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Software Engineering Talent in Eastern Europe: Top 6 Software Vendors

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Nowadays Eastern European tech talent pool is gaining momentum and continues to scale attracting clients all around the globe. European software developers are recognized as leading tech companies and reliable specialists delivering high-quality software and being proficient in the latest tech trends and most popular programming languages in lots of different industries. 

We would like to dedicate this article to scrupulous exploring the current state of the Eastern European outsourcing services, specifics of its IT industry, and discuss the peculiarities and benefits of partnering with software development companies in Eastern Europe. 

Eastern European software development market overview

Eastern Europe is included in the top 30 destinations all over the world where businesses outsource their software development. The outsourcing software development in Eastern Europe is one of the most extensive tech talent pools that continue to rise, encompassing practically all Eastern European countries.

The demands for European software developers remain high, causing the foundation of more and more software engineering companies, thereby increasing the competition.

Worldwide successful brands dedicated the R&D or custom software development services to European developers due to their high level of skills, affordable monthly software development rates, and other reasons we are going to highlight further in this article.

To mention some of these software companies in Europe to prove our words, these are Google, Microsoft, Oracle, Samsung, and others. The selection of the particular European country depends on the requirements of clients related to technological stack, domain expertise, experience in the market, specifics of released software solutions, etc.

Reasons to outsource software development to Eastern Europe

Based on reviews from our clients and other companies that used the service of Eastern Europe software outsourcing, we have collected the top reasons why you should consider outsourcing to Eastern Europe and how your business can profit from this cooperation.

European developers have higher tech education

As you may know, these days there are many experienced software developers of different specializations that do not have a Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in software engineering or other related subjects. It is clear that modern software courses or IT schools can provide you with all the required skills and knowledge to become professional software developers. However, developers with higher education are more welcomed. 

European developers pay much attention to their education right after school graduation. Another advantage of European education is that you can start the learning path at any age and any national technical university you want to receive a diploma.

Four or six years of education in universities or colleges cannot be replaced and provide fundamental knowledge during 4-6 months of IT courses. 

Tech talent pool is evolving

The number of people who graduate from technical specializations continues to grow. According to the latest statistics research in 2022, the approximate number of experienced software developers in Europe entirely equals 6.1 million. The biggest centers within European countries also change.

Now there are three leaders in the modern outsourcing market—the United Kingdom, Germany, and France where Germany has the largest number of high-quality specialists—more than 800,000. These facts eliminate any problems with hiring as the variety is surely vast, and you can choose the best matching company for your case. 

Cost-effective partnerships

European developers are known for the reasonable hourly rates compared to the U.S-based companies, for instance. Of course, it is vital to understand that the outsourcing software market is evolving nonstop.

Eventually, the demands of developers, as well as their expectations of duties and payrolls, change and grow. Developer salaries continue to increase due to the overall economic changes within Eastern European countries, while the ranges of the development services may remain the same. 

For example, Altamira is a company proficient in software development in Eastern Europe that covers several countries — Slovakia, and Ukraine, and also office in the UK. The approximate hourly rates for each of these countries are quite different and also depend on the developer’s skills and tasks. 

Based on our experience, a dedicated team is the best choice for custom software solutions that entail continuous cooperation. As a client, you receive a team of developers that works only on your projects, and therefore the team rates can be a little lower than hiring1 or 2 developers for staffing.

Cultural similarities

Eastern European culture is similar to the cultures of their clients from Western Europe, the USA, Canada, OAE, and others. 

Talking about the communication aspect, English is widely spoken among Eastern European software development companies and this knowledge is a decisive factor in hiring developers in order to avoid future issues with clients. 

In our company, we know how important communication is with the outsourcing company. The concerns about poor communication and complex remote team management are supposed to be common things for our clients.

After many years of working with different customers, we have succeeded to establish the perfect approach to ensure smooth communication. It includes frequent online meetings with the team where all details can be discussed, and project management tools like Jira for assigning and tracking task execution.

Strong data security

Each industry requires specific data security laws and regulations for software development services, for instance, HIPAA for healthcare.

GDPR is a must-have data security regulation for European software developers. This law unites all data protection practices and standards in order to protect the private information of  EU residents.

In addition to official regulations, European software development companies ensure signing all documents that regulate copyright and non-disclosure information about the development process, providing individual policy for each client.

Eastern European software development companies are easily accessible

Eastern European companies are in the winning location from clients from other parts of Europe, as well as the USA and Canada, Western Europe, and other Eastern European countries. The time difference between European companies reaches no more than 2-3 hours, which has absolutely no impact on the communications and provides the ability of frequent offline meetings.

The difference between most Eastern European countries and the USA equals 7-8 hours. It is also convenient as the working hours of the client and software development team commonly correlate, meaning nobody will have to go for an online meeting at 5 am or 10 pm.

Additionally, there are regular flights to Eastern European countries, so offline meetings will be no trouble. Our clients have visited us in the Ukrainian and other offices numerous times during the development process. 

However, if this option is needed, our team is ready to adjust to all requirements of clients as we value their trust and want to help them resolve all their issues and concerns asap.

