Portuguese and South American engineering, one video call away
devcave is a development team based in Santar, Nelas, with a presence in South America. We work with companies that need senior technical capacity without the cost and the delay of recruiting it in-house.
Born in the heart of the Dão
devcave started in the Dão region of Viseu, out of a shared appetite for software done properly. Today we work with clients in Portugal, across Europe and in the Americas — with the same closeness as a team that picks up the phone on the first ring.
35+
Projects delivered
Mission
To give companies access to senior engineering without the friction and cost of recruiting it — with clean code, clear communication and delivery they can rely on.
Vision
To be the first choice for companies in Europe and the Americas looking for a technical team they can trust in Portugal and South America.
15+
Years building software.
Four principles on every project
These are the principles behind lasting partnerships and software that holds up.
Seniority
You work with people who have years behind them, not people learning at the expense of your budget.
Transparency
Deadlines, costs and risks said out loud: you always know what stage the project is at and what comes next.
Continuity
The same team from start to finish. We do not swap people halfway or subcontract without telling you.
Proximity
You talk directly to the people writing the code, in your hours and in your language.
Frequently asked questions
Straight answers to what people ask before starting: cost, time zones, contracts and who owns the code.
You sign a services agreement with a Portuguese company under European law and receive an intra-EU invoice. There is no offshore entity, no middlemen and no withholding tax. For an EU company it is the same as contracting in a neighbouring country. Non-EU clients contract the same Portuguese entity, with the same protections.
Portugal is on London time, one hour from Paris, Madrid or Berlin, and overlaps five hours with the US East Coast. Our team in South America extends that cover to the end of the American working day. In practice there are always shared hours to meet in.
It depends on the profile and the engagement model, but the benchmark is simple: the same senior engineer typically costs 40 to 60% less than hiring in-house in Paris, Amsterdam, London or San Francisco. After the intro call we send a fixed proposal with the scope and timeline in writing.
The code, the repositories and the infrastructure access are yours from day one — not at the end of the contract. We act as a data processor under GDPR and, when it is a requirement, host everything in EU regions.
Three reasons: the time zone, which lets us work at the same time as Europe and the Americas; the European legal framework, which removes a layer of contractual and compliance risk; and language — we work in Portuguese, English, Spanish and French, which removes the intermediary layer these models usually carry.
We work in short, renewable terms precisely so you can leave early if you are not happy. Because the code and the access are already yours, leaving does not mean losing the work. We never lock anyone into long contracts.
Anything from a two-week audit to a dedicated team for a year. If what you need is not a fit for us, we say so and, whenever we can, point you to someone who does it better.
From first call
to a team shipping
in two weeks
Tell us what you need. We reply within 24 working hours, with no strings attached.