Outsourcing IT in Eastern Europe is not homogeneous since all countries in the respective regions are varied in terms of their salaries, talent pool, and work terms expected there.
As a result, we strongly recommend that you consider each of the best countries that Eastern Europe has to offer for outsourcing software projects separately and analyse the existing IT staffing market there to make a solid decision for your long-term goals and objectives. So which country is the best outsourcing destination?
Belarus
Belarus is largely unexplored as an IT outsourcing location, despite the industry occupying 3rd place in its economy. With its vibrant talent pool exceeding over 77,000 programmers and 16,000 new specialists entering the sector every year, what’s not to love?
The main four IT hubs to outsource software development in Belarus are: Minsk, Grodno, Gomel and Vitebsk. Cost-wise, developers here will charge $1,200-$4,100 on average for their services; Java developers charge between $1,500-$3,125 depending on their level of experience.
PHP development will vary in costs starting at $1,500 and going up to $4,500.
Belarus is highly affordable both as a country to live in and to outsource IT to. Take the cost of living in Minsk for example; it is estimated at around $442 per month for a single person and $1,597 for a family of four.
The state has seven airports and is also quite comfortable to travel to and from. For example, it takes only 3 hours to travel from Minsk to Tel Aviv, 2 hours 40 minutes – to London, and 9.5 hours – to New York.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria is another popular IT outsourcing destination in Eastern Europe, with over 400 IT companies functioning in the market and guaranteeing the country’s leadership in the region.
Bulgaria is another country popular for outsourcing IT as they have already over 400 existing companies functioning in their market and thus guaranteeing their leadership in the region. Some companies will prefer to outsource software development to this region because of the great talent pool exceeding 50,000 specialists and the high level of English proficiency level among Bulgarian programmers. They will also often establish outsourced teams to research and development centres because of the expertise and variety of programming language available from the Bulgarian workforce.
The country received a score of 87.2 out of 100 by HackerRank, which granted it the 12th position among other states. Local developers charge on average from $1,300 to $3,500 per month, with the most popular technologies of specialization including Java, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, SQL, and C#.
There are four major Bulgarian IT hubs, including its capital Sofia as well as large cities such as Varna, Burgas, and Plovdiv. The country has five international airports to and from which business clients can easily get to any corner of the world. For instance, it takes only 2 hours 53 minutes to get to London, 10 hours to reach New York, and 2 hours 17 minutes – to get to Tel Aviv. Bulgaria’s cost of living is also extremely affordable, a single person can live comfortably on around $504 a month without rent and a family of four would need $1,756 in order to do so. Burgas is cheaper than this, a single person would need $450 and a family of four would need $1,548.
Hungary
Hungary is another location that companies often use to outsource software development, whilst it isn’t famous as a hub for this, it has a lot of advantages in terms of unexplored potential.
Firstly, the fact that the country has European membership and its central location make the country quite close to the Western work mindset; legislation available; financial institutions at play and their time zone, making cohesion quite easy between in-house and outsourced teams working together.
Secondly, over 2% of the country’s population is actively employed in the IT sector, making IT outsourcing Hungary a hub with a great talent pool and a diversity of candidates to choose from. There are over 80,000 software developers in Hungary, and their number increases year on year exponentially, with around 21,000 tech university graduates joining the industry each year.
The IT sector brought the country 3.7% in corporate revenue, making it one of the more popular industries in the country for young people to study in and develop careers in. The country also occupies 12th place in the HackerRank rating with a score of 87.2 and offers a workforce in a variety of technologies with JavaScript, C#, Java, Python, and Ruby prevailing.
In terms of salaries, companies should be ready to pay from $1,500 up to $4,000 per month to local developers, depending on the size and scale of the job needing to be done.
Five large cities are considered IT hubs here: Budapest, Debrecen, Miskolc, Szeged, and Veszprem. Hungary has only four international airports, but they are easily reachable because of the country’s small geographical area, which makes business travel convenient and fast. In this way, clients from London can get to Budapest in 2 hours, clients from New York reach Hungary in 9 hours 20 minutes, while a trip from Tel Aviv takes only 3 hours.
Hungary is also attractive in terms of the cost of living, one person living in Budapest needs around $577 for comfortable expenditure, while a family of four requires $1,967 for a well-to-do lifestyle.
Life in other cities is even more affordable, with a single-person budget for living in Debrecen constituting $505 and $477 in Szeged. Hungary is an affordable country to live in and outsource IT work, we definitely recommend it.
Poland
Poland is a great IT outsourcing destination in Eastern Europe because of their labour market’s maturity; the long-standing EU membership; the Western culture and mindset as well as their high English language proficiency. The software companies available in Poland boast an impressive pool of talent exceeding 70,000 people, with university graduates adding 15,000 to this each year. In terms of technical skills in their possession, Polish coders sit at a very high rating from HackerRank at 98/100.
