title

Software Developers from Europe in 2024: Which Country Suits Your Project?

Sep 22, 2022
general.png

Eastern Europe has become a popular software development location in recent years, owing to its attractive cost-to-quality ratio and other advantages. Eastern European countries such as Ukraine, Poland, and Romania are among the top destinations when it comes to hiring a software developer. 


Each country in this region has its own strengths in terms of local software engineers. How to be sure which country will be suitable for your project goals? Let’s find out in our guide on Top Eastern European Countries for software development. 


Ukraine 

Ukraine.png

Ukraine has appeared as one of Europe's most prominent and rapidly expanding destinations for global software development services. Year after year, the country's software development sector grows. The country provides numerous advantages, ranging from a large pool of IT talent and extensive expertise to cost effectiveness and strong technical education. Because English is spoken by 80% of their IT community, communication barriers are minimal. 

  • IT hubs: Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Lviv
  • Popular languages: React, Ruby, Java, Python,Node.js, C++, Flutter
  • Number of specialists: 200K+
  • Average rates: $25-100

Rational IT prices do not adversely impact software quality. Ukrainian developers have exceptional technical abilities and use agile development techniques to create successful and compatible products. According to HackerRank, Ukrainian developers rank first in security and fifth in mathematics and distributed systems.


Poland

Poland.png

The country's economy is rapidly expanding, making it an appealing software development destination for a variety of international organizations. Poland is thought to have professionals with a high EF EPI index, ranking 14th in Europe. The Polish tech talent pool has approximately 300k developers, which is comparable to the population of some small European countries.

  • IT hubs: Warsaw, Krakow, Wroclaw, Katowice, Poznań
  • Popular languages: JavaScript, Java, Python, .NET, PHP
  • Number of specialists: 295K+
  • Average rates: $25-100

In terms of skills, Polish developers currently rank fourth in the world according to the Top Coder ranking


Romania

Romania.png

Romanian developers are ranked 23rd on SkillValue and 20th on TopCoders. Experts in this location are mostly fluent in English. According to HackerRank, Romania is ranked 20th in the world, ahead of other European countries. Romania has extensive knowledge in a variety of industries. Large corporations such as Microsoft, Huawei, and Oracle have chosen to focus their efforts in this direction.

  • IT Hubs: Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timișoara, Craiova, Iași, Sibiu, Brașov, and Oradea
  • Popular languages: Java, .NET, PHP, Python, JavaScript, Angular, React
  • Number of specialists: 139K+
  • Average rates: $25-50

The IT industry's growth accelerated in 2022, reaching $8.16 billion. Furthermore, software and IT services exports account for 1.9% of Romanian GDP. Romania ranked 28th in the AT Kearney Global Services Location Index as a top software development destination.


Hungary 

Hungary.png

One of the most dynamic sectors in Hungary is the software development industry. With approximately 184k specialists employed, the country has a significant share of the Eastern European IT market. Hungarian developers are ranked fourth in the SkillValue index.

  • IT hubs: Budapest, Debrecen, Szeged
  • Popular languages: PHP, JavaScript, HTML/CSS, Python, SQL, React
  • Number of specialists: 184K+
  • Average rates: $31-60

Because the majority of the population in Hungary is fluent in English, developers' communication skills will not be a significant disadvantage. However, they are not the most fluent or well-versed non-native English speakers, so there is a chance that minor communication issues will arise.


Czech Republic

Czech Republic.png

The growth of the Czech IT industry is being fueled by the strong inflow of high-value-added projects from local IT companies, as well as the interest of global investors. 

  • IT hubs: Prague, Olomouc, Brno, and Saarbrücken
  • Popular languages: Java, PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, C#, and C++
  • Number of specialists: 150K+
  • Average rates: $34-53

The Czech Republic's business environment is appealing to foreign investors because of its high level of technical education, large talent pool, and in-depth technical competencies across multiple industries. This country is ranked ninth among the top software developers by HackerRank. 

Hiring Czech developers is much less expensive than hiring in the United States or Western Europe, though still more expensive than in Ukraine. 


Bulgaria

Bulgaria.png

Bulgaria is another Eastern European country that employs a large number of development professionals. There are currently 70K+ software engineers employed. 

  • IT hubs: Varna, Sofia and Burgas
  • Popular languages: Ruby, React, C++, Flutter, Java, Python
  • Number of specialists: 70K+
  • Average rates: $35-50

Bulgarian (as well as Ukrainian) software engineers have an impressive average score of 87.2% across all challenges. Moreover, 76% of Bulgarians (aged 15-34) speak English. 


So, which Eastern European country should you go with for software development? 

Sure, after all mentioned above it is quite difficult to pick a country with which you would stick in terms of software development. All Eastern European countries have unique advantages, such as: 

  • Rich talent pool
  • High level of education
  • Expressive tech background
  • Fair rates
  • Astonishing soft and English skills  

Coming back to our main question - “which country to choose?” - you can go by 2 ways at least: 

  • Look for developers by adding recruiters to your team. 

Of course, it's a fine option when you don’t need to rush. 

or

Devler.io is the exclusive community of professional devs only from Eastern Europe. This platform can provide you a Top Developer, on a full-time or part time basis depending on your project needs. 

Our developers are independent which means they work directly with you. Also we have a strong vetting process. We are confident that every programmer at Devler.io is expertised so our clients deal only with Devler professionals with English fluency and great soft skills. 

Find offshore European developers with Devler - fill a contact form and we will be in touch with you shortly.