Eastern Europe vs. Latin America: Where should you outsource?

ManpowerGroup’s research states that 76% of IT companies globally have difficulties in finding the talent they need. Moreover, some roles face a supply-to-demand gap of over 3:1.

That’s why more and more companies are shifting from building in-house teams to external partnerships. And we see two main destinations to outsource software development in 2025: Eastern Europe and Latin America.

Choosing between Eastern Europe vs. Latin America for outsourcing, the main talking points are engineer assessment, scaling potential, and budgets.

Below, we’ve sized up these two regions based on cost, talent, time zones, and delivery capabilities so that you can find a sweet spot for nearshore vs. offshore software development.

Developer rates in 2025

In short, while rates overlap, the structure differs — Eastern Europe shows higher senior premiums and sharper country-to-country variance; Latin America offers wider scale at US-friendly timezone premiums.

Poland has a noticeable gap between middle and senior roles. You won’t see such in other countries. Probably, this is due to active migration of tech talent from Ukraine: while Poland already has established authority as an outsourcing provider, an experienced workforce boosts the country’s credibility even more.

Why such numbers

Hardly can we expect a decrease in the cost of living. So, wage inflation and macro pressure are the main drivers of the rate rise. Let’s run through other common factors.

Demand for SMEs in difficult niches outstrips supply: Clients are ready to pay 30-60% more for deep subject matter experts, who can, for example, ship LLM inference pipelines, data infrastructure, or secure multi-tenant SaaS.

Follow-the-talent and nearshoring demand: Global outsourcing volumes has decreased over the last couple of years. And in spite of consistent growth across a decade, outsourcing poses a new dilemma for tech founders: nearshore vs offshore software development.

Enterprise SLAs and global takeovers: During 2022-24, we saw several uptakes from large providers. This drives cost rises, as well as more consistent and high-quality SLAs, though.

Currency and geopolitical effects: FX volatility and relocations (particularly, Ukrainian service tech companies set up offices in the EU) change local supply and puff up rates in certain cities. Yet, this is one of the reasons why we still witness stable demand for Ukrainian software development outsourcing in Eastern Europe.

Talent pool and tech expertise

Eastern Europe: Poland has around 500K developers, with some adjustments for Ukrainian specialists on double taxation (some tech specialists from Ukraine are forced to pay taxes both to Ukraine and Poland; therefore, all research counts such professionals as the Polish workforce). Romania has 190K, Ukraine (locally) — 238K, and Bulgaria — 100-115K.

Latin America: Brazil: as per different sources, from 800K to 1.2M developers. Mexico has 300K devs, and Argentina — around 170K. Colombia is growing fast, and estimates revolve around 100K.

Education

Eastern Europe: Many parochial countries have Soviet influence, specifically on their education systems. IT outsourcing in Eastern Europe is still attractive for foreign clients because of its talent’s skills in math, algorithms, and systems programming.

Universities, private entities, and R&D cultivate engineers with deep CS fundamentals. Just look at the ratio of senior roles in job listings — we’d say more than half are for Senior roles.

For example, Poland’s senior share is definitely higher than 50%.

Latin America: In local countries, there is a broader product and UX culture. Bootcamps and industry certifications, strong talent growth in Frontend, mobile, and product engineering. This explains why LATAM outsourcing is so popular among US digital product teams.

Popular stacks

Eastern Europe: AI/ML (Python, PyTorch/TensorFlow), cloud (Kubernetes, Terraform), Java/.NET backend, C/C++ or Rust for systems/embedded. Eastern Europe grows its contribution to open source by 10%. Four years ago, it generated about 0.4% to 0.6% GDP.

Latin America: React/Node, mobile stacks (Flutter, React Native, native iOS/Android), cloud migrations (AWS/Azure). Note that the local signature is the product-first full-stack approach.

Niche specializations

Eastern Europe: Cybersecurity, core banking, large enterprise systems (SAP, telco); in recent years, ML research and MLOps are also making headway. Traditionally, embedded/real-time systems are also prized here.

Latin America: Consumer product engineering, mobile apps of different scales, and rapidly maturing fintech (from giants like C6 Bank and Uala to growing neobank Plata).

Food for thought for DMs

Deep backend, ML infrastructure, regulated enterprise, strong security practices → you’d better choose Eastern Europe’s outsourcing providers. It might cost you more than you expect in 2026, but you’ll have fewer reworks and stronger architecture competence.

Precise product development, fast iterations, strong mobile/UX execution → your choice is Latin America software development outsourcing. You’ll usually get smoother live collaboration and strong product sensibilities.

Time zone and collaboration conditions

Eastern Europe is one or two hours behind Western European business hours. Obviously, Latin America’s working day aligns far better with North America’s. So, why are there so many examples of failed projects (as well as excellent ones)? Math is not mathing or working overlaps don’t influence effectiveness the way we thought?

How the math matters in practice

Effectiveness and a client-centered approach are key. You can get a slack team in 30 mins from you, offline collabs, and all that stuff. And you can get a team that goes the extra mile, meets with you during their night hours, and builds a consistent reporting system so that you’re up to date and can make informed product decisions.

What that looks like on the calendar

• Synchronous work: You’ll likely use it for architecture workshops, live debugging, and demos. Incident response and other types of communications can be automated or asynchronous.
• Asynchronous work: As we stated above, it’s best for continuous feature delivery, code reviews, and documentation. Just ensure artifact culture with clear tickets and definitive acceptance criteria.

