How to Choose an Offshore Software Development Company in the UK?

List of UK-based offshore software development companies

What is an offshore software development company?

When British businesses need to fill temporary skill positions, save costs on engineering without compromising quality, and take advantage of remote work, they have the opportunity to connect with UK-based offshore software engineering providers.

Such software development firms deliver multiple services, including:

• Bespoke software development;
• Web application engineering;
• Mobile app creation;
• Testing and quality assurance;
• Design and user experience;
• IT consulting;
• Support and maintenance.

They typically have offices in London, Leeds, and Manchester, where management and client relationships are handled, while the development centres are based in overseas countries, such as India, Ukraine, Brazil, Mexico, Poland, and so on. This way, you sign contracts under the British legal standards, within the local framework.

It is expected that by 2030, the IT outsourcing in the UK will hit £48.85 billion (the figures are converted from USD), according to Statista. It shows that many businesses find it more convenient and cost-effective to delegate tasks such as utility engineering, administrative duties, support and other processes to external vendors.

Below, you will find the truth behind this statistic and why small organisations and enterprises decide to contract out their solutions instead of assembling their own teams, based on the advantages we have outlined, which will also clarify the true value of offshoring

Comparison of vendors for offshore software development in the UK

For this highlight, we gathered information from open sources, including Clutch, Manifest, Google Maps and the offshore software development agencies’ pages on social media pages and their websites. For more details and clarifications, you need to write directly to the suppliers.

Use these tables to contrast services, the number of professionals, ratings and costs to shortlist candidates according to your criteria.

Scope of services

Each software development outsourcing company in our list provides standard engineering services.

Some suppliers, including Limeup, N-iX and Cubix, offer audit, design, code writing, testing, and launch, but go further by delivering software enhanced by AI, machine learning, VR/AR, and IoT.

Hourly rates

While the most common fees for UK companies are £100 – £150, overseas studios, Integrella, Devico, Limeup and others enable their clients to save costs, offering services under the following terms:

Team size

From agencies like Valow Software, with 50+ employees, you can receive a personal touch with involvement from upper management.

Bigger vendors, like Empat and N-iX with 200, 300, and 1,000 employees, have more refined workflows.

Client testimonials

We evaluated the records of previous clients to outline trustworthy suppliers with impactful systems:

• 4.8 – 4.9 – Firms with such results, especially when they have ten or more verified testimonials, are capable of satisfying various requirements within the agreed terms.
• 5 – When a software company in the UK maintains such ratings with more than 5-6 reviews, it means it has an excellent value proposition, cost-effective solutions, transparent communication and reliably meets deadlines.

In summary, let’s look at how your collaboration can look like with each of them by studying the firms’ cooperation approaches. For outsourcing, four models are common:

• Dedicated development teams (DDT)
• Staff augmentation (SA)
• Project-based (PB)
• Outsourcing (OT)

The selected companies are very flexible in terms of collaboration methods. They help you to gather teams and find the needed talents, as well as take part in project-based projects.

You’ve learned a lot about every company; however, the real evaluation awaits ahead. Proceed to the next section to discover how to find a vendor that is relevant in terms of technical expertise, communication skills, completed work and long-term perspective.

How to select an offshore software development firm?

Offshoring is the answer you are looking for as soon as you study the intricacies of outsourcing operations. According to Forbes, many such projects fail due to poor integration and irregular communication. To avoid this, get familiar with the essential points that directly impact your cooperation.

Your extended or dedicated team will be part of your own crew, working to scale your operations and cut costs, so this strategic alliance requires planning to operate at full capacity.

Check the firm’s technical expertise

When approaching a distributed software development team, you need to check their capabilities. A transparent vendor discloses information about their tech stack on their websites, in sections like “Industries”, ‘Services” and “Case studies.” Scroll through those pages to see what technologies suppliers utilise for front-end, back-end, cloud and testing.

For example, the programming languages and tools can include Python, Java, C++, React.js, Vue.js, Docker, Azure, Google Cloud, and Kubernetes. If you can’t find this information, clarify it via call or message, as it is vital to know the entire scope of skills of your partner.