When it comes to IT outsourcing Poland, clients can find a multitude of skills and talent, with programmers specializing in both common and rare technologies, while the most common specialisations include Java, C#, C/C++, JS, .NET and Python.
There are five major tech hubs in Poland: Krakow, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Lodz, and Poznan, while rates charged by programmers across the state range from $650 to $5,000. Their rates can be a bit more expensive than Bulgaria, Belarus and Hungary as the cost of living is higher in this country. A single person requires $523 without rent for comfortable living in Krakow, while the cost of living in Warsaw amounts to $554 per month for one individual, families of four sit close to $2,000.
There are 11 airports in Poland, which makes it very easy for clients to get to their outsourcing teams on business. The time needed for travel is also moderate; it takes 9 hours 18 minutes to get from Krakow to New York, 2 hours to get to London, and 3 hours 20 minutes to Tel Aviv. This makes international business trips a breeze when it comes to Poland, it might be more expensive to live there and the cost of work might be slightly higher, but the offset of travel being easy can balance out the justification of outsourcing to Poland.
Romania
Romania has all chances to take the lead among Eastern Europe software outsourcing locations as it takes first place in the region in terms of IT outsourcing and exhibits quick growth in this area.
The main reasons why clients prefer to outsource to Romanian companies compared to others are the multilingual talent pool (with English, French, Italian, and German enjoying the highest popularity), expert IT knowledge backed by a HackerRank score of 81.9 out of 100 and the affordable rates ranging between $1,000-$7,000 depending on the type of job required.
The most popular technologies in the IT sector here are PHP costing between $1,600 and $3,750, Java costing between $1,000 and $2,750 and JavaScript costing between $1,300 and $3,900.
The cities in which IT outsourcing Romania talent is concentrated include Bucharest, Galati, and Cluj. There are, however, only four airports in Romania given the country’s small area, but this still ensures the convenience of getting to any major city by air. Transit time to popular cities include 2 hours 20 minutes to get from Bucharest to Tel Aviv, 10 hours to New York and 3 hours to London.
The cost of living in Romania is generally more affordable than in many neighbouring countries. For instance, the monthly cost of living in Bucharest constitutes $488 for a single person and $1,706 for a family of four. For comparison, living in Cluj costs $460 per person and $1,593 per four-person household without rent.
Ukraine
Ukraine has one of the largest talent pools available in Eastern Europe, currently sitting at over 160,000 programmers and an immense level of growth potential. Including 18 companies included in the IAOP Global Outsourcing List. Ukrainian developers are currently ranked 88.7 out of 100 by HackerRank and specialize both in common and rare programming technologies. Software developer salaries greatly range in Ukraine, they sit at $500-$3,500 per month on average.
The cost of living in Ukraine is highly affordable, ranging from around $350-$400 per one person, the highest amount being $405 in Kyiv. There are 21 airports in the country, which gives plenty of scopes for international teams to travel there and visit their teams or staff they have outsourced there. The ease of travel to and from Ukraine is impressive: it takes only 3 hours to get from Kyiv to London, 10 hours to New York, and 3 hours to Tel Aviv.
- PHP developer salaries in Eastern Europe range from $11,360 in Belarus to $25,000 in Ukraine.
- IT outsourcing Europe implies paying Java developers $14,100 in Belarus, $18,270 in Hungary, $21,740 in Romania, $22,000 in Bulgaria, $24,000 in Ukraine, and $25,270 in Poland.
- Python developer salary in Eastern Europe is the highest compared to other technologies, which ranges from $15,160 in Poland, $20,200 in Bulgaria, and $27,900 in Ukraine.
- The highest JavaScript programmer salary in terms of software development Eastern Europe is in Bulgaria – $25,000 per annum.
- C++ developers make $16,550 per year in Belarus and $28,000 in Ukraine.
- React IT outsourcing Hungary is $17,500, which is lower than in Poland – $22,800.
- Node.js programmers in Poland have the highest payments in the region – $26,600, while in Belarus, such software engineers make $14,560, and in Romania – $18,470.
IT outsourcing Romania implies paying $21,460 for Unity developers, and in Bulgaria, their wages are slightly higher – $24,000.
Based on the provided data, Eastern Europe seems to be a perfect outsourcing location where the pool of programming talent is impressive, and its combination with low rates is ideal for any employer.
If you have decided to outsource software development to this region, Ukraine is offering the best cost-benefit balance.
Hiring developers in Ukraine is not hard because of the abundance of talent and availability of diverse tech stack here; HireDedicated Team can help you with the recruitment process by completing the hiring of any complexity – from a single specialist to the entire coding team.