Hiring from Latin America has become a lot easier. Choosing the right hiring partner hasn’t.
South and Howdy both help U.S. companies hire remote talent from Latin America, and their roles overlap considerably. But the experience around the hire can look quite different depending on which company you choose.
The decision comes down to more than who can source a good candidate. Companies comparing South vs. Howdy should look at how each provider approaches candidate vetting, hiring flexibility, employee support, pricing structure, LATAM coverage, and scaling across multiple roles.
Howdy puts significant emphasis on the infrastructure surrounding its hires, including employer and contractor arrangements, benefits, professional development, and its physical Howdy Houses across Latin America. South takes a flexible recruitment and staffing approach designed to help companies hire Latin American talent across engineering, finance, sales, marketing, operations, customer support, and other functions.
The better choice depends on what you want your LATAM hiring partner to handle and how you plan to grow your team.
In this South vs. Howdy comparison, we'll break down the differences that actually affect hiring decisions, including recruiting, vetting, costs, employee experience, flexibility, and which option makes more sense for different hiring scenarios.
South vs. Howdy at a Glance
South and Howdy solve a similar problem: helping U.S. companies build teams with Latin American talent. The biggest differences appear in how they structure hiring, what they bundle around each employee, and the type of team they're designed to support.
Here's a quick look at South vs. Howdy before we get into the details:
The clearest distinction is what surrounds the hire. South is geared toward companies that want to find and manage professionals as part of their own distributed teams while outsourcing much of the recruiting and administrative work. Howdy adds a larger employee-experience layer, including physical offices, benefits, coaching, and community programs.
That difference becomes increasingly important as you move beyond the first hire and start thinking about how your LATAM team will actually operate and scale.
The Biggest Difference Between South and Howdy
At first glance, South and Howdy can seem pretty similar. Both connect U.S. companies with remote professionals in Latin America, screen candidates, and provide post-hire support.
The biggest difference is how much infrastructure each company builds around the employee.
Howdy combines recruiting with a broader employee experience. Depending on the arrangement, that can include employment or contractor administration, benefits, professional coaching, community programs, and access to physical Howdy Houses. For companies that want their LATAM employees to have a local workplace and built-in professional community, that model can be attractive.
South puts more emphasis on flexible LATAM recruitment and staffing. Companies can hire across departments while keeping new employees integrated into their existing remote team, workflows, tools, and company culture. South handles the recruiting process and, under its staffing model, consolidates ongoing administrative costs into a single monthly invoice.
That creates two slightly different approaches to building a LATAM team:
Howdy provides more infrastructure around where and how employees work, while South focuses on making it easier to find, hire, and scale cross-functional talent across Latin America.
Neither approach fits every company. A startup hiring three engineers may care about different things than a growing company adding professionals across finance, customer support, marketing, and operations. The sections below compare the factors that matter most when deciding which model fits your hiring plans.
South vs. Howdy: Key Differences
Candidate Sourcing and Vetting
The quality of a LATAM hiring partner ultimately comes down to the candidates who reach your interview calendar.
Both South and Howdy handle candidate sourcing and vetting, which means companies don't have to build a recruiting pipeline from scratch. The difference is more about how each provider approaches the search and how closely that process fits the client's hiring needs.
South takes a role-specific approach. The recruiting team starts with the company's requirements, then searches across Latin America for candidates who match the required experience, skills, English proficiency, salary range, and working hours. Candidates are screened before they're introduced, helping hiring managers spend their time interviewing people who already meet the core requirements.
That model can be particularly useful for cross-functional LATAM hiring. A company might start by looking for a software engineer and later need an accountant, executive assistant, customer success manager, or marketing specialist without switching recruiting partners.
Howdy also sources and evaluates LATAM candidates before presenting them to clients. Its recruiting model is closely connected to the broader employee infrastructure it provides after hiring, making candidate selection part of a longer-term talent experience.
