Top Ukrainian development company for your startup

One of the biggest challenges that companies face today is finding a reliable software development outsourcing partner. Not all the programming tasks can be done in-house, and in many cases, there is no reason to do so. Today, it’s cost-effective and strategically correct to outsource most of your development needs elsewhere. We leave in the global economy, and the company you can outsource to can be anywhere on the globe. One of the most prominent destinations for outsourcing software development is Ukraine. Let’s examine the reasons behind it.

Why Ukraine is One of the Best Countries for Software Development

Ukraine is a real powerhouse in the software development world. With 166,000 programming and software engineering professionals, over 1000 development companies, and an extensive technology stack ranging from Java to Ruby, Ukraine has become an outsourcing choice for the giants like Intel, Apple, Microsoft, eBay, Google, Boeing, Samsung, Magento, Skype, and many more, thousands of mid-sized to small business, and countless start-ups. The largest IT companies in the world have opened offices and R&D centers in Ukraine to leverage a high level of expertise and talent of Ukrainian IT specialists. Ukrainian software development community ranks fourth in the world by the number of tech specialists after the United States, India, and Russia (“Exploring Ukraine. IT Outsourcing Industry” Report)

Ukraine was named the “Offshoring Destination of the Year” in 2017 by Global Sourcing Association (GSA UK Awards 2017) and has become the Number 1 outsourcing market in Eastern Europe according to Outsourcing Journal. Ukrainian developers hold the 6th position in the global rating of developers by TopCoder and the 3rd on the Brainbench list.

You might not realize it, but the chances are great that you are using in your daily life some apps developed or even created by the Ukrainian programmers. Below is a list of some products you most likely know very well.

Real-World Examples of Software Solutions and Products Developed in Ukraine

1. Depositphotos

   Popular royalty-free stock photography and vector graphics agency based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but founded by Dmitry Sergeev in 2009 in Kiev, Ukraine. The company now has offices around the world providing customers with support in 20 languages. (Wikipedia)

2. Grammarly

   Trusted by millions of users, web-based application for grammar checking, spell checking, and plagiarism detection. It’s not well known that the app was founded and originally developed in 2009 by Ukrainian programmers Alex Shevchenko and Max Lytvyn. Now it’s headquartered in San Francisco, California. (Wikipedia)

3. GitLab

   A web-based application that allows a Git-repository manager to oversee the entire DevOps lifecycle. It was launched in 2011 as fully free and open-source software distributed under the MIT License. GitLab currently has hundreds of employees, across 53 countries and regions. (Wikipedia)

4. Petcube

   A connected technology start-up that designs and develops hardware and software products for pets and lets the owners watch, talk, and play with their pets from a phone. Petcube had sold over 100,000 cameras worldwide. (Wikipedia)

5. Mobalytics

   Rated No 1 personal performance analytics package for competitive League of Legends gamers. The app uses the Gamer Performance Index (GPI) to help e-gamers analyze and improve their skills. (Medium)

6. CleanMyMac

   A popular utility to remove junk and malware, protect and speed up a Mac bringing it back to original functionality. It’s developed by based in San Francisco and Kiev, MacPaw. (MacPaw)

7. Preply

   An educational technology innovative marketplace that connects students with native speaking language tutors of over two dozen languages online or in-person.  It uses machine learning for classification and recommendation of tutors. The company is headquartered in Brighton, Massachusetts but was originally founded in Kiev by Kirill Bigai, Dmytro Voloshyn, and Serge Lukianov. (Wikipedia)

8. Attendify

   A well-designed, simple to use and very popular mobile event app. It is a SaaS-based event technology platform that bridges the gap between event marketing & digital marketing. (KyivPost)

9. Looksery

   Another popular app that allows users to do facial alteration of photos in real time on mobile phones. The company behind the software was founded in 2013 by Victor Shaburov and Yurii Monastyrshin and now bought by Snap Inc. and based in San Francisco. (Wikipedia)

