10 Best Countries for Software Outsourcing in 2020

9 min readDec 17, 2020

Outsourcing software development can be an optimal solution for enterprises and startups to gain competitive advantages with a low budget. But finding locations to invest and outsource is not easy. For starters, what are the best countries for software outsourcing is a must you have to understand and target your search effectively.

This article will walk you through the top 10 countries for software outsourcing. Let’s check out!

I. Main Features of a Good Country for Software Outsourcing

This article categorizes the countries based on 5 key criteria for picking the most competent third-party contractor to optimize budget effectively. Considering a list of highlight factors and your company’s project goals, you can easily decide on where to develop software outsourcing ultimately.

A highly developed IT market

The main thing to put on the top list when determining the most appropriate countries is a highly developed IT market which ensures a wider talent pool of excellent developers. If the market creates favorable conditions for developers to rank and go further, you will strongly believe in your abroad qualified dedicated team as well as products they are responsible for.

Location and time zones

A variety of time zones among countries is a hard question for many enterprises to handle when collaborating with outsourcing agencies. Third-party companies tend to provide a team to facilitate regular communication between developers and engineers to ensure projects can be operated in a smooth manner.

Time zone differences are one of the unavoidable factors for both sides; however, you can schedule suitable working hours based on overlapping business hours and flexibility of engagement.

English language skill

English is a common language of the IT industry so that when working with foreign customers, English is a means of communication in most situations.

In outsourcing destinations we mention below, the majority of the software developers are proficient in English Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate levels while Advanced English is compulsory for Team Lead and Project Manager. In the list, we introduce many different countries where English is the second language so that the language barrier is not a big deal for you to choose.

Cultural differences

When inter-crossing culture, you have to understand deeply the culture of a particular country that you aim to pour your investment in. Cultural barriers are no way to remove but we can find solutions to cope with them. Local culture influences how people think and collaborate with others such as not working at the weekend or local holidays.

The best way is that you should adapt your communication and working methods to fit with both parties. Respect everyone’s culture with the same attitude as you do to your own culture.

Resources availability

In Ukraine, over 60% of approximately 100,000 IT professionals are from abroad, and the figures are predicted to double by 2020. The number of C++ and Unity3D software engineers is top ranking.

Poland provides nearly 250,000 software engineers with 20% involved in outsourcing with prevailing Java, Python and Ruby competencies, according to infoShare.

India’s outsourcing market offers about 3 million developers focused on C/C++, Java and web development. They expect the number of human resources will be 2-fold by the end of 2018 due to an increasing interest in AI, Machine Learning, and blockchain.

Once you identify your company’s specific outsourcing demands, what you do in the next step is to search for your potential third-party in the best countries to develop software outsourcing.

II. 10 Best Countries For Software Outsourcing

1. India

Rating (according to HackerRank): 76%.
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $18–40/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): intermediate, with a regional rating 55,49
Time zone: GMT+5:30.

When it comes to the best countries for software outsourcing, India is probably on the top list. India is the second-largest English-speaking country in the world, which makes competitive advantages to be the largest factory. In addition, India applies Western approaches to education, there are 2.6 million STEM graduates annually, which offers an abundance of tech specialists.

According to data collected from Gild, Indian engineers outsource their American counterparts on math and logic assessments with 11% of workloads. However, they are not highly focused on PHP and HTML.

India is believed to be an ideal environment for app development initiatives, both native and hybrid. Companies are engaged in Microsoft as well as open-source projects that are powered by machine learning, AI, GIS and blockchain technologies.

2. China

Rating (according to HackerRank): 100%
IT Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $18–40/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): intermediate, with a regional rating of 53.44.
Time zone: GMT+8.

HackerRank, a platform scoring engineering skills according to their coding skills, showed that China ranks in the first position of the best outsourcing countries. China is home to many of the fastest growing IT companies and produces as many as 4.7 million tech graduates every year.

There still remains some disadvantages in this country. First, only 10 million of China’s 1.3 billion residents speak English, which could be an obstacle for international companies to collaborate with Chinese software agencies.

3. Vietnam, a promising candidate in software outsourcing playground

Rating (according to HackerRank): 81,1%
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $18–40/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): basic, with a regional rating of 51,57%.
Time zone: GMT+7.

Recently, the IT outsourcing market in Vietnam has become more attractive than ever due to cost advantages and the high qualifications of software companies. According to Gartner’s Leading Global Locations for Offshore Services, Vietnam is an Asia Tier 1 emerging-market location and top 5 location for outsourcing. Vietnam is a top choice of companies in America, Europe, and Australia.

