It depends on a lot of things. This is a pretty broad question with lots of pieces. Rob Walling has a great course on Udemy on The Startup's Guide to Virtual Assistants. The course costs $99 and it's more focused on VA work than straight dev / coding but it touches on both. I took it and it was worth every penny. https://www.udemy.com/startups-guide-hiring-virtual-assistant-va/
I don't think it's a case of outsourcing to a specific country (i.e. India vs Vietnam vs anywhere else), as much as understanding that outsourcing has its benefits (costs mostly), but also challenges (project management / communication).
My best recommendation is to use a service / platform like Odesk (http://odesk.com) when outsourcing any work. They assist both in tracking the work done (especially helpful when you're being billed per hour) and also in resolving issues (if your supplier screws up).
I agree with Adii. It's not about which country should you outsource to, but about outsourcing itself.
When you are bootstrapping to launch your venture, pool in all your funds, keep the costs low and go with an outsourced provider that understands your requirements best. I understand the predicament that you may have with regards to outsourcing, but the most important thing for you at this moment is to get your product out there.
Once you have a Beta going, maybe go in for funding, scale it up and hire a team who can then carry it on from there.
Some of the most famous products today were outsourced in their initial days – Alibaba, Fab.com (to an Indian company), Digg, Skype. And these are only a drop in the ocean of such examples.
I'd recommend looking at a platform like http://www.accelerance.com/ to identify the right development company that best fits your needs.
The location is less of an issue than the fact that outsourcing brings with it a bunch of complexity and can require a lot of attention and management. Time zones, culture, timelines...all of these add challenges that go away when your team or providers are close at hand. Not to say it can't be done, but don't think that it will be super easy.
The main things you want to look for when determining the best countries to outsource software development to are lower costs, a highly developed IT market, a high-quality educational infrastructure, and the ability to communicate in your preferred language . Once you have figured out what your company’s specific outsourcing needs are, you are ready to start looking for collaborators in the best countries to outsource software development to.
India is probably the first country you think of when you hear the term “outsourcing”, and with good reason. India is the second largest English-speaking country in the world, making it an ideal choice for US or UK employers interested in outsourcing.
Apart from India there are several countries that are good for outsourcing. The Ukrainian government has a strong focus on education that has nourished a thriving tech industry there. Ukraine is also home to the largest number of C++ programmers globally. Other benefits of outsourcing to Ukraine include a time zone that partially overlaps with US and UK times and a similar working culture which prizes challenge and competition. China is home to many of the fastest growing IT companies and produces as many as 4.7 million tech graduates every year. In a hypothetical analysis of countries fit to participate in a “programming Olympics” by HackerRank, China ranked first. First, only 10 million of China’s 1.3 billion residents speak English, presenting a large communication barrier for many international employers. Second, China is known to have lax enforcement on Intellectual Property laws. Over 92% of Filipinos speak English, making the Philippines one of the largest English-speaking populations in the world. This means that while it’s one of the best countries to outsource software development to if you’ve got a simple project in mind, you might want to consider China or Ukraine for more complex projects. Romania offers its citizens access to tuition-free, egalitarian education, which has spurred one of the most diverse tech scenes in Europe. Romanian developers ranked 20th in the world across all HackerRank programming tests.
Romania has invested heavily in its IT infrastructure over the past several years, propelling them to the 18th place on the A. Kearney Global Services Location Index, which ranks countries based on financial attractiveness, skill levels and availability, and overall business environment. And with most developers earning at least three times as much as the average Romanian, this field can draw a steady stream of new and talented workers. Romania also offers other key benefits for employers in western Europe and North America. The time zone offers significant overlap with western Europe and even US time zones.
Almost 90% of the developer community in Romania speaks English, and many other foreign languages like Russian and German are common in Romania. Brazil is home to roughly 6.18 million fluent English speakers and a government that is working hard to build better technology education infrastructure. Combined with an unusually young workforce – 38.18% of the population is under 24 years old – this makes Brazil an up-and-coming country for outsourcing software development. However, the IT community in Brazil is still relatively young.
Brazilian programmers only scored an average of 71.3% on HackerRank assessments. This makes Brazil a great place to find junior developers but means you will want to look at other countries on this list for more advanced projects. Depending on their location and experience level, Brazilian developers’ salaries range from R24,000 to R132,000.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
