East European software developers in 2021: Which country is right for your project?

 Outsourcing Software Development  

Rather than just a trend, outsourcing software development has become a proven strategy to maximize cost-efficiency and access an ever-growing pool of talent. Under these circumstances, having a team of qualified professionals dedicated to your project can benefit both a new start-up, as well as a pre-existing product. 

Also, software development outsourcing has the main advantage - reducing costs. Due to the pool of experts, flexibility, cost-savings, and accessibility offered by cloud computing and project management tools, it is easier to manage the process of outsourcing software development. 

In order to help you out to make a proper choice of your outsourcing destination BitsOrchestra Team has analyzed the characteristics of offshore software development countries with a particular focus on Eastern European countries and prepared a blog post related to the list of the best countries for .net development outsourcing in Eastern Europe.

Software development in Eastern Europe: Top countries to outsource IT projects

As far as software development outsourcing in Eastern Europe is concerned, Ukraine, Poland, and Romania are the most popular destinations, while Serbia, Macedonia, Bulgaria, and Hungary have lesser positions. All above mentioned countries have a high level of IT service development.  

Ukraine embraced foreign investment in 2014, the year when its new government took office. Over the past five years, Ukrainian IT companies have seen $636 million invested in them. Ukraine's largest IT hubs are located in these top cities -  Kiev, Lviv, and Kharkiv.

Currently, over 1,500 software companies make up the Ukrainian IT market, employing 165,000 IT professionals. The nation's universities release over 16,000 graduates in the field of technology each year, which means this number is reported to increase exponentially. 

Some Important Facts 

• Ukrainian IT specialists are the third most numerous in the world.

• By average scores across HackerRank challenges, Ukraine is the 11th best country for developers in the world as of 2018.

• Among Ukrainian IT professionals, Java, JavaScript, C#, PHP, and Python are the most popular programming languages.

• Some of the most well-known startups around the world, including Petcube, Preply, and Grammarly, were born in Ukraine.

Poland

The fastest-growing economy in the EU, Poland offers companies thinking of outsourcing software development favorable conditions. More than 460 software companies in the country employ more than 147,000 highly qualified professionals, and the country continues to grow its IT market at a steady rate of 5-20% a year.

Polish developers currently rank 4th worldwide in Top Coder's skills ranking.

• According to HackerRank challenge scores in 2018, Poland ranked 3rd in the world among developers.

Romania

Due to favorable tax conditions once created by the Romanian government, the software development industry has grown rapidly and attracted worldwide corporations like Microsoft,  Ericsson, HP, and Huawei. The number of IT professionals in the country has risen to almost 100,000 working in approximately 20,000 companies.

• According to the 2020 National Statistics Institute, software outsourcing contributed 6% of Romania's GDP.

• According to HackerRank, Romania ranked 20th in the world in terms of having the best developers.

• According to the A.T., Romania is ranked 28th because of its favorable business environment, attractive rates for custom software development, and excellent technical skills. 

Software developers in Eastern Europe: Differences

Eastern Europe has emerged as a mainstream outsourcing location because of its attractive cost-to-quality ratio, not just its lower rates. Eastern European countries like Romania, Poland, and of course Ukraine rank among the top outsourcing countries according to Tholons and A.T. A global consulting firm, Kearney. Eastern Europe has emerged as a major outsourcing destination for software development over the past several years. Until now, Eastern European developers have been a good choice for outsourcing software development.

Here are the reasons why: 

1. Technical stack

Developing in Eastern Europe gives you access to programming expertise in a number of different languages, as well as in a variety of different fields, including healthcare, e-commerce, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and IoT. Additionally, eastern European software engineers are proficient at both developing mobile apps and developing websites. Creating interactive websites is part of the web development process while building mobile apps is part of the iOS and Android development process.

2. Language proficiency

It is imperative that software developers speak English well for successful collaboration.  Developers in Eastern Europe who work with international companies must have a high level of English proficiency. 

3. Profile education

Developers from Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and Moldova specialize in web development and custom software development. IT industry data sources such as Hackerrank and TopCoder can be used to analyze the programming skills of programmers in Eastern Europe. 

4. Development rates

Compare offshore software development rates between Eastern European countries and Western counterparts, and you'll see that eastern European countries are relatively cheaper. East Europe is usually much more affordable than the United States for software development. Poles offer the lowest rates for developers, ranging from $50 to $99 an hour - substantially less than Western Europe.

Moldova has the lowest outsourcing prices for software development - $20-$24/hour. Ukraine and Romania offer intermediate prices of $25-$49 per hour.

5. Cultural value set (culture fit or “culture add”)

Eastern European developers have more comprehensive experience working with global technology companies and top software development companies in Europe and other countries.

6. Talent pool size

The size of the talent pool is an essential issue in terms of choosing an outsourcing location for software development in Eastern Europe. It is often hard to estimate the number of software developers in exact numbers however local agencies tend to provide reports about their countries’ stats once in a few years.

How and where to find a company for offshore software development in Eastern Europe

You can hire Eastern European developers as follows:

• Look at agency profiles and reviews on sites such as Clutch, LinkedIn, and Upwork.

• You should contact local recruiters so they can assist you in finding the right developer(s).

• Set up a new offshore development center in eastern Europe with the help of a local software agency.

• Reach out to local IT communities to find the best European outsourcing companies.

  Wrap Up

All Eastern European countries have their pros and cons when it comes to software development. It is important to create a due-diligence checklist before hiring anyone to ensure that nothing is overlooked.

The decision to outsource software development to an offshore location (including Eastern Europe software development) is usually based on some recommendations. Ukraine created a successful product in GoPlanr.com, which was later acquired by British developers.

With BitsOrchestra, you can easily find the right team of engineers for any project. BitsOrchestra is one of the companies that can suggest a high level of software developmental service. Contact us to learn more about the range of services we provide and find the best Asp dot net developers to work on your pending project.