Apart from studying the tools they use, pay attention to the exact solutions they deliver. Namely, assess their ability to build databases, automate processes, craft software architecture and system design.

Evaluate communication

When visiting websites to hire offshore developers, you can see that many offer a free consultation that lasts about 30 minutes, where you can describe what you want to achieve. During this stage, you can check how responsive the supplier is and ask everything about previous work in your industry, including its milestones.

Many providers offer a detailed estimate of your project as well, so you will know the possible budget that is based on calculations, not just guesses, and be able to evaluate it for transparency and see how the vendor communicates the price.

From the responses of several providers, you’ll see who seems more trustworthy and offers the best correspondence between price and quality. Our questionnaire will help you make clear your future provider’s approaches to the communication process, tech capabilities and quality assurance.

Review previous projects

All the vendors we selected have disclosed success stories; however, some of them are confidential due to the NDAs they signed. You will receive more information about projects in your domain and your specification by writing directly to the team.

In addition to the technical specifications, look for concrete results, for instance, 10 times faster report generation, a 50% increase in customer engagement, and a 30% reduction in costs. There can also be lines such as: “Our client saved £500,000 owing to automation” or “our average ROI rate is 250-300%.”

Vague descriptions with no information about the number of experts involved, the duration, or the services or technologies featured won’t provide you with enough clarity.

Assess long-term support

There is no standard regarding maintenance that all offshore software development firms follow without exception. The difference between weak and strong support is that professionals take proactive steps to prevent performance loss by tracking OS versions and GDPR compliance, and by using monitoring tools to ensure your app won’t break under high traffic.

You need to ensure that the vendor has clear SLA terms, notes all the processes to provide good documentation, implements regular updates and security patches, and enhances features under your agreement, but not as separate projects.

Ensure data security

Last but not least, you ascertain that you can entrust your sensitive business data and your client information to a provider. There are several nuances that allow you to protect your cooperation. First, clarify whether the provider signs a Non-Disclosure Agreement to ensure that the details of your collaboration are not made public.

Second, the availability of certifications, such as ISO 27001, SOC 2 and GDPR compliance, will give you a sense of the company’s principles for handling data across all stages, from planning to post-launch.

By following this plan, you will be able to cover all the points, ensuring good financial conditions, regular reporting, seamless communication and team alignment.

Once you understand what to look for in overseas software development providers, let’s move on to prices.

How much do offshore software development services cost?

The fees for overseas vendors vary based on the region, and the budget entirely depends on the characteristics of your project.

The venture’s budget may range from £10,000 for a small application to £500,000 for an enterprise manufacturing solution utilising the latest technology.

Consider that mobile application development companies set the minimum project price for starting a cooperation. Some agree to craft simple deliverables costing £1,000. The selected companies mostly define the lowest project fees at the rate of £10,000 and £25,000.

Average hourly rates

Starting a project with a British overseas supplier that has offices in other countries will help you capitalise on the partnership, as the average rates are typically lower in the countries we have features below.

The scale depends on the level of expertise of a specialist, ranging from junior to middle and senior. The cheapest options are offered by those who have been in the IT sphere for one year or a little more. Middles have typically been in the industry for 2 to 5 years. And seniors can offer you 5+ years of experience.

If you need to create a simple app with basic features, you will mainly work with beginners and mid-level specialists. However, if you are looking for developers to complete a project in a demanding industry with complex functionality, it is essential to choose a team of accomplished professionals.

Here is the additional overview of prices based on the role of a developer in a venture:

Hidden costs to consider

Budgeting can go wrong, and sometimes the problem lies in contract termination if you decide to end the partnership before the agreed-upon time, which is why the selection of a company must be meticulous.

Other aspects of the work processes may not be apparent when offshoring your project, but they arise later, often resulting in 30-40% budget expansion. Here they are:

• Onboarding. The first several weeks are typically not very productive, as the team should learn about your firm’s specific needs.
• Training. Imagine a situation where you cooperate with a vendor to create a programme, but then it requires about £500 – £1,000 per user to teach them how to use the software. And what if you have 1,000 employees? Make sure that training is included in the contract.
• Technical debt. When developers offer shortcuts to solve the current problem, it enlarges the debt that will affect future projects. How does it influence the budget? According to McKinsey, a business spends 10 – 20% additionally to resolve technical debt.

