Hiring Ukrainian Software Developers: Costs, Risks, and How to Hire Safely

See more details

Ukraine has more than 305,000 IT specialists and around 2,200 active tech companies, according to the “Code of the Economy” study. In 2025, Ukrainian IT services exports reached $6.6 billion, or over 41% of the country’s total services exports. The industry remains strongly export-oriented, with Europe and the United States among its key markets.

On February 24, 2022, russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine. War has taken and changed the lives of millions of people. Ukrainians have been forced to leave their homes, and industries such as energy, metallurgy, and logistics have suffered heavy losses.

However, the IT sector turned out to be one of the most resilient industries. Ukrainian software developers continue working remotely for companies all over the US and Europe. Some of them even support the local defence effort by day while showing their best on work issues by night. Specialists are responsible for their work and do not want to let the business down.

Let’s take a closer look at the state of the IT industry today. Afterwards, you can read about the risks of hiring IT specialists in Ukraine and why it’s still worth doing business here.

See more details

Ukraine IT Market in 2026 in Numbers

• 305,000+ IT specialists and about 2,200 active tech companies (Code of the Economy, 2026).
• $7.85 billion — total revenue generated by Ukrainian IT companies in 2025. The sector accounted for 3.2% of Ukraine’s GDP and paid UAH 50.5 billion in taxes.
• $6.6 billion in IT services exports in 2025 — over 41% of Ukraine’s total services exports (IT Ukraine Association).
• $3,450 — median monthly net salary of a Ukrainian developer (June 2026).
• 88%+ of Ukraine’s technical talent pool are Middle, Senior, or Lead specialists (Lviv IT Cluster, IT Research Ukraine 2025).
• Top 5 programming languages: TypeScript, Python, JavaScript, C#, and Java (language rating 2026).
• 7th place worldwide by the number of respondents in the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025.

Why Outsourcing & Hiring Ukrainian Developers is a Good Idea

Every year international companies from all over the world hire Ukrainian IT specialists. If you’re looking for a software developer or an entire remote IT department, here are the key reasons why hiring tech and non-tech specialists in Ukraine is a great idea.

Blooming Market

The IT industry in Ukraine has attracted investments since 2014 and has stayed resilient through the COVID-19 pandemic and the full-scale war that began in 2022. In 2024, the sector generated $7.48 billion in turnover and $6.45 billion in exports, and IT remains Ukraine’s largest services export (Lviv IT Cluster). The top 50 IT companies alone employ about 79,600 specialists. Global tech giants such as Google, Samsung, Oracle, and Siemens operate in Ukraine, with Google and Samsung running local R&D teams.

Strong Technical Base & Diverse Expertise

According to the DOU programming language rating 2026, the most popular languages among Ukrainian IT professionals are TypeScript, Python, JavaScript, C#, and Java, while Rust, Go, and Kotlin are gaining ground. According to Clutch, Ukrainian developers are mostly involved in the industries such as eCommerce, Construction, Fintech, Education, Healthcare, Logistics, and Retail. AI/ML, data engineering, cybersecurity, and Defense tech are in trend here as well. However, it’s possible to find a candidate with any skills you need.

Strong Experience

Ukraine has a mature tech talent pool. According to IT Research Ukraine 2025, 43% of tech specialists have 6–15 years of experience, 12% have more than 15 years, and over 88% of technical talent is at Middle, Senior, or Lead level.

This depth of experience gives companies access to engineers who can contribute beyond coding — from challenging technical decisions to identifying risks and suggesting product improvements.

Talent That Turns Out Into the Bright Startup Culture

Since 2010, there has been a significant increase in startups in Ukraine. A few well-known Ukrainian startups include:

• Grammarly. An AI-powered writing assistant that helps users improve the correctness, clarity, tone, and effectiveness of their writing.

The company has been profitable since 2011 and was named the first Ukrainian unicorn start-up in 2019. By 2025, Grammarly had more than 40 million daily active users. In October 2025, the parent company rebranded as Superhuman, with Grammarly remaining its flagship product. In 2019, Fast Company ranked Grammarly No. 2 among the world’s most innovative companies in AI.

• Petcube. Founded in 2012, Petcube sells equipment, such as laser toys, Wi-Fi cameras, and voice control equipment, allowing pet owners to communicate with their pets remotely. 

According to Tech Ukraine, the company has received over $14 million in investment and is now a globally recognized brand. It was also recognized as the best hardware startup in Europe in 2014 by The Europas.

• Preply. A Ukrainian-founded online language-learning platform that connects learners with tutors worldwide. Today, it offers access to more than 100,000 tutors teaching over 90 languages across 180 countries.

Preply uses AI and machine learning to match learners with tutors and personalize the learning experience. In January 2026, the company raised $150 million in a Series D round at a $1.2 billion valuation, becoming Ukraine’s latest tech unicorn.

• Backstory (ex-People.ai). An AI-powered revenue intelligence platform that automatically captures sales activity from emails, meetings, calls, and CRM systems and turns it into insights for managing deals, accounts, and sales performance.

People.ai is used by companies including NVIDIA, OpenAI, HPE, Red Hat, and Zscaler. The Ukrainian-founded company reached unicorn status in 2021 after raising $100 million at a $1.1 billion valuation.

Affordable Rates

Developer salaries in Ukraine remain significantly lower than in major Western tech markets, giving international companies access to experienced engineers at competitive rates.

