Svetlana ShevchukAccording to research by BusinessWire, the global market for IT Outsourcing is proliferating. Its value is anticipated to reach an enormous amount of $410 Billion by 2027. Bulgaria is one of the most popular choices for businesses that need to outsource their software development for good reasons.
Apart from being popular, Bulgaria seems to be one of the most reliable choices as well. Due to its high place in the ranking of talents worldwide, the country’s competitive wages, its mature infrastructure, Bulgaria is a great way to replace or augment your in-house development team.
In this article, we will analyze why Bulgaria is a great destination for outsourcing your business’s software development. We will also explore some things you should check before outsourcing your development team. Finally, we will identify all the disadvantages of Bulgaria when it comes to outsourcing services.
Thus, by the end of this 8-minute read, you will be able to tell if Bulgaria is a suitable outsourcing solution for your business’s needs.
Table of Contents
Country overview
- Capital: Sofia
- Official Language: Bulgarian
- Currency: Lev (BGN)
- Population: 6,899,663
- Timezone: UTC+2(+3)
- Number of developers: 12,495
- Average developer’s salary: $58,804 ⁽*¹⁾
- Business Climate: A3 ⁽*²⁾
- Risk Assessment: B ⁽*³⁾
- Political Stability: 0.5 ⁽*⁴⁾
- Ease of doing business: 72.0 ⁽*⁵⁾
⁽*¹⁾ according to Glassdoor, Senior Software Engineer, 7-9 years of experience.
⁽*²⁾ according to Coface. It includes the ease of running a business, the political situation in the country, and whether the legal system provides fair conditions and business protection for companies. Rating scales: A1, A2, A3, A4, B, C, D, and E.
⁽*³⁾ according to Coface. It refers to the country’s ability to transfer currency for foreign payments. Rating scales: A1, A2, A3, A4, B, C, D, and E.
⁽*⁴⁾ according to The World Bank. These statistics show the political stability and absence of violence. It ranges from -2.5 (lowest) to 2.5 (highest).
⁽*⁵⁾ according to The World Bank Doing Business 2020 report.
Why should you outsource your business’s software development to Bulgaria?
Bulgaria and Ukraine are the two most attractive outsourcing destinations in Eastern Europe. Accordingly, we gathered the six main reasons why Bulgaria is a great country to outsource your software development. Let’s have a look at those reasons separately:
Bulgarian tech talent
During the past few years, IT graduates in Bulgaria gained great popularity because of their proficiency, accuracy, and capability. In fact, Bulgaria proves to be a great pool of IT talents equally in full-stack, back-end, and front-end programmers.
Bulgaria has a very well-rounded education system that allows most people to learn at least one foreign language by graduating from high school. More specifically, 28% of people in Bulgaria (ages 15-34) speak English.
When it comes to computer sciences, more than 15 colleges offer mayors in ICT, resulting in an impressive number of 11,600 graduates over the last few years. For this reason, Bulgaria is characterized as the ‘European Silicon Valley.’
In addition, according to the Coursera Global Skills Report 2022, Bulgaria has risen three positions compared to the previous year and is now among the top 10 European countries in the global skills ranking.
In a few words, all those statistics indicate that Bulgaria provides a vast, extremely skilled, and qualified IT workforce with excellent language skills for communication with your startup business.
Advanced IT infrastructure of Bulgaria
Bulgaria’s well-developed educational system is not the only reason why this country has great software developers. Primarily since 2010, Bulgaria has invested in IT hubs and Techno parks around the country.
The Sofia Tech Park, for example, was established in 2016 and can easily be compared to the US business parks. It is one of the most significant modern science and technology parks in Europe and was 100% funded by Bulgaria’s Ministry of Economic.
Apart from that, the country is also one of the most popular destinations for IT and technology events. Since enormous companies like IBM, Microsoft, and Paysafe have expanded to Bulgaria, cities like Sofia and Borovets host numerous talks and conferences every year.
Although a significant percentage of the IT industry is located in Sofia (the capital city), other towns like Ruse, Burgas, Plovdiv, and Blagoevgrad play a substantial role in the outsourcing industry. It becomes evident that Bulgaria will keep supporting and upgrading its IT sector.
European time-zone
For most businesses, a country’s time zone is a critical parameter when outsourcing their web development. To be more precise, timezone is crucial when it comes to real-time cooperation with a development team.