For hiring teams, the practical question is less about whether South or Howdy vets candidates and more about what happens before those candidates reach you:
- How closely does the shortlist match your requirements?
- How much screening has already happened?
- Can the partner recruit effectively across every department you're growing?
- How quickly can it adjust when a role's requirements change?
A smaller, better-matched shortlist can save considerably more time than a large pipeline of candidates your team still has to filter. That's the standard companies should use when comparing South and Howdy's recruiting processes.
Roles You Can Hire
South and Howdy both recruit beyond software engineering, so this comparison isn't as simple as choosing a technical recruiter versus a general staffing company.
Howdy currently hires across engineering, data, product, design, finance, operations, HR, marketing, customer service, and executive support. Its engineering practice remains a major part of the business, but companies can also use Howdy for roles such as accountants, bookkeepers, financial analysts, executive assistants, graphic designers, project managers, and marketing professionals.
South also supports broad cross-functional hiring in Latin America, including:
- Software engineering and AI
- Data and analytics
- Finance and accounting
- Sales and business development
- Marketing
- Customer success and support
- Operations
- HR and recruiting
- Executive and administrative support
- Product and design
For a company hiring a single specialized role, both providers may have relevant talent pools. The distinction becomes more meaningful when several departments are hiring at the same time.
A growing company, for example, might need a backend developer this quarter, a financial analyst next quarter, and customer support representatives shortly after that. Using one LATAM recruitment partner across those searches can make hiring more consistent and reduce the need to introduce a new vendor every time another department needs talent.
South's broader role coverage is particularly useful for companies building cross-functional LATAM teams, while Howdy can also support a wide range of technical and non-technical positions and has continued expanding beyond its engineering roots.
If your hiring roadmap spans multiple departments, compare the providers based on their ability to support the full roadmap, not just the first open position.
Hiring Model and Flexibility
South and Howdy both give companies several ways to structure a LATAM hire, including Employer of Record services. The better fit depends on whether you want the provider to employ the professional locally, manage an ongoing staffing relationship, or simply help you find someone your company will hire directly.
South combines recruitment with several hiring options. Companies can use its staffing model, choose a one-time headhunting search, or use South's Employer of Record service to employ professionals compliantly in Latin America without opening a local entity.
With South's EOR service, South becomes the legal employer while the client continues to direct the employee's day-to-day work. South handles local employment contracts, payroll, taxes, statutory contributions, benefits, and employment compliance. Companies receive one consolidated invoice while South manages the local employment administration.
South's other models give companies additional flexibility. Its staffing option bundles recruiting, vetting, payroll, compliance, ongoing support, and the professional's compensation into one monthly rate. Companies with their own employment infrastructure can instead use headhunting and pay a one-time recruitment fee. South's staffing model also comes with no minimum commitment or cancellation fees.
Howdy also supports multiple engagement structures, including Employer of Record (EOR), Contractor of Record (COR), and direct contracts. Its EOR service covers local employment contracts, payroll, statutory benefits, taxes, and compliance, while its COR model supports companies engaging independent contractors.
So the difference isn't simply EOR versus staffing. Both providers can support companies that need a compliant local employment structure.
The more useful question is how much flexibility you want around recruiting, employment, and ongoing workforce management. South can connect the initial talent search with staffing, headhunting, or EOR support, while Howdy combines its employment structures with its broader employee infrastructure, including Howdy Houses, coaching, benefits, and community programs.
For companies comparing South vs. Howdy, the best model depends on whether they already have payroll or legal infrastructure in Latin America, whether they want employees or contractors, and how much ongoing employment administration they want their hiring partner to manage.
Pricing Model
South and Howdy both bundle recruiting into the cost of the hire, but they present that cost differently.
With South, companies receive one flat, all-in monthly rate for each professional. That rate includes the professional's compensation, recruiting and vetting, payroll and compliance support under the staffing model, and ongoing support. There are no upfront recruiting fees, setup fees, or minimum commitments.
