Countries With Cheapest Offshore Developers: Rates By Country

If you search anything about offshore software development on internet you can only find blogs and comments from people who provide outsourcing services from certain countries. Obviously, those people are biased because they need to sell their services.

So I did my own research to find out which countries provide cheapest offshore developers? Cheapest developers can be found in the Phillipines, India and Argentina. Most expensive developers are in China, Ukraine and Poland.

Countries best for offshore development

Businesses are increasingly using offshore teams for software development for 2 main reasons: cost and lack of talent.

Since the developers in the US are among the most highly paid in the industry, countries that were not considered as offshore development destinations suddenly became attractive. Some countries also have very good universities that produce thousands of CS engineers and the US companies expanding their search for talent to those destinations.

There are several regions that frequently get on the list of most quoted locations for offshore software development: Eastern Europe, Asia, and Latin America.

Eastern Europe

Most experts name the quality of engineers as the main advantage of Eastern European countries. They are also closer than Asian to the east coast so it is easier to find times when the US companies and European partners can work during the day.

Another commonly cited plus is that people in Europe generally have a culture similar to the one in the US.

The main outsourcing countries in Eastern Europe are:

• Belarus
• Bulgaria
• Poland
• Russia
• Romania
• Ukraine

Asia

Asia has a long history of being a go-to resource for offshore software development. Asian countries also tend to be the cheapest in term of salaries.

For instance, Asian countries can be cheaper (except China), but the time difference may be too big. However, the biggest problem with the Asia region is a time zone difference.

The main outsourcing countries in Asia are:

• Bangladesh
• China
• India
• Philippines
• Sri Lanka
• Vietnam

Latin America

The advantage of developers in Latin American countries is that they work in the same time zones as American companies. I met some very good engineers in Argentina.

The main outsourcing countries in Latin America are:

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Costa Rica
• Mexico

About research

I used PayScale to get information about developer salaries in different countries. For all positions I used following assumptions: developer must have 5 year experience, Bachelor’s degree and be self-employed. The salaries in tables are annual.

I also used some assumptions about skills of different developers. For instance, when searching for PHP developers I assumed they have MySql and JavaScript skills (aka Full Stack Develeoper) or for .NET Develeopers I assumed they must know C#, ASP.NET and SQL Server.

Each table contains Minimum and Maximum columns which will give you some idea how low cheap the developer may worth or how much expensive the really good one may be. Market column is Market Worth for a developer with 5 years experience according to PayScale. When comparing countries I used this column.

The last column is the salary change compared to 2014. This metric can tell us if developer rates are increasing or decreasing in this country.

Someone may not agree with the metrics I used, but my goal was not to get exact information for all types of PHP/.NET Developers. As long as I used same metrics consistently and the only variable I changed was the country then the research gives the information I needed – which country provides cheapest developers.

Here is a comparison of PHP developer salaries:

Rates by countries for PHP developer

Annual salaries (in thousands of USD) for various positions in various offshore destinations represented below.

The numbers are average for self-employed developers according to PayScale. If you do not engage developers directly and find them thru outsourcing agencies then rates will be higher (how much higher depends on individual agencies).

And remember, when choosing offshore destinations do not use rates as the only criteria. There are other reasons why you might go with one country or the other.

Developer Salaries in Ukraine, Kiev

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	17	47	31	+19
.NET	17	47	30	+12
Java	16	47	31	+19
iOS	16	48	31	+19
Android	16	45	31	+19
QA	11	27	18	-10
UX Designer	14	24	19
Solutions Architect	42	54	48
DBA, MSSQL	19	54	38	+36
Ruby on Rails	14	45	31	+15

Developer Salaries in Belarus, Minsk

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	13	39	25	-11
.NET	14	40	25	-16
Java	14	39	25	-11
iOS	14	40	25	-11
Android	13	39	25	-11
QA	16	19	18
UX Designer	no	data
Solutions Architect	no	data
DBA, MSSQL	15	47	29	+16
Ruby on Rails	14	41	25	-17

Developer Salaries in Poland, Warsaw

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	16	41	30	+27
.NET	17	40	30	+20
Java	13	41	30	+27
iOS	17	43	30	+27
Android	14	41	30	+27
QA			18	-28
UX Designer			17	-14
Solutions Architect	16	90	48	-23
DBA, MSSQL	19	47	32	+20
Ruby on Rails	20	45	27	+12

