated development team, you get a stable setup where quality is built into delivery, not “tested at the end.” This makes it easier to set clear rules: code review standards, testing strategy, release checks, documentation requirements, and risk ownership, so production is more predictable as the product scales.

There’s a need for specialized expertise

Bringing in a dedicated development team is beneficial when a business requires specialized expertise that is not available in-house. Dedicated developers are often experienced in a specific area or technology which guarantees a high level of expertise for the project.

This can be particularly applicable to solutions such as developing complex apps, creating artificial intelligence solutions, or building a customized e-commerce platform.

By hiring dedicated development team with the required skillset, businesses can ensure that any technical challenges are solved quickly and efficiently.

You have multiple ongoing projects

Juggling multiple projects at once is an exhausting process. In case your in-house development team doesn't have the resources to jump into a new software project, taking on some extra help is a win-win way to lighten the load.

Hiring an additional dedicated development team allows you to manage your workload more efficiently and get things done faster without compromising quality in any way.

You need to rescue a project

A rescue scenario is when deadlines have already been missed, the previous contractor has failed, the team is stuck, and technical debt and bugs are preventing progress. In practice, the rescue process usually looks like this: a quick audit of the code base and infrastructure, fixing critical issues (stability), a technical debt plan, setting up transparent task tracking, and then controlled product development. 

A dedicated development team can step in to restore control: assess the current state, triage priorities, and bring delivery back to a predictable pace.

Tech stack our dedicated development team use

When hiring a dedicated development team, it's crucial to ensure they work with your preferred technologies or offer expertise in the tech stack you need specifically. Here's the key tech stack our dedicated teams master:

Mobile: Flutter, Swift (iOS), Kotlin, Java (Android)  

Frontend: React.js, Vue.js, Next.js  

Backend: Node.js (NestJS), Python (Django), Java (Spring), .NET Core  

Databases: PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis  

Cloud: AWS, Azure  

DevOps: Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub Actions  

To explore our full range of services, from the discovery phase to UX/UI design, MVP development, and product launch and support, visit our services page. There, you can select a specific service to learn more and view the detailed tech stack we use for each. 

Cost of hiring a dedicated development team

It can be tricky to calculate how much you should invest to hire a dedicated development team.

After analyzing salary data from Clutch, Salary.com, Indeed, and Talent.com, we’ve made approximate calculations to provide you with a general understanding of what to expect.

We can conclude that the average hourly rates of dedicated specialists vary based on the country they belong to. Traditionally, US and Canadian hourly rates are higher than those European and Asian experts charge. In the table below, we’ve compared average hourly rates as if you hire a dedicated development team in Poland, India, and the US.

When it comes to recruiting a dedicated development team, choosing an experienced European team over the one based in the US or India has numerous benefits.

Firstly, this option guarantees the optimal ratio of price and quality.

Secondly, the time zone difference between Europe and the US is relatively small, which can make communication and collaboration easier.

Additionally, many European countries, including Poland, have a highly educated and skilled workforce with strong technical expertise. As a result, European developers are able to provide high-quality work at a lower cost than their counterparts in the US.

How dedicated development team works in practice: SolveIt experience

We use a dedicated development model for projects that require stability and a deep understanding of the client's business. Let’s take a look at some examples.

RV travel platform – a team of 7 specialists (mobile/web devs, UX/UI, backend, QA, PM) worked for 9 months: from prototype to a full-fledged platform for the US market with a loyalty system and multi-language support. 

Result: a responsive cross-platform solution built of Flutter with a loyalty system, route planner, and multilingual interface. After launch, the platform reached over 20,000 active users in the first quarter and secured partnerships with major RV rental providers.

Rental exchange platform – after the failure of the previous contractor, the dedicated team conducted an audit, rebuilt the architecture, launched a new web app, admin panel, and a mobile app for renters and owners.

Result: the rebuilt system improved performance by 30%, introduced secure payment flow, and expanded coverage to 15+ cities in Sweden, with ongoing maintenance and feature scaling handled by the same dedicated team.

Telemedical SaaS – a cross-functional team (backend, frontend, DevOps, compliance) developed a GDPR-ready platform for clinic networks with teleconsultations and patient portals.

Result: The system supports over 1,000 daily consultations, integrates with EHR systems, and passes medical data security audits with zero critical issues.

We also apply the dedicated team model to industries where stability and compliance are mission-critical, including telemedicine, logistics, and marketplaces, combining backend, frontend, UX/UI, and QA into a single, long-term product team that evolves the solution over multiple releases.

Bottom line

Hiring a dedicated development team remote is a wise decision if you have a large project on your agenda. Such a collaborative approach comes with numerous benefits and can significantly save costs.

At SolveIt, we have an extensive pool of dedicated specialists capable to bring your project idea to life.