Eastern Europe Software Development Outsourcing: Where to Hire Your Remote Team?

Both American and Western European companies have long appreciated the benefits of Eastern Europe software development outsourcing. While the advantages of running a software development process remotely are mostly clear, choosing the right destination is still challenging. That’s why in this article, we suggest comparing the Eastern Europe software outsourcing destinations and the opportunities each of them can promise. 

Why outsource your software development to Eastern Europe?

Below are just some of the benefits of outsourcing software development in Eastern Europe. Let’s take a deeper look at them.

Why Outsource Your IT: 3 Advantages of Hiring Global Tech Talent

• One of the greatest tech talent pools in the world. Latin America and Eastern Europe are the regions with the widest tech talent pools globally. There are almost one million software developers in Eastern Europe (see the number by countries below), while each of the local talent pools is famous for being focused on a particular technology, in addition to the most popular and demanded ones. 
• High level of technical education which is recognized globally. More than 15 European universities are listed in the Top 100 Best Universities List, while nearly 1 million foreign students enrol in European higher education institutions each year. 
• Competitive cost to hire developers. The hourly rate of Eastern Europe programmers is $25-100, depending on the developer’s core specialization, background, education, years of experience and project’s complexity. For comparison, the cost to hire a programmer from US-based software development companies is $100-150 per hour on average. 
• Favorable investment climate. Most Eastern European countries create favourable conditions for both domestic and foreign investors by providing subsidies, and tax incentives for research and development (R&D), simplifying the process of establishing a limited liability company (LLC) and hiring local developers both in-house and remotely. 
• Convenient location and time zone. Eastern European tech hubs are easy to reach from the major cities of Western Europe and the USA. The time zones Eastern European countries belong to are one-two hour ahead of Western European countries, and conveniently overlap with US business hours, so working out time zones will not be a challenge if you hire a remote development team in Eastern Europe. 

Last but not least, the main advantage of outsourcing software development in Eastern Europe is that there are several countries for you to consider. Ukraine, Poland and Romania are just some of them, so let’s analyze the IT industry in Eastern Europe, paying special attention to the most promising destinations to choose for your software development outsourcing. 

Top 6 Eastern European countries for hiring remote tech talent

So, what country should you choose for outsourcing software development to Eastern Europe? Let’s discover the main facts and specifics of six leading destinations for you to make a fully informed choice. 

Ukraine

Despite the current war in Ukraine, the Ukrainian IT sector is still standing. The Ukrainian IT industry is the only one in the Ukrainian economy that not only survived but stayed afloat, earning $3,1 billion in revenue for the last five months. 

Despite all the challenges, Ukraine still has one of the top-skilled software developers in Eastern Europe, can boast of a strong engineering tradition in higher education, and the cost to hire software developers in Ukraine perfectly meets the great quality of a final product that you will receive as a result. 

Poland

Poland is a country with the largest tech talent pool in Eastern Europe. However, the costs to hire Polish developers are significantly higher compared to Ukraine or Romania, for example. According to HackerRank, this country closes the top 3 of the best software development outsourcing destinations globally, and indeed, the level of local programmers’ tech-savviness is really high. Poland is also well-known for fintech development expertise, so you are welcome to consider this country for fintech, banking and crypto projects development. 

The Czech Republic

Czech Republic is another destination you can consider when comparing the options for Eastern Europe software development outsourcing. This country has a dynamically growing, stable and service-focused economy with a huge emphasis on human capital. The workforce in tech is well-educated and diverse, plus hiring a remote development team in Czechia promises no language barrier. In addition to being highly fluent in English, the programmers from this country can also speak German well. And as for the core specialization of Czechian developers, they are great at building cybersecurity solutions. 

Romania

Romania is also one of the winning countries to hire a remote development team. The local tech talent pool is pretty large, while Romanian programmers can boast of high English proficiency and tech-savviness. The country is best suitable for creating cloud and security solutions at a competitive cost. In addition, Romania has one of the most straightforward procedures for setting up a business entity in Eastern Europe. 

