Choosing Ukraine as your software development outsourcing destination is a value-dring tactic for both newly created startups and mature companies. This is one of the countries where the top-skilled tech talent lives, so let’s find out how to hire developers in Ukraine in the smartest possible way.
Ukrainian IT Market Overview - Stats and Facts
Recently, Ukraine got into a global spotlight because of the armed conflict taking place in some regions of this country. Nevertheless, Ukraine is still a globally recognized software development outsourcing leader and the IT industry continues to operate despite political and economical challenges.
Below are some facts and stats showing Ukraine as a winning software development outsourcing destination.
- Convenient location. Being located in the center of Europe, Ukraine stands out with its geographical proximity and convenient time zones overlap.
- Great tech talent pool. There are more than 200,000 programmers in Ukraine, pretty skilled with popular web and mobile development technologies.
- Globally-recognized engineering education. There are 17 tech universities in Ukraine, that follow European education best practices.
- Affordable cost to hire developers in Ukraine. The average Ukraine software developer’s salary is $2000-3500, depending on the programmer’s seniority and core specialization. For comparison, the monthly rate to hire a coder in the US is nearly $8000.
- English-proficiency. The English proficiency index of Ukrainians is 525 (moderate proficiency). However, hands-on experience with foreign projects allows Ukrainian developers to hone their English-speaking skills day after day.
Global recognition. According to HackerRank, Ukraine is ranked 11 among the 50 countries with the best tech talent. 11 tech companies from Ukraine are ranked among the 2020 Global Outsourcing 100. The Global Skills Report 2021 also states that Ukrainian developers have cutting-edge tech skills.
Top 3 Tech Cities in Ukraine to Look for Development Talent
There are several Ukrainian cities that have the full right to be called Ukrainian tech hubs. Pay closer attention to them if you are going to hire a development team in Ukraine.
Kyiv
Being a Ukrainian capital and the biggest city in the country, Kyiv is the leading tech city in Ukraine. There are more than 50 research and development branch offices here, and 360 software development firms listed by Clutch. 40% of the Ukrainian IT talent pool is based in Kyiv.
Dnipro
Dnipro isn’t as big as Kyiv, however, this is the second-leading IT hub in Ukraine. Dnipro is a business-focused city, with dozens of commercial premises, well-developed infrastructure, and top-ranked software development companies.
Binerals is a custom software development company based in Dnipro. Being perfectly skilled with up-to-date mobile and web development tools, we would be happy to support you with your tech project creation, source the best-in-class Ukrainian programmers and share our best development practices.
Drop us a line now to schedule a free meeting with our top-skilled programmers!
Drop us a line nowLviv
Lviv is another Ukrainian tech hub, located near the Polish border. This city often becomes the choice of entrepreneurs from Europe who value geographical proximity and take frequent business trips to meet the team.
How to Hire Software Developers in Ukraine Step by Step
In our recent articles, we have already dwelled on the top reasons to outsource software development to Ukraine. Now, let’s find out how to hire tech talent from this country step by step.
1. Chose the engagement model that suits your project
The idea to run your project remotely comes with a great opportunity to choose the engagement model that suits your project best. Below are three basic ones to choose from.Software development outsourcing
Hiring software developers in Ukraine according to the development outsourcing is a good match for the projects with no experience in in-house team management and lack of local expertise. In this case, the software development vendor sources the necessary talent for the project, managing the team on its own and solving all the organizational issues. Also, there are three types of software development outsourcing contracts, and each of them can be perfectly tailored to the project’s specifics.- Fixed price. This approach is perfectly suitable for well-predictable, small-to-medium projects created according to Waterfall methodology.
- Time and material. This type of contract is a good match for the business cases when the project development time and necessary resources are difficult to estimate, for instance, legacy system modernization.
- Dedicated development team. Hiring a dedicated team of Ukrainian software developers promises an opportunity to attract the best tech talent but stay agile and flexible, shortening or expanding the team to meet your current business needs.
Feel like any of the models matches your project specifics? Let’s discuss it in more detail and find the quick-win tactic!
Let’s discuss itIT team augmentation (team extension)
As the name suggests, such an approach implies strengthening your in-house tech team with Ukraine developers. Such a tactic is winning for the projects that don’t have extra resources for scaling an in-house team, face the need to hire additional tech talent urgently or there is a lack of the necessary specialist locally.
As a rule, team augmentation makes sense in the short run, for example, when there is a need to quickly cope with the additional workload but still save operational costs.
An offshore software development center
Creating an offshore development center is the most laborious and possibly expensive tactic to hire developers in Ukraine. However, such well-known companies as Google, Oracle, Snap, Lift, and Amazon have their ODC in this country successfully running.
The essence of this tactic is the opportunity to create your own tech department in a destination with a favorable business environment and quick access to the necessary talent at an affordable cost. This strategy is the best suitable for the companies eager to expand their business presence to a foreign country and run their IT processes reducing the operational cost.