Howdy also uses an all-inclusive model. Under Howdy's current pricing structure, 15% of the total cost goes to Howdy, while about 85% goes to the professional. Howdy says roughly 60% goes to the professional as cash compensation, and another 25% covers benefits and local employment costs.
For buyers, the more useful comparison is the total monthly cost for an equivalent candidate, rather than simply comparing the service fees.
A lower percentage doesn't automatically mean a lower hiring cost, and a flat rate doesn't tell you much without knowing the candidate's compensation, seniority, and what's included. When comparing South vs. Howdy pricing, look at:
- Total monthly cost
- Candidate compensation
- Benefits and employment costs
- Recruiting and vetting
- Payroll and compliance support
- Replacement terms
- Contract flexibility
The goal is to understand what your hiring budget actually gets you. Two providers can quote similar monthly totals while allocating that money very differently.
We've broken down Howdy's fees, cost structure, and example hiring scenarios separately in our Howdy Pricing in 2026 guide, so we won't repeat the full pricing analysis here.
Employee Benefits and Talent Experience
The employee experience is one area where South and Howdy take noticeably different approaches.
With South's Employer of Record service, companies can provide locally compliant benefits to employees across Latin America without managing separate providers in each country. South handles statutory benefits and can also administer medical, dental, and vision coverage, along with payroll, paid leave, taxes, and other local employment requirements.
The goal is to make the employee feel like part of the client's team while South manages the employment administration behind the scenes. The client still controls the person's responsibilities, meetings, performance expectations, workflows, and company culture.
Howdy adds a larger talent experience and community layer to its model. Its professionals can receive healthcare and wellness benefits, equipment, English-language programs, AI training, professional development, and performance coaching. Howdy also pairs professionals with experienced performance coaches who provide ongoing career and workplace support.
Another major difference is physical infrastructure. Howdy operates Howdy Houses across 11 Latin American cities, giving professionals access to offices, local support teams, lunches, events, meetups, and other community activities. Office access is included with Howdy hires in cities with a Howdy House.
That makes the choice largely about the type of employee experience your company wants to create.
South gives companies more room to make LATAM hires part of their existing remote culture while providing the employment and benefits infrastructure they need. Howdy provides more of that culture and professional-development infrastructure itself.
For companies that already have strong remote onboarding, learning programs, benefits policies, and internal culture, South's approach may fit naturally into what they already do. Companies that want their hiring partner to provide physical workspaces, coaching, training, and local community programming may find Howdy's model particularly appealing.
Hiring Speed and Candidate Availability
When a role is urgent, the most important question isn't how large a recruiting network looks on paper. It's how quickly qualified candidates actually reach your interview calendar.
South currently reports an average time to hire of about 16 days across its placements. The process focuses on presenting a small shortlist of vetted finalists rather than sending a large volume of resumes for the client to screen. For many roles, companies can begin meeting candidates within days of defining the position.
Howdy takes a more extended recruiting approach. The company states that its full recruitment cycle typically takes four to six weeks, from defining the role through vetting, client interviews, compensation confirmation, and onboarding. Vetting begins shortly after the search starts, but the overall timeline reflects Howdy's multi-stage evaluation process.
That gives South a potential advantage for companies prioritizing faster LATAM hiring, particularly when a role needs to be filled within a few weeks.
Still, hiring speed depends heavily on the search itself. A senior machine learning engineer with a specialized stack will usually take longer to find than a customer support representative or executive assistant. Client-side delays can matter just as much: long interview loops, changing requirements, and slow feedback can stretch the process with either provider.
Candidate availability also varies by function. Latin America has deep talent pools across engineering, finance, sales, customer support, operations, and marketing, but niche combinations of seniority, industry experience, technical skills, and compensation expectations naturally narrow the pool.
If speed matters, compare more than the headline hiring timeline. Ask how quickly each provider can deliver three to five candidates who genuinely meet the requirements, how much vetting has already happened, and how quickly the search can adjust if the first shortlist misses the mark.