These factors are not found in every vendor. A transparent supplier will provide you with a detailed estimate with all expenditures included, covering maintenance, design, development, testing, so you, before diving headlong into the project, understand what you are paying for.

That’s why choosing the cheapest options can sometimes not be advantageous at all. In most cases, you receive a cut version of the plan, with a bigger picture hidden beneath the surface.

What to ask an overseas software development provider?

Preparation for the interview is the most significant step after evaluating the contenders, as it will spotlight quality assurance skills, technical abilities, and identify both red and green signals in communication and offshore software development.

For instance, if a firm tells you that it hasn’t completed any projects in your industry, but its team members are quick learners, without providing any specifics that truly caught your attention, it won’t be a win-win situation. On the contrary, hearing confident answers about developers’ expertise in your industry will establish a productive working environment.

Technical capabilities

During this session, you can also check how confident offshore software development companies are with the replies and how well they explain complex technical concepts:

1. What programming languages, tools, and frameworks do you work with?

An end-to-end provider has to be proficient in technologies for the server side, for the client side, databases, infrastructure and integrations. Find out the comprehensive set of the technology suite.

2. How do you handle client data protection?

Firms working in the UK market have to follow UK GDPR standards and comply with the Data Act 2025 to create compliant and secure software, which is a minimum requirement.

3. Have you built a system similar to mine?

A completed project within your niche is the best demonstration of capabilities. Namely, if you plan to ask for software in the fintech industry with multiple external integrations and regulatory compliance, you’ll get proof that you partner with the right vendor.

4. What is your experience with cloud platforms?

Inquire about the team’s ability to work with cloud computing (or another target technology) to find out what results the team has achieved by applying it.

Communication process

Partnering with an overseas company with an office in Great Britain, you won’t meet the same difficulties as with contractors who don’t have such delivery centres, as there will be local representatives you can contact directly.

1. Will there be a main contact, and what is their availability?

Typically, studios assign a dedicated project manager with whom you have minimal time overlap so that you can receive all the information about work progression from this person.

2. How do you manage progress blockers and urgent issues?

Using Slack or Teams, the project manager contacts the client and addresses the issue. Many vendors have their response protocol developed for communication outside business hours.

3. How often do you provide updates?

Providers send daily updates, inform you about completed tasks, difficulties, planned work for next week and points that require your decision to approve (e.g., related to designs, functionality and so on).

Quality assurance

Partnering with suppliers that have refined quality assurance strategies will fine-tune the engineering process, so it is essential that you ascertain that your offshore contractors possess the necessary QA skills.

1. What testing tools do you use?

The toolset for QA includes Cypress, Selenium and TestRail for functionality; Postman and Newman for API; Gatling and JMeter for performance; and Burp Suite and OWASP ZAP for security. This list is not exhaustive.

2. What is your QA strategy from development to launch?

Experienced developers conduct QA sessions in parallel with coding and include them in the early stages of planning. They perform multiple tests during each phase rather than doing everything solely before deployment.

3. What KPIs do you utilise to ensure that software is ready?

A professional will evaluate the number of bugs, make sure that the test covers at least 80%-90% of important features, assess the build stability rate, etc.

Having answers to these questions, you’ll be able to decide whether the vendor you want to cooperate with is capable of delivering your idea, as you’ll be able to skip those whose responses are weak.

Looking for a UK-based offshore software development agency?

Our synopsis has covered a great deal of points that will help you navigate through suppliers when you start analysing them. We have gone through everything from services to customer testimonials and notable work cases, so you could have a picture of what a reliable provider looks like.

Equipped with this guide, you will be able to avoid inefficiencies such as hidden fees, poor reporting, weak work results and misalignment in capabilities, ready to get the most out of the cooperation.

If you would like to discuss your project, receive an estimate to determine the price and begin collaborating with a tested and awarded team that has completed numerous projects for the British market, contact us. Flexible terms, transparent and cost-effective pricing, high quality of deliverables — you will receive all of it.

FAQ (choosing & comparing)