Australian Fintech Startup: Local Development Team or Offshore Agency?

I am currently researching development options for a fintech product & keep running into the same question:

Is it worth paying more for a local Australian development team, or does an offshore agency provide similar results at a lower cost?

I have spoken with a few Australian providers, including Software Co and several other software development companies, as well as agencies based in India, Eastern Europe & Southeast Asia.

The pricing differences were significant.

What surprised me, though, was that the conversations quickly moved beyond hourly rates.

The real discussion became about things like:

• Compliance requirements
• Security practices
• Product strategy
• Communication
• Long-term maintenance
• Team stability

For a fintech product, those factors seem just as important as development cost.

A lot of online advice focuses on saving money through outsourcing. At the same time, I have seen founders argue that paying more upfront for the right team can prevent expensive problems later.

I am curious what people here have actually experienced.

If you have built a fintech platform, payment solution, lending product, wealth management app or another financial application:

• Did you use a local Australian development team or an offshore agency?
• What influenced your decision?
• Did the project stay within budget?
• How was communication throughout the build?
• Were there any compliance or security challenges?
• What happened after launch when new features & updates were needed?
• Looking back, would you make the same choice again?

One thing I have noticed is that many founders initially compare vendors based on price, but later judge the project based on speed, product quality & how easy the team was to work with.

That's why I am less interested in hearing which agency was cheapest & more interested in understanding the trade-offs people experienced in the real world.

For example, did the offshore savings outweigh any communication challenges?

Or did a local team provide value that wasn't obvious during the proposal stage?

No sales pitches or company promotions.

Just interested in hearing honest experiences from founders, operators, product managers & anyone who has gone through the process recently.

What worked, what did not, and what would you do differently if you were starting again today?