Romania has become one of Europe’s most established destinations for IT outsourcing. A strong engineering culture, a large and continuously growing talent pool, and competitive delivery costs have positioned Romanian developers as long-term technology partners for US and European companies. Beyond cost efficiency, organizations choose software development in Romania for the technical versatility of local developers, experience with complex systems, and the ability to collaborate effectively within distributed, cross-cultural teams.
This article explores custom software development in Romania and explains why the country stands out among other European outsourcing locations.
Why software outsourcing to Romania is the smart choice
According to Outsourcing Today, Romania's IT&C services account for over a quarter (25.6%) of its total services exports and became the country’s top exporter of services in 2025. This showcases Romania’s global reach and the high demand for its IT expertise.
Moreover, the IT sector contributed 6.67% to Romania’s GDP in 2024 and is one of the key economic pillars in the country. This strong economic foundation provides a stable environment for businesses looking to outsource software development. It suggests that the sector is resilient and continues to drive the country’s overall economic performance, making it a reliable destination for outsourcing in the long term.
Now, let’s take a more detailed look at the factors that make IT outsourcing in Romania a viable option for your business.
Trustworthy and experienced tech vendors
As of January 2026, Clutch, a platform that ranks the best tech companies across categories, lists 550+ software development companies in Romania. Most of them are small vendors that employ up to 50 professionals. A quarter of companies that specialize in development in Romania are midsize firms with up to 250 employees.
By outsourcing software development to Romania, you can benefit from multidimensional industry specialization. The largest chunk of local companies offers software development services to the business services industry. Besides that, Romanian experts specialize in finance, healthcare, and ecommerce domains. So, if you operate in those niches, consider outsourcing to Romania. Some otherindustries that commonly outsource to Romania include automotive, education, retail, telecommunications, and others.
Skilled and highly educated Romanian software developers
Romania enters the top three countries in Europe with the largest number of software developers. The IT sector employed nearly 200,000 people in 2024, as compared to 300,000 in Ukraine and 650,000 in Poland. But even more importantly, the local talent is highly educated.
Tech education
There are 49 public and 8 private universities in Romania that graduate more than 9,300 engineers and computer science specialists every year. Moreover, 500,000 students enroll in Romanian HEIs annually, including 27,000 international students. Such a number of students ensures a steady flow of tech talent, which is beneficial for outsourcing software development to Romania.
According to the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, 14 Romanian universities are among the world's best computer science institutions. The most significant educational institutions in the country are the Bucharest University of Economic Studies, Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, the University of Bucharest, and the Polytechnic University of Bucharest. ICT students represent 6.8% of the total students who can potentially join the market of outsourcing in Romania.
Most Romanian software developers start working even before graduation, as many tech companies offer yearly internships. Thus, they start working early; by the time they graduate, they are very skilled and have real-life experience. Thus, they are a great match for collaboration within the outsourcing to Romania framework.
English proficiency
Romania ranks 11th globally in English proficiency, according to EF EPI, 2025. EF English Proficiency Index. Software development companies in Romania have extensive experience working with US and EU clients and maintain established processes for remote collaboration, agile methodologies, and project management.
R&D centers in the country
Many global giants have opted for IT outsourcing to Romania after it joined the EU in 2007. Hewlett-Packard, Huawei, Ericsson, Siemens, Oracle, Gameloft, and Porsche are just a few of them. Almost 20% of Romanian tech professionals work in R&D. This fact can be viewed as both an advantage and a disadvantage of outsourcing to Romania. On the one hand, the presence of such industry giants may lead to intense competition for talent, as these companies allure the best employees. On the other hand, these global businesses set a high bar for their employees, so other professionals in the market must keep up to stay competitive.
Moreover, Romania is slowly but steadily becoming a CEE center for the automotive industry. Apart from Porsche mentioned above, companies such as Renault and Huf entrust software outsourcing to Romania.
