7 Best Countries to Outsource Software Development Projects

The global IT market is huge and continues to grow. This is one of the reasons why such an interaction model as offshore software development grows in popularity. The model also allows saving a budget on product development without losing quality.

When searching for IT specialists, companies no longer have to limit themselves to one city or even one country — they now have the opportunity to attract talented developers from all over the world.

We have already written about the reasons why a business should invest in offshore software development in the following article “Software Development Outsourcing: Scale Your Company without Hiring”, as well as compared in-house and outsourced software development. These articles will help you understand the main issues on the topic deeper.

In this article, we will consider the list of the best countries for software development outsourcing. In these countries, the IT market is well-developed, and local companies can provide a good cost-quality ratio at a global level.

Factors That Influence the Choice of the Country for IT Outsourcing

Several factors impact the business environment in each particular country, making it suitable as IT outsourcing destinations. For each specific company, this list may differ, but in general, we can name the following points as the main ones:

• low cost of living and labor;
• high-quality educational infrastructure;
• a sufficiently large number of IT companies (a mature market) and developers of various profiles;
• the ability to communicate in English;
• small cultural differences (mentality features);
• minor differences in time zones.

The combination of all or most of the listed factors in a specific country or region creates a good environment for IT services market development and forms a fairly large employee pool including qualified technical staff.

Top 7 Countries to Outsource Software Development

Lots of companies located in the USA, Canada, and Western Europe mostly choose the Eastern European countries for outsourcing. Let us look at them and some others.

1. India

When we hear the term “outsourcing”, India is the first country to associate with it. Developers are available here in large numbers, and the hourly rate is quite low ($10 to 25).

The main disadvantage of cooperation with companies located in this country is the unpredictable quality of services. The risks of getting unreliable and unsupported code outweigh the cost advantage.

2. China

This country is a world leader in goods production, and it is gradually prioritizing its world share in IT services provision. Large Chinese technology clusters allow choosing among a variety of developers. However, there are problems with the communication language and tangible differences in culture and mentality.

3. The Philippines

Approximately 9 out of 10 Filipinos speak English since it qualifies as an officially recognized language in this country. Low labor cost and active educational reform have led to a significant increase in the number of available specialists from this country on the market.

However, in terms of expertise, Filipinos do not reach the same levels as developers from other countries. Therefore, it is worth entrusting them with simple projects only.

4. Ukraine

Ukraine ranks first by the number of freelancers at Upwork. More than 2,000 IT companies and 120,000 developers are already working at this platform, and the market is steadily growing by 15 to 20% annually. The reasons, contributing to this in many respects, are the border with the EU and a decent educational system. Local professionals have no problems with English either.

Among other advantages, we can mark the following: a time zone which partially overlaps with the time zones of the USA and Great Britain and a similar production culture where competitive factors are valued. You can read more about the benefits of working with teams from this country in our article “9 Reasons Why to Outsource Your App Development to Ukraine”. It is best country in Eastern Europe to outsource custom software development projects.

5. Russia

If compared to the total population, we cannot call the number of developers in Russia large. However, if regarded in absolute numbers, there are lots of specialists in this country. For example, the programming language Kotlin is a Russian IT company development. However, it is worth noting that local companies are predominantly focused on the domestic market.

6. Poland

Along with Ukraine, Poland is one of the top IT outsourcing countries in Eastern Europe. 30% of the local population can speak English as a second language, which is a great advantage for cooperating with Western customers as this factor significantly simplifies communication. There are over 250,000 developers in Poland and their number continues to grow.

7. Romania

Over the past few years, the Romanian government has invested substantial funds in their IT infrastructure, and it has contributed to its attractiveness for international business. The number of technical specialists is estimated at 120,000 and 90% of them speak English.

Average Offshore Developer Rates

The cost of work is an important factor, especially for small businesses which looking for countries for offshore software development. This argument is quite often the key one when choosing between an outsourced and in-house development model.

The cost depends on many factors, including the programming language, project complexity, developers’ expertise, etc. When talking of average numbers, offshore developer rates look as follows (depending on the region):

• Asia and Africa: $15-40
• Eastern Europe: $25-50
• Central America and South America: $30-50
• North America: $90-170.

Considering that in the case of cooperation with companies from Poland and Ukraine you will get a quality which is comparable to the work quality provided by specialists from the USA, the budget-saving potential looks impressive.

In summary

In this article, we have listed the best countries for offshore software development, and we hope that this info will help you in case you decide to resort to this model in practice. It is not worth to limit your choice to your city, region, or country when the whole world is available for you to search for talented developers.

If you are looking for a reliable partner who can undertake the technical part of your product, you can always contact Lvivity. Our company is located in Ukraine and employs highly qualified specialists who cherish their reputation and make the customer’s success a priority.

Bring us up to date with your project, and we will be able to offer you the best solution for your business objectives.