Hiring Unity developers in India: rates, vetting and contracts
Pixent Interactive's rate for a Unity developer is $20 to $40 per hour, or about $3,200 to $6,400 a month for one person full time. The rate matters less than three checks: a skills test that matches your project, a conversation with the developer who will do the work, and a contract that gives you the code.
Pixent Interactive is a Unity game and XR studio in Ahmedabad, India. We hire Unity developers ourselves and we provide them to other teams, so we see this from both sides. This article covers what Unity developers cost, how to test their skills, the ways to hire, and what the contract must cover. If you already know you want to hire, our hire developers page has the rates and the process.
What it costs
We publish our rates, so here they are as a reference point. These are Pixent's service rates, not salaries or an average for India.
| Level | Per hour | Full time, per month | Use them for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mid level developer | $20 | About $3,200 | Well defined work, guided by your lead or one of ours |
| Senior developer | Up to $40 | About $6,400 | Designing the system, solving the hard problems, guiding others |
The monthly figures assume 160 working hours. You can pay by the hour for a short job, or book someone by the month for ongoing work.
When you compare rates between suppliers, compare like with like: the seniority of the developer, whether their time is dedicated to you, the quality of their code, who supervises them, and what the quoted price includes.
Not sure what you need, or the price does not fit your budget? Book a 30 minute call. Tell us what you are building and what you can spend, and we will see how we can help, for example with part time hours or a shorter engagement.
How to test a Unity developer
Many developers know C#. Far fewer have shipped a Unity product that runs well on real devices. The skills that matter depend on what you are building, so test the ones your project needs.
| Your project needs | What to test |
|---|---|
| Gameplay | Clear game logic and state handling, and C# another developer can read and change |
| Mobile games | Using the Unity Profiler, memory use, steady frame rate and testing on real phones |
| Multiplayer | Keeping players in sync, handling lag, deciding who is in charge of the game state, and reconnecting |
| AR and VR | AR Foundation, the XR Interaction Toolkit, comfortable interaction and testing on the actual headsets and phones |
| Graphics and shaders | Shader Graph or written shaders, the cost on the graphics card, and how it looks on each platform |
The best test is a short paid task taken from your own project. A day or two of real work shows how someone thinks, how they ask questions and how readable their code is, far better than a quiz.
Three ways to hire a Unity developer in India
| Freelancer | Developer from a studio | Your own employee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who finds and checks them | You do | The studio | You do |
| Who manages daily work | You do | You do, with a studio lead behind them | You do |
| Good for | One small, clear task | Extra hands or a rare skill, for weeks or months | A permanent team in India |
| Watch out for | One person can become unavailable with no backup | Meeting one developer and being given another | Hiring directly needs a local company and payroll. An employer of record service can employ them for you, for a monthly fee. |
For teams that want extra capacity without setting up anything in India, a developer from a studio is often the simplest option: a developer inside your team, without employing anyone yourself.
Seven things to check before you sign
- Play something they shipped. A video proves little. Ask for a build or a store link, and try it on your own device.
- Talk to the developer, not only the salesperson. Ask them to explain a problem they solved. You are checking that you understand each other.
- Confirm that the person you met is the person you get. Put the developer's name in the agreement.
- Start with a small paid task. Real work from your project tells you more than any interview.
- Keep the code in your own accounts. The developer should work in your code storage and your task board from day one, so nothing has to be handed over later.
- Agree the daily overlap. Two to four shared hours a day is enough for calls and questions.
- Ask what happens if the developer is ill or leaves. A studio should be able to tell you who steps in. At Pixent, a temporary developer covers until yours is back.
What the contract must cover
The length of the contract matters less than whether it covers the real risks. Make sure these points are written down.
| Point | What to make clear |
|---|---|
| Ownership | New work created for you belongs to you. Existing tools and third party assets keep their own licences, so list which ones are used. |
| Confidentiality | An NDA that covers your idea, your code and your business details. |
| Access and security | Who gets access to your code and accounts, how passwords are handled, and how access is removed when the work ends. |
| Billing | The rate, how hours are reported, overtime, leave, public holidays in India and any minimum commitment. |
| Replacement | How much notice you get if the developer changes, how the work is handed over and who pays for the handover time. |
| Ending | How much notice either side gives to reduce hours or stop. |
| Law | Which country's law applies and how disagreements are settled. |
This is practical guidance from our own experience, not legal advice. For a large or long engagement, ask a lawyer in your country to read the contract.