If you are searching for software outsourcing in Vietnam, why don’t you choose us — Designveloper? It is our honor to bring you the high-qualified service with a dedicated spirit in the field of software technology. Contact us!

4. Ukraine

Rating (according to HackerRank): 88,7%
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $25–50/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): basic, with a regional rating 52,13.
Time zone: GMT+3.

Ukraine has already attained the position of a country with the largest number of C++ programmers all over the world.

Although English isn’t common here, 80% of their IT community speaks English, so communication barriers are an absolutely concerning issue here. An outstanding advantage of outsourcing to Ukraine is a partially overlapping time zone with US and UK times and the same working culture.

5. The Philippines

Rating (according to HackerRank): 63,8%.
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $18–40/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): advanced, with a regional rating of 60,14.
Time zone: GMT+8.

Due to English playing a role as the official language in the Philippines, software developers are proficient in language skills. Contractors from the Philippines are noted to work faster than experts in other Asian countries. More than 190,000 technical experts work in the country, according to PISA (Philippine Software Industry Association). Experts predict that the number of tech specialists will reach 210,000 by 2022.

6. Romania

Rating (according to HackerRank): 81,9%.
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $20–25/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): upper-intermediate and advanced, with a regional rating 61,36.
Time zone: GMT+3.

Although the IT outsourcing market in Romania is on the small scale compared to Ukraine and Poland, the country has 116,000 IT professionals mostly working from Cluj-Napoca, Bucharest, and Timișoara. According to EF EPI, the level of English proficiency is 61.36 points, which rank high at 16th position regionally.

Besides, Romania is located at the intersection of the time zones of Western Europe and the United States, which makes it easy to interact with software developers.

7. Canada

Rating (according to HackerRank): 76%.
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $18–40/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): intermediate, with a regional rating of 55,49.
Time zone: GMT+5:30.

Canada builds a strong educational infrastructure with a high-qualified point on technology such as 18.6% of Canada’s annual graduates have STEM degrees.

When outsourcing to Canada, you can also make use of several perks, especially from US-based businesses. Due to Canada’s location close to the US, it facilitates communication with US clients.

Now, let’s move to the next country in our list of best countries for software outsourcing in 2020.

8. The Czech Republic

Rating (according to HackerRank): 90,7%.
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $25–50/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): upper-intermediate, with a regional rating of 59,30
Time zone: GMT+2.

Corporate taxes accounting for only 19% are one of the comparative advantages when choosing this destination. In addition, the IT sector is supported under favourable conditions by EU investments and grants. Brno alone, the second-largest city after Prague, there are more than 15,000 STEM graduates annually. Programmers here focus on 3 programming languages namely Java, JavaScript, and PHP.

9. Taiwan

Rating (according to HackerRank): 91,2%.
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $18–40/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): intermediate, with a regional rating of 54,18.
Time zone: GMT+8.

Taiwan is home to the seventh most skilled developers in the world according to HackerRank, with strong proficiencies in terms of functional programming and data structures. The highlight point is that the Taiwanese government has also made a huge investment to transform into “Asia’s Silicon Valley” with an upgraded STEM education system and IT infrastructure.

Although currently considering making English one of their official national languages, the language barrier still remains here because Taiwan only ranks 40th out of 80 countries in terms of English proficiency.

10. Poland

Rating (according to HackerRank): 98%.
Services costs (data from PayScale and Glassdoor): $25–50/hour.
Command in English (according to EF EPI): Upper-intermediate and advanced, with a regional rating of 63,76. English is the second language for 30% of the country’s population.
Time zone: GMT+2.

Poland provides the third-largest number of skilled programmers in the world, according to HackerRank. Their programmers ranked first in Java assessments and PHP and .NET is a common programming language here.

IT education in Poland is in high demand attracting students from all over Europe. This country topped the popularity rank in 2013 with the number of graduates reaching 15,000.

Poland is thus considered as an ideal destination with good working ethics and minimal cultural differences.

To wrap up, we hope that you are fully aware of the best countries for software outsourcing through this article. It is critical to limit your search, set an apparent system for communication and collaboration to achieve successful outsourcing relationships.

Feel free to leave your comment below to share with us your experiences and thoughts. And don’t hesitate to contact us if you need a faithful companion in software development.