IT Outsourcing: Poland vs Ukraine vs Belarus. Costs, Reliability, Peculiarities

Eastern and Central Europe are famous for their software development companies and IT outsourcing expertise. And despite recent events in Ukraine, its IT guys were, are and will be high-profile IT experts, whether they work remotely in the office. Many businesses take advantage of Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine when cost-effective and robust outsourcing services are needed. In today’s article, we will compare the costs, reliability and peculiarities of outsourcing in this region.

Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus have emerged as outsourcing destinations when it comes to the adoption of technologies by businesses. According to Gartner’s estimations, there are over one million IT professionals in Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, with a quarter of them involved into providing of consulting or outsourcing services. Poland is estimated to have around 295,000 programmers with 20% of them to be allegedly employed in outsourcing for international businesses. The talent pool of Belarus amount to 55,000 specialists, the relevant figures total to around 160,000 for Ukraine.

When it comes to general trends, all 3 countries are usually featured high on different rankings of the best software engineering providers. For example, Belarus is reported to be well-positioned in the IT outsourcing market reports. This is not least due to high-quality technical education in these countries with Ukraine being among top countries with the most engineering graduates according to Forbes. High ranks assigned by reputable sources can be considered as proof of reliability of vendors. In Ukraine and Poland, the latter have influential tech hubs spread all over the countries. In Belarus, most software development companies are located in the capital city – Minsk. It is worth mentioning that some software companies operate across these countries simultaneously to ensure better outreach and communication with customers.

Ukrainian, Polish, and Belarusian software developers are qualified in a variety of technologies. JavaScript, Java, and Python are the most popular programming languages in Ukraine and Poland. For Belarus, these are Java, C++, and Python. According to the ranking of the countries with the best programmers by domain, Eastern European specialists are good at algorithms, Java, data structures, C++, Python, SQL, AI, and functional programming. Ukrainians have the best expertise in mathematics, distributed systems, and security. And Poland distinguishes itself in algorithms, Java, tutorials, Python, Shell, and Ruby.

Moving forward to particular business domains, Ukrainian IT providers specialize in e-commerce, fintech, education, health and telecom domains with 87% of them delivering quality software solutions. 7% deliver hardware products, and 6% are engaged into customer services. Belarusian developers focus on FinTech and banking, healthcare, education, travel and tourism, while in Poland companies like Elinext target mostly security, automotive, energy, education, and FinTech.

Ukraine, Poland and Belarus also host research and development (R&D) centers for global tech giants like Microsoft, Apple, IBM, Boeing, Samsung, Ericsson, Siemens. This is a good indicator that IT outsourcing to these countries can ensure proper communication, Western values-based thinking, and project management.

When it comes to Belarus, there are 121 R&D centers of foreign corporations. Generally, Belarusian IT business is divided into 2 large areas: outsourcing companies (60.5%) and product companies (39.5%). Some digital marketing companies also rank high in Clutch.co directory. The Belarusian IT outsourcing services providers mostly work for the international market.

Outsourcing rates in the countries in question differ and depend on different factors. Thus, developers in Ukraine, Belarus expect $25 to $50 per hour. In Poland, the costs tend to be up to 2 times higher due to overall higher expenses and cost of living. On the other hand, Poland’s EU membership provides IT business with access to European funding, sustainable economic growth, and freedom of movement for staff. In Ukraine and Belarus, the business climates are basically innovation-oriented, as well, with the government taking steps to raise investment. For example, in Belarus, the residents of the High-Tech Park take advantage of considerable tax benefits that facilitate IT business development. However, these 2 countries are associated with geopolitical risks that may affect the business environment.

Picture 1. Source: Sourceseek

Final thoughts

Belarus, Ukraine and Poland are increasingly attractive for IT outsourcing. If you are still looking for an IT outsourcing destination for your business, the top 3 reasons to opt for Belarus, Ukraine and Poland may be as follows:

• A pool of highly skilled IT engineers
• A wide range of high-quality software development services
• Effective quality-costs ratio