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Agencies · compared

The offshore staffing agencies, compared honestly

Every agency in this market sells 'top 1% talent for 80% less.' The real differences are fee model, guarantee, geography, and specialization. Here's who each one is actually for.

Checked July 2026. Traction figures are the companies' own claims unless noted.

AgencyFeeGeographyBest forWatch out for
Somewhere.com25–35% first-year salaryPH, LatAm, South AfricaWidest role coverage; the default big-brand pickReview themes mention communication drops and replacement friction — hold them to the 6-month guarantee in writing
Genius25% first-year salaryPH + LatAmLowest verified percentage fee; marketing/ops rolesPublishes no placement/traction numbers
NearQuote-basedLatin AmericaUS-timezone roles; claims 950+ client companiesNo public pricing — you're negotiating blind; get competing quotes
HireLATAM$3,500 flatLatin AmericaSenior hires, where flat beats percentageSmaller shop; 90-day guarantee is the shortest here
Paired30% first-year salaryGlobal (PH, LatAm, others)Creative, design, and marketing rolesYoung company (founded 2023); 3-month guarantee is half the leaders'
OceansFrom ~$3,000/mo managedSri LankaPremium executive assistants / chief-of-staff typesManaged model costs more than direct employment long-term
Wing~$1,099–1,599/mo (reported)GlobalSubscription VAs with zero payroll adminYou never employ the person — switching off Wing means losing them
At-a-glance comparison. Fees and guarantees verified on the linked pages where marked on our fees page.

How to choose in three questions

1. Do you want to employ the person, or rent them? Direct-hire (Somewhere, Genius, Near, HireLATAM, Paired) means one fee, then they're your team member at their local salary. Managed (Wing, Oceans) means an ongoing markup forever but zero admin. Over a multi-year horizon, direct-hire is substantially cheaper.

2. Junior or senior role? Percentage fees punish senior salaries — 30% of a $4,000/mo developer is $14,400. For senior roles, flat-fee (HireLATAM) or quote-shopping several agencies pays for the hour it takes. For junior roles ($600–1,000/mo), the fee is small in absolute terms, but so is the screening burden of just doing it yourself.

3. Does timezone overlap matter? If the role is phone-heavy or deeply collaborative, Latin America's US-hours overlap (Near, HireLATAM) is worth its salary premium. Async-friendly roles (content, admin, development) are where Philippine talent's price-to-skill ratio shines.

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Common questions

Which offshore staffing agency is the biggest?

Somewhere.com (formerly Support Shepherd) is the category's best-known brand — it advertises 5,000+ client companies and 11,000+ placements, recruits across the Philippines, Latin America, and South Africa, and was acquired at a reported $52M valuation in 2024.

Which agency is cheapest?

For percentage fees, Genius's listed 25% of first-year salary is the lowest we verified — their own example works out to $2,400 on an $800/month hire. For senior roles, HireLATAM's $3,500 flat fee beats any percentage model on pure math, since the fee doesn't scale with salary.

Do these agencies work with small businesses?

Yes — SMBs and startups are the core customer for most of them. The direct-hire model (one fee, then you employ the person directly) exists precisely because small companies want the overseas salary without an ongoing agency markup.

What's the catch with 'top 1% talent' claims?

Every agency in this market makes some version of the same claim — treat it as marketing shorthand for 'we screen a lot of applicants,' not a measurable standard. The meaningful differences are fee structure, guarantee length, country coverage, and role specialization, which is what we compare here.

Sources