10. Readdle apps

    Include Scanner Pro, PDF Expert, Spark, and Documents downloaded over 100 million times worldwide. Readdle has offices in Odessa and Kiev, Ukraine as well as in Berlin and San Jose. Their apps have won numerous awards and, in some cases, established mobile software categories that did not exist before. (The Verge)

11. Viewdle

    Facial recognition software. The company was founded by Yegor Anchishkin in 2006 and was eventually purchased by Google playing part in Android’s augmented reality and face recognition technology development. (CNET)

12. TemplateMonster

    An extensive online collection of website templates for WordРrеss, Joomla, WooCommerce, and Magento. The company CEO David Braun moved to Ukraine, and later to the United States. He founded TemplateMonster in 2002 with the help of remote Ukrainian team. (Wikipedia)

Ukrainian IT companies offer a full variety of software development services, including web and mobile development, software engineering, UI/UX design, quality assurance and testing, dedicated team building, R&D services, technical support and training, big data and analytics, and much more. The software development sector in Ukraine grows at a very rapid pace with IT industry export volume reaching $3.6 bn in 2017 and projected to go up to $8,4 bn by 2025 (IT Ukraine Association). Ukrainian software development market presented by companies of different sizes and abilities. The list below presents major players and leading providers.

Top 5 Ukrainian Software Product Development Companies

1. SoftServe – the company is well-known for proficiency in blockchain, Internet of Things, Big Data, AI, Machine Learning, IoT, DevOps, augmented reality, and experience design. It operates in 12 countries with headquarters in the US and Ukraine and has clients like Panasonic, Nestlé and BMC Software. It specializes in healthcare, retail, media, finance.
2. Luxoft – the company employs more than 13,000 people in 41 offices across the globe and among its high-profile clients are Boeing, Harman and Ford Motor Company. Three large development offices that still reside in Ukraine are in Kiev, Odessa, and Dnipro.
3. Ciklum – founded in 2002 in Kiev, Ukraine, the multi-award-winning company has a great reputation on the market and serves the clients like Google, Intel, and Lenovo.
4. N-iX – presented in the Ukrainian software development market for more than 15 years, the company provides expert solutions in Blockchain, VR, Big Data, AI, ML, and embedded software. Part of the N-iX business strategy is building long-term relationships and offering continued value to their clients.
5. Eleks – the company portfolio of successful projects done for Fortune 500 companies and other big enterprises with exceptional client satisfaction rate. It employs more than 1400 professionals all across Eastern Europe.

Top 5 Ukrainian Outsourcing Software Development Companies

1. EPAM – one of the first companies to employ IT outsourcing model in Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1993 and still holds a leading position in the software development market. In 2006, EPAM has opened a number of offices in different countries including one in Ukraine.
2. DataArt – headquartered in New York and with offices all over the world, it is one of the most respected IT outsourcing companies in the business. Their Ukrainian developers work on the projects for Nasdaq and Apple. DataArt has offices in six Ukrainian cities.
3. GlobalLogic – based in Israel, the company relies heavily on Ukrainian development talent. It has four offices in Ukraine. Among the company’s clients are Qualcomm, Reuters, and Nokia.
4. Miratech – with offices in 12 cities across the US and Europe and headquarters in New York, the company was also established first in Ukraine. Their innovative approach and high rate of client satisfaction scored them the clients like British American Tobacco, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Philips, and Samsung.
5. MWDN – founded in 2002 with headquarters in Israel and providing software development for the healthcare sector, the company now has a global reach and offers a wide range of mobile/web products production for the clients all over the world. The company’s development center is situated in Kharkov, Ukraine.

Now, when we have introduced the leading software development companies in Ukraine, let us provide you with some compelling reasons why hiring Ukrainian programmers could be beneficial and Ukraine should become your choice destination for outsourcing your software development projects.

