UK vs South Africa Outsourcing Cost Calculator

How the calculation works

This calculator is designed to make a budgeting conversation more honest, not to manufacture a dramatic saving. It compares two different cost structures on a first-year, per-seat basis: the selected costs of employing someone in the UK and Cape Solutions' published price for a dedicated South Africa-based professional. You can change the role, number of seats, salary and the two fixed-cost allowances. You can also remove any overhead that does not apply to you.

UK salary starting points

The prefilled base salaries sit within the UK annual ranges already published in our South African sales staff salary guide. The guide lists £30,000–£40,000 for an SDR, £23,000–£28,000 for an appointment setter, £20,000–£24,000 for a customer service agent and £23,000–£27,000 for a recruitment resourcer. The 360 recruiter option uses the top of that published recruitment benchmark as a neutral starting point because the guide does not publish a separate 360 range. It is editable precisely because your niche, region, commission plan and experience requirement will move the real salary.

Employer National Insurance

When enabled, employer National Insurance is calculated at 15% of salary above the £5,000 annual secondary threshold. Those are the standard 2026/27 figures published by HM Revenue & Customs for a standard-category employee. The calculation does not attempt to model the Employment Allowance, age-based or regional reliefs, benefits in kind, directors' rules or any circumstance specific to your payroll. If you expect a relief to remove the cost, switch the line off. For payroll decisions, check the current GOV.UK employer rates and thresholds or ask your adviser.

Pension, workspace and tooling

The pension switch uses 3% of the entered salary as a simple planning proxy. The legal minimum employer contribution is commonly expressed as 3% of qualifying earnings, but scheme definitions and qualifying bands matter, so this is intentionally an estimate rather than payroll software. The office and equipment allowance starts at £2,400 per seat per year, and tooling starts at £3,000. Those are transparent planning allowances, not claims about what every employer spends. Edit them to include the costs you really carry: laptop and peripherals, desk or home-working provision, CRM, dialler, data, sequencing and other licences.

Cape's dedicated-seat cost

The Cape side uses the only approved public figures: £1,500 one-off setup per seat and £1,200–£1,600 per seat per month. The low and high results therefore include 12 monthly payments plus setup in year one. From year two, the same comparison would normally exclude the one-off setup fee. The monthly price is all-inclusive for the dedicated staffing arrangement: recruitment, salary, HR, payroll, equipment, managed workspace and ongoing support. Read the full commercial explanation on our pricing page.

What the result leaves out

The UK figure is deliberately conservative. It does not add commission, recruitment fees, management time, paid leave cover, sick leave, benefits, training or the cost of a vacancy and ramp period. The result is therefore a comparable planning baseline, not an exhaustive employment-cost model. It also says nothing about output: a cheaper seat is only good value if the person is well recruited, properly onboarded and managed against a sensible process. Our guide to dedicated offshore staff versus an agency retainer explains the control and continuity differences that sit behind the price.

How the saving range is calculated

The lower saving compares your modelled UK total with the £1,600 monthly Cape seat; the higher saving compares it with the £1,200 seat. Both results subtract the full first-year Cape cost, including setup, from the UK total. The percentage then divides that saving by the modelled UK cost. If the entered UK assumptions are below the Cape range, the cash result may be negative and the displayed percentage will stop at zero rather than presenting a negative figure as a saving. This makes the range a transparent output of the values above, not a promised discount. Review the cash amounts as well as the percentages, especially when comparing several seats.