• Ukraine — the median developer salary is $3,450 per month net, or about $41,400 per year (DOU, June 2026);
• USA — the median annual wage of software developers is about $133,000 (US Bureau of Labor Statistics).

According to DOU’s summer 2026 salary survey, Junior developers earn a median of about $1,000 per month, Middle developers $2,500, and Senior developers $4,500. For Senior backend developers, the median reaches about $4,700. The total cost of hiring also depends on the engagement model (contractor, Diia.City gig contract, Employer of Record, or outsourcing).

English Proficiency & Communication

According to DOU surveys, more than half of Ukrainian IT specialists speak English at Upper-Intermediate (B2) level or higher, and among architects and tech leads this share reaches about 80%. Ukraine’s IT industry is highly export-oriented, so many developers have experience working with international clients and distributed teams. This makes English-language communication and collaboration across time zones a routine part of work for many Ukrainian tech professionals.

Remote Work Experience

Remote and hybrid work has been widespread in Ukrainian IT since 2020, while geographically distributed teams have become even more common since 2022. Ukrainian developers are therefore accustomed to collaborating online with colleagues and clients across different locations.

For European companies, time-zone overlap is straightforward: Ukraine is typically only 1–2 hours ahead of major European tech hubs. US companies have a larger time difference, so teams should agree on working hours and a daily overlap window for meetings and real-time collaboration.

Is It Risky to Hire Developers in Ukraine Today?

Before the russian full-scale invasion, many clients worldwide wanted to hire Ukrainian developers because they found them highly skilled, experienced, and reliable. The war has changed the attitudes among potential customers — some of them prefer hiring developers in other countries than Ukraine.

Let’s take a closer look at the key risks of looking for a developer in Ukraine, and see how the sector manages those even in conditions of war, instability in the country, cyber threats, power and Internet outages, and inability to work with developers who are in active hostilities, the risk of missile strikes and mobilization of key engineers.

Risk 1: The War Goes On

russia’s war against Ukraine started in 2014, and the full-scale invasion has continued since February 2022. Throughout this time, international IT companies have successfully hired talent in Ukraine: from outsourcing companies to unicorn startups.

The numbers show that clients have stayed. In 2025, IT services exports reached $6.6 billion, and the tech sector remains Ukraine’s largest services exporter. The number of Diia.City residents has grown to more than 4,000, and in January 2026 alone, residents secured over $200 million in funding. The main factors in maintaining customers are:

• high level of customer loyalty;
• long-term partnership;
• delivery stability;
• constant communication with clients;
• rapid stabilization of business processes;
• business continuity plans and distributed teams;
• high quality of services, even in wartime.

See more details

Risk 2: Mobilization of Key Engineers

According to IT Research Ukraine 2025, 75% of surveyed tech companies have mobilized specialists on staff. Many companies support employees serving in Ukraine’s Defense Forces by preserving their jobs, providing fixed payments, or partially compensating their remuneration. Companies that qualify as critically important can also reserve eligible employees from mobilization.

The reservation rules changed in 2026. Diia.City residents seeking critical-enterprise status must meet additional requirements, including an average monthly remuneration of at least EUR 1,200 for employees and gig specialists, confirmed through tax reporting for the required period. Diia.City residents have simplified access to this status.

In practice, vendors can mitigate mobilization-related delivery risks through employee reservation where available, thorough documentation, knowledge sharing, backup engineers, and geographically distributed teams.

Risk 3: Disruptions in Work 

Concerned that air raids, missile strikes, or power outages could disrupt the work of Ukrainian developers? Since 2022, many Ukrainian IT companies have adapted their operations to wartime conditions. Common resilience measures include backup power, multiple Internet connections, Starlink terminals, distributed teams, and access to coworking spaces with independent power supply.

Geographic diversification is another part of this strategy. According to IT Research Ukraine 2025, 27% of surveyed tech companies opened new offices in 2025: 23% abroad and 4% in Ukraine. Companies considering further international expansion name Spain, Germany, the UAE, and Australia among their target markets.

These measures cannot eliminate wartime risks, but they can reduce their impact on project delivery. Before choosing a vendor, ask about its business continuity plan, backup power and connectivity, team distribution, knowledge-sharing practices, and procedures for maintaining delivery when individual team members become unavailable.

How ITExpert can help you with hiring

If you are reading this, you are probably wondering how to hire Ukrainian software developers. Easy! ITExpert has been operating on the market since 2015 — more than 10 years. We help to hire IT specialists for companies in Ukraine and worldwide — from the USA to Israel. Our dedicated IT recruiters work with product and outsourcing companies, form core teams for startups and look for talent for R&D centers.

We do not cooperate with russian and belarus companies and urge organizations around the world to stop cooperating with specialists who support terrorism and the war in Ukraine. Our hearts and thoughts are with the people of Ukraine and all who have been touched by this horrible tragedy.

How you can help the IT industry (and Ukraine in general)

“How can we help you?” was the question we got from our clients during the first month of the full-scale invasion. And “Give us more work” was the reply. That helps us support our country, the Armed Forces of Ukraine, our families, and Ukrainian IT specialists’ families.

If you are looking for highly skilled software developers, hire them in Ukraine. From our side, we guarantee high-level expertise in hiring developers, QA, DevOps, CTOs for FinTech, E-commerce, SaaS and PaaS products, Machine Learning, AI, Defense tech, and other industries. We work with all popular programming languages from Java to Ruby. To get a free consultation, send your request.