Eastern Europe is one of the hottest spots for nearshoring your IT services. The region hosts a massive senior tech talent pool – and it’s in a convenient time zone. That fact, combined with the cultural similarities, drives many UK and DACH businesses to partner up with Eastern European IT providers. With that said, picking the right country for your nearshoring software development needs depends on a few important factors.
How to choose your Eastern European nearshoring destination
Our experience with clients shows that nearshoring is a great option for companies that need high-quality and transparent IT work. Check out the following key factors that will help you choose an Eastern European destination that best fits your business needs:
- How many developers work there
- Which the most popular technologies are in this country
- Average pay ranges
- Geopolitical situation including: NATO & EU membership
- How focused their governments are on boosting IT investments
- Big IT companies’ branches in these countries
Once you collect information from different reliable sources, you can always refer to Clutch. It lets you browse each country by the technology and type of service you need. Clutch verifies businesses and makes sure all the companies listed on its website are represented correctly.
Top four Eastern European nearshoring heavens to choose from
Bulgaria
Bulgaria is our first choice as a fast-growing competitive IT market in the region. Remarkably, it has almost as many software companies (on Clutch) as Russia (more than 200), with a population 20 times smaller. Developers are about 0.3% of the population, which is more than the average for the region. It also features a predictable and steady economy with consistent growth and a flat 10% corporate tax. The country has been a NATO member state since 2004 and an EU member state since 2007. Since 2010 the GDP per capita has doubled.
In terms of talent, HackerRank rates Bulgarian engineers as second in Java, third in Python, and 12th overall in the entire world. The nation’s software developers are also the fifth most tenacious ones worldwide. Combine that with a high national English proficiency and you’ve got a recipe for nearshoring success. Tech giants such as HP and IBM have long had much of their tech support based in Sofia, Bulgaria. The most remarkable local tech branch is VMware’s largest R&D office for EMEA.
Turkey
Turkey’s ICT sector is one of the fastest-growing in the country, according to a 2020 Deloitte report. It grew by 22% year on year and it has employed more than 140,000 experts. In the same year, the government announced a plan to support the training of 1 million software developers via online courses. On HackerRank, its developers rank as #30, right below the US and the UK and above India. By far, the most popular coding language in the country is Java, followed by C++ and Python.
The Turkish investment climate benefits from favourable demographics. All the major tech giants you can think of, such as IBM, Amazon, Oracle and Microsoft, have offices in Turkey. Geopolitically, the country is also considered stable and has been a member of NATO for 70 years now. Despite local and regional turbulences, it has continued to attract tech investors. Freelancers are also open to working with global employers with pay ranges being lower now, as the Turkish Lira dropped lately.
Poland
Poland is one of the strongest economies in Eastern Europe with a bigger territory, population and workforce than most of the countries in Europe. In 2020, CEOWORLD ranked the 38 million people nation as the world’s third-best country to invest in. On Clutch, you can find more than 900 software development companies from Poland. The country’s software engineers rank number three in the world on HackerRank and number one on Java. However, the costs of setting up a new team and the average rates are higher than some alternatives.
Poland has a strong and solid economy for the region of Europe and has been a member of the EU since 2004 and NATO since 1999. Cisco Systems, Accenture, IBM and Amazon are among the tech giants you can see there. The Network Readiness Ranking 2020 in the Technology and Governance pillars demonstrated excellent market regulation and tech capabilities.
Romania
Romania has a good combination of population size, pay ranges and investment opportunities. Some estimates state that Romanian software developers number more than 100,000. Developers there are among the best in the world and rank number 20 on HackerRank. The most popular coding languages in the country are Java and C++. Romania is considered a tech hub and has several cities enjoying a vibrant startup ecosystem. The country has been a member of NATO since 2004 and the EU since 2007. The economic growth in the past decade has been steady and the recovery since the pandemic shock promises to be quick. As for tech giants, you may find the majority of the largest ones, such as Amazon, Oracle, Microsoft, etc.
Final thoughts
Eastern Europe has attractive conditions, pay ranges and tax policies. Countries from the region feature top-quality engineering education and have the World’s brightest talent. We focused on Bulgaria, Turkey, Poland and Romania based on their economic, talent and national security advantages, as well as their rich experience in IT nearshoring.
Choosing the best destination for your business requires very in-depth research and a lot of time. You need to consider various factors such as costs, environment, talent pool, and whatnot. However, choosing the best company that will fulfill your business needs requires the same amount of research. Software projects are costly and timely and you need to keep in mind that you will be “stuck” with your IT partner for months, if not years. Therefore, working with a company that corresponds to your work ethic and culture is just as important.
