5 reasons why Poland became top outsourcing destination for web development

#1 Low Costs

It's no surprise that every company, no matter it is a startup or a big business, is looking for a high-quality software development firm to work with that won’t break the bank. While professional software development is never cheap (even if outsourcing), Polish development teams have a lot to offer. It's because of the lowest labor costs within in the European Union. According to the Association of Business Service Leaders (ABSL), you can find and hire highly experienced Polish developers for under $3.000 a month. As you can see, a world-class and experienced dev can be hired for $30.000 - $40.000 a year. Try doing it in Berlin or London, not to mention Silicon Valley, where you have to pay about $100.000 a year. Multiply it by 20 or 30 developers and big money come to play.

#2 Small Culture Gap

One of the largest advantages of outsourcing a development process to Poland is the fact that there's nearly no cultural gap. English is a standard in Polish schools, so our programmers usually speak English very well. Also, a lot of software houses provide English courses to their teams (it's also one of job perks at Merixstudio). As a result, Poland is ranked 9th in the world for English skills in the EF English Proficiency Index 2015 (we’re getting ahead of countries like Germany, Switzerland or Singapore), so you shouldn't be afraid of communication problems. 

To be honest, we probably watch more American and English TV series than Polish ones, so we have the western culture at fingertips. It's a powerful mix; no surprise that Silicon Valley reaches to Poland when it needs brainy devs.

OK, you're right, you can outsource even cheaper to India or China. But those who have already tried to do it would probably claim that the culture differences are much bigger than in Poland and quite often negatively impact effective product management and code delivery.

#3 Experienced Programmers

As I mentioned before, Poland is still considered as emerging market. It wasn’t until the fall of the Soviet Union that we've opened up to the (also tech) world. But it does not mean that we are some muggles! Polish software houses give their dev teams a chance to work with some of the world's best IT companies, and in multicultural environments (according to ABSL 66% of people working in large IT services companies are employed by foreign enterprises). We can simply make it stick in an example of Merixstudio. Just look at our portfolio with a dozen of projects we did for offshore clients.

Moreover, Poland is currently ranked 5th in the world in the Top Coder ranking (we're the sole country in top five that uses the Latin alphabet!), and Polish developers regularly take high positions in international coding competitions. It speaks for itself.

#4 First Class Education

70.6K, it's a number of  IT students in the academic year 2013/2014 according to GUS (Central Statistical Office in Poland). Polish tech universities graduate over 15.000 new specialists annually. These statistics prove that Poland can be called next software development hub that is in the top of cutting-edge technologies.

In addition, Poland is becoming an increasingly popular study destination, with more than 46.000 international students choosing Poland in 2014/2015. As you can see, the top-notch Polish universities attract talented young people from all over the world. It's because of their excellent reputation and low-cost of living in our Country

What’s more, Warsaw University of Technology features in the QS University Rankings, and it's ranked 18th among universities in Emerging Europe and Central Asia. It claims a place among the leading technological institutes in Europe and is one of the region’s largest providers of technical education.

To make it short, the talent pool in Poland is one of the reasons why companies and startups decide to outsource their development to our country.

#5 Location

One of the main reasons Poland has become an IT hub and outsourcing destination has to do with its location. Poland's strategic position is advantageous; it allows both clients and developers find solutions in a quite short time.

Outsourcing to Poland from UK or Germany means practically no time zone differences because it's just one hour (or none). So, when it comes to nearshoring, all works can be organized in the same way, which streamlines the development process.

You can ask "that's great, but I'm from the US - what about that?". Just think that overlap in the working day will be even bigger when you decide to hire a development team from India. Not to mention about cultural barriers you will undoubtedly be faced. It's maximum 9 hours difference between Poland and the US - it’s not that bad, isn’t it.

The closer location and overlapping work times the better communication. It means less frustration, quick respond and speeding up of a development process.