What are the salaries of software developers in the Ukraine?

Introduction

In a previous article, we read about Ukraine, and how it has become a really great place to get software developers. In this article, we will discuss more about Ukraine and how much you need to pay for the software developers. Ukraine is certainly one of the top destinations for software development in Eastern Europe, because there is a robust IT environment and software developers with multiple talents. Recognising the potential of Ukraine, several top tech giants (like Google, Amazon and Samsung) have already set up research and development bases in the country. BBC has also conducted their own study regarding the growth potential of Ukraine and have stated that there was a 20.4% growth in 2020 in the IT industry alone. 

Ukraine is much demanded by European companies because of the almost same time zone. So that means when they have a project to discuss, they don’t have to wait until it’s working hours for the outsourced country. Other reasons are as follows:

Very bright team of developers – You get well-educated software developers, thanks to the structured learning system of the country, with over 620 institutions offering a steady and significant number of graduates every year.

The talents are cheaper – You pay a fraction of what you need to pay in other countries like the UK and US. We will discuss the cost factor shortly.

Developers are familiar with the working culture – The Ukrainians are great people who can adapt to the Western culture. They are open minded, communicative and share the same values as the Western countries. 

Impressive global recognition – Ukraine is really at the top for global recognition. This is obvious because as mentioned earlier, many tech giants have established their R&Ds there. They are top in the outsourcing industry, and also in the Science and Technology category, globally!

Main cities from where you can hire Ukrainian developers

So the Ukrainian IT industry is doing really well, especially the following cities. These are flourishing cities that boast about good infrastructure. 

Kyiv – the capital of Ukraine with an incredible number of talented software developers. You can find several professional communities here, each helping one another. 

Kharkiv – This is the second largest city in Ukraine, and has an impressive IT community here that is growing by the day. 

Lviv – This is also another major tech hub in Ukraine, and a major chunk of the outsourcing developers go from here to the Western Europe, US and UK. Lviv is famous for its biggest tech event in the Eastern Europe, also known as Lviv IT Arena. 

Dnipro – This is the fourth-largest IT destination and after Kyiv, this is the next destination where you have the second-largest number of R&D centres in Ukraine. 

Odesa – This is another city in Ukraine, fast growing and hugely popular among software development countries, with heavily skilled IT and software development teams. 

How much to pay for your Ukrainian developer?

Now comes the big question. How much do you have to pay for the developer? That cannot be a one-word answer because there are a lot of factors involved in it:

Outstaffing the developers

If you don’t want to hire an in-house team and would like to work with a remote team, then you can try for a remote team in Ukraine. IT outstaffing is another model of outsourcing and helps you get talented developers nearshore. If you are hiring an entry-level developer and have a simple project, then you need to pay around $35000 per year, for a middle-level software engineer you can pay around $40000  to 60000 per year and a senior developer can get around $ 60000 to 90000 or more per year. 

Outstaffing is a kind of remote employment where the developer team would be working for one particular company, and wouldn’t be involved in anyone else’s project at the time. Many companies prefer to go for this kind of employment because they can enjoy a dedicated team, but they don’t have to worry about establishing their own team, as this will all be done by the company providing them. 

The team works like an extended arm of your company. There will already be a team run by the company and you just have to hire them. The extended team is likely to fill the talent gap in your own company, or when your core team is busy on other projects. 

Dedicated development team

You can hire a dedicated development team from Ukraine and the per developer charges from $ 3000 to $ 10000 per month. You can create a cross-functional team to create your software project. All you need to do would be to explain your requirements in detail, and it would be arranged by the company that provides you with the dedicated development team. This team would be more like an assembled team, so people from different levels of skills and location might join in for the duration of the project. You can choose from a variety of talents on a global scale here, but here since you are hiring from Ukraine, that is not much of a change, but still you can assemble a team of your own. 

Hiring a dedicated team sounds reasonable when you are at:

  • An early stage startup company that wants to create a strong mark
  • Have a project with vague requirements
  • Have a complex long-term project

Choosing the fixed price model

You can also look for a fixed price model by analysing the project requirements, the time and material needed and other project specifics. Once you shift your focus on this model, you can create a list of the vendors that you are interested in, and then evaluate them on the basis of experience, their success rates, testimonials and so on. 

The programming languages used

The monthly salaries of the Ukrainian developers will also depend on the programming language used. For example, for a junior developer with C# knowledge, the salary can be around $ 2000 per month, whereas for a senior level employee, the salary can be $ 4000 or more per month. The salary for a junior Python developer is also set about the same, $ 2000 per month and for a senior, the rate would be around $ 3900. Thus when you consider the salary of the software developer from Ukraine, you must not only consider the estimated number of hours required for the job, but the programming languages used as well. 

Conclusion

While considering the salary of software developers in Ukraine, the city chosen is also a factor to consider because Kyiv is the most expensive of them all. Lviv comes a close second, followed by Khariv, Dnipro, Odesa with slightly lower rates. The ongoing war with Russia forced many of the software development companies to relocate their business to western countries, but the country is picking up once again and will continue to serve great developers. Ukrainans are really hard working people, and having their software developers on your team would definitely be a great advantage. 

Interesting Links:

What Does a Software Developer Do?

Is Ukraine a Good Choice for Your Business to Outsource Software Developers?

Pictures: Canva


The author: Sascha Thattil works at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.

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