There are around 200K Ukrainian developers, 4K+ tech companies, 110+ R&D centers, and 1K+ tech events held annually in Ukraine. Thanks to the vibrant tech environment, Ukraine is becoming an increasingly popular software development destination for foreign businesses — 100 out of Fortune 500 companies and 20% of global leaders have their remote development teams in Ukraine.
If you're a business owner currently looking at several potential remote development destinations or you've had an unsuccessful outsourcing experience and are now looking for a more reliable outsourcing destination, you're in the right place.
Keep reading as we guide you through remote software development in Ukraine.
Software development market statistics of the tech countries — Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belarus, and Croatia.
How Many Ukrainian Developers Use Java, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, Python, and PHP?
In our LinkedIn research, we've analyzed the number of Java, JavaScript, Ruby on Rails, Python, and PHP programmers in Ukraine, the US, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands. Though Ukraine's population is much smaller than the populations of the US, the UK, and Germany, the country leads in several technologies.
Share of developers in different technologies by country
For example, there are 9K PHP programmers in Ukraine, and only 7K PHP programmers in the US. Ukraine is also first in JavaScript (8K programmers), Python (3K software engineers), Ruby on Rails (1K software programmers), and PHP (9K software developers) compared to the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands.
How Many PHP Programmers Are There in Ukraine and the World?
How many PHP developers are there in Ukraine, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany?
There are 9K PHP developers in Ukraine. The country also has the most even distribution of PHP programmers by seniority level.
How Many Java Programmers Are There in Ukraine and the World?
How many Java developers are there in Ukraine, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany?
Ukraine ranks 3rd among other countries. There are 8K Java developers in Ukraine. Ukraine has a sufficient number of Java programmers of all seniority levels, which means that company owners can build a team of Java developers in Ukraine that meets their unique business needs.
How Many Ruby on Rails Programmers Are There in Ukraine and the World?
How many Ruby on Rails developers are there in Ukraine, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany?
Ukraine stands 2nd in the number of Ruby on Rails developers. There are 1K Ruby on Rails programmers in Ukraine. While the majority of Ruby on Rails developers in the US, the UK, Germany, and the Netherlands are seniors, Ukraine shows a more even distribution of Ruby on Rails developers by seniority levels.
How Many Python Programmers Are There in Ukraine and the World?
How many Python developers are there in Ukraine, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany?
Ukraine ranks 2nd among other countries in the number of Python developers. There are 3K Python programmers in Ukraine. Most Ukrainian developers specializing in Python are seniors, while middle and junior professionals take equal shares of the labor market.
How Many JavaScript Programmers Are There in Ukraine and the World?
How many JavaScript developers are there in Ukraine, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany?
Ukraine takes 2nd place in the number of JavaScript programmers. There are 8K JavaScript developers in Ukraine. JavaScript engineers in Ukraine are evenly distributed by seniority levels.
UpWork Research: Distribution of Programmers by Technology
Upwork research on the share of developers in each country by technology
We've also compiled research on the share of developers in Java, Ruby on Rails, Python, JavaScript, and PHP in the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ukraine. JavaScript is the leading technology in all countries.
Other technologies differ from country to country — for example, in Ukraine, PHP is the second most widespread technology, Java and Python go next, while Ruby on Rails lags behind.
Research Methodology
This study was compiled with the help of a professional LinkedIn tool — Recruiter. With Recruiter, we gained the opportunity to access such specific search options as Ukrainian developer specialization details and their exact years of experience.
The programming languages were chosen based on the global programming languages popularity index TIOBE.
For the research, we analyzed the overall number of software engineers in the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and Ukraine separately.
Apart from the overall number of developers by technology in each country analyzed, we also determined their seniority levels by way of sorting developer profiles according to their years of experience — junior (0–3 years of experience), middle (3–6 years of experience), and senior (6+ years of experience).
To find out the shares of developers by technology in each country under study, we used UpWork, a global freelance platform for tech professionals.
*Our research shows overall tendencies on tech talent markets and may be incomplete as the results represent the data that is available on LinkedIn and UpWork only.
Why Central and Eastern European countries are a sweet spot for global companies seeking high-end tech at a sensible price.
European Tech: Ukrainian Software Development Market in 2020
Number of software developers in Ukraine and Europe
The Ukrainian developer population keeps growing — there are already 200K software engineers in the country. However, the number is increasing continuously — each year, the Ukrainian tech talent pool adds 36K new IT graduates.
