Custom software developer for small businesses in Spain, working remotely from Argentina

If you run a small business in Spain and you're looking for a custom software developer, one option that rarely gets considered is hiring remotely from Latin America. That's how I work, from Buenos Aires: I build custom software, websites and apps, we can work in Spanish or English, and my morning lines up with your afternoon.

This piece isn't about one city (there are separate ones for Madrid and Barcelona). It's about how hiring someone across the Atlantic works in practice: what's worth building, how we coordinate, what to ask yourself first and what you should get in writing.

When custom software makes sense

Not always. If an off-the-shelf invoicing tool or booking app covers your day, use it. Custom software makes sense when the way you work doesn't fit those tools, and you end up with three apps, two spreadsheets and a WhatsApp group holding together something that should live in one place.

Some typical cases in Spanish small businesses: a renovation company that writes every quote by hand and can't tell which ones were accepted; an accounting and tax advisory firm (a gestoría, as they're called in Spain) that gets client paperwork by email and digs through attachments; a repair shop or clinic booking appointments by phone and writing them in a notebook; a wholesaler that takes orders from shops over the phone. In every case the value isn't the technology. It's having the information in one place and your team no longer copying data from one spot to another. I went deeper in custom business management software.

Time zones: your afternoon is my morning

It's the most common concern, and in practice it works in your favor. Mainland Spain is 4 or 5 hours ahead of Argentina, depending on the time of year. If you work 9 to 2 and then 4 to 7, we overlap for your whole afternoon, which is my morning.

That makes for an easy rhythm: you tell me something after lunch, I work on it during my day, and the next morning, when you open your laptop, the update is ready to review from a link. Meetings happen over video in your afternoon, and everything else goes through WhatsApp or email.

How the hours line up

The first time in each row applies when the gap is 4 hours; the second, when it's 5.

How the process works

First, a video call to understand your business and see whether custom software is really the answer (sometimes it isn't, and I'll tell you). Then I send a written proposal with the quote split into stages, so you're not betting everything up front; I explained the idea in building software in phases.

At each stage you see progress from a link, on your computer or phone, and you sign off before we move on. You send me how you work today, your spreadsheets, your documents and who's going to use the system; I hand over the software up and running, with a dashboard so you can manage it yourself. More on the day-to-day in working with a remote developer.

Questions to ask yourself before hiring

Hiring someone you won't meet in person calls for a bit more clarity. Three things you should have in writing: who owns the software and the data when it's done (it should be you; more in who owns your website code), what each stage includes, and what happens after delivery.

And one decision before that: whether you want one person or a team. I work on my own, so you always talk to the person doing the work; I covered the pros and limits in freelance developer or agency. If your project is a 3D configurator, the Estructuras 3D blog has a piece on hiring a remote 3D configurator developer from Europe, and if you're a manufacturer, see 3D configurator for manufacturers in Spain.

For invoicing, data protection or cookie rules, check with your gestoría or a local professional.

Frequently asked questions