Significant time zone differences can result in poor communication, and this is why Bulgaria is a great option.
Bulgaria is located close to the UK and Western Europe. Due to its geographical proximity to those regions, it is a top-rated outsourcing destination for development companies from expensive Western European countries.
However, this doesn’t mean it is not suitable for US companies too. Of course, working with a development team from Bulgaria isn’t as easy as working with partners from Mexico, for example. Nevertheless, it is much easier than working with teams from Asia (due to the considerable time differences).
Bulgaria might be the perfect choice for European companies, but due to the appearance of top-tier time-zone management tools, many US companies prefer it for outsourcing too.
Low staff attrition in Bulgarian development companies
Although Bulgaria is one of the most popular countries for IT outsourcing services, its retention rates are higher than in other countries (like India). More specifically, this means that your company will be able to start and finish web application tasks with the same individual developer or development team.
Likewise, if you choose Bulgaria for outsourcing projects, your company will get all the support it deserves. Working with the same development team and communicating with them in real time is crucial for success.
Bulgarian developers are also famous for their constant support to clients, their hardworking attitude, and the remarkable results they provide. In a few words, when it comes to the country’s reliability, low attrition is one of Bulgaria’s most important advantages.
Professional service delivery from Bulgarian developers
Outsourcing is a much safer hiring solution than freelancers. Likewise, when you choose to outsource your company’s software development, you ensure your project’s completion.
However, choosing Bulgaria as an outsourcing destination is a great way to ensure that you receive professional, top-tier delivery too. What we mean by that is that Bulgarian developers have an excellent level of professionalism.
Thus, when working remotely with an outsourced Bulgarian development team, you secure a great overall experience. You get to set your goals and priorities when it comes to timescales, results, and processes.
Transparency and trust are also crucial for successful service delivery. For this reason, most companies choose to hire a development team from Bulgaria (or other countries) via trustworthy marketplaces like YouTeam.
Cost advantages of IT outsourcing to Bulgaria
Labor cost is the most important benefit of outsourcing over in-house development teams. Similarly, Bulgaria has much lower average engineer salaries than the US or the UK.
To be more precise, according to talent.com, a developer’s average base salary in the US for 2022 was $107,2831. On the other hand, the average salary for a software developer in Bulgaria is from $37K (junior developers) to $67K (senior developers) per year.
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Of course, good experts are never cheap. But it becomes evident that this difference in salaries, and thus project rates, can help your company in different ways. And when you’re looking for talent and expertise (in Python, Java, JavaScript, PHP, or Node.js), in Bulgaria, you gain access to developers with great skills and many years of experience.
Thus, this is the main reason why countries like Bulgaria are so famous for outsourcing, as they provide great developers at a much lower cost.
What to watch out for when outsourcing developers to Bulgaria?
Although Bulgaria is a great country to outsource your company’s software development, there are specific things you should always take into account before hiring:
- Reviews and testimonials: You should always ask for previous work examples and verify the developers’ skills and previous experience.
- Check hard skills: You should always check a candidate’s skills. For this reason, most companies choose to hire through YouTeam, as we carefully examine and select our vetted developers.
- Agree on everything beforehand: You need to agree on timescales, milestones, and other processes before committing to a project.
- Cultural fit and communication: Make sure you check that the developer(s) have the cultural compatibility and language fluency you require.
Disadvantages of outsourcing to Bulgaria
Although we have explored why Bulgaria is an excellent solution for outsourcing services, some disadvantages affect specific businesses:
- Time-difference: Unfortunately, the time difference between Bulgaria and US companies can be challenging. As mentioned above, Bulgaria is the ideal outsourcing destination for European companies.
- You lose some control: As with most remote development teams, you won’t have the ultimate control over your project. However, this problem can be solved by agreeing on deadlines, milestones, etc. Another way to keep control in your hands is staff augmentation when you temporarily extend your current in-house team with engineers from development companies.
- Language issues: Although most Bulgaria engineers speak English, there are occasions when things could get lost in translation. For this reason, you should make sure that you communicate well with the chosen developer.
Key takeaways
To summarize, we have explored why Bulgaria is one of the safest and most reliable countries to outsource your business’s software development. We also had a look at the things you should take into account before hiring a developer from Bulgaria. Finally, we analyzed some disadvantages of outsourcing to Bulgaria to ensure that you have everything you need to know. If you still have doubts or questions about hiring from Eastern Europe, book a free call with our expert.
