How to make software in Bangladesh?

As a custom software development company operating out of Dhaka, Bangladesh for the past 16 years, a question we get asked all the time is “how do we make our software from Bangladesh?”. A variation to this “Wow, I had no idea that Bangladesh is so far ahead in software development". Bangladesh has indeed made huge strides in software development in the past few years.

When we started back in 2004 (feels like ancient times!) there were probably a dozen companies that were actually developing software. We registered as the 248th member at BASIS the official association for software companies in Bangladesh, but of the other 247 most were either dormant shell companies, ISPs, hardware and network equipment companies. The picture is completely different now, with literally hundreds of vibrant active software companies working from IoT to innovative apps, startups with the potential to become the next big thing and many world class custom software consultancies.

In recent report done by USAID - Comprehensive private sector assessment the domain spread of the software companies are described with the graphics below:

This shows how mature and broad the software development industry has become in Bangladesh. So the answer to the question in the title of this article is easy. If you are planning to make your software in Bangladesh you have many choices and you are very likely to find the company that has experience in your business and technology domain. We go over some of your options below:

Use a custom software development company

According to BASIS is there are more than 300+ well established companies who make custom software for their customers. The size varies from a student run small 1-5 person company to major enterprises with hundreds of developers. Accordingly you’ll also find a huge variation in pricing too. Whom you select would be a decision based on your budget and complexity of your software requirement.

Read our article on how to choose a good software vendor if you are new to this game.

Use a freelancer based in Bangladesh

There is a large number of freelancers working from home in Bangladesh. Many are excellent software developers who have worked on large international projects. Thus some of the freelancers have huge exposure and have skills comparable to any you can find in an established software company. Site such as upwork can easily get you connected with such freelancers. You can also find potential freelancers in LinkedIn or various developer forums. If your project does not require a team or if the specifications are well developed and you know exactly what you want, freelancers are a great option.