Your hire is available. Just not when you are.
That's the trade-off with offshore staffing. The Philippines and South Asia produce excellent people with plenty of experience working for US companies. But Manila is 12 to 15 hours ahead of the US, so covering US business hours usually means working overnight, often 10 PM to 7 AM. Plenty of people do it well for years. Over time, though, night shifts tend to wear people down, and that shows up in retention.
Nearshore staffing avoids the problem. You hire in Latin America (Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil), where the workday already matches yours. Your hire joins the standup, answers when something breaks, and doesn't give up sleep to do it.
This list is aimed at marketing, design, operations and admin hires. If you're hiring software engineers, you'll want a different shortlist. Of the eight agencies here, one specializes in marketing and design, six recruit across many functions, and one is a virtual assistant service. We'll say plainly what each does well and where it falls short.
What nearshore staffing is
Full-time remote workers, in your time zone, working as part of your team. For US companies that almost always means Latin America: Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Costa Rica.
Nearshore vs. offshore. Offshore hires usually cover US hours at night and communicate mostly asynchronously. Nearshore hires work normal business hours in their own country, so you get live meetings and same-day feedback.
The price gap is about ten percentage points, smaller than most people expect, and it narrows further once you count turnover. Replacing someone costs recruiting time, onboarding and ramp-up. A hire who leaves at 18 months can cost more than one who stays three years at a higher monthly rate.
Nearshore staffing vs. outsourcing. Outsourcing hands off a project and gives you a deliverable back. Nearshore staffing means hiring a person who works under your direction every day. It's closer to hiring than to buying a service.
One more thing to settle early is how the person is employed. Some agencies put hires on their own payroll, some use contractor agreements, and some place a hire onto yours. Treating a full-time worker as a contractor is a real legal risk, so ask each agency who the employer of record is.
Eight questions to ask any agency
Ask all of them, and get the answers in writing if you can.
- Which countries will my hire actually live in? Some agencies say “Latam” but also source from the Philippines. BruntWork, Scale Army and Doxa all recruit there too, and Pearl also recruits in Africa.
- Do you specialize in my role? An agency that fills every role tends to be great at none. Ask what screening looks like for the job you're hiring.
- What share of applicants do you accept? A low rate points to a high bar, but only if a real screening process sits behind it. Most agencies won't share the number unless you ask.
- Who does the screening? Someone who has done the job knows what good looks like. A generalist recruiter doesn't.
- What happens after placement? Is there a dedicated account manager, and are they assigned before something goes wrong? What are the exact replacement terms, and what happens at month four?
- Is AI training ongoing? A one-time certification is standard in 2026. Ask what the training looks like six months in.
- What's your average tenure for this role? It's the best single measure of whether placements work, and few agencies publish it by role.
- What will it cost, in writing? If it takes three sales calls to get a number, that tells you something.
What nearshore staffing costs
Here's roughly what the same marketing role costs under different models in 2026.
US figures use salary data from the BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook; BLS data shows benefits made up 30.1% of private-industry compensation in March 2026.
For a mid-level paid social manager, content marketer or SEO specialist, the saving against a US hire runs $2,000 to $5,000 a month. That's $24,000 to $60,000 a year on a single role, provided the hire is properly vetted and supported. The cheapest agencies rarely deliver that. The ones with deeper vetting, more support after placement and longer tenure do.
Treat the table as a rough guide. A monthly rate, an hourly rate and a one-time placement fee aren't directly comparable, and the US figures are estimates, so check them against salary data for your role and city.
The eight agencies
1. GrowthAssistant: best for marketing and design hiring
GrowthAssistant places full-time hires in marketing, design and related roles: paid social, SEO, email, graphic design, video editing, marketing ops and growth analytics. Each hire works for one client only, 40 hours a week, on your schedule and inside your tools and meetings.
It was founded by Jesse Pujji, who built the performance marketing agency Ampush to $50M+ in revenue, and Adriane Schwager, who spent more than a decade recruiting for a multi-billion-dollar hedge fund.
They started it because they didn't think anyone screened marketing talent the way it should be done. Candidates go through a process built around the skills that matter for the role, not one interview applied to every function.
You describe the role and what success looks like in the first 90 days. GrowthAssistant then runs a fresh search instead of matching from a pool, and presents its top recommended candidate, usually within two to four weeks. The hire starts AI-certified with an account manager assigned from day one.
