Is It a Good Idea to Outsource Software Development to Costa Rica?
The world knows no limits in our days. Outsourcing is one technique that makes it feasible for organizations to remain operational 24/7/365. If you frequently read our blog, you may have seen posts discussing the benefits and drawbacks of outsourcing as well as the various forms of this business model, including nearshore, onshore, and offshore outsourcing.
In this article, we're going to talk about Costa Rica, which is one of the most popular destinations for nearshore software development outsourcing. You're going to learn the reasons for the widespread decision by US businesses to hire software developers in Costa Rica. We will also provide you more competitive solutions on top of that. So, is everything that good about Costa Rica? Let's investigate.
Software Development in Costa Rica
If we take Latin America, Costa Rica is ahead of many other countries in terms of education, human resources, business innovations, and English skills. All of the mentioned help this country build a perfect environment for software development outsourcing. Needless to say countries like the USA, where software development costs are high and engineers' availability is low, find Costa Rica quite an attractive destination for nearshore outsourcing. Let's take a closer look at what Costa Rica and its developers are famous for:
Location
Being located geographically close to the US, Costa Rica makes a perfect match for American companies that prefer the agile software development approach. The agile method is widely used in the world of app and web development for many reasons. First, it provides companies with a faster time-to-market and allows overrunning competitors to be the first to present a product. As well as that, the approach is quite flexible and responds to frequent changes in market conditions, which allows the fast delivery of high-quality software with minimum risk. However, the success of the agile method depends on the daily communication and collaboration of both sides of the project. Due to this, the nearshore location of Costa Rica is an undeniable advantage, providing clients with the opportunity to reach out to the development team during convenient working hours. Online meetings and phone calls are no issue, as they could be with offshore outsourcing.
The Time Zone Convenience
The same or close time zone isn't the last thing when it comes to outsourcing software development. If you are in the USA and your vendor is in India, daily contact could be a problem, even though outsourcing might be an alluring alternative with cheap pricing and a large talent pool. As it is, not many individuals enjoy attending business meetings in the wee hours of the morning or night. To make matters worse, you might have to wait all day to receive a response to a straightforward query if there is a significant time difference. Let's not forget that different time zones between you and a vendor may also influence the project delivery date and overall quality of the product. Costa Rica is located in the central time zone, making this country a good fit for most states of the US.
Cultural Similarities
Costa Rica is a Spanish-speaking country. However, it is highly oriented to western culture in general. Besides, Costa Rica was ranked 38 on the 2023 English Proficiency Index. In terms of business culture, the country has joined the interests of North America by means of its business approaches and dedication to new technologies and science.
Real-Time Cooperation
As we said, the agile method has two main factors: daily communication and high-level cooperation skills. Without any doubt, Ticos, as Costa Ricans call themselves, do well in both. All the crucial questions can be solved in real time during daily online meetups, video calls, and phone calls. Thanks to this, the projects are delivered successfully within a scheduled deadline. Thus, you will get the job done on time by outsourcing design and software development to Costa Rica.
The Highly Educated Developers
Since 1869 education in Costa Rica has been free and, most importantly, obligatory. Thanks to this, the literacy rate in this country is 98%, which is higher than in other parts of Central America. The country supports the development of the tech areas of education, creating opportunities for young people to enter the world of IT. The software development culture in Costa Rica is getting better and more innovative, which has already attracted many companies to move their development centers to this country.
Business Safety and Sustainability
Costa Rica's long period of democracy and peace have produced a stable business climate. Costa Rica is one of the safest, most politically and economically stable nations in Latin America, and as such, it is a worthy candidate for software development outsourcing. It's also important to note that despite the nation's tiny size, there is a strong concentration of highly qualified developers. They are eager to learn new technologies and focused on innovations.
Software Development: Costa Rica vs Ukraine
So far, we have been talking about software development in Costa Rica from the perspective of other Latin American countries. Undeniably, there are quite a few advanced software development companies in Costa Rica, making it a worthy destination for outsourcing services. Yet, if you consider global offshore software development, Costa Rica might not be the option since there are more tech-savvy countries like Ukraine. Speaking of the latter, the country made it to the list of the Most Attractive Countries for offshore business services by getting 3.03 points out of 4. Just like Costa Rica, Ukraine is oriented on Western business culture. Its citizens have a high level of English proficiency.
Outsourcing software development to this country is winning in terms of quality-to-price ratio. Not to mention the education level in the IT sphere. In Europe, Ukraine is second only to Great Britain in the number of quality IT experts (almost 300.000!). Ukrainian universities bring around 23,000 software engineering graduates annually, leaving countries like Costa Rica far behind. Even though some may find a 9-hour time difference between the US and Ukraine an issue, there are still a few hours of overlap that allow efficient collaboration and communication.
Bottom Line
So, answering the question this article has in the introduction, Costa Rica is definitely the best destination available in Latin America. However, on the world stage of outsourcing, it slightly lags behind such heavyweights in software development outsourcing as Ukraine. If you are looking for quality software developers, feel free to reach out to us here. Our team is open to new challenges and will be happy to bring your project to life.
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