High cost-quality ratio
One of Romania's most significant advantages is its cost-effectiveness without compromising on quality. Salaries remain 20-50% lower than Western European or American markets while delivering comparable quality. This allows companies to access senior-level talent at mid-level Western rates or build larger teams within fixed budgets. Romania’s software development operates within EU regulatory frameworks, ensuring GDPR compliance, IP protection, and European business standards, reducing legal risks of outsourcing to Romania compared to other locations.
Well-developed IT infrastructure
Romania is home to a rapidly growing IT infrastructure, with modern tech hubs and an increasing number of data centers. The country’s strong internet connectivity, data security protocols, and IT resources ensure businesses can rely on Romanian outsourcing partners for long-term, scalable projects.
IT outsourcing in Romania: Biggest tech hubs
As the capital, Bucharest is the central hub for software development outsourcing in Romania and the city with the most tech universities and graduates. The cities of Cluj-Napoca, Iasi, Timisoara, and Brasov also offer developed technology infrastructures that are a perfect fit for software outsourcing to Romania. So, we’ll focus on these hubs in this article.
Bucharest as a hub for outsourcing in Romania
Bucharest is the main software development hub in Romania, with over 200 custom software companies operating in the city. Most are small to midsize firms, while around 25 companies work at a larger scale, employing thousands of tech experts, including one major technology employer with more than 10,000 specialists.
Local IT companies focus primarily on web and mobile development, supported by services such as AI development, ecommerce solutions, web design, and IT staff augmentation. This range allows businesses to build products end-to-end or quickly extend their development teams.
Bucharest-based software providers serve a wide range of industries. Technology, business services, and financial services account for the largest share of clients, followed by ecommerce and healthcare. Retail, consumer services, and automotive industries are also well represented, reflecting the city’s broad industry coverage and mature tech ecosystem.
Cluj-Napoca as a hub for outsourcing in Romania
The city of Cluj-Napoca is home to many top companies that provide outsourcing in Romania. In total, around 200 outsourcing vendors have established their presence in the city. This destination for software outsourcing to Romania has around 9% of large outsourcing firms, with the majority of vendors being small-sized firms. Regarding the industry focus, vendors of Cluj-Napoca specialize in implementing solutions for information technology, financial services, business services, healthcare, and ecommerce business verticals.
Read more about IT outsourcing in Cluj-Napoca
Iasi as a hub for outsourcing in Romania
Iasi is the prominent spot of outsourcing software development to Romania in the North-East of the country. Clutch lists a little over 40 vendors with offices in Iasi. Around 60% of local vendors are small-sized firms, with 20% of companies in the city being mid-sized. Local engineering professionals are primarily involved in projects for healthcare, information technology, financial services, and ecommerce domains.
Timisoara as a hub for outsourcing in Romania
Timisoara is one of Romania’s most established secondary technology hubs and a viable choice for software outsourcing. Its location near the Hungarian and Serbian borders has historically made the city a gateway for cross-border business and collaboration with Western Europe.
The city benefits from a solid academic base, led by the Polytechnic University of Timisoara, which supplies a steady stream of software engineers, embedded developers, and automation specialists. Timisoara has a particularly strong profile in embedded software, automotive systems, industrial automation, and enterprise applications, reflecting its long-standing ties to manufacturing and engineering-driven industries.
Compared to Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, competition for talent in Timisoara is more balanced, which helps reduce attrition and supports long-term team stability. For companies seeking reliable delivery, predictable scaling, and closer alignment with European time zones, Timisoara offers a mature outsourcing environment without the saturation pressure seen in larger hubs.
Brasov as a hub for outsourcing in Romania
Brasov is an emerging software outsourcing location that combines technical talent with lower market saturation. While smaller than Romania’s primary IT hubs, the city has been steadily expanding its technology ecosystem, supported by local universities and growing private-sector investment.
The local talent pool is often associated with strong fundamentals in software engineering, and QA, making Brașov suitable for assembling development teams, as well as establishing testing centers and long-term delivery units. Companies operating in Brașov benefit from comparatively lower competition for engineers, which translates into higher retention rates and more sustainable team growth.
Brasov also attracts professionals seeking a high quality of life outside Romania’s largest cities. This factor contributes to workforce stability and makes the city an attractive option for businesses looking to build dedicated teams focused on continuity rather than rapid, short-term scaling.