Primary concerns about partnering European software developers

Due to our vast experience in communicating with foreign clients, we know that lots of them have some concerns about outsourcing type of cooperation. Here are the common hesitations and risks that appear to companies when they start looking for outsourcing software development in Eastern Europe, and how European vendors process and resolve them.

The difference in the tax collection processes

The concern with tax payments is supposed to be common for outsourcing software development in Eastern Europe due to the different tax codes within the country of client and software vendors.

The responsibility of management and paying taxes are assigned to the technical partner. For you as a client, we recommend exploring the tax system of the country you are going to outsource your software development.

Eastern European countries usually provide two types of cooperation with their specialists—hired developers and subcontractors that are considered as entrepreneurs that provide services of software development to the company.

In the second case, the taxes the company pays are reduced. Both variants are reliable as these types of cooperation are widely used in outsourcing. In order to avoid risks related to incorrect tax payments, you need to ensure the transparency of financial documents you receive from your software partner. 

Remote communication and team management

Another common concern about software outsourcing is regular communication and remote team management, considering the different cultures and time zones. As we have already mentioned before, the time zones within Eastern European countries are convenient for clients from West Europe as well as the US.

The way and regularity of your communications depend on your initially defined requirements, as the professional team has to be ready to adjust to your conditions. This also relates to the project management and tracking tools that will be used on your project.

A small tip is to explore the delivery and internal business processes structure within the company of your software vendor. If the workflows are set clearly and accurately, then this approach will be guaranteed on your project as well. 

Data leakage

Our team is aware of the importance of data security within the whole development process. All security aspects and demands have to be strictly documented in the NDAs, providing access to the project details only to the peculiar specialists within the vendor’s company.

NDA can also entail the prohibition of using the design mockups and functionality for portfolio and social media promotion until the full launch. 

Weak processes

The process of development and delivery of software solutions has to be clearly defined with a set of tasks that need to be executed and deadlines. Even if the potential vendor is proficient in all technologies needed for your project, if the process is not set, then it has to be a big concern for you.

No developer skills and experience cannot cover the lacking organization during the software development process.

Each project has its priority, set of tasks, budget, deadlines, and so on. If the software development partner cannot define the precise approach to the outsource software development, then all these factors will be confused or neglected, which also can cause technical debt.

Unrealistic expectations from cooperation

Your potential software vendor must be transparent with you under any obstacles. It relates to the real duration of the project development, required team members, the real cost of such type of software, current hourly rates and potential increase of them, and so on.

All these factors have to be discussed before you commit the outsource software development in Eastern Europe. The next step is to specify the precise scope of work on the project.

The scope also can be scaled or adjusted during the development, but all business requirements should be clear and defined to the team. As the project scope is agreed upon from your and your software development partner sides, then here is when the development process can only start.

The best resources to hire talented Eastern European engineers

As we have already figured out, the Eastern European software development market is extensive and is not going to stop evolving. When you come to a selection of your potential software vendor, you can find numerous outsourcing companies, their description, and reviews online.

However, not all these websites are reliable sources of information, especially if we talk about corporate websites where companies surely will praise their service as much as possible in most cases.

Our sincere recommendation is to find trusted and credible online platforms where you can read the relevant information about European outsourcing software development companies.

You should also check the number of team members, the releases projected, testimonials, link to official websites and social media accounts, and also reviews from their past or current employees on how the internal processes are structured. 

Therefore, we prepared the compilation to be the top-quality online resource for searching and hiring talented software development in Eastern Europe.

Clutch

Clutch is considered to be the most popular international website for software development companies all over the world, and Eastern Europe is not an exception. By entering this resource, you get access to an extended library of information about various subjects related to software development.

For instance, Clutch has an online blog where content writers regularly post articles related to trends in software development in Eastern Europe, overviews of different software markets in industries, provide readers with fresh statistics, revenue by industries and more.

Also, your Clutch team creates compilations of top software development companies split into categories by industries, most popular programming languages, services, locations, and so on.

And of course, there you can find thousands of profiles of different software development outsourcing companies headquartered in Europe. Each profile contains a short description of services, proven reviews from clients, relevant hourly rates, a link to the business website, and a portfolio. You can filter the companies by location or explore the profiles of vendors that you have already noticed.

Altamira has 50 proven reviews from our clients each of which has passed through a complex confirmation stage to be visible on our account. Comparing to the similar software development companies you can find on Clutch, we can proudly say that our results are great.

LinkedIn

Despite LinkedIn being social media, it is supposed to be a professional network for software developers and companies where the connections really matter. Practically all Eastern European software development outsourcing companies create LinkedIn accounts for various purposes:

  • To add credibility to their brand and describe the services;
  • Expand the client database by adding target client to the network;
  • Reach out to their potential customer in private messages;
  • Research the information about potential clients (industry, company size, team, and so on).

We are sure you have already been acquainted with this social media application. You just type requests—location, technologies, developer skills, job positions, company names, etc. to receive the overall results according to your need.

After you select the best matches, you can additionally surf the corporate websites, primary servicesproducts they offer, check their Clutch account. If you are ready to do it, we would recommend choosing the direct messages with the company CTO or filling in the contact form on their website. Then the quick response is guaranteed to save you time.

