59% of global companies hire offshore programmers to optimize software development costs. And while offshore developer rates vary from country to country, you can still save from 40% to 70% of total costs. For example, an average hourly rate for a senior developer in the US is $65–$130 per hour while in Ukraine it's around $30–$60 per hour. Offshore software development rates in Latin America range from $35 to $70; in Eastern Europe, an hour of developer’s work will cost $30–65; the average rates of offshore developers in Asia and Africa are $20–45.
Offshore Software Development Rates Comparison
Offshore Software Development Rates by Region
| Destination | Rates | Countries Included |
| Eastern Europe | $30-$65 | Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belarus, Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia |
| Latin America | $35-$70 | Mexico, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Chile, Argentina |
| Africa | $25-$45 | Morocco, Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa |
| Asia | $20-$45 | India, China, Philippines, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines |
The offshore software development rates comparison provided below is a rough guideline as they ignore the differences between various cooperation models. To find out more accurate outsourcing rates by country, you’ll need to communicate with vendors directly.
Get outsourcing rates in Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa as well as tips on how to choose the country for offshore development.
Outsourcing Rates by Country
Ukrainian Developer Hourly Rates
On average, a median Ukrainian developer hourly rate is $30–$60.
- Junior Software Engineer Hourly Rate: $19–$25
- Middle Software Engineer Hourly Rate: $26–$38
- Senior Software Engineer Hourly Rate: $39–$60
Ukraine continues to be a hotbed of growth and a sweet spot for software development outsourcing offering the best price to quality ratio.
Polish Developer Hourly Rates
According to our research, the outsourcing rates among Polish software development companies range between $20 and $75 per hour. If you choose one of the outsourcing companies in Poland, the average minimum software development rate will be $43, while the maximum average will be $65.
Brazilian Developer Hourly Rates
Hiring a programmer in Brazil will cost you around $15–$60 per hour . The range varies depending on the city, years of experience and skill set. However, based on our research, you will have to pay $15+ to a junior software engineer in Brazil, while a senior programmer will cost you up to $60. That said, the average hourly rate in Brazil ranges between $35–$50 which means that average day rate in Brazil is around $280–$400.
Argentinian Developer Hourly Rates
Argentina is a popular outsourcing destination thanks to it little time difference with the US clients and considerable average rates ranging from $35 to $50 per hour. Junior software engineers expect the lowest hourly rate starting from $13 per hour, while senior programmers expect to be paid around $42–$50 per hour.
Indian Developer Hourly Rates
Hiring offshore developers in India will cost you around $19–$40 per hour. India is a popular outsourcing destination for big enterprises and international corporations. And just like with any outsourcing destination, the cost of hiring Indian developers will vary depending on the level of expertise you’re seeking.
Chinese Developer Hourly Rates
Along with India, China is of the most affordable countries to outsource software development to. While the average hourly rates are $19–$38, junior developers can be hired for as low as $12 per hour while seniors may want as much as $40 per hour for their job.
Egyptian Developer Hourly Rates
Egypt, Nigeria and Tunisia are emerging African giants for sourcing potential of software professionals. Moreover, Egypt tech talent market offers affordable rates for software engineering service. The average medium hourly rate ranges from $25 to $45. Junior developers can be hired at $18+ per hour and senior developers will cost you around $33–$50 per hour.
South African Developer Hourly Rates
South Africa offers the highest offhsore IT rates in Africa. The medium hourly rates range between $25–$45. Choosing to outsource to South Africa will cost you from $21 per hour for a junior developer to $52 for a senior specialist.
Software Development Rates by Region
Rate card for software development specialists | Source
Offshore Software Development Rates in Eastern Europe
On average, offshore software development rates for an entry-level software developer start at $25 per hour and reach up to $60 per hour for a senior software engineer. The outstaffing model lowers the outsourcing software development costs. For example, junior developer will cost you as low as $19 per hour. The offshore developer rates in Eastern Europe vary from country to country.
10 best offshore software development countries in Eastern Europe are:
- Ukraine
- Belarus
- Russia
- Poland
- Czech Republic
- Romania
- Hungary
- Estonia
- Slovakia
- Bulgaria
Offshore Software Development Rates in Eastern Europe
Software development market statistics of the tech countries — Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belarus, and Croatia.
Eastern Europe is a happy medium where you can hire high-quality offshore developers with lower rates without compromising the quality of the product. The region is well-known for its density of software developers with an impressive 1.3 developers per 100 people. Currently, the IT industry in the region has about 1 million software developers in Eastern Europe, making it a lucrative software development outsourcing destination.
About 450 technical universities and favorable business conditions stimulate the industry’s prosperity. Ukraine is among the fastest-developing countries in the region. In 2020, Ukrainian tech market reached 200K software specialists.
Ukraine's liberal outsourcing rates and 250,000 programmers make it one of the biggest IT nations in Eastern Europe, second only to Poland with 400K software developers.
Key Facts About Offshore Software Development Countries in Eastern Europe
| Country | Number of Programmers | Average Rates | Popular Languages | Tech Hubs | Famous Startups |
| Ukraine | 200K |
$30–$60 |
SQL, JavaScript, Java, Python | Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv, Odesa | Petcube, Grammarly, DepositPhotos |
|
Czech Republic |
130K |
$39–$58 |
Python, SQL, JavaScript, Java | Prague, Brno, Olomouc, Ostrava |
Kiwi, Apify |
|
Hungary |
105K |
$44–$57 |
SQL, Java, JavaScript, Python | Budapest, Miskolc, Debrecen, Pecs, Szekesfehervar |
Prezi, LogMeIn, Ustream |
|
Poland |
400K |
$45–$69 |
Java, SQL, JavaScript, Python, PHP | Warsaw, Kraków, Łódź and Wrocław |
DocPlanner, Nightly |
|
Romania |
139K |
$31–$51 |
SQL, Java, JavaScript, Python | Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Timisoara, Iasi |
UiPath, TypingDNA |
|
Bulgaria |
63K |
$39–$56 |
SQL, JavaScript, Java, PHP | Sofia, Plodiv, Burgas, Varna |
EnhanCV, Connecto.ai |
|
Belarus |
69K |
$33–$48 |
JavaScript, Java, SQL, Python | Minsk, Gomel |
PandaDoc, MSQRD (Masquerade) |
|
Croatia |
46K |
$32–$63 |
JavaScript, Java, SQL, Python | Zagreb, Split, Dubrovnik |
Agrivi, ExRey |
Software developers in Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus have advanced programming abilities – be it offshore react development, offshore application development, offshore salesforce development or any other. Ukrainian engineers have university degrees and speak Intermediate and Upper Intermediate English. Because of these factors, the demand for Eastern European developers in the region continues to increase.
Key Facts About Offshore Development Rates in Eastern European Countries
Offshore Developer Rate Per Hour in Asian Countries
Offshore developer rates in Asia begin with $20 for an entry-level offshore developer and $35 for a senior offshore developer. However, offshore development rates in large Asian tech hubs keep increasing and can reach $40–45 per hour. Nevertheless, offshore software development companies in Asia charge lower offshore developer rates than their competitors in Europe.
Offshore Developer Rates in Asia
China and India are the main Asian tech hubs with a large number of software engineers — there are nearly 5 million overseas developers in each country. Other countries in Asia, such as Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, are also gaining ground and offer similar software development services.
Low offshore software development rates in Asian countries often come at the cost of poorer project quality. Adverse work conditions, cultural differences, and disparities in time zones have a negative cumulative effect on the correspondence and result in decreased quality.
Asia boasts a vast tech talent pool — more than 10 million developers. The offshore developer rates in Asia are shaped by various aspects and can differ a lot from country to country.
Offshore Developer Rates in Latin America
An hour’s work of a junior offshore software developer from a Latin American country like Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico would cost you around $50. Offshore developer rates for senior software developers get as high as $70 per hour. Hiring the same dedicated software developer through a team augmentation vendor would cut the rates.
Offshore Developer Rates in Latin America
Latin America is the most popular overseas software development destination for North American tech companies. US companies primarily outsource software development due to considerably lower software developer rates that cut the cost of product development.
The negligible time difference is another good reason why American businesses seek cooperation with Latin American software development companies.
Also, Latin American countries are the most geographically close to American clients, which makes Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, and Mexico very convenient outsourcing destinations.
