Top 10 Countries For Outsourcing (2024)
The global outsourcing market was priced at $280.64bn in 2023. And the market shows no signs of slowing anytime soon, with an estimated annual growth of 9.6% from 2024 to 2030. The continuous growth of outsourcing is driven by rising costs and economic uncertainties, which push corporations to seek low cost and low risk strategies to cope with the volatile business environment of 2024. This raises the question of where one should outsource their business functions. Considering the business and political climate, technological infrastructure, and outsourcing environment, we’ve shortlisted the 10 best countries for outsourcing in this article.
The Philippines
The Philippines is a young and rapidly growing Southeast Asian nation known for its English-speaking talent pool and expertise in BPO, with a history of over 120 years of independence.
As of 2023, the Philippines holds 10-15% of the global market share in outsourcing, making it one of the leading outsourcing destinations in APAC, which is the fastest growing outsourcing region in 2024, primarily due to its lower cost of labor. In fact, rates of services in the Philippines can cost up to 70% lower than those in Western regions.
Outside of the Asia-Pacific, the Philippines is still considered an outsourcing powerhouse, known for its soft skills, which set it apart from other countries when it comes to customer support. This can be attributed to the country’s high English language proficiency, as well as cultural affinity to Western, mostly American, markets.
These contribute to the long history of outsourcing in the Philippines, which began with its first call center way back in the 1990s. The Philippines has since become the world’s call center capital, with contact center services as its most in-demand outsourced service, followed by design and marketing, ecommerce services, and finance and accounting.
In 2024, the Philippines is considered one of the best countries for outsourcing because of its rapidly growing outsourcing climate, made possible by its overwhelming support from the local government to foster greater trade and attract foreign investors to outsource to the country. By providing tax incentives, training and education programs, infrastructure development, and through partnerships with private organizations to promote its outsourcing services globally, the Philippine government has set a great foundation for Philippine BPO to thrive.
India
India is a BPO powerhouse and is almost synonymous to IT and software development. It is a South Asian nation with a rich cultural history dating back over 5,000 years, and with the fastest growing population globally, it unsurprisingly offers a vast, skilled workforce with highly coveted technical expertise.
At present, the India outsourcing market is growing at 8.76% annually, making it one of the leading outsourcing markets globally. Since the late 1990s, India has a top destination for digital services. And it is particularly favored today for outsourcing services like software development, mobile app development, digital marketing, back office operations, and IT customer support.
India is known as an IT outsourcing powerhouse in 2024 and is one of the best countries for outsourcing due to its lower cost of labor and government support, as well as its large, educated workforce, which is primarily educated in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and math). And with key Indian IT companies opening up in the country and stimulating the demand for IT capabilities, the country quickly built a global reputation as an IT hub trusted by many.
Mexico
Mexico is a country located in the southern part of North America, known for its rich culture, vibrant history, and rapidly growing economy, particularly in manufacturing and nearshore outsourcing services due to its proximity to the United States.
Mexico’s outsourcing industry began in the 1990s, gaining momentum after the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994, as U.S. companies sought cost-effective, skilled labor close to home, particularly in IT, manufacturing, and services, with the Border Industrialization Program further boosting its reputation for manufacturing by allowing American companies to produce goods in Mexico.
Today, Mexico remains a top manufacturing outsourcing destination and is one of the best countries for outsourcing largely due to its 13 favorable trade agreements (FTAs) with 50 countries worldwide, which facilitates seamless cross-border trade and operations.
Since the 2000s, Mexico has also expanded its outsourced service offerings, making a name for its excellent development work, ranking 2nd in Latin America and the Caribean. In 2024, its BPO market is projected to reach $5.55bn.
Poland
Poland is a country located in Central Europe, known for its strong education system, IT services, and a business-friendly environment, with a rich 1,000-year history.
Within Europe, Poland is the largest IT outsourcing hub, with its BPO revenue set to reach $2.89bn in 2024.
While the country’s outsourcing industry only began in the early 2000s, the industry has quickly grown, alongside the country’s rapidly growing economy. And with rates that are 20-25% lower than counterparts in US and Western Europe, Poland has quickly risen through the ranks as one of the best countries for outsourcing IT. In fact, IT makes up for about 8% of its GDP, making it a popular choice for international R&D centers.
Brazil
Brazil is the largest economy in Latin America and is known for its growing IT and customer service outsourcing industry, benefiting from its large, educated population.
Brazil’s outsourcing history dates back to the late 1990s, and took off in the late 2000s. The country originally provided call center and customer service due to its large Portugese-speaking population. However, eventually, they expanded to other services like IT, software development, and business process outsourcing (BPO).
Due to its geographical proximity and shared time zone with the US, Brazil was a top choice for many North American companies, especially those looking for tech and business services.
At present, the country is one of the best countries for outsourcing as it has maintained a thriving outsourcing economy due to its strong push toward green energy and biofuels. Its IT market is set to grow by 11% while its telecom market is set to grow by 2%. These figures set a great precedent for the country’s continuous growth, which is mirrored by its increasingly outsourcing-friendly environment, encouraging foreign investment.
China
China is the world’s second-largest economy, with the world’s largest population. This East Asian country has over 5,000 years of history and excels in manufacturing and technology outsourcing due to its large-scale factories as well as rapidly developing technological space in Tier-I cities like Shanghai, Beijing, and Shenzhen, that rivals those of first-world nations in the West.