Working across time zones
India is 5 and a half hours ahead of UTC and does not change its clocks. Here is what Pixent's office hours, 10 am to 7 pm India time, look like where you are.
| Where you are | Our office hours in your time | Shared hours in a 9 am to 5 pm day |
|---|---|---|
| Gulf (UAE) | 8:30 am to 5:30 pm | About 8 hours |
| UK | 4:30 am to 1:30 pm in winter, 5:30 am to 2:30 pm in summer | 4.5 hours in winter, 5.5 in summer |
| Central Europe | 5:30 am to 2:30 pm in winter, 6:30 am to 3:30 pm in summer | 5.5 hours in winter, 6.5 in summer |
| US East Coast | Ends at 8:30 am in winter, 9:30 am in summer | None in winter, about 30 minutes in summer |
| US West Coast | Ends at 5:30 am in winter, 6:30 am in summer | None |
For the Gulf, the UK and Europe, a daily call is easy. For US teams the shared time is short or missing, so the work runs on clear written handovers: you leave tasks at the end of your day, and the results are waiting when you start the next one. We also answer messages outside office hours, because our clients are spread across time zones, and we agree any regular call times with US teams at the start.
How hiring works at Pixent
- Tell us what you need. A 30 minute call about the skills, the hours and the tools your team uses.
- Meet your developer. We only suggest developers we have already worked with on our own projects, so we know their skills from real work, not from an interview. You talk to them, and ask which shipped projects they worked on, before you decide.
- Agree the start. Once the developer, their availability and the arrangement are confirmed, they join your chat, your task board and your code.
- Scale up or down. Add people or reduce hours as the work changes.
There is no fixed minimum commitment. Subject to developer availability and the agreed scope, the hours follow what you need, from one short task to a developer booked full time. If your developer is ill or away, we assign a temporary developer until they are back, so the work does not stop.
We have delivered many European projects this way, with our developers working inside the client's own team, in the client's tools and under the client's direction.
“Whenever we hit a technical challenge or had a question, we sent them an email and they came back with a solution. They are very easy to work with, and they got us to the speed we wanted.”
Our team has shipped more than 30 projects, most of them in Unity. You can see the skills on our team and the rates on the hire developers page.
Questions people ask
How much does a Unity developer in India cost?
At Pixent Interactive, a mid level Unity developer costs $20 per hour and a senior developer up to $40 per hour. Booked full time, that is about $3,200 to $6,400 a month. Rates at other studios and on freelance marketplaces vary widely, so always compare seniority, dedicated time and what the price includes.
How fast can a developer start?
Once the right developer, their availability and the working arrangement are confirmed, you agree a start date and they are set up in your tools. With a studio that already has its developers, this is usually much faster than recruiting.
Who owns the code a hired developer writes?
New work created for you should belong to you, and the contract must say so. Existing tools and third party assets keep their own licences, so ask which ones are used. At Pixent, the new code and assets created for you are yours, existing tools and third party assets keep their own licences, and the code lives in your own accounts.
Can I hire a Unity developer for a short job?
Yes. There is no fixed minimum commitment at Pixent. Hourly hiring suits short tasks such as fixing performance or adding one feature, and monthly hiring suits ongoing work.
What happens if the developer is ill or away?
At Pixent, we assign a temporary developer until your developer is back, so the work does not stop.
How does Pixent check a developer before suggesting them?
We only suggest developers we have already worked with on our own projects, so we know their skills from real work, not only from an interview. You can talk to them before you decide.
Will the developer work during my hours?
Pixent office hours are 10 am to 7 pm India time. That covers the whole working day in the Gulf and the morning and early afternoon in the UK and Europe. For US teams there is little or no shared time in a normal working day, so calls are arranged at agreed times and most work is handed over in writing.