The acceptance rate is 1 in 400, the lowest on this list. AI training continues after placement, with role-specific tracks and bi-weekly lessons. You can swap roles within the subscription at no extra cost, the replacement guarantee is 100% with no time limit, and average tenure is more than two years. Listed clients include HubSpot, DoorDash, Notion, Dr. Squatch, SoFi, Calm, Harry's, quip and Legacybox.
Where it falls short. The focus is marketing and design. If you need engineers, finance or legal hires, look at Near. Hiring takes two to four weeks, so it's the wrong choice for an urgent backfill. And at $3,500 to $4,000 a month it costs more than several agencies here. [Add minimum contract term and notice period.]
Quick facts: Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil | 3,500–4,000/month | 2–4 weeks to hire | 100% replacement, no time limit
2. Near: broad coverage, fast shortlists
Best for: hiring across marketing, ops, finance and sales from Latin America.
Near (also called Hire With Near) is a full-service LatAm recruiter founded in 2020 and based in Austin, Texas. It places people in marketing, sales, finance, operations, customer support, engineering and more, and handles payroll, compliance and benefits.
Speed is the draw. You get a shortlist with candidate videos in 3 to 5 business days, and most roles close in under three weeks. Near reports a 97% placement success rate, 80% of hires staying two years or more, a 4.9 rating on G2 across 85+ reviews and a 180-day replacement guarantee, double what many agencies offer. Those are Near's own figures, so ask how “placement success” is defined.
Where it falls short. Marketing is one category among many, and G2 reviewers say candidate quality varies for niche roles. Pricing isn't public. Near uses a percentage-based fee model (reportedly 30%), which G2 reviewers consistently describe as hard to forecast, so get a written quote for your role before you start. Clutch reviews are positive but sparse.
Quick facts: Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica | Pricing not public | Under 3 weeks | 180-day replacement
3. Pearl Talent: marketing, ops and EA hiring under one roof
Best for: companies that want one agency for marketing, ops and executive assistant hires, with published pricing.
Pearl places full-time remote workers in marketing, executive assistance, finance, legal and operations. It recruits from Latin America and Africa and accepts roughly 1% of applicants. There are two models: managed at $3,000 a month, where Pearl stays involved, or direct placement at $7,500 one time, where the hire goes on your payroll and you manage them. Every hire completes an AI bootcamp before starting.
Where it falls short. The same process covers a paid social manager and a legal assistant, so no function gets deep specialization. AI training stops after the bootcamp. Support after placement depends on the model you choose, and under direct placement there's no account manager at all, so ask exactly what “managed” includes. Independent reviews are thin, so most of what you'll find comes from Pearl's own site.
Quick facts: Latin America and Africa | $3,000/month or $7,500 one time | 2–4 weeks | Cancel anytime
4. BruntWork: fast, flexible, month to month
Best for: smaller businesses that need affordable staff quickly, with no setup fees.
BruntWork has a strong Colombia presence alongside the Philippines. It covers customer support, sales, marketing, admin, finance and technical roles, and the all-inclusive hourly rate includes HR, payroll, IT support and healthcare benefits.
Contracts run month to month, and the goal is to have you operational in 5 to 10 business days. It reports hiring the top 2% of 700,000+ applicants, has a 4.9 on Trustpilot across 1,100+ reviews, and offers free replacement in the first 90 days, then 14 days' notice.
Where it falls short. Hourly pricing is harder to budget than a flat rate, and G2 reviewers flag it. Trustpilot has reviews describing delayed candidates, communication gaps and skill mismatches on a first placement, and in some of them BruntWork's own replies confirm credits or reversed invoices. Dozens of role types go through the same pipeline, so it's stronger for support and task coverage than for senior marketing hires. Because it also recruits in the Philippines, confirm where your hire will be.
Quick facts: Colombia (also Philippines) | 4–8/hour all-inclusive | 5–10 business days | Free replacement within 90 days
5. Scale Army: lower starting price, many functions
Best for: growth-stage companies hiring marketing, sales and ops at the same time.
Scale Army works with companies building several functions at once: marketing, SDRs, sales managers, CRM and operations. It sources from Latin America and the Philippines and screens for English fluency, technical skill and cultural fit. You can start with one hire and grow into a team, and a buyout option lets you move a hire onto your own payroll later. It reports roughly a 1% acceptance rate, about two weeks to hire and free replacement within three months, starting around $2,000 a month.