The country began its outsourcing industry in the early 2000s, spurred by China's economic reforms and its accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001. In the 2000s, China was a global manufacturing outsourcing hub, with some of the lowest manufacturing costs globally, making it a top choice for producing textiles, electronics, and consumer goods.
However, the country has since expanded its expertise. With the local government’s belt road initiatives, favorable tax reforms, well-established IT infrastructure in tier-I cities, and quick adoption of cloud-based services like artificial intelligence (AI) and robotic process automation (RPA), China has quickly risen among the ranks of outsourcing destinations and is arguably one of the strongest powerhouses, especially in the fields of manufacturing, sourcing and procurement, supply chain, and even customer service and finance & accounting.
Currently, China is one of the best countries for outsourcing with its BPO revenue set to reach $23.39bn by the end of 2024 and growing at an impressive rate of 11.3% annually from 2022 to 2030.
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe that has recently become a key player in IT and software development outsourcing, offering highly skilled professionals with competitive pricing.
Unlike other countries, Ukraine only saw a significant increase in outsourcing in the mid-2010s. Particularly, it’s popular for its IT services, with 45% of the country’s whole export being software.
With this, the country’s IT industry grew a whopping 36% from 2021 to 2022, though it has slowed down in recent years due to seasonal decrease and the rapid growth in the last few years. Still, it has maintained its place in the top 5 in terms of number of IT specialists in the past 5 years, providing IT outsourcing services and software development to mainly the US, Canada, Australia, and UK markets.
Though a newer playing in the IT outsourcing field, Ukraine has some of the most competitive prices in software development. In fact, they have the lowest rates for development work in Central-Eastern European countries.
Ukraine also houses some of the most experienced software developers globally, creating a strong reputation for high-quality code and making it the 2nd largest IT outsourcing market in Central Eastern Europe.
Combining its strong reputation for software development, thriving IT industry, and very competitive rates in Europe, Ukraine is one of the best countries for outsourcing. In fact, it’s expected to reach a $1.05bn valuation by the end of 2024, while maintaining a moderate growth rate of 4.84%.
Vietnam
Vietnam is a rapidly developing Southeast Asian country with a young, dynamic workforce. Today, Vietnam is one of the best countries for outsourcing as it’s making waves in IT and manufacturing outsourcing due to rates that rival those of other countries in APAC.
Though a bit late into the outsourcing market, Vietnam has witnessed a steady growth since the 2000s, with focus on IT and software development, as well as manufacturing. Today, they’re known for IT outsourcing, especially for highly technical work like software development, web application development, mobile app development and so on. In fact, the revenue of the Vietnam IT Outsourcing market is expected to hit $694.8bn in 2024 with an impressive annual growth rate of 12.23% from 2024 to 2029.
Another side to Vietnam’s thriving outsourcing market is its manufacturing industry, which attracts foreign investors due to government policies encouraging foreign investment, but more so because of the country’s rapidly developing infrastructure, which increased its production capacity and enhanced manufacturing capabilities.
South Africa
South Africa is a country located at the southern tip of Africa. It is known for its English-speaking workforce and strong BPO sector, catering mainly to European and U.S. markets. At present, it’s one of the best countries for outsourcing, with a BPO market that is set to reach $1.89bn in 2024 and an annual growth rate of 3.64% from 2024 to 2029.
It has one of the largest economies in Africa and is a newly industrialized nation with a call center industry that has been growing steadily since 2003. While South Africa is considered relatively new to the outsourcing market, it is one of the most reliable call center outsourcing destinations in 2024, with its call center industry steadily growing at a rate of 8% annually.
This growth is thanks to its government backed BPO support program, which helped promote the country’s voice and non-voice customer support services, catering to financial, eCommerce, and IT sectors. Not to mention, South African BPOs are more cost effective than its European and American counterparts, and have a fully loaded cost base that’s 11% below the global average.
Malaysia
Malaysia is another Southeast Asian country that’s considered one of the best countries for outsourcing. The multicultural nation has been independent since the 1957 and is known for its skilled workforce and thriving tech and service outsourcing industries.
It’s a late bloomer compared to its SEA counterparts, beginning its outsourcing history in the latter parts of 1990s. However, its BPO market value has steadily grown, and is set to reach $1.44bn in 2024, increasing annually at a 6.36% rate from 2024 to 2029.
Though Malaysia started as a hub for outsourcing manufacturing and electronics assembly services, it has since transitioned into a global outsourcing destination that provides reliable outsourcing services in the fields of IT, customer service, and finance and accounting.
Outsource Work Today
Many countries have developed strong outsourcing markets since the early 1990s, building reputations for various services and attracting foreign investments. Whether you're seeking top technological skills, manufacturing capabilities, or high-touch soft skills to enhance your brand, we recommend outsourcing to the Philippines, especially to KDCI Outsourcing in 2024, after carefully considering the pros and cons of Philippine outsourcing.
At KDCI Outsourcing, we take soft skills to the next level and make it a mission to find the best fit in terms of culture and working style when building your offshore team in the Philippines. We tailor our outsourcing services to your unique requirements in a way that ensures your outsourced team feels in-house, breaking any communication and collaboration barriers, while providing the best rates and scalability.
Learn more about how to outsource work to the Philippines, contact us today!
