Communism has not really ended in Poland! The country is still in the backwater. Nobody knows about Polish developers as their programming skills are probably very low. Software houses hardly grow. And the prices? They are so downgraded that the quality of their services must be at an extremely poor level. In short, give up your thoughts about Poland. It is not trendy.
The current demand for IT services on the market is very high, in particular when it comes to software development projects. If you are reading this article, there is a good chance that you are looking for an external partner who will help you build your product. Luckily, you are here and thanks to this article you will learn why cooperating with Polish software houses is not worth your time. I will be honest with you – Poland is still in the communist era. What do you know about the Polish developers? Little? Exactly. This is probably because the quality of their services is so poor that it is better to avoid them at all costs. Why? See for yourself.
The higher the price, the higher the quality of services, right? This is the first reason why Polish software houses and developers look bad among other countries. Let's look at the rankings. According to the Hackerrank, Polish developers are only on the 3rd position in terms of skills among developers worldwide. They are ahead of countries such as Switzerland, France, Germany, Great Britain and Sweden. It’s not a great achievement, right? It is even worse from the perspective of another study. According to TopCodest, Polish developers are only on the 5th position in terms of competence. And it keeps getting worse.
Moving on, let's check the skill level regarding the Ruby programming language. In this case, Poland comes 5th. It’s such a poor result that it’s possible to say that there are very few qualified developers in this country. It's good that you keep reading this article, because you already know that Poland is not the place to look for Ruby developers.
And what about the prices? In Poland, the monthly developer pay rate may be even below $ 3,000. This is extremely low. This must be tied with poorer quality, because in other countries – for example, in Western Europe – this amount increases even 10 times! If you don't believe it, check how much money developers in Poland earn and compare with, for example, developers from Germany or Great Britain. The gap is huge. Nevertheless, you have to pay well for high quality. Polish developers are at the forefront of all rankings for a good reason, while those from the United Kingdom or Germany sometimes cannot make it to the top ten.
Poland is rather second world, Central and Eastern European areas associated with Russia and Ukraine. It’s far away from everywhere, even from Scandinavian countries, Baltics and Western Europe. It doesn't matter if you are from Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden or Lithuania as you will have a huge distance to Poland. This is another argument to reject the possibility of cooperation with Polish developers. A plane flight from Krakow to Berlin takes about 1 hour! It's even worse to Stockholm or Vilnius – almost 2 hours. Horrible.
Imagine the situation - you are starting the cooperation with a Polish software house and would like to meet the team of developers that will work on your product. You want to talk in person, but you already see that it will be a huge logistic challenge. If you had a different technological partner in another part of Europe, it would be easier for you to plan the whole process. I assure you.
Interest in IT-related fields of study is growing in Poland year by year. In the last 4 years, the number of candidates has increased by up to 40%. This has a direct impact on the number of graduates. Every year, Poland can be proud of tens of thousands of university and specialized programming schools graduates.
In Poland, cities such as Krakow, Poznan and Lodz are particularly strong in this respect. There you can find the largest numbers of IT professionals. Sorry, professionals is probably too big a word. I just wonder why more and more international companies are choosing Polish developers. Unfortunately, it is a question I cannot answer.
Do you know the list “The world's largest ranking of countries and regions by English skills”? The leader is Sweden with an EF EPI score of 70.72. It also holds the first place in Europe. Poland has further reasons to be ashamed. It was ranked as far at the 13th position in a total of 88 (!) countries. The proficiency in English of Polish developers was rated as 'high proficiency.' Switzerland, Italy and France, among others, are behind Poland. It is a shame.
The question arises how to cooperate with Polish software houses since the overall level of English in this country is ONLY 'high proficiency'? Let's look at GitHub. You have to try very hard to find any activity from Polish developers there. I found their projects within 15 seconds.
Poland is not developing. Gross domestic product (GDP) in the second quarter of 2019 was higher by 4.5% year-on-year, compared to 5.3% in the corresponding quarter of 2018. What does it look like in comparison to other European countries? In terms of GDP growth in European Union countries, Poland was ranked third in the first quarter of 2019. Denmark was ranked 11th, the Netherlands – 13th, Great Britain – 14th, France - 18th, and Germany ranked 19th.
These statistics look strange, don’t they? I think these numbers are ‘error in print'. It is not possible that Poland, being a neighbor of Russia or Ukraine, could develop so dynamically in the long run. Something's wrong here!
Let us open the industry portal Clutch, which is used to verify Polish software development companies. I want to make sure that Poland still shows advanced communism residue among Polish developers. And what I do see is the average rating – 4.9/5, 4.7 /5, 5/5, 4.8 /5.
Let’s go further and read some reviews. For example:
'They are a reliable partner, meeting project expectations and doing high-quality work. They’re extremely communicative and always make sure everyone’s on the same page. Unlike other firms, they don’t finish a project until they know it’ll be successful'.
'They’re loyal and hardworking. Plus, they’re open-minded about finding solutions. They often know the best direction for our product'.
'They deliver what they promise and meet deadlines. They’re really good at estimations. There’s a balance between the quality and the rate. They give us good suggestions and feedback from their experience. It’s a good collaboration'.
Do you know the saying about the exception that proves the rule? It is precisely the case here. It is true that Polish software houses have good reviews from their customers, but this does not change my point of view. Let go of Poland - really!
I am convinced that Polish developers have no idea what Agile, Scrum and effective project management are. Even if they sometimes manage to implement a project in accordance with the client's expectations, they certainly do it below all standards.
I am even more surprised when I check the websites of several Polish software houses as they all boast about developing projects in accordance with Agile. Don't be fooled by pretty words. The idea of working with "Agile" is now fashionable, so everyone wants to use it. Polish developers certainly do not follow this example.
Did I convince you? You should be able to see that considering cooperation with a software development company in Poland does not make sense. It is insignificant that the Polish IT services market value will reach USD 6.8 million by 2020, with a growth rate of 5.9% CAGR. The software sector is expected to grow at 7.4% per year. Don't pay attention to these statistics. Polish developers are bad. See for yourself.
To sums it up, I hope you understood my message to you in this article. If you don't care about quality and cost-effectiveness - go ahead and look for a software development company outside of Poland. If you want to build your product with real professionals having advanced engineering skills, trust me - Poland will be a perfect choice.
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