The Best Software Development Companies in Vietnam

How To Choose the Right Software Company from Vietnam to Partner With in 7 Step

Consequently, you need to do your due diligence before choosing a software development company from Vietnam. This is what we’ll try to help you with – below, you’ll find a checklist of the steps you should take that will help you assess the fit of a potential development partner. But before we get to that, here are a few things you should keep in mind:

• The cheapest solution isn’t always the best one. Think cost-efficiency, not upfront costs.
• Create a clearly defined project plan – with project goals, objectives, and deadlines – before you start negotiating with companies. You can still peruse them before you have a concrete plan, but knowing exactly what you need will go a long way toward finding a good partner.
• Understand what kind of relationship you wish to have with the development partner. Do you want to hire an independent project team that will see your project from start to finish? Do you need to augment your staff to fill a skills gaps for an internal project? Do you need to hire a team that will work under your supervision? All of these are viable options, but you need to understand what you want before you start looking to hire a Vietnamese software company.

With that out of the way, let’s delve into the 7 steps that will help you choose the best software development company in Vietnam to work on your projects.

1. Look for Social Proof

The first step is gauging a company’s overall reputation. Look at the ratings they have on independent review platforms and compare that with the testimonials and comments they put up on their social media or website. From this, you can create a master list of software companies with the best reputations that can be your potential partners.

In practical terms, this takes a lot of legwork. Examining and exploring the online reputation of many companies can take days, if not weeks, of work. But this is where we can help – the 15 companies from Vietnam on our list have the best reputations in the country and proven track records. Thus, you can skip a tedious step.

2. Assess Their Technical Skills

This step partially piggybacks on the first one. While you are examining a company’s reputation, you gain some insight into their areas of expertise and the qualifications of their employees. You possibly also came across some accreditations or certifications the company has.

While these are good indicators of a company’s expertise, you should go a step further – find the portfolio or look for case studies. These documents display the exact projects a company has worked on and show demonstrable experience. This is the easiest way to judge if a company is up to the task you have in mind.

3. What Tools and Technology Do They Use?

However, experience alone is not enough. The world of information technologies is constantly evolving and companies that wish to stay at the forefront need to adapt. Thus, try to find out what tools and system technologies a company uses on its projects. You can usually do this by talking to a company representative.

That being said, we are not claiming that everything new is better. Conversely, new is often untested. But if a software company has not updated its practices and the tools they use in the last, let’s say, 3 years, that could be a sign that they are unwilling to adapt to the modern landscape.

4. Does the Company Provide the Specific Services You Need?

Once you have found companies that you believe have the necessary technical skillsets to successfully accomplish your project, it’s time to see whether you can get access to those skills. Not all software companies provide the same type of service. The most common ones, as we’ve mentioned above, are staff augmentation and outsourcing project teams.

But here’s the thing – some companies specialize in one or the other. So, if you need a UX/UI designer to fill a skill gap in your company and find a company that has them, that doesn’t mean you can hire them. The specific company’s business model may rely on outsourcing full project teams.

Conversely, you may need to hire a project team and find a company with the expertise you need, but they only do staff augmentation. Mind you, running a project team requires more than just developers – it needs managers and other support staff. At the same time, many software companies in Vietnam provide both types of services, so this step shouldn’t be a stumbling block.

5. Do They Understand Business Development?

If you are outsourcing software development for a long-term project, then you should think about more than just the technical skills the company has. In practice, these kinds of companies also take on a type of consultant role and grow with your company.

Thus, you should look for a company that understands business development and whose business goals align with yours. Long-term partnerships where both parties understand each other is a win-win situation from both sides.

6. What Project Management/Development Method Do They Employ?

The software development life cycle is specific and unique. There are multiple methodologies that a software company can utilize to get the best results, like Scrum, XP, Lean, etc., but they are all offshoots of the Agile approach.

Agile was specifically developed for software development – it relies on flexibility, delivering software in iterations, listening to client input, and continual testing. This method has proven to get the best results, both from a software quality standpoint and the timely delivery of software.

Thus, look for a company that uses some type of Agile methodology to run its projects. This is even more important when you are hiring an offshore software company – you will need to be in constant communication and Agile provides the framework that will allow efficient communication across different time zones without unnecessarily wasting time or energy.

7. How About Post-Development Support?

Finally, we get to post-development support. Ideally, you will find a company that meets all of your criteria from points 1 – 6 and provides post-development support. When it comes to maintenance, the same company that made the software will know how to keep it running.

While you may assume this service is offered by default, that’s not the case. Not every software development company in Vietnam provides this service, so ask about their post-development policies before you select one.

However, this step is not necessarily a deal breaker. There are workarounds, like hiring an in-house developer to maintain the software or even outsourcing the task to another company. But this will, naturally, increase your long-term spending related to the project, so it is something you should account for.

No Software Company from Vietnam Seem Like a Good Fit?

Don’t worry, even if the 15 best software development companies in Vietnam are not good enough to work on your project, the world is a larger place still. Below, you will find similar lists of the 15 best software companies from other nearshore and offshore outsourcing destinations. So browse the lists until you find a company you like.