For companies trying to hire talent in Latin America without adding weeks of internal sourcing and screening, that time-to-shortlist can matter just as much as the final time-to-hire number.
LATAM Coverage
Both South and Howdy recruit across Latin America, but their regional models are structured a little differently.
South recruits across Latin America as a region, rather than limiting searches to a fixed list of countries. Depending on the role, budget, time zone, and talent requirements, South can build a pipeline in markets such as Colombia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Peru, Uruguay, and other LATAM countries.
That can be useful when location is flexible. Instead of deciding on a country first, companies can let the candidate profile drive the search and compare professionals across several markets.
Howdy currently lists operations across Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, with Employer of Record and Contractor of Record support available across those markets. It also maintains Howdy Houses in major cities throughout the region.
For most companies, though, the raw number of countries isn't the most useful comparison.
What matters is whether the provider can recruit effectively in the markets that make sense for your role. A company hiring a senior engineer may benefit from searching across several large technical talent pools, while a finance or customer support search may prioritize compensation, English proficiency, industry experience, or specific U.S. working hours.
Broader geographic flexibility gives hiring teams more room to balance skill, salary, seniority, and availability, rather than forcing every search into the same location.
South's regional recruiting approach can be particularly useful for companies that are still deciding where to hire in Latin America, while Howdy offers deeper physical infrastructure in the markets where it already operates.
If you already know exactly where you want to hire, compare each provider's recruiting depth and employment support in that country. If you're open to several markets, a region-wide search can give you a stronger candidate pool.
South vs. Howdy by Hiring Scenario
The right choice becomes clearer when you stop comparing feature lists and start looking at what your company actually needs to hire.
A company adding its first LATAM engineer has different priorities from one building a 20-person team across finance, operations, customer support, and marketing. Here’s how South and Howdy compare across a few common hiring scenarios:
Don't treat the table as a universal scorecard. Role complexity, country, compensation, internal HR capabilities, and the type of employee experience you want can all change the answer.
For example, a company with an established remote culture and internal learning programs may care more about recruiting speed and cross-functional coverage. Another company may want its LATAM professionals to have access to local offices, coaching, and built-in community programs.
That's why the strongest South vs. Howdy comparison starts with your hiring plan.
If you're hiring across several functions and want the flexibility to move between staffing, Employer of Record services, and direct recruitment as your needs evolve, South may be the more natural fit.
If physical employee infrastructure and structured professional-development support are major priorities, Howdy may be more aligned with what you're building.
The better provider is the one that can support the team you expect to have a year from now, not just the role you need to fill this month.
South vs. Howdy for Cross-Functional Hiring
Hiring one role is relatively straightforward. Things get more complicated when several departments start hiring from Latin America at the same time.
You may begin with a backend developer and later need an accountant, customer success manager, executive assistant, SDR, or marketing specialist. At that point, choosing a LATAM hiring partner becomes less about filling one vacancy and more about whether the provider can support a broader hiring roadmap.
This is where South has a strong use case. Its recruiting model spans technical and non-technical functions, allowing companies to build cross-functional LATAM teams without bringing in a different recruiter or staffing provider for every department.
That can simplify hiring in several ways. Recruiting standards stay more consistent, finance works with fewer vendors, hiring managers follow a familiar process, and companies can apply lessons from previous searches to new roles.
For example, a growing company could use the same partner to build combinations such as:
- Engineering + QA + product
- Finance + accounting + operations
- Sales + customer success
- Marketing + design
- Executive support + back-office operations
Howdy also recruits across an increasingly broad range of roles, so it can support hiring outside engineering. Its model becomes particularly compelling when companies want those hires to participate in Howdy's broader employee ecosystem, including local workspaces, coaching, and community programs.
The distinction becomes more important as the number of hires increases.
If you want your LATAM professionals integrated directly into the systems, culture, and development programs your company already uses, South's flexible cross-functional approach can make scaling simpler. If you want the hiring provider to supply more of the employee experience itself, Howdy offers additional infrastructure around the team.