Eastern Europe → Europe: 1 hour difference as a max. If your product team is in Berlin or Paris, engineers in Poland or Ukraine can join daily standups, planning sessions, and sprint demos without late nights.

Latin America → North America: The same story for this chain: big overlap with US time zones. Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina give East Coast teams multi-hour live overlap. This opens windows for paired programming, whiteboard design sessions, and support handoffs. Regarding West Coast, it gets fewer shared hours but often still enough for end-of-day syncs.

How to reduce friction

• Include overlap windows for critical roles in your contract (“Project Manager/Team Lead must be available 10AM - 2PM client time”)
• Record demos and design decisions so async teammates can act without waiting
• Standardize your tickets: use project-wide acceptance criteria, test data, and edge cases

Time zones influence the overall effectiveness of your work, whether your provider is in Eastern Europe or Latin America. Software development rates, working hours, communication style — you shouldn’t focus on just one criterion when choosing the outsourcing partner.

Language and communication

Eastern European countries have a relatively high level of English proficiency. Not all Latin American countries have the same proficiency levels. But let’s face it, almost all North American/British clients work mainly with top vendors and tech hubs, and they typically have B2 at least.

EF EPI Index 2024

The new edition will be released in November, but we don’t expect a dramatic change from the 2024 edition. So we have it as a basic foundation.

Poland (#15 globally), Romania (#12), and Bulgaria (#16) are among the highest tiers on EF’s 2024 index. Warsaw, Bucharest, and Sofia are listed under the Very High Proficiency label.

Argentina (#28) and Colombia (#74) score not that well, but show steady improvement year over year. Buenos Aires, for example, has a High Proficiency label.

What that means day-to-day

Eastern Europe: Companies organize regular English training for client-facing teams or at least reimburse English courses. Communication is polite and usually documentation-driven.

Latin America: Teams in popular hubs have strong spoken English and a very collaborative, informal meeting style. That’s an advantage when you prefer conversational, product-led sessions and quicker social bonding.

Cultural patterns you’ll see

But don’t rely on country averages. Insist on live interviews with a real problem to solve. Include a short paid pilot (2-4 weeks) with measurable communication KPIs: response SLAs, number of clarification questions per ticket, and quality of handoff artifacts.

Below are just some patterns you might see.

If your workflow relies heavily on asynchronous documentation and formalities, you’d better go with Eastern European software development outsourcing. If you prefer ease of conversation, and your project requires more live time together with a provider, Latin America may be a better option.

Political and economic stability comparison

First things first, your focus should be on business continuity, legal structure, and operational setup. Before starting a cooperation, check if your partner controls these areas. Documented recovery plans and clause coverage for currency or political shocks will be the best insurance.

Geopolitical risk in Eastern Europe

Let’s be real, most European leaders do not expect a significant escalation in the Russian aggression in Ukraine. Yet, the risk remains due to recurring airspace violations and infrastructure attacks. And that’s a problem, because the facts are clear: several times, Russia entered the airspace of Poland, Moldova, and other European countries. And the worst thing is that Europe isn’t ready for potential escalation. Not physically, nor economically.

The Institute of New Europe calculated that Russia launched over 500 drones and 40 missiles into western Ukraine in August 2025. By the way, some commercial facilities are less than 30 km from Hungary’s border. This adds up to the US factory in Ukraine that was destroyed.

Either way, you should be ready for supply-chain disruption, energy interruptions, or heightened political uncertainty for service providers in affected zones.

Economic volatility in Latin America

Argentina is an extremely inflation-prone country. For example, prices skyrocketed by 211.4% in 2023, with high government debt levels. Mexico and Brazil encounter currency swings backed by election uncertainty, and each factor influences vendor cost stability and wage rise.

Availability of vendors

We are about to wrap up the battle Eastern Europe vs Latin America. Outsourcing providers is the last mile in this run.

Eastern Europe has been maturing for a decade so local countries have many certified vendors (and separate developers as well) and dedicated team models. That’s why so many enterprises hire devs across Poland, Romania and Ukraine.

Since Latin America’s companies were more focused on product development, the local market has fewer globally known companies. Yet, it is rapidly scaling and focusing on near-shoring.

Delivery models comparison

Eastern Europe: Dedicated teams and staff augmentation are the most popular options. Typical cooperation is under a multi-year contract, ISO 27001/SOC compliance, and includes team extensions into client time zones.

Latin America: Many vendors focus on staff augmentation and product squads. They also have dedicated team models, but fewer vendors combine high-governance structures with enterprise SLAs. Also, you can expect a slightly higher price from Latin American senior roles (they just have fewer senior benches).

Conclusion

There are several key considerations before choosing a provider to whom you can outsource software development in 2025.

Location: Situated in the US and require a full-day overlap? Then choose LATAM providers. If your business is located in the EU or the UK, you’d better choose Eastern Europe due to commitment and price.

Price: Higher across LATAM and lower in Eastern Europe. But again, we would not suggest choosing price tag as a core factor in your decision.

Stage of business: Every company goes through several stages in its maturity. If you are just on the MVP stage, your focus is likely on honing software development. Latin America is the best choice in this case, especially if you want cultural proximity with the US. Enterprise-level companies should have an eye on Eastern Europe due to relevant SLAs and multi-year expertise in similar projects.

Domain: AI, fintech, project handling a vast amount of data — go with Eastern Europe outsourcing. Mobile and specific niches — LATAM is your go-to choice.

If you are ready to start (or successfully continue) your journey, book a call with Devico’s team. In 30 minutes, we will make a first dive into your business and project requirements and find how we can help.