Optimal Development Cost

Outsourcing software development to Ukraine is very lucrative and attractive due to one simple and very compelling factor – by doing so the companies save between 40 and 60 percent of their development budgets. Also, Ukraine might be not the cheapest country to outsource, but considering the quality and high level of work provided, it definitely offers one of the most optimal quality-to-cost ratios.  This is one of the main reasons why the US and Western European businesses build long-term relationships with Ukrainian software development companies. Let’s consider some numbers:

Entry-level vs Senior Software Developer Salaries Worldwide, February 2019

	Entry-level	Senior
Switzerland	$77,845	$102,147
USA	$71,682	$101,327
Denmark	$68,630	$84,059
Norway	$68,588	$87,868
Israel	$55,253	$80,935
Germany	$51,083	$67,771
Sweden	$50,327	$68,224
Canada	$45,276	$65,434
Australia	$43,517	$71,224
France	$43,456	$51,213
Netherlands	$43,450	$63,225
Finland	$41,319	$56,809
New Zealand	$39,492	$64,963
United Kingdom	$37,919	$60,413
Ukraine	$19,745	$26,512

 

(2019 Technology Salary Guide)

Even if compared to its neighboring countries — such as Poland, Belarus, and the Czech Republic, Ukraine offers more competitive outsourcing rates matched with a much greater IT and programming talent pool. Also, when considering hourly rate differences, you should keep in mind that more mature and seasoned on average Ukrainian IT specialists work faster and can complete tasks quicker that will and it also helps you to reduce the cost – you get more done per hour paid.

It means that you can hire skilled and highly educated software developers who will meet all your requirements but save a notable amount in development expenses.

Proficiency, Quality, and Expertise

Many development teams in Ukraine include established veterans who have many years and, in some cases, decades of experience working with the biggest names of global tech markets. The level of expertise is very high, and Ukrainian developers traditionally receive great rankings by Colliers International, Outsourcing Journal, and other reliable publications. Most Ukrainian IT companies aim to become true partners to their international clients and focus on value-added services for them. While Ukrainian developers are very flexible, manageable and cooperative, they often are also very much result-oriented, and sometimes instead of blindly following the client’s directions, they would suggest a better approach and possible improvements to the project at hand.

Level of trust to the Ukrainian counterparts is so high that the bigger companies very often prefer outstaffing and outsharing models to the outsourcing one. This way they enjoy the benefits of employing full-time dedicated teams for a fixed monthly price without having to worry about social security, insurance, retirement, taxes and such, as with their own employees.

Variety of Developers Qualifications

It is easy to find in Ukraine a competent outsourcing company for any of your software development needs, no matter what programming language, framework, technology or special IT skills are required for your project. With such an immense pool of talent, it is not unexpected that Ukraine offers a vast stack of skilled developers and hundreds of specializations. The most popular technologies among Ukrainian developers are Java, C++, PHP, Javascript, Python, Node.js, and Ruby. Below is a list of the most widespread programming languages in Ukraine (according to developers.org.ua in 2017):

• Java – 20.67%,
• Javascript – 16.54%,
• C# – 14.11%,
• PHP – 13.05%,
• Python – 9.76%,
• C++ – 4.96%,
• Swift – 3.4%,
• Ruby – 2.97%.
• Other commonly used technologies include ASP.NET, Symfony, Typescript, Clojure, GraphQL, Meteor, Unity 3D, React, Scala, and Magento.

Level of Education

Over 85% of developers in Ukraine have a university degree. Ukrainian 400 technical universities provide an extensive theoretical background as well as practical knowledge of modern technologies. Working in IT sphere has become very popular and prestige among Ukrainian youth and the number of tech students is growing each year. It has resulted in almost 40,000 graduates annually already (Outsourcing Review).

Also, Bloomberg rates Ukraine’s post-secondary education as 5th best among the 50 countries from its Innovation Index (Bloomberg).

The English Language Knowledge, Cultural Similarities, and Ease of Communication

Learning English, which has become a de-facto language of communication in the IT world, is also a big part of technical education in Ukraine. About 45% of Ukrainian software developers can speak English fluently, and definitely, most of the managerial staff or employees whose job required client communication. It makes interaction with Ukrainian IT companies easy – there is no language barriers and the possibility of bad communication, information loss or misunderstanding is minimal. Also, many IT companies create internal English language learning courses or pay for their staff to be able to attend such to make sure that their staff will be able to converse with foreign customers without any problems.

