Emerging Best-Value Tech Hubs: The report benchmarks salaries and talent depth across 34 countries and 43 technologies.
Qubit Labs has published the most comprehensive cost-of-engineering study released this year, revealing that tech companies can cut payroll expenses by establishing development teams in Eastern Europe instead of the United States.
The Where to Hire Software Developers in 2025: Talent Availability and Cost Breakdown by Region report compares salary bands, talent density, language skills, the quality of STEM education, and R&D friendliness across EMEA, APAC, and the Americas. Its insights provide founders, CTOs, and HR leaders with a single, data-driven playbook for global hiring.
Who It’s For
- Companies seeking a location to establish an R&D software development office.
- Businesses aiming to understand the cost-effectiveness of tech hubs for scaling their teams.
- Long-term projects looking for markets that offer talent with niche skills across various industries.
Message from the CEO
“With 76 percent of tech firms battling an acute developer shortage, location strategy is now a C-suite issue,” said Iva Kozlovska, CEO, Qubit Labs. “Our new index pinpoints markets that offer deep talent pools, competitive compensation, favorable taxes, and strong cultural alignment—enabling companies to scale fast without compromising quality.”
Key Findings
Key Talent Markets Insights
- North America: 8.5 million developers power more than half of the world’s tech unicorns.
- Central & Eastern Europe: 1.2 million specialists excel in fintech, gaming, and AI/ML, offering rates 30–50% lower than those in Western Europe.
- Southeast Asia: Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, and the Philippines leverage 1.3 million engineers to drive growth in fintech, IoT, and e-commerce.
- Latin America: Backed by robust STEM pipelines and government tax incentives, 2.2 million developers fuel the region’s tech expansion.
Countries that Are Growing as Tech Hubs
- Poland boasts over 600,000 IT specialists who deliver advanced solutions in cybersecurity, e-commerce, gaming, and fintech sectors.
- Ukraine, home to numerous tech unicorns, is recognized for its robust STEM education and top-tier developers proficient in programming languages such as Python, Java, JavaScript, PHP, and Node.js.
- Moldova is at the forefront of technological innovation with AI, ML, and data science advancements implemented by approximately 16,500 IT specialists.
- Romania has established itself as one of the top countries for outsourcing, offering an excellent price-to-quality ratio in fintech, cybersecurity, AI, and healthcare development.
- Bulgaria, a country with a talent pool of 90,000 specialists skilled in AI, machine learning (ML), and cloud computing, is known for its competitive salaries, attractive tax rates, and strong government initiatives.
Cost Spotlights
- Vietnam and Bulgaria top the value table, while Armenia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine offer the lowest annual salary ranges for JavaScript ($26,400–$28,800), Python AI ($26,400), and Java back-end engineers ($21,600–$24,000).
- The same roles exceed $100,000 in Australia, Switzerland, and the U.S., underscoring a widening East–West cost gap.
- The USA, Australia, and the UK have the highest dedicated team costs worldwide- $67,050, $52,100, and $43,547, respectively.
- Assembling a dedicated team in Poland costs 64.95% less than in the USA. For Bulgaria, this value is 72.11%, while for Mexico, it is 68.68%.
Why This Research Matters to CEOs, CTOs, and HRs of Enterprises, Tech Companies, and Startups
- Fresh data: Combines salary medians, English-proficiency scores, STEM-graduate output, and startup-visa policies—critical signals for venture-backed companies deciding where to launch satellite hubs.
- Actionable angles: Shifts in AI wages, strategies for addressing IT talent shortages, and the impact of geopolitical realignment on developer availability.
- Regional spotlight: Uncover unexpected “next-wave” destinations, such as Georgia, Moldova, and Bulgaria, that are strategically scaling specialized R&D centers.
- Strategic advantage: Analyze accurate and in-depth data about talent markets across 34 countries and identify emerging tech talent landscapes to secure first-class professionals before the demand for them increases.
A complimentary 137-page PDF report, including salary tables and risk/benefit maps for all 34 markets, is available here: Qubit Labs Report.
