Is It a Good Idea to Outsource Software Development to Costa Rica?

The world knows no limits in our days. Thanks to such practices as outsourcing it is possible to keep businesses up and running 24/7/365. If you read our blog regularly, you might have come across articles revealing advantages and problems of outsourcing as well as the ones describing different types of this business model such as offshore, onshore, and nearshore outsourcing. Today we’re going to be discussing one of the most frequently chosen countries in terms of nearshore software development outsourcing - Costa Rica . You are going to find out why many US companies choose to outsource software development to Costa Rica. On top of that, we are going to provide you with other competitive options. So, is Costa Rica really that great? Let’s find out.

Software Development in Costa Rica

If we take Latin America, Costa Rica is ahead of many other countries as far as education, human resources, business innovations, and English skills go. All of the mentioned helps this country build a perfect environment for software development outsourcing. Needless to say that 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 a bunch of 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 responding 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. While offshoring may be an attractive option with low costs and a wide talent pool, daily communication may be an issue if you are in the USA and your vendor is in India. Let’s face the truth, few people like having a business meeting late at night or early in the morning. To make matters worse, if the time difference is huge, you may end up waiting the whole day to get a response to a simple question. 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 which makes 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 on the western culture in general. Besides, Costa Rica ranks second in English proficiency in Latin America. It was ranked 30 on the 2019 English Proficiency Index, having risen six places from the previous ranking. In terms of business culture, the country has joined the interests of North America by the means of its business approaches and dedication to new technologies and science.

Real-Time Cooperation

As we were saying, there are two main factors that make the agile method work. They are 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 & phone calls. Thanks to this, the projects are delivered successfully within a scheduled deadline. Thus, by outsourcing design and software development to Costa Rica, you will get the job done on time.

The Well-Educated Costa Rica Developers

Since 1869 the education in Costa Rica has been free and, most importantly, obligatory. Thanks to this the literacy rate in this country is 96%, 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 a big number of companies to move their development centers to this country.

Business Safety and Sustainability

The years of democracy and peace in Costa Rica have created a stable environment for doing business. Being one of the most economically and politically stable and one of the safest countries in Latin America, Costa Rica surely deserves attention when it comes to finding a destination for software development outsourcing. It is also worth mentioning that even though the country is quite small in size, the concentration of skilled developers is high. 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. It is undeniable that 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 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 sphere of IT. In Europe, Ukraine is second only to Great Britain in the number of quality IT experts. 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.

So, answering the question this article has in the introduction, Costa Rica is definitely the best destination from the available in Latin America. However, on the world stage of outsourcing, it slightly lags behind such heavyweights in software development outsourcing as Ukraine. In case 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.