Nearshore vs. Eastern Europe vs. Asia: where time zones actually overlap

Every founder weighing global hiring runs into the same three options. The right one depends less on hourly rate and more on how many hours you actually overlap.

The overlap math

• LATAM: 6–8 hours of overlap with US time zones — full working days together
• Eastern Europe: 1–3 hours, mostly your early morning
• South/East Asia: near-zero — async by necessity

For product teams that ship daily, overlap is the whole game. A cheaper engineer you can only reach for an hour is more expensive than a slightly pricier one who joins your standup.

LATAM's edge isn't just cost — it's that your engineer works your hours, shares your calendar, and feels like part of the team instead of a handoff.