Top 10 Countries to Outsource Software Development in 2020

As an entrepreneur, CEO, or project manager, you might be interested in outsourcing software development to another country and getting still high-quality work done for fewer costs. Likely, we understand everything that may become your subject of concern when making a decision to hire an offshore software development company. There are many factors influencing the quality of the end-product, and the most significant one is surely the team you hire. However, there is one more factor you must consider before hiring an outsourcing company — the location. Or better to say, the industry landscape in a particular country.

All companies are different, it’s true. However, there are some similarities common for service providers headquartered in every country. To make a better-informed decision, you should take into account the average experience of customers hiring companies in different locations worldwide. In this article, I’m sharing insights from other seekers of a reliable outsource developer as well as my own experience. Let’s consider the top ten countries to outsource software development and the peculiarities of working for them.

Vietnam

The first and foremost question many business owners will ask is the cost of services. Vietnam is famous for quality services at a comparatively lower price. In fact, labor costs in Vietnam are 90% less than in the US. It automatically means significant savings for your company as the customer. Global Services has even named Ho Chi Ming City one of the best cities in the world for software outsourcing due to the attractiveness of the production cost.

Another appealing reason to hire a Vietnamese software development team is the quality of services. Actually, this country has a lot of talents in the software development field. The government of Vietnam cares about education and realizes the importance of training. The local population is well-educated which also grows the chances of getting high-quality services. Communication is one of the key factors for software project success, so you will be happy to know that Vietnam doesn’t usually have any ethnic or religious conflicts.

Today, Vietnam creates a warm business environment and welcomes foreign investments. In 2006, it became the World Trade Organization’s 150th member. The General Council said: “Viet Nam’s economic growth topped 8% last year, foreign direct investment rose steeply to over $6 billion, and exports surged by over 20%.” All these factors combined make Vietnam an exceptional country for outsourcing software projects.

The Philippines

As mentioned above, efficient communication is key. Actually, it makes the Philippines one of the most attractive locations to outsource software projects during the recession. Actually, it goes about the fact that there are around 90% of people who speak English.

The country pays particular attention to education and tries to approach it innovatively. That’s why it has accepted a specialized STEM high school system that allows bringing up a highly educated population with many talents.

Manila, the capital of the Philippines, has been recognized as the second-best city for software outsourcing on a global scale by Tholons Globalization Index. The country has a lot of talented developers that offer high-quality services for an affordable price. The local technical skills and competence are constantly growing which makes the Philippines one of the top of mind locations for software development.

Poland

Poland is taking the third position on the list thanks to the pull of exceptional software development talents located there. According to HackerRank, Poland has the third-best software engineers in the world. One of the most amazing facts is that 7,7% of programmers start programming at the age of 5–10, according to in 2018 Developer Skills Report.

Polish engineers are recognized as the most skilled Java developers and listed among the top five for other most popular programming languages, such as Python, Shell, and Ruby. Poland has two biggest cities, Warsaw and Krakow, that have become world-known for software development outsourcing. They also are listed among the top 50 cities on the Tholons Globalization Index.

Furthermore, Poland offers affordable prices for software development, actually, way lower than countries that may be most interested in product development. Also, due to the tight collaboration with US companies, Polish programmers understand the common security requirements and are very attentive to intellectual property protection.

China

China is one of the top countries for software development outsourcing. According to HackerRank, China might be the winner of the hypothetical “programming Olympics” if it existed. This country is really fast-developing in terms of technical skills, competence, and software development expertise. It releases up to 4.7 million tech graduates each year.

There is one interesting fact, which, however, might sound like an advantage and disadvantage of Chinese developers at the same time. There are a lot of rumors on the web that China tries to attract customers and demonstrate its powerful software development expertise by organizing cyberattacks in other countries from time to time. We can’t confidently say whether it is true or not, however, it’s the information that is worth considering before you choose an outsourcing partner.

The costs are much lower in China than in any other countries across Asia and the world. It’s one of the first reasons why many countries still hire Chinese software engineers to implement their product development plans.