2. Get in touch with a reliable tech vendor
Regardless of the strategy you choose to hire a developer for startups in Ukraine, getting in touch with a local software development vendor would be a wise decision. By partnering with a dedicated development company, you would be able to quickly access the necessary talent, gather and adjust a tech team in a way you need it, plus save recruitment and rent costs. However, partnering with a trusted development vendor is essential for getting all these benefits for your project. Below are the simple tips to choose one.- Choose the vendor with project-specific expertise. For example, if you would like to create a dating or social media app using cross-platform development technologies, as an option, it is better to partner with a company experienced with the projects from this niche. Their hands-on experience will allow you to avoid costly pitfalls but follow the life-proven development path. You are welcome to review Clutch and Good Firms to shortlist the potentially suitable vendors.
- Research their online reputation. In the next step, proceed with researching the online reputation of the shortlisted companies. Pay attention to the feedback left by the previous customers, and previous employees to get the ultimate picture. Also, research their social media profiles.
- Ask for a first consultation and budget estimate. Next, get in touch with the shortlisted companies and ask for a first consultation which is usually free. During it, you are welcome to ask any questions, checking the company’s expertise. Ask about the engagement model that suits your project best, the core technologies they recommend to use, and the approximate cost to build your project. Then, compare the results and choose the company you feel like being on the same page with.
- Ask to sign an NDA in advance. The unwillingness to sign an NDA is a red flag in the software development outsourcing market. So, don’t hesitate to ask for signing it even before the first consultation to protect your business idea and check the potential reliability of a development company at once.
Request an NDA and Run the Consultation
Request an NDA3. Decide on the tech team structure together with your vendor
Before you decide to hire dedicated developers in Ukraine, let’s discover what the basic team structure looks like. Usually, the development vendor will suggest such a team structure that will allow your project to achieve the business goals without growing the cost of hiring people you don’t actually need.
So, here are the basic team roles you need to hire.
- BA. A Business Analyst is a person who works as a connective chain between the stakeholders and the tech team, communicating the requirements and the expectations of the first, and looking for practical ways to implement them.
- PM. A Project Manager is a specialist who supports the customer during the development process, helps with issues resolution, and ensures seamless communication with a team.
- Front-end developers. These are the programmers working on the “face” of your app – the part of the future solution the users will interact with.
- Back-end developers. Back-end developers, in turn, are the coders creating the inner structure of your application. As another option, you can hire full-stack developers in Ukraine – that is, the tech professionals able to deal with both front and backend.
- UI/UX designers. UI/UX designers are the creative and technical specialists in one bottle who work on the design solution of your future app.
- QA and testers. These specialists are responsible for running testing scenarios, making sure that the application works as it was planned and there are no bugs or security loopholes in the code.
- Marketing sub-team. A marketing sub-team usually consists of a marketing lead, content writer, PR manager, SMM manager, market researcher, etc., who are responsible for marketing strategies development and project promotion.
4. Run interview series and validate the candidates’ experience
Hiring Ukrainian developers for startups with no extra resources for recruitment is a winning solution. However, you are still welcome to validate the suitability, expertise, experience, and core competencies of the candidate by running independent technical and non-technical interview series.
Most projects getting started with remote project development hire an independent technical consultant to support them during the interview process.
5. Sign a contract with a vendor and launch your project development
After you have approved the tech specialists suggested by the vendor, you are welcome to sign a contract and run your project development. Also, keep in mind that your tech team is easily adjustable, and this is one of the opportunities that make software development outsourcing cost-effective.
How Much Does It Cost to Hire Ukrainian Developers by Technology
In our recent article, we have shared how to make a Tinder-style app, so some of the practices can be reused for Snapchat-like app design as well. For example, you are welcome to follow the design thinking paradigm which stands for the necessity to always keep the needs of your users in mind, suggest the ways to solve these needs as effectively as possible with the help of your app, get the users’ feedback and be always ready for further improvements.
From a practical standpoint, at this stage, you have to create the sketches of the main screens and find ways to embed the core functionality as conveniently for the users as possible. What’s more, the first sketches can be created using a pen and paper.
The cost to hire a development team usually leads the list of possible questions of the first-time startup’s initiators, especially if their budget is pretty limited. Below is the approximate salary of a Ukrainian developer per month depending on the core technology they are skilled with.
| Specialization | Salary per month in Ukraine |
| React.js developer | $2100 |
| Vue.js developer | $2100 |
| Angular.js developer | $2100 |
| Laravel developer | $2000 |
| Asp. Net developer | $2200 |
| React Native developer | $2300 |
| Node.js developer | $2100 |
| Xamarin developer | $2200 |
Conclusion
Hiring a tech team from Ukraine is a great idea for the projects striving to achieve the perfect match of price and quality when outsourcing their software building. The ones eager to avoid recruitment headaches are also welcome to partner with a dedicated development vendor, like Binerals.
We are proud to have the best-in-class talent under our roof. The programmers we would be happy to source are greatly skilled with modern web and mobile development technologies, have hands-on experience in media projects creation, and will grow your project following the pitfall-free path!