Where it falls short. One process covers 40+ role types, and a recruiter screening SDRs isn't evaluating paid social the way a practicing marketer would. There's no dedicated account manager after placement. Third-party reviews are few and Scale Army publishes no retention data for marketing roles, so its claims are hard to check.
Quick facts: Colombia, Mexico, Argentina (also Philippines) | From ~$2,000/month | ~2 weeks | Free replacement within 3 months
6. Somewhere: low price, light touch
Best for: small businesses that need affordable full-time remote help in a few functions and are comfortable managing the hire themselves.
Somewhere (formerly Support Shepherd) places Latin American workers in operations, marketing, customer service, finance and admin. It accepts about 0.5% of applicants, handles sourcing and initial vetting, and includes a replacement guarantee. The process is simple and the price is lower than the full-service agencies.
Where it falls short. A 0.5% acceptance rate looks strict, but the screening is the same for every role, with no function-specific evaluation, so the number says little about marketing skill. There's no account manager after placement. The rename from Support Shepherd has split reviews across platforms, which makes the full client history harder to piece together. Pricing and timelines aren't published.
Quick facts: Colombia, Mexico, Argentina, Costa Rica | Pricing varies | Timeline varies | Replacement guarantee included
7. Doxa Talent: employees, not contractors
Best for: companies that want full-time employees with benefits, plus HR and IT support built in.
Doxa was founded in 2020 and is based in Boise, Idaho, with talent in the Philippines and Colombia. It calls its model “Conscious Outsourcing”: full-time employment instead of contractor arrangements, competitive salaries, full benefits, career growth and a remote-only setup. It covers marketing, operations, finance, customer support, sales and technical roles, with enterprise-level security and dedicated HR and IT contacts.
Where it falls short. Its nearshore coverage is Colombia only. Pricing isn't public and needs a sales call (it advertises $500 off the first invoice for three or more hires). It has fewer independent reviews than larger rivals, so performance is hard to verify, and the top 1% acceptance figure is its own claim. Marketing isn't a specialty.
Quick facts: Colombia (also Philippines) | Pricing not public | Timeline not listed | Replacement terms not listed
8. Wing: virtual assistants, not specialists
Best for: solopreneurs and early-stage founders who need light admin help at the lowest price.
Wing isn't a staffing agency in the sense used above. It's a virtual assistant service for task-based work: scheduling, inbox management, research, data entry and basic social posting. It sources from Mexico and Colombia and can assign someone in as little as 48 hours for under $2,000 a month. You describe the tasks, Wing assigns an assistant, and everything runs through its app with a Client Success Manager for support.
Where it falls short. You don't interview your assistant before assignment, and that's the most common complaint across Trustpilot, G2, Capterra and Reddit, with clients reporting skills that don't match what was described. Some Trustpilot reviewers say they were ghosted for weeks after asking to cancel, and describe slow support in billing disputes.
The terms also restrict hiring your assistant directly without going through Wing (reviewers cite a three-year restriction), so read that clause first. And a “digital marketing assistant” is a different hire from a vetted paid social manager, SEO specialist or email marketer.
Quick facts: Mexico, Colombia | 999–1,999/month | About 48 hours | Free replacement for most roles
How the eight compare
CO Colombia, MX Mexico, AR Argentina, BR Brazil, CL Chile, CR Costa Rica, PH Philippines. On tenure, GrowthAssistant reports an average of 2+ years and Near reports that 80% of hires stay two years or more. The others don't publish it. GrowthAssistant is the only one on the list that offers role swaps at no extra cost.
Which one to pick
For most marketing and design hires, we'd start with GrowthAssistant. The vetting is deeper, the account manager is there from the start, and training continues after placement. We also wrote this guide, so talk to at least one other agency before you decide.
- Tight budget: Scale Army or Somewhere. The prices are lower, but screening is generalist and support after placement is limited.
- Roles outside marketing and design: Near, BruntWork or Pearl Talent. Each gives something up: Near's pricing is opaque, Pearl's support thins out after placement, and BruntWork's quality is less consistent.
- Need someone within days: BruntWork has the fastest setup on the list, and more reported mismatches.
- Want employees with benefits: Doxa Talent.
- Just need admin help: Wing.
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