For companies planning more than a handful of hires, it's worth looking beyond the current openings. Consider which partner could still support you if your LATAM team eventually spans five departments instead of one.
South vs. Howdy for Scaling a LATAM Team
The hiring partner that works for your first LATAM employee should ideally still work when that team grows to 10, 20, or more people.
At that stage, scalability becomes less about finding individual candidates and more about keeping hiring consistent across roles, departments, and countries. Recruiting speed, compensation benchmarking, employment structures, invoicing, and vendor management all start carrying more weight.
South is well suited to companies planning to expand their LATAM workforce across multiple functions. A business might begin with two software engineers, add customer support and finance hires a few months later, and eventually build teams across operations, marketing, sales, and product. Those searches can stay under the same recruiting relationship, rather than being split among several specialized vendors.
Companies can also choose different hiring structures as their needs evolve. Some roles may fit South's staffing model, others may require Employer of Record services, while companies with their own international employment infrastructure can use headhunting for direct hires.
That flexibility can be especially useful as a LATAM team grows because not every hire needs to follow the same employment model.
South also provides salary benchmarking to help companies understand how compensation varies by role, seniority, and LATAM market. When you're making several hires rather than one, consistent benchmarking can help avoid large compensation differences between similar positions and make workforce budgeting more predictable.
Howdy can also support companies expanding teams throughout Latin America. Its EOR and contractor infrastructure, benefits programs, coaching, and Howdy Houses can be valuable for organizations that want their hiring partner to play a significant role in the local employee experience as headcount increases.
The decision comes down to what you want scaling to look like.
South may be the stronger fit when your priority is expanding across roles and departments while keeping recruiting and hiring structures flexible. Howdy may stand out when scaling also means expanding access to local offices, community programs, coaching, and other employee infrastructure.
For larger hiring plans, compare both providers against the team you're building next year, not just the vacancies sitting on your careers page today.
Where South Has an Edge Over Howdy
South and Howdy can both recruit, employ, and support professionals across Latin America. South's advantages become clearer when a company values flexibility across hiring models, faster recruiting, and cross-functional hiring.
More Flexibility in How You Hire
South offers several ways to work with LATAM talent, depending on how much support companies need.
Its staffing model bundles sourcing, vetting, payroll, compliance, ongoing support, and the professional's compensation into one monthly rate. Companies can also use South's Employer of Record service when they need a local legal employer, or choose headhunting when they already have the infrastructure to employ the candidate directly.
That makes it easier to adjust the hiring model as the team grows instead of forcing every role into the same structure.
Faster Average Hiring
South currently reports an average time to hire of around 16 days, while Howdy says its complete recruiting cycle typically takes four to six weeks.
Speed will always vary by role, but South's shorter reported timeline can be valuable when a company needs to add capacity quickly without taking over sourcing and screening internally.
Cross-Functional Recruiting
South is also designed for companies hiring beyond a single department.
It recruits across engineering, finance, sales, customer support, operations, marketing, and other remote-friendly functions, making it easier to consolidate LATAM hiring under one partner.
That becomes particularly useful as a company grows. Instead of using one provider for developers, another for finance, and another for support roles, hiring teams can maintain a more consistent process across departments.
No Minimum Hiring Commitment
South doesn't require clients to commit to a minimum hiring period under its staffing model. There are also no setup fees, and companies don't pay until they make a hire.
For companies testing LATAM hiring for the first time, that means they can begin with one role and expand only when the model proves useful.
Built-In Salary Benchmarking
South helps companies align the role, seniority, and compensation range before the search begins.
That matters when you're hiring across several Latin American markets, where compensation can vary considerably depending on country, role, and experience. Better benchmarking can help companies create competitive offers without relying on U.S. salary expectations or guessing at local market rates.
Replacement Support
South also reduces some of the risk around a new hire.
Its staffing model includes free replacement support, while its headhunting service includes a 120-day replacement guarantee.