In addition, Ukrainians have big cultural similarities and share the same social values with people in western countries. They favor more collaborative and resilient work environments, favor an agile approach to software development. It helps to avoid cultural misunderstanding and serves as a good foundation for establishing more responsible and strong relationships between the customer and the project team.

Ukrainian Legislation Loyalty to Foreign Customers

The Ukrainian government has simplified the process of business interaction between foreign and domestic IT companies. Adequate laws protect both sides and streamline business processes. Intellectual property laws in Ukraine are in accord with the best international practices, and all the disputes that might arise upon IT software development completion can be settled effectively in Ukrainian courts. But the most attractive for outsourcing businesses is the fact that all foreign companies that purchase software development don’t need to pay VAT in Ukraine.

Favorable Outsourcing Environment for Start-Ups

It’s obvious that Ukrainian software development companies can become comfortable long-term partners for bigger corporations, but outsourcing to Ukraine would be a very viable option for start-ups with limited budgets just as well.  In fact, thousands of start-ups have moved their development to Ukraine already, and due to the reasons described above, such as optimal development cost and high proficiency level, Ukraine was named No1 choice among offshore software development countries for start-ups on a $10,000 budget.

Finally, we would like to give you an extended introduction of MWDN company – one of the leading Ukrainian software development providers.

MWDN was founded in 2002 as a medical software development company working on healthcare projects for the Israeli market. Today, MWDN has expanded its offerings and develops a wide spectrum of cutting-edge mobile applications and web-based products for clients all around the world as well as partnering with the most successful international start-up projects.

MWDN expertise lies in the implementation of cutting-edge tools to enable the creation of elegant, cost-effective products. The dedicated development teams in Ukraine deliver robust solutions for the business of any size across different industries, making sure they place quality, reliability and performance excellence above everything else.

More than 80 experienced software developers work for MWDN. Most of them have university degrees (BS or MS equivalent) in the related tech fields. These competent, innovative and highly efficient developers are the driving force behind more than 300 sufficient projects done for the satisfied customers during the last 16 years, and while MWDN staff is proud of them all, there are a few projects worth of highlighting.

Gett

Founded in 2010, Gett is a free app for iOS and Android that allows to instantly book a ride from any location. The company quickly grew into a global taxi grid across three continents with seamless mobile functionality as well as on-demand and pre-booking capabilities.

5-15 people, 3 years, Ruby, 10S, Android

Better Chains

Better Chains is a restaurant application created for staff and management. It allows users to flexibly manage work schedule, control shift swaps and communications with colleagues and managers. By activating a manager mode, a user can approve swaps as well as review profiles and statues.

9 people, 2 years, PHP, 10S, Android, JS

Hi-G-Tek

Hi-G-Tek is a leading global provider of wireless solutions for validating asset integrity. The key features include real-time location tracking, security, and data on condition of high value cargo and assets, whether in transit or stationary.

5-15 people, 3 years, Ruby, 10S, Android

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Make sure to browse MWDN extensive portfolio, and while you are there, see customer references about us. We would like to highlight a few of them in this article. This is what our clients have to say about us:

“The development team are experts, and management team is flexible and opportunity creators. Definitely the right choice.”

Netanel Mohoni, CEO, VIDOO.

“I have been working with various teams at MWDN for more than two years. Developers and managers have great technical and interpersonal qualities which are crucial to our workflow.”

Sharon Viente, Co-Founder & CTO Better Chains

“I have found MWDN to be a company with great honesty and high business ethics. The services, which they offered to us has been of very high quality and at very competitive rates.”

Igor Rogov, VP R&D at Pointer Telocation Ltd.

Conclusion

When you choose a Ukrainian company as your strategic development partner, you gain an immediate competitive advantage. We hope the reasons listed in this article had been thorough enough to convince you at least consider Ukraine as a destination for outsourcing software development. If you have already decided that you need to find a reliable, capable and creative partner, consider working with MWDN – you are not going to be disappointed!