Taiwan

The government of Taiwan has set the goal to transform the country into Asia’s Silicon Valley. It has motivated them to invest more in education. With these thoughts in mind, Taiwan has also started fastly growing its IT infrastructure and incorporating STEM education to bring up the highly educated population with a lot of technical and engineering talents.

Local software development companies offer services for much lower prices than in other countries. It’s one of the most significant advantages of Taiwan in the global IT arena. However, you must be ready to encounter some communication issues, since this country ranks the 40th among 80 countries by the English proficiency level.

Nevertheless, Taiwan still is an appealing location to outsource your software development project in 2020. It’s ranked #16 Best Countries for Business by Forbes.

Romania

Romania has recently invested a lot in the growth and development of the IT infrastructure. It has made the local software development market one of the biggest tech scenes in the world. The country offers access to a large pool of IT talents that can help you bring your software dream into reality. There are a lot of skilled engineers competent in various areas of software development.

Another significant advantage is that most Romanians speak English (it’s about 59%). It allows companies all around the world to easily communicate with outsourcing teams based in this country. Furthermore, Romania is located on the overlap of western Europe and US time zones, which makes it comfortable to connect with local software developers for meetings and project discussions.

Ukraine

Ukraine is one of the most famous outsourcing software development destinations in the world. The IT industry is rapidly evolving there. Ukraine has a lot of talented experts in various fields of software development. It’s particularly famous for its C++ programmers.

Despite the fact that far not everyone speaks English in Ukraine, most of the local IT community (80%) have high English language proficiency. So, communication mustn’t be a problem when working with a Ukrainian software development company. You would be surprised by the fact of how much the IT area is promoted there. There are a lot of hubs and special educational institutions that care about bringing up the next generations of skilled and highly professional software engineers. And it really pays off. There are a lot of them in Ukraine.

Another benefit of Ukraine is that its timezone is overlapped with US and UK times, so it must be easy to set meetings with local teams.

India

India is probably the first country you think about when hearing the term “outsourcing.” It is one of the most popular software outsourcing countries in the world. India is a perfect option for English-speaking companies since almost the entire Indian IT community speaks English well.

This country also has a STEM-oriented education system that allows growing IT talents and producing around 2.6 million STEM graduates every year. The recent data says that the revenue of the Indian IT industry is more than $150 billion today, and it is predicted to increase up to $350 Billion in revenue by 2025.

Indian developers are good in all areas of development and can provide high-quality code written in all the most popular programming languages. Due to the fact that India has lower living costs, local software companies offer less expensive services compared to other countries. Although, during recent years, we might witness a significant increase in production costs.

Brazil

Brazil is a home for many reliable software providers that offer their services for extremely affordable prices. They are known as the most demanded on the market due to their rich expertise, skills, talent, and ability to adjust to the client’s needs.

What’s most important, it’s very likely that you will not have communication problems when dealing with local teams, because 6.18 million of people are fluent English speakers.

The costs for living vary in different parts of Brazil, so the software developer’s salaries vary accordingly. However, the average salary is between $6K-33K, depending on their location and experience level. According to many resources, the average hourly rate is $35 (ranging from 25 to 40 dollars).

Egypt

Egypt has just recently entered rankings of the best countries to outsource software development. It is rated as only the 42nd among 50 top countries but, nevertheless, it still is a good option for those who want to save even more software production costs. Egypt has a lot of junior developers who offer their services for really low prices.

The country is rapidly developing its tech industry and has started incorporating STEM education too. However, it’s currently difficult to eliminate the gap in expertise between Egyptian developers and those in other countries. But if you need to build something comparatively simple, then Egypt is a location where you can do it for the lowest costs if even compared to countries in this list.

Conclusion

Software development is a tedious process that requires a lot of effort, patience, and talent to manage everything effectively and creatively. To free your brands and save costs, you can opt to outsource your software development project to another company located offshore.

These are the top ten countries to outsource software development projects in 2020. Hopefully, this overview will help you understand the specifics of the IT industry in each of these countries and make the right decision on your next technology partner. Let your product idea appear in the hands of trustworthy experts.