That gives companies another layer of flexibility when a placement doesn't work out as expected.
Overall, South's strongest advantage is the ability to adapt the hiring relationship around the company's needs. A business can recruit across departments, choose between staffing, EOR, and headhunting, benchmark compensation across LATAM, and expand without committing to a minimum hiring period.
For companies with a strong internal culture that mainly need a partner to find, hire, and scale LATAM talent, that combination can make South the more practical fit.
Where Howdy Has an Edge Over South
Howdy's strongest advantages are less about recruiting itself and more about what happens after the hire.
For companies that want their LATAM hiring partner to provide physical offices, structured coaching, training, benefits, and local community support, Howdy offers a more built-out employee experience.
Physical Offices Across Latin America
Howdy operates Howdy Houses in 11 Latin American cities, giving professionals access to dedicated office space, local support staff, team events, lunches, and community activities. Office access is included for Howdy professionals in cities with a Howdy House.
This can be valuable for companies that like the economics and talent access of remote hiring but still want employees to have a professional place to work outside their homes.
Built-In Performance Coaching
Howdy also puts considerable emphasis on professional development.
Its professionals are paired with performance coaches who have at least 10 years of industry or engineering-management experience. The coaching can cover career development, performance, skills, and alignment with the client's team.
That gives managers an additional layer of support around their LATAM hires, particularly when they're building distributed teams and don't want every development conversation to sit entirely with internal managers.
Training and Development Programs
Howdy includes additional learning resources as part of its broader talent model, including English-language programs, AI training, and professional-development resources. The company says engineers hired through Howdy complete structured AI training as part of their onboarding and ongoing development.
For companies without extensive internal learning and development programs, having that infrastructure built into the hiring relationship can be useful.
A Strong Local Community Layer
Remote employees can sometimes spend very little time interacting with professionals outside their immediate company.
Howdy tries to address that through local events, weekly lunches, workshops, happy hours, and other programming at its Howdy Houses.
That community element is one of Howdy's clearest differentiators. It gives LATAM professionals access to a local network while they continue working day-to-day with the U.S. company that hired them.
Employee Infrastructure Included in the Model
Howdy also bundles several services around each placement, including office access, equipment, benefits administration, coaching, training, and ongoing retention support.
That can make Howdy particularly attractive to companies that want a hiring provider to take a larger role in the employee experience, rather than primarily handling recruitment and employment administration.
Overall, Howdy's edge is the ecosystem it builds around LATAM hires.
South may fit companies that already have strong internal culture, professional development, and remote-work systems and want more control over that experience. Howdy can be appealing when a company wants much of that infrastructure provided locally as part of the hiring relationship.
South vs. Howdy: Which Should You Choose?
The better choice depends on what you want your LATAM hiring partner to own after the candidate says yes.
Choose South if your priority is flexible, cross-functional hiring. South is a strong fit for companies that want to recruit across departments, move between staffing, EOR, and headhunting models, and keep LATAM professionals closely integrated into their existing culture and workflows.
South may be the better fit if you:
- Expect to hire across several departments
- Want flexibility between staffing, EOR, and direct recruitment
- Need to fill roles quickly
- Prefer one hiring partner as your LATAM team grows
- Already have strong internal onboarding, training, and remote-work processes
- Want salary benchmarking and replacement support included in the hiring relationship
Choose Howdy if you want more employee infrastructure built around the hire. Howdy stands out for companies that value physical workspaces, local community, coaching, professional development, and other employee-experience programs.
Howdy may be the better fit if you:
- Want employees to have access to physical offices in selected LATAM cities
- Value built-in coaching and professional development
- Want your hiring partner to create a local professional community
- Prefer additional employee-experience programs alongside recruiting and employment support
For some companies, both providers could work well. The deciding factor may come down to the specific role, candidate quality, compensation expectations, country, and how much support your internal team already provides.
