What does a software development team in Bulgaria cost?
With Simatech, a five-person dedicated development team from Bulgaria costs €32,000 per two-week sprint, or €60,000 per month on retainer. A one-week scoping sprint that produces architecture, a refined backlog and a fixed build price costs €8,000. All prices are fully loaded — engineers, Scrum Master, product partner, QA, CI/CD and infrastructure work are included, and there is no hourly billing.
Key benefits
Fully loaded, not a day rate
The price covers the whole squad and everything around it: ceremonies, QA, pipelines, environments, code review and the demo.
No timesheets
We do not bill hours, so nobody spends time defending them. You buy a sprint goal and a shippable increment.
Predictable quarters
A retainer is one number per month. Budgeting a two-quarter roadmap is arithmetic, not guesswork.
Start small
€8,000 buys a one-week scoping sprint. If we are the wrong partner, you find out for the cost of a week and keep the artefacts.
Cost driver is location, not seniority
Bulgarian engineering salaries are lower than in London, Amsterdam or Munich. The saving comes from geography — the seniority bar does not move.
Cancel between sprints
30 days' notice. There is no multi-year lock-in to make the headline price look smaller.
How the engagement works
What is included
Senior engineers, Scrum Master, product partner, QA and DevSecOps, all sprint ceremonies, CI/CD and environment work, and a live demo every sprint.
What is not included
Third-party licences, cloud spend on your own accounts, and travel if you ask us on site. These are passed through at cost.
How we size a squad
We size to the sprint goal, not to a headcount target. Most products run well on three to five people; more people rarely make a backlog move faster.
How billing works
Sprints under €15,000 are payable upfront. After the first successful sprint we move to 50/50 or a monthly retainer invoice.
Team structure
- Senior engineers
- Five-plus years each, in PHP (Laravel, Symfony), TypeScript/React, Python, Java and .NET. No juniors billed as seniors.
- Scrum Master
- A practising Scrum Master who runs the ceremonies, protects the sprint goal and reports flow metrics you can audit.
- Product partner
- Backlog shaping, acceptance criteria and refinement with your product owner so sprints start ready.
- QA & DevSecOps
- Automated tests, CI/CD pipelines, environments and release hygiene included in the squad, not billed as extras.
Pricing and engagement
Scoping sprint
One week, two people. Architecture, backlog and a fixed price for the build. You keep every artefact.
AI prototype sprint
Two weeks, three people. A working prototype in your environment, not a slide deck.
Full delivery sprint
Two weeks, five people. A shippable increment with a live demo at the end of every sprint.
Monthly retainer
A full dedicated squad for a month. Cancel between sprints with 30 days' notice.
Prices are fully loaded: engineers, Scrum Master, product partner, QA, CI/CD and infrastructure work. No timesheets, no hourly billing, no change-request theatre. EU contracts and EU invoicing from Sima Tech Ltd (UIC 206762842, VAT BG206762842).
See the full pricing breakdown →Technology capability
- PHP · Laravel · Symfony
- TypeScript · React · Node
- Python · FastAPI
- Java · Spring
- .NET · C#
- PostgreSQL · MySQL · Redis
- AWS · Azure · Kubernetes
- LLMOps · RAG · agentic AI
Frequently asked questions
How much does a dedicated development team from Bulgaria cost per month?
€60,000 per month for a full dedicated squad on retainer with Simatech. Shorter commitments are priced per two-week sprint: €32,000 for a five-person delivery sprint and €18,000 for a three-person prototype sprint.
Why don't you publish an hourly rate?
Because hourly rates reward slow work and hide the cost of everything around the coding — refinement, QA, releases and coordination. A fixed sprint price puts all of that in one number.
How does this compare with hiring in-house in Western Europe?
A comparable in-house EU or UK squad costs roughly €40,000-€55,000 per two weeks fully loaded, before recruitment and ramp-up. Our €32,000 sprint reflects Bulgarian salaries, employer taxes, benefits, overhead and margin.
What is the cheapest way to start?
A one-week scoping sprint at €8,000. You get architecture, a refined backlog, a risk list and a fixed price for the build, and you keep all of it whether or not you continue.
Related services
Talk to the people who do the work
Tell us the problem, the cadence and the constraints. We come back within one working day with a squad shape, a Sprint-0 plan and an indicative price. MNDA on request.