Kyiv is among top tech European hubs
There are 5 main IT hubs in Ukraine — Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Lviv. Kyiv is the largest city and consequently the leader in the number of software developers — around 41% of Ukrainian developers work and live there. Kharkiv goes next with 14%, while Lviv takes 3rd place with more than 10% of the country's tech professionals.
There are on average 4 programmers per 1000 citizens in Ukraine
On average, there are 4 tech workers per 1K people in Ukraine according to the State of European Tech report. However, the numbers vary from city to city, for example, in Kyiv, there are 11.7 developers per 1K citizens, in Kharkiv — 9.7, in Lviv — 7.6, and in Dnipro — 4.8.
Ukraine takes the 2nd place by the share of freelance developers among other European countries
Interestingly, Ukrainian developers rank 2nd in Europe among countries with the biggest numbers of freelance software engineers.
Get data on the state of the Ukrainian IT market and discover why Ukraine is one of the top destinations for outsourcing software development in 2022.
The Portrait of a Ukrainian Developer
29% of Ukrainian developers have 3–5 years of experience, 25% have worked in IT for 1–2 years, 17% of Ukrainian developers have 6 to 10 years of experience, 13% have less than 1 year of experience, and 12% have worked in the tech industry for more than 10 years according to the DOU research.
The majority of Ukrainian developers are middle — 36%. 27% are junior, 19% are senior, and 11% are team leads.
Portrait of a Ukrainan Software Developer
There's a strong stereotype among Ukrainians that the main motivation to work in the tech industry is high salaries. However, the research puts an end to this point of view — while 63% of Ukrainian developers indicate the financial perspective as one of the reasons they chose their profession, 78% state that interest in technologies was the prevailing reason to build a career in tech.
No wonder 52% of tech employees in Ukraine find their current job interesting, while 31% are excited about their job.
It's also a well-known fact that Ukrainians are very hardworking — 52% of programmers in Ukraine work 40–60 hours per week, 38% work between 20 and 40 hours, 3% of Ukrainian developers work more than 60 hours weekly, while only 1% of programmers in Ukraine spend less than 20 hours working per week.
The majority of software developers in Ukraine collaborate with foreign businesses based in Europe and the US, so their English level is pretty high — 34% of Ukrainian developers have an intermediate level of English, 34% speak upper-intermediate English, 13% are advanced English speakers, and only 4% admit that their English is at an elementary level.
Which Countries Outsource to Ukraine? Research of German and Dutch Businesses
Top regions where DACH region companies outsource
To find out which countries are the most popular outsourcing destinations for German and Dutch businesses, we've been communicating with business executives that have been outsourcing software development for the last 3 years.
As a result, we determined the most popular outsourcing regions — Eastern Europe takes 1st place with 75.58% of companies, Asia ranks 2nd with 20.48%, Africa is 3rd with 3.15% of companies, and South America is 4th, with only 0.79% of companies to chose this destination.
Where do German companies outsource?
Businesses based in Germany prefer Ukraine — 17% of respondents indicated Ukraine as their outsourcing destination. 12% of German respondents chose India as their remote development location, 10% have opted for Romania, 9% outsource to Poland, and 4% have a remote team in Belarus.
Where do Dutch companies outsource?
Among Dutch businesses, 18% of respondents outsource to India, and 14% have chosen Ukraine as their remote development destination. An equal number of Dutch businesses outsource to Poland and Romania — 9%, while 5% have chosen Belarus.
Why Hire Developers in Ukraine With Grid Dynamics?
Grid Dynamics is a digital-native technology services provider that accelerates growth and bolsters competitive advantage for Fortune 1000 companies. The company has 15+ years of experience in digital transformation and software innovation, most notably open-source cloud-native programs.
Our clients have the option of choosing the engagement model which best suits their requirements, including team extension, dedicated teams, pod teams, and remote development centers. Grid Dynamics has offices throughout Eastern Europe and Central Europe and Latin America, meaning that we have the resources to cater to the needs of companies of any size, no matter where they are located.
The team Extension process is simple:
- Share your business needs and we'll help you structure your requirements.
- Interview and hire developers using the tools and methods you like.
- Start working with your remote developers.
- Collaborate with your team, while we provide all the necessary ongoing support.
When you build an offshore development team with us, you’re able to stay fully focused on managing your project, while we take care of office space, HR, staff retention, and all the administrative issues.
Want to learn more about setting up a remote development team in Ukraine with Grid Dynamics? Simply contact us via the form below, and our experts will get back to you shortly.