Developer Salaries in Philippines, Manila

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	6	18	9	+22
.NET	5	15	9	+23
Java	6	19	9	+22
iOS	5	17	9	+22
Android	6	18	9	+22
QA	4	11	6
UX Designer	4	15	9	-19
Solutions Architect	4	57	23	+18
DBA, MSSQL	4	19	10	+6
Ruby on Rails	5	17	10	+31

Developer Salaries in India, Bangalore

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	5	14	11	+23
.NET	4	14	11	+23
Java	5	28	11	+23
iOS	7	28	11	+23
Android	5	28	11	+23
QA	4	14	8	+20
UX Designer	5	14	22	+11
Solutions Architect	6	28	21	-4
DBA, MSSQL	5	14	11	+11
Ruby on Rails	6	29	10	+12

Developer Salaries in Vietnam, Hanoi

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	10	26	17	+9
.NET	10	27	17	-8
Java	10	26	17	+9
iOS	10	26	17	+9
Android	10	26	17	+9
QA	no	data
UX Designer	no	data
Solutions Architect	no	data
DBA, MSSQL	10	32	20	-4
Ruby on Rails	10	27	15	-27

Developer Salaries in Argentina, Buenos Aires

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	4	16	12	+67
.NET	5	16	12	+68
Java	5	17	12	+67
iOS	5	18	12	+67
Android	5	17	12	+67
QA	6	12	9
UX Designer	7	12	9
Solutions Architect	no	data
DBA, MSSQL	6	20	9	+57
Ruby on Rails	6	15	10	+66

Developer Salaries in Brazil, Florianópolis, Santa Catarina

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	8	29	16	-7
.NET	9	31	22	+24
Java	8	32	16	-7
iOS	8	31	16	-7
Android	8	30	16	-7
QA	6	59	20
UX Designer	28	64	45	+22
Solutions Architect	12	43	24	+38
DBA, MSSQL	8	31	16	+20
Ruby on Rails	8	29	16	+5

Developer Salaries in Costa Rica, San José

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	10	42	23	+7
.NET	11	42	25	+5
Java	10	42	23	+7
iOS	10	42	23	+7
Android	10	42	23	+7
QA	no	data
UX Designer	no	data
Solutions Architect	no	data
DBA, MSSQL	13	46	26	+7
Ruby on Rails	3	42	20	+12

Developer Salaries in Russia, Moscow

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	12	30	25	+33
.NET	11	30	26	+37
Java	12	45	25	+33
iOS	13	30	25	+33
Android	12	30	25	+33
QA	2	30	14	+5
UX Designer	13	15	14	-3
Solutions Architect	30	45	45
DBA, MSSQL	10	45	25	+28
Ruby on Rails	13	31	26	+34

Developer Salaries in Bulgaria, Sofia

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	14	36	24	+14
.NET	13	33	22	+5
Java	15	34	24	+14
iOS	13	34	24	+14
Android	15	34	24	+14
QA	7	37	19	-19
UX Designer			24	-6
Solutions Architect	no	data
DBA, MSSQL	13	37	26	+17
Ruby on Rails	11	33	21	+7

Developer Salaries in Mexico, Guadalajara

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	9	30	16	+11
.NET	10	29	21	+12
Java	8	27	16	+11
iOS	8	28	16	+11
Android	8	28	16	+11
QA	8	31	19	+29
UX Designer			16	+18
Solutions Architect	26	37	34	+4
DBA, MSSQL	9	41	24	+22
Ruby on Rails	9	30	16	+13

Developer Salaries in China, Shenzhen

Skill/Position	Min	Max	Market	Trend,%
PHP	13	56	31	+28
.NET	15	59	32	+28
Java	14	64	31	+28
iOS	12	57	31	+28
Android	13	64	31	+28
QA	13	37	27	-75
UX Designer	31	62	43	+16
Solutions Architect	no	data
DBA, MSSQL	14	68	32	+18
Ruby on Rails	15	56	33	+31

Images used: 401(K) 2012. “Dollar bills for spending or saving.”. Jan 24, 2012. Online image. Flickr. Feb 21, 2019. https://www.flickr.com/photos/68751915@N05/6757845611/