According to the 2022 software development market snapshot: Bucharest and Cluj lead the way in Romania! In the second quarter of 2022, the Information and Communications macro-sector as classified in the Romanian economical nomenclature, had about 7% contribution to Romania’s GDP, according to the statistical bulletin issued by INSEE (The National Institute of Statistics). The gross domestic product recorded by this sector increased by 67% compared to the same period in 2019, a pre-pandemic year, when it experienced a considerable boom due to the context of accelerated digitization, remote working and the shift of most businesses to the online environment.
The State of Custom Software Development in Romania
Of particular interest is the sub-sector Software and IT services industry, which is also composed of two categories of economic activities:
- software publishing activities (CAEN / NACE codes 5821, 5829) and
- information technology service activities (CAEN / NACE codes 6201, 6202 , J6209, 620 excl. 6203)
According to the analysis of turnover, companies registered under CAEN (NACE) code 6201 – Custom software development activities (client-oriented software) had a total turnover of 6 billion euro, i.e. 1.36% of the total turnover of economic agents in Romania, ranking 15th in the national ranking of economic sub-sectors. 14,309 economic agents are currently engaged in the main activity of custom software development (client-oriented software) in Romania, of which 14.15%, i.e. a number of 2026 economic agents come from Cluj County, in Transylvania.
88,530 employees currently appear in public records as working directly in the custom software development sector (client-oriented software), of which 21,381 in Cluj county, equivalent to a share of 24.5% of the total, just after Bucharest, whose share is of 41.5%.
It is worth noting that the star tandem of Bucharest municipality and Cluj County occupies the 1st and respectively, the 2nd place in all the sector tops, both in terms of density of software development providers, of employed work force, of turnover achieved and of profits recorded.
The rate of profit in relation to turnover, recorded in the sub-sector of custom software development (client-oriented software) was of 18.33 %, which can be explained by the presence of captive software development centers and the existence of international subsidiaries.
The data was collected by topfirme.com and listafirme.ro and is based on the 2021 annual balance sheets.
Upcoming Trends
According to the latest 5 years historical data, the software development sector will continue to remain the top exporter of the Information and Communications macro-sector in the Romanian economy.
Even if the war in Ukraine has somehow scared new investors from opening software development centers close to the conflict area, other companies moved quickly their operations from Ukraine to Romania, Poland and Hungary.
The dawn of the economic and financial crisis is being felt across Europe and businesses tend to stay cautious regarding their expansion, development and new investments.
Taking into consideration all the above, we estimate that the sub-sector Software and IT services industry in Romania will follow an ascending trend, with a possible 10% – 12% y-o-y growth.