Freelance websites like UpworkFiverr

Cooperation with freelancers could be a good choice at the beginning of your business path when your startup was only looking for investment and potential executors of their tasks. If your tech startup needs to be scaled enabling business growth, then hiring freelancers is not a good idea for your time, money, and efforts.

As freelance developers who business for themselves can provide you with no guarantees in deadlines, spending, and abilities to execute all your tasks correctly. 

Nevertheless, we mentioned this type of website not for nothing. The particular part of software development outsourcing companies in Eastern Europe promotes their services and outstaff developers on various trusted freelance platforms like Upwork, Freelance, Upwork, and others. Some of them are willing to reach out to more target clients, while others use such platforms for boosting the promotion of their service to a wider audience. 

Top 6 software companies in Europe

As we have already figured out that the European tech talent pool is scalable, eventually the variety of potential software development partners for your project is vast. We would like to provide you with a compilation of top Eastern European software developers that have gone beyond European borders.


Altamira
Altamira is a software development company that covers an extensive range of Eastern and Western European locations, particularly Slovakia, the United Kingdom, and Ukraine. The company provides a scale-up proposition for the technology startups in the most urgent moment of their growth, artificial intelligence and machine learning consulting services, dedicated teams, and team extensions. The availability of offices in different Eastern European countries ensures the opportunity to hold offline regular meetings with clients to discuss the project details.
Altamira
Altamira is a European custom software development company delivering high-quality software for the purpose of digital transformation to clients’ businesses since 2011. The company includes numerous top-notch specialists and offers the services of custom software development from scratch, MVP development, web development, mobile development, technology consulting services, UI/UX designs concept, staff augmentation services, IoT with hourly rates starting from $35. Altamira development team has extensive domain and technical expertise, successfully releasing projects in trading, retail, gambling & betting, real estate, and others. More details you can check out from the portfolio.
Intellectsoft
Intellectsoft is another Eastern European software development company that was founded in Eastern Europe but now has grown into a large network with offices in Norway, USA, Ukraine, and United Kingdom. The company supports its clients in the adoption of innovative technologies within their businesses. Despite the not huge number of employees, Intellectsoft offers quite a vast range of services that include IT consulting, product engineering, custom software development, and dedicated teams. The hourly rates of Intellectsoft developers cost approximately $50-99, which is higher than other European companies, as this vendor works also as an American-based team.
STX Next
Founded in Poland in 2005, STX Next presents itself as a Python software development company. However, the company developers are proficient in Java, Node.js, React Native, Django as well. Having 400+ specialists on staff, STX Next provides the services of consulting and end-to-end software development for clients from different industries and specializations, particularly fintech, IoT, travel, and more. The average developer rates start from $50-99, similarly to Intellectsoft. As for Eastern Europe, such hourly rates are considered to be overpriced.
Mentormate
Mentormate is an Eastern European custom software company, headquartered in Bulgaria and USA. In addition to four Bulgarian and one American office, the company also covers Sweden. The number of successfully released projects by Mentormate company really impresses as according to the official website, the total number reaches 1400+ software solutions. The variety of services and technologies are quite common for Eastern European software development companies – web software and mobile app development, UIUX design, cloud computing, staff augmentation, and solution maintenance. As we have already mentioned, you can check out the real reviews from their clients, however, most of these reviews are fresh starting from 2021.
Intellias
Intellias is a powerful European software development company with offices located in Ukraine, Poland, and Germany. The number of software engineers within the company has already reached 2000 and continues to grow. Intellias is known for its extended consulting services related to technology advisory, digital services, web development, and solution design. On their account, there are numerous successful partnerships with worldwide brands like Deloitte, KIA, LG, Nokia, and others. Despite the great sizes of the company, the hourly rates of developers start from $50-99, depending on the level of their skills.

FAQ

The variety of credible software development companies in Eastern Europe is really huge, and you should pay attention to their reputation and structure of processes. Among the top European software development companies, we would like to mention Altamira, STX Next, Intellectsoft.
The hourly rates of developers depend on the experience and level of skills of each developer. The average rates in Eastern Europe start from $35-50 depending on the country and company.

Why is Eastern Europe a good source of talented software engineers? 

Summing up the advantages and potential risks of outsourcing to Eastern Europe, we can surely say that the European tech pool is really scalable and talented. Each software project will find the perfect software vendor to build and deliver a high-quality technological solution.

European engineers are proficient in different technologies and innovations we have mentioned in the post above, being capable of building software apps of different types and requirements.

At last, we would like to provide you with tips from our client experience on how to choose and hire a reliable software vendor for your project:

  • Explore the company’s infrastructure, number of employees, level of their retention,  and organization of internal processes, as these factors mainly define the structure and transparency of your cooperation;
  • Learn the portfolio—project industries and specifics, the state after release, and feedback from clients about the partnership;
  • Examine the CVs and proven experience of software developers that will work on your project;
  • Find out if the potential software vendor is capable of providing a seamless development process under any circumstances like employee replacement, different time zones, and so on.

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