Romania’s tech hubs offer different strengths, but choosing the right city is only part of the decision. How you set up cooperation, structure teams, and manage collaboration plays an equally important role in outsourcing outcomes.
The following tips focus on practical steps that will help you work more effectively with software development teams in Romania and avoid common challenges early on.
Tips to make outsourcing to Romania easier
Outsourcing to Romania can be highly effective if you approach it with the right structure, expectations, and governance. Below are practical, execution-focused tips that help reduce friction and improve outcomes when working with Romanian software teams.
1. Define scope and decision ownership early
Romanian teams are used to working in structured delivery environments. Clearly document what decisions stay on your side and what can be made by the delivery team. This avoids slow approvals and keeps delivery moving, especially in distributed Agile setups.
2. Choose partners with proven delivery maturity
Look beyond technical skills and assess delivery governance, QA processes, and DevOps practices. Mature Romanian providers typically operate within well-defined engineering frameworks and can integrate smoothly into your existing SDLC without heavy supervision.
3. Standardize quality expectations from day one
Align on coding standards, testing depth, documentation, and the Definition of Done before development starts. Romanian teams typically adapt quickly to clear quality benchmarks, especially when expectations are explicit rather than implied.
4. Maintain visibility through metrics
Track delivery health through agreed KPIs such as velocity stability, defect leakage, and release predictability. Romanian teams typically respond better to outcome-based governance than to daily operational control.
Wrap-up
Romania has moved well beyond being a cost-driven outsourcing destination. Today, it represents a mature, stable, and strategically sound choice for companies that need dependable software delivery at scale. A strong engineering culture, a well-educated and continuously growing talent pool position Romanian teams as long-term technology partners rather than short-term capacity providers.
Equally important, Romania offers a balance that many organizations struggle to find elsewhere. We mean competitive costs without sacrificing quality, delivery maturity, or regulatory alignment. EU standards around data protection and IP, a resilient IT sector backed by the national economy, and well-developed tech hubs reduce risk for international clients.
For US and European businesses looking to extend development capacity, modernize complex systems, or build dedicated teams with predictable outcomes, outsourcing software development to Romania remains a pragmatic and future-oriented decision. With the right engagement model and governance in place, Romanian teams can integrate seamlessly into global delivery organizations and support sustainable growth over the long term.
Why should you choose N-iX as your software development partner in Romania?
- N-iX is a trusted tech company with 23 years of experience in software development for manufacturing, retail, telecom, healthcare, and many more domains;
- We work with businesses from all over the world, including the US, EU, and Nordic countries;
- N-iX teams are well-versed in AI development, custom software development, data, IoT, embedded software development, and more;
- N-iX complies with international data protection standards, namely, ISO 27001:2013, ISO 9001:2015, PCI DSS, and GDPR;
- The company is well-recognized in the industry: N-iX has appeared on IAOP, Forbes, Forrester, and CRN rankings.
FAQ
Why do US and Western European companies choose Romania for software outsourcing?
Companies choose Romania for its combination of EU regulatory alignment and competitive delivery costs. Romanian teams integrate well into distributed delivery models while supporting long-term technology initiatives.
How do I know if Romania is the right outsourcing destination for my business?
Romania offers a highly skilled talent pool, competitive pricing, and EU membership, making it an ideal choice for businesses looking to scale their operations.
What are the potential risks of outsourcing to Romania?
Challenges include navigating local tax regulations, managing cultural differences, and competing for top talent. However, these can be mitigated with the right partner, like N-iX, that will take care of the possible obstacles.
How do Romanian software developers perform as compared to Polish professionals?
Romanian and Polish software developers demonstrate comparable technical competence and delivery quality. Polish teams are often associated with larger-scale enterprises and very deep experience in complex, multinational programs, while Romanian developers are recognized for strong engineering fundamentals, flexibility, and effective collaboration in distributed teams. For many companies, the choice comes down less to performance differences and more to factors such as expences, talent availability, long-term retention, and alignment with specific industry or technology needs.
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