Bulgaria

While the tech talent pool is not so large in Bulgaria, compared to other locations, this is a country with the fairest gender equity in tech. HackerRank also recognized Bulgaria as one of the leading software development outsourcing destinations globally, featuring Bulgarian developers as the best skilled with JavaScript, Java and Python. The cost to hire tech talent in Bulgaria is pretty competitive as well, making it a perfect combination with a solid level of higher education and the absence of a language barrier. 

Hungary

Outsourcing your software development to Hungary can also be a wise decision. This is a country with Western European business culture and a strong engineering tradition in education. Hungarian developers are pretty skilled with modern tools and technologies, so the country occupies fifth place in a HackerRank rating for a reason. The cost to hire a remote development team in Hungary also meets the Eastern European market average,  while the local IT sector shows stable growth. 

Leading outsourcing destinations in Eastern Europe – a comparison chart

For your convenience, below you can find a chart comparing the talent pools, English Proficiency Indexes, overall rating and time zones of leading Eastern European software development destinations to better compare them side by side. 

How much does it cost to hire a remote tech team in Eastern Europe?

Now, let’s address one of the most important questions when it comes to software development outsourcing: How much will you pay to hire a remote development team in a specific country? Below is a detailed breakdown by role and by country with the total cost of hiring a tech team per month. 

So, the cost to hire a remote development team is roughly $11,000-17,000 per month, depending on the country. For more insights, feel free to use our salary calculator or get in touch with our hiring experts for more accurate estimates. 

How to hire software developers in Eastern Europe  – viable hiring tactics

While the cost to hire a remote tech team in Eastern Europe is pretty competitive, there are some additional hiring tactics that can help you save your time and decrease recruitment risks. 

Augment your in-house team

In one of our recent articles, we discovered how IT team augmentation differs compared to other software development outsourcing models. Long story short, team augmentation means an opportunity to scale your in-house team with remote developers in response to an increased workload or specific skill lack. Given a wide and diverse tech talent pool in Eastern Europe, each of the countries we have overviewed above can be a good choice to hire an extended team from. 

Bridge experts are here to help you with making the best hiring decisions. Contact us now to hire great candidates in Eastern Europe and make them a part of your team! 

Hire freelance developers

Hiring freelance developers seems like the most intuitive option when you need to run a development process remotely. Indeed, such a tactic comes with significant benefits. It allows you to hire talent with the necessary background and expertise, while still saving some resources since the price for freelance development services is usually flexible and negotiable.

But as for the flip side of the coin, keep in mind that not all freelance programmers are ready to commit to your project and be fully engaged, which directly affects the productivity and quality of the final product. In addition, managing a freelance development team requires strong leadership skills and practical experience. 

Consider IT recruitment

IT recruitment services are another quick-win strategy when it comes to hiring a remote development team. In this case, you have to partner with a talent sourcing vendor like Bridge and leverage its expertise instead of hiring on your own. The latter tactic, in turn, always comes with overhead costs and additional risks, especially if you have no practical experience in hiring tech candidates. 

Bridge experts would be happy to facilitate the process of hiring a remote development team in Eastern Europe for you. Our strong hiring expertise coupled with the premium software we use to find and select the best candidates can speed up the recruitment process and cut extra costs. The only thing you have to do is to interview the suggested candidates using our customer-only hiring platform and proceed with onboarding the best one to your project.

Apply for premium IT recruitment services right now to gather a Silicon-valley-caliber tech team! 

Outreach to candidates with sourcing-as-a-service

If you aren’t ready to run a full-scaled hiring campaign right now, get started by taking a look at the pool of potentially suitable candidates. Sourcing-as-a-service is an opportunity to get a list of vetted programmers, whose skill set and background perfectly match your job requirements. You, in turn, can either proceed with interviewing them right now or keep them in mind for the future. 

Get started with sourcing-as-a-service for remote teams today!