If you run a software project from the US and you have been reading about nearshore vs offshore, much of what you found was written by companies in Latin America. That is not a flaw in the guides; it is what the word means for a US buyer. This article does the sum in hours instead of on a map: what a software company in Romania can overlap with your working day, where it falls short, and what to ask any provider before you sign.
Nearshore and offshore depend on where you sit
Nearshore means working with a team in a nearby country and a close time zone; offshore means a team further away, across several time zones. Both words describe distance from the buyer, not a fixed list of countries. The same country can be nearshore for one company and offshore for another.
- For US companies, nearshore usually means Latin America, and sometimes Canada. HatchWorks, a provider with teams in Latin America, says so plainly and lists Eastern Europe under offshore, together with India and the Philippines (hatchworks.com, page updated 3 June 2026, read 15 October 2026).
- For companies in the UK, Germany or the Netherlands, nearshore means Central and Eastern Europe: Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic. Wikipedia’s article on nearshoring gives the same split (read 19 October 2026).
- A UK provider, Deazy, puts it in one line: Poland is offshore for an American client and nearshore for a German one (deazy.com, read 19 October 2026).
So, by the usual US definition, a software company in Romania is offshore. We would rather say that ourselves than have you find it out after the first call.
Nearshore vs offshore, in hours
The useful question is not which label applies, but how many hours a day you can talk to the people building your software. Bucharest is seven hours ahead of New York, eight ahead of Chicago and ten ahead of Los Angeles. Taking your day as 9:00–17:00 local time:
| Schedule in Bucharest | US Eastern | US Central | US Pacific |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:00–18:00, standard | 2 hours | 1 hour | none |
| 12:00–20:00, shifted | 4 hours | 3 hours | 1 hour |
| 13:00–21:00, shifted | 5 hours | 4 hours | 2 hours |
| Latin America, for comparison | 6–9 hours, per HatchWorks |
Our computation, 19 October 2026, from the IANA time zones Europe/Bucharest, America/New_York, America/Chicago and America/Los_Angeles. Europe and the US change their clocks on different dates, so for about a week in late October and two weeks in March the Eastern and Central columns gain one hour, and the shifted Pacific rows too.
An independent count by Index.dev, which takes 9:00–17:00 at both ends, gives one hour between Eastern European time and the US East Coast, and zero to one with the Pacific (index.dev, 16 October 2025, read 15 October 2026). Our standard row shows two because our day runs to 18:00.
Where Romania loses
On overlap alone, Latin America wins, and nothing in the table changes that.
- The West Coast. Even on a shifted schedule, the overlap with Pacific time is one to two hours. If your team needs someone online through the whole Pacific day, a team in Latin America fits better.
- Work that needs constant conversation. Pair programming across the day, or a product owner who wants to walk through every screen live, needs more than four or five shared hours.
- A standard day. Without a shifted schedule, two hours with New York is too little for most projects. Any provider in Romania who quotes more without a shifted schedule is counting differently.
Where the gap matters less
Four or five shared hours with the East Coast cover a daily call, a review of the latest version and the decisions that need a person. The rest of the work runs on what is written down: a specification, a list of what each version contains, and versions you can see and test along the way. Projects run like that depend less on the clock than on how clearly the work is described.
The overlap is also not the only thing that crosses the Atlantic. Romania is in the European Union, so a data processing agreement and a published list of sub-processors are normal paperwork here, not a special request.
What to ask any provider before you sign
Whoever you talk to, in Romania, Poland or Mexico, ask for these in writing:
- Which hours. The exact window, in your time zone, not “real-time collaboration”.
- For which people. A shifted schedule usually applies to the people on your project, not the whole company. Ask who they are.
- What happens in the clock-change weeks. The overlap moves by an hour twice a year.
- Who is accountable. The person who answers for the project from the first call to the last release.
- What is handed over. The domain, the hosting, the accounts, the files and the documentation, listed.
- Where your data is processed. The data processing agreement and the sub-processors, before the contract, not after.
What we have seen in projects
We have worked across this gap. In 2020–2021 we built the internal dispatch system and the website for Romexpress Inc, a road freight carrier in Cleveland, Ohio; the dispatch board uses the American date and time formats the office works with. Since 2023 we have built and maintained the English and French website and online shop of Divalook Academy in Montréal, seven hours behind Bucharest.
Questions. Short answers
Is Romania nearshore or offshore for a US company?
By the usual US definition, offshore: for most US buyers, nearshore means Latin America. For companies in the UK and the EU, Romania is nearshore. The label matters less than the number of hours you share, which you can ask for in writing.
How many hours does Romania overlap with US Eastern time?
Two hours on a standard 9:00–18:00 Bucharest day. On a shifted schedule agreed per project, 12:00–20:00 or 13:00–21:00 in Bucharest, four to five hours. For three to four weeks a year, around the clock changes in March and late October, it is one hour more.
Is nearshore always better than offshore?
No. Nearshore gives you more shared hours; it does not decide the quality of the work or how well it is documented. Weigh the overlap against the work you have seen from the provider and against what they put in writing.
Can a software company in Romania work with the US West Coast?
With one to two live hours a day at most, on a shifted schedule. That suits projects run on written specifications and tested versions, with a short daily call. For a full Pacific day, a team in Latin America is the better fit.
We build AI automation, mobile apps and custom software from Bucharest for companies in Romania, Europe, the Middle East and North America. On the page for US and Canadian companies you see the same overlap table, how we contract and invoice, and the work we have done in North America; the services are on custom software and mobile apps.