If your main goal is to build a flexible LATAM team across multiple functions, South will often be the stronger fit. If local infrastructure and structured employee development are higher priorities, Howdy may be more aligned with your hiring strategy.
The most useful next step is to compare actual candidates and total hiring costs for the roles you're trying to fill. A platform can look ideal on paper, but the quality of the shortlist ultimately matters more than the feature list.
Compare Candidates, Not Just Hiring Platforms
A comparison table can tell you how South and Howdy structure their services. It can't tell you which provider will actually send you the stronger candidates for your role.
That’s why the best way to evaluate a LATAM hiring partner is to look beyond features and compare the talent you’d realistically be able to hire.
With South, you can define the role, salary range, experience level, technical requirements, English proficiency, and working hours you need. South then searches across Latin America and presents pre-vetted candidates matched to those criteria.
This gives you something much more useful than a theoretical platform comparison: real candidates you can evaluate against your hiring bar.
If you’re deciding between South and Howdy, compare:
- Candidate quality and relevance
- Time to shortlist
- Total monthly hiring cost
- Compensation expectations
- Employment structure
- Replacement terms
- How much internal recruiting work remains after the shortlist arrives
A provider may offer more features, but those features matter less if the candidates aren’t a strong match.
The fastest way to decide whether South fits your hiring plan is to see who South can find for the roles you’re hiring now.
Schedule a free call, find pre-vetted talent in Latin America and compare candidates before committing to a hiring model.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the main difference between South and Howdy?
The biggest difference is the type of support surrounding the hire. South focuses on flexible LATAM recruiting through staffing, Employer of Record, and headhunting models, while Howdy puts more emphasis on employee infrastructure such as physical offices, coaching, training, and community programs.
Is South or Howdy better for hiring across multiple departments?
South may be the stronger fit for cross-functional LATAM hiring because companies can recruit across engineering, finance, sales, marketing, operations, customer support, and other business functions through the same partner.
Howdy also supports technical and non-technical hiring, so the best choice will still depend on the specific roles, countries, and level of employee support you need.
Is South or Howdy better for engineering hiring?
Both companies recruit engineering talent across Latin America.
South may appeal more to companies prioritizing hiring speed, flexible employment structures, and the ability to expand into other departments later. Howdy may make more sense for companies that want engineering hires to have access to physical Howdy Houses, coaching, professional development, and a local community.
How does South's pricing compare with Howdy?
Both providers use bundled pricing models, but the structure differs.
South's staffing model uses an all-in monthly rate that combines the professional's compensation with recruiting, payroll, compliance, and ongoing support. Howdy also quotes an all-inclusive cost and allocates a portion of that amount to its service fee and employee infrastructure.
For a detailed breakdown of Howdy's fees, see our Howdy pricing guide.
Do South and Howdy offer Employer of Record services?
Yes. Both South and Howdy can support Employer of Record (EOR) arrangements in Latin America, allowing companies to employ professionals in countries where they don't have their own legal entity.
With an EOR, the provider becomes the legal employer and handles areas such as contracts, payroll, statutory benefits, taxes, and local employment compliance while the client manages the employee's day-to-day work.
Which company offers more employee support?
Howdy provides a more extensive built-in employee experience, including physical offices in selected cities, coaching, training, community activities, and professional-development resources.
South focuses more on helping companies integrate LATAM hires into their existing remote team and company culture, while handling the recruiting and employment infrastructure required by the chosen hiring model.
Which is faster, South or Howdy?
South currently reports an average hiring time of around 16 days, while Howdy states that its full recruiting cycle generally takes four to six weeks.
Actual timelines depend on role seniority, technical requirements, compensation, candidate availability, and how quickly the client's interview process moves.
Can you build an entire LATAM team with South or Howdy?
Yes. Both providers can support multiple hires across Latin America.
South may be particularly useful when the team will span several departments or when you want to use different hiring structures as the organization grows. Howdy may be attractive when you want additional local infrastructure and employee-development programs built into the relationship.
