India vs Romania software development cost in 2026 (rates, EU residency, CET overlap, per-role numbers)

India vs Romania software development in 2026 comes down to a trade most rate cards hide: Romania brings EU membership, in-region GDPR data residency and full real-time overlap with European working hours, while India brings a lower rate, far greater scale and broader multi-discipline coverage — at comparable engineering quality on mainstream commercial stacks. On price, a Romanian developer runs roughly $30–$55/hour against India’s $18–$45/hour, so India usually lands 40–60% lower for the same seniority. The decisive variable for most US, UK and EU software buyers is not raw skill — Romania’s Bucharest, Cluj and Iași hubs are well regarded and India’s pool is very large and very capable — but whether the workload mandates in-EU data residency and full CET overlap, or whether it rewards cost, scale and a wider bench across web, mobile, security and AI. A dedicated India engineer through AB7 starts from $1,500/month per FTE under GDPR Standard Contractual Clauses from its Mohali Phase 8B hub, with overlapping CET shifts. The rest of this post breaks the decision down lever by lever, with Romania’s genuine strengths named first.

The live stack list and engagement tiers sit on the AB7 Digital & Development Services page and the AB7 pricing page. The side-by-side rate, residency and overlap table lives on the India vs Romania comparison page.

Where Romania genuinely wins

Two real strengths, and they are not in dispute. First, EU residency and GDPR data location: Romania is an EU member state, so project and customer data can sit physically inside the Union under native GDPR coverage rather than under contractual transfer mechanisms. For a regulated European workload — health data, financial records, public-sector contracts — in-region residency removes a question a compliance officer would otherwise have to answer. Second, full real-time overlap: Romania runs on EET, one hour ahead of CET, so a Bucharest team shares the entire European working day with a London, Frankfurt or Amsterdam client — no overlap window to manage, no asynchronous handoff on time-critical work. Romania’s engineering reputation across Cluj-Napoca and Iași is solid, particularly in fintech, automotive software and embedded systems. The case for India below is about cost, scale and discipline breadth for buyers who do not have a hard residency or real-time-overlap requirement — not a claim that Romanian engineering is weak, because it plainly is not.

Where India wins

India’s edge for software buyers is rate, scale, discipline breadth and contractual GDPR compliance. On rate, India runs $18–$45/hour against Romania’s $30–$55/hour, a 40–60% difference for comparable seniority, and that gap compounds across a multi-month build. On scale, India’s developer pool is an order of magnitude larger than Romania’s tighter market, so a five-person pod can become a fifteen-person programme without a hiring freeze stalling the roadmap — Romania’s smaller talent base makes rapid scaling harder and pushes rates up under competition. On discipline breadth, India carries a deep cybersecurity and AI bench alongside its developers (ISO 27001, SOC 2, VAPT, data annotation, ML ops), so a SOC analyst or AI-data specialist joins the same pod without a second vendor, where a smaller market spreads thinner across specialisms. On compliance, the residency gap is narrower than it first looks: India contracts comfortably under GDPR using Standard Contractual Clauses, a Data Processing Agreement and defined access controls, and the DPDP Act 2023 aligns Indian data law closer to European norms — so an EU buyer keeps GDPR compliance contractually while roughly halving the blended rate. AB7 ships GDPR-aligned contracts as standard and scopes EU engagements with named data handlers.

Cost, side by side

Dimension	India (AB7 positioning)	Romania (indicative 2026 range)
Software developer rate (hr)	$18–$45	$30–$55
Dedicated mid-level engineer (mo)	from $1,500/month	indicative $5,500–$10,000/month
Small product pod (mo)	from $4,500/month	indicative $16,000–$30,000/month
Fixed-scope project	$2,000–$25,000	varies by vendor
Savings vs Western Europe in-house	60–70%	30–50%
EU time-zone overlap	Partial (4–5h CET)	Full (EET/CET)
EU data residency (GDPR)	Contractual SCCs + DPDP 2023	In-EU residency
Talent pool size	Very large	Smaller, tighter market

India figures are AB7’s rate card; Romania numbers are indicative 2026 ranges, not quotes. Read the table as a trade, not a knockout: Romania buys in-region GDPR residency and full CET overlap at a higher rate and smaller scale; India buys a lower rate, far greater scale, broad discipline coverage and a lower total bill, with GDPR handled contractually rather than by physical location.

The data-residency question, in writing

The residency difference is the one most European buyers weigh first, and it is the clearest reason to pick Romania — but it is narrower than a binary. If a regulator, a customer contract or an internal policy requires personal data to remain physically inside the EU, Romania satisfies that by location and India does not. If the requirement is GDPR compliance rather than EU residency — the far more common case — India meets it contractually: Standard Contractual Clauses, a Data Processing Agreement, defined data residency and access controls, an ISO 27001-aligned vendor, and the DPDP Act 2023 backing it in Indian law. AB7 ships GDPR-aligned contracts as standard, names the data handlers per engagement, and scopes access so an EU buyer keeps a clean compliance posture from the Mohali hub. The honest rule: where in-EU residency is mandatory, Romania removes the friction by geography; where contractual GDPR compliance is sufficient, India delivers it at 40–60% lower cost.

Communication, quality, and process

The quality question is process, not country. Ask how a feature reaches production: a real answer names pull-request review, CI on every commit, and a QA pass before merge. AB7 builds on GitHub with CI gates and a named tech lead per project, so a 10-week build shows a visible commit trend by week two rather than a surprise at delivery. Time-zone overlap matters most here — Romania’s full EET/CET overlap gives a European client real-time standups all day, while India’s 4–5 hour CET overlap covers the European afternoon and the US morning. AB7 aligns overlap shifts to a client’s core hours from Mohali Phase 8B, with daily written status and direct stakeholder communication in English, so the feedback loop stays tight even where the working windows only partly overlap. For a team moving an existing Romanian build to India, a parallel-pod transition over two to four weeks keeps the incumbent team running while the AB7 pod ramps on the same repository — continuity without a cliff-edge handover.

The hidden costs nobody quotes

The headline rate is the smallest part of the real cost. What drives total spend is re-work — a thin spec, a stalled compliance review, or a scaling freeze when a tight market cannot supply the next five engineers. Three factors matter more than the hourly figure. First, scaling headroom: a smaller talent market means longer hiring cycles and rising rates under competition, so a programme that needs to double its team pays for the scarcity; India’s deep bench backfills a leaver and adds headcount without a gap. Second, compliance scoping: in-EU residency answers one question for free but costs more per hour, while contractual GDPR scoping costs a few legal hours up front and then runs at the lower rate for the life of the engagement. Third, retention and backfill: AB7 has held 90% client retention since 2013 by keeping the same pod on an account, and India’s depth means a React, Next.js, Flutter or Python pod is productive in days. Cost the build by shipped features and by scaling and compliance overhead, not by the rate card alone, and India is often the lower total cost wherever in-EU residency is not mandatory.

Which to pick when

Pick Romania when in-EU data residency is mandatory, you need full real-time CET overlap across the entire European working day, your programme is small and stable enough that scaling pressure on a tighter market is not a risk, and the higher rate is acceptable for the residency and overlap it buys. Pick India when cost and scale lead the decision, contractual GDPR compliance is sufficient (the common case), you want the widest bench across web, mobile, security and AI, and you need headroom to scale a pod into a programme without a hiring freeze stalling the roadmap. For