Ukraine is one of the most popular and promising locations for offshore software development among the countries of Eastern Europe. Let’s shed some light on the key specifics of offshore development in this country in 2020.
The Essentials of Offshore Software Development
Offshores are territories that provide special business conditions for foreign companies. For instance, a UK-registered company can beneficially outsource parts of its work to a development team from Ukraine to:
- Get business registration conditions;
- Save costs due to lower taxes and local rates;
- Accelerate performance with new cost-efficient powers;
International business is often closely related to offshoring development. This business model doesn’t mean that the company is not paying taxes in the country of its registration, however. It’s also not recommended to register a business in the country from the “offshore blacklists” (in locations with no official bank support, terrorism financing is possible and the reputation of a business may be damaged due to illegal activities in the region).
The Basics of Offshore Software Development in Ukraine
Ukrainian software developers are among the strongest IT specialists in the world. This is due to a wealth of technical experience, good English communication skills, and expertise in the field of advanced solutions, such as AI, big data, and blockchain. International companies are so eager to hire developers from Ukraine for many other reasons as well:
- Over 200,000 IT experts available;
- 1,500+ software development companies;
- More than 2,000 successful startups registered;
- Good command in English: 80% of local software experts have intermediate English skills and higher;
- Only 11 government holidays with compensated days off;
- Visa-free relations with the European Union.
Why Choose Ukraine for Offshore Software Development: Market Overview
A huge IT specialist pool
Software development is one of the most fruitful and promising fields in Ukraine. Back in 2017, the number of local specialists in this field amounted to more than 200,000 – and the number has been growing steadily since then. Currently, Ukraine is ranked fourth in the world in terms of the number of technology professionals after the United States, India, and Russia.
1500+ specialized software development providers
More than 1,500 IT organizations are available in Ukraine, providing a wide range of software development services. Among them are web and mobile development, UI/UX design, QA testing, team recruiting, IT consulting, and many other profiled studios.
Ukrainian offshore development companies are ranked in the top 30 local providers according to Gartner and hold leading positions in the SkillValue and Clutch.co ratings.
Over 2,000 promising startups
The actively growing technological environment in Ukraine has spawned such world-renowned software products as Jooble, DepositPhotos, Grammarly, Mobalytics, Preply, CleanMyMac, InvisibleCRM, and others. Local startups get positive feedback from global leaders, with Google acquiring Viewdle – the people and objects recognition technology, and Snapchat buying Looksery – the software for real-time video transformation.
Venture investors from the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, and other big countries are actively investing in Ukraine-based startups. The total investment rates in the local startup business in 2018 amounted to $336.9.
Ukrainian startups
Command in English
Most of the Ukrainian companies offering outsourcing software development provide free English lessons for employees. As mentioned above, 80% of specialists speak the language at an intermediate and higher level. More precisely, approximately 35% of specialists possess an intermediate level, 33% – upper Intermediate, and 12% – Advanced. Higher levels of knowledge are more common for team leads and business analysts.
11 official holidays
There are only 11 paid public holidays in Ukraine against 13 or more in other countries of Eastern Europe. For example, in Bulgaria, employers have to compensate 19 days off every year.
Visa-free EU connection
Since 2017, a visa-free regime has been introduced in Ukraine. That means that local specialists can travel freely within the EU without a visa when there is a need for business travel and meetings with foreign customers.
Extra benefits of offshore software development Ukraine
According to the World Bank’s Doing Business rating, Ukraine has grown by 32 positions over the 2015–2020 period. In big part, this is due to a number of regulations introduced locally as well as a simplified tax payment scheme with a reduced flat rate (22% for the unified social tax in comparison with the previous rates – 36.76%-49.7%). This greatly encourages business owners to choose Ukraine for IT outsourcing.
Offshoring Development in Ukraine: Soft Skills and Tech Skills
Among the total pool of Ukrainian developers, we can define:
- 9,000 PHP devs;
- 8,000 JavaScript specialists;
- 3,000 Python experts;
- 1,000 Ruby on Rails devs.
According to the Skillvalue 2019 report, technical specialists in Ukraine are ranked fifth among the top software developers in the world with an average of 93.17% (after Slovakia, Mexico, Poland, and Hungary).
Among soft skills, foreign companies highlight cultural similarities with Western countries, the ability to work both in a team and independently, as well as a high level of motivation.
Main Offshore Development Hubs in Ukraine
The main IT hubs of Ukraine are Kiyv, Lviv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, and Odesa. There are 22 IT clusters, more than 50 coworking spaces, and 8 largest incubators and accelerators. On top of that, various events for IT specialists are actively held in Ukraine: hackathons, conferences, and forums – over 1,000 events per year as a whole. For business owners, this is a good opportunity to get acquainted with representatives of the country’s tech scene, hire a team of specialists for offshore development, or dive deeper into the realm of Ukrainian startups.
For instance, IT Arena in Lviv is the second largest annual technology conference in Ukraine where all presentations are held in English. The largest IT conference in Ukraine is iForum, taking place in Kiyv. The event brings together about 13,000 participants from Ukraine and other countries.
How to Find a Reliable Offshore Development Team in Ukraine?
How to choose reliable partners to create high-tech products via offshoring? Here are 5 top practices:
- Compose a list of renowned software development providers.
- Compare the range of services, expertise, and security standards they offer. Find out as much as possible about their activities and portfolio.
- Focus on portfolio products related to your company’s field.
- Inspect client feedback on your potential offshore software development company to hire received in the past.
- Make sure the dev company complies with the general international data protection regulations. Better discuss such moments personally.
Why Work with Gravum
Gravum is an offshore outsourcing software development company with offices in Ukraine, Estonia, and Lithuania. We provide services for the development of web and mobile solutions, tech consulting, and also specialize in the creation of custom teams to closely fit your business needs.
We have taken a position among the top Cloud Consulting Companies in 2020 according to TechReviewer.co, with a 4.8 rating. Our core values are quality, transparency, and reliability provided at a reasonable cost, with a strong focus on productive outsourcing cooperation.
Let’s build highly-reliable software solutions for your business together.