Software Development Hourly Rates in Africa
Hiring a junior offshore software developer in Africa will cost you about $25 or less per hour. Offshore developer rates in Egypt, Morocco, and Kenya range between $20 and $40 per hour. This is caused by a comparatively small talent pool of software engineers in African countries. An hourly offshore developer rate of a senior software developer in Egypt, Morocco, and Kenya fluctuates around $40 on average.
Software Development Hourly Rates in Africa
Why Is Ukraine the Best Offshore Development Destination?
Ukraine is a great country to hire an offshore developer for several reasons. The main benefit of hiring offshore developers in Ukraine is that you’ll have access to the second biggest tech talent pool in Eastern Europe. Among other benefits are the speed of hiring and the lower cost of developer attraction. Sink your teeth in our guide to outsourcing to Ukraine to get even more useful insights.
Everything you need to know about offshore software development cost structure: direct costs, ad-hoc costs, offshore developer rates, and more.
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The Largest Pool of Tech Specialists
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At Grid Dynamics, we have the pleasure of working with the second-biggest tech talent pool in Eastern Europe. In 2021, the Ukrainian tech talent market reached 250K tech specialists
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Ukraine takes 11th place on the list of top software development outsourcing countries in the world. The tech industry is the most rapidly growing industry in Ukraine with $4.5B in investments in 2018.
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Education
- About 35K tech specialists graduate from Ukrainian tech universities every year. The majority of software developers in Ukraine have bachelor’s degrees and speak English on Intermediate and Upper-Intermediate levels.
- Ukraine also boasts the largest number of developers specializing in C++ and Unity 3D. The county is second in the world by the number of JavaScript, Magento and Scala software engineers.
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Low Corporate Tax and Expenses
- Ukraine offers comfortable corporate taxes. In Kyiv, the corporate tax ranges between $2.5K and $50K a year. To compare, the corporate tax in Berlin varies between $11K and $50K a year, and in New York, it fluctuates between $7K and $50K a year.
- The cost of living in Ukraine is lower than in the rest of European countries. For instance, the rental of a one-room apartment would cost $500 a month. It would cost you slightly less if you want to rent an apartment outside the city center — around $300 a month.
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Ease of Doing Business
- Ukraine made a leap to join the top 70 countries in the “Ease of Doing Business” chart issued by the World Bank in 2019.
- It’s a justified concern that leading business operations overseas is complicated, yet Ukraine has proven to be a positive environment for developing and growing large international projects.
- Active Software Development Community
- Kyiv, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, and Lviv are the most rapidly developing software tech hubs in Ukraine. About 40% of all Ukrainian software developers reside in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv. Lviv, another large tech city, annually hosts the biggest technology conference in Eastern Europe, IT Arena.
- Technical universities are the most active incubators of new generations of software developers. However, private software development companies also invest in educating more entry level tech specialists.
- Ukrainian tech community has rapidly adopted widely popular knowledge sharing events such as hackathons, tech conferences and educational courses funded by software development companies.
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Growing Startup Environment in Ukraine
- About 2K IT startups, among which Petcube, iBlazr, Grammarly, Jooble, CleanMyMac, Mobalytics and Looksery, originate from Ukraine. The latter has been acquired by Snapchat.
- More and more of the 4K of software development companies in Ukraine spare their internal talent resources to build their own products.
- Moderate Offshore Development Rates for IT Services
- On average, software developers in Ukraine charge lower rates as compared to Western European software engineers.
- Lower rates are caused by a number of reasons. Quick growth of the tech industry and a powerful influx of fresh talent decrease the average talent demand on the internal Ukrainian market. This brings down the average development costs for the clients, too.
How Grid Dynamics Can Help You Hire Offshore Software Developers Eastern Europe
Grid Dynamics is a technology consulting service provider. Grid Dynamics has 15+ years of experience in a digital transformation of Fortune-1000 US enterprises to create innovative products and experiences. Our distributed teams workflow has been tested in 6+ years period in collaboration with businesses from all over the world. Recognized as a leader among mid-size Agile developers in 2019 by Forrester. With us, you can get an entire cross-functional dedicated team or pod teams to get your deliverables on time.
We have offices in Eastern Europe, Central Europe, and Latin America — the largest tech hubs. Each developer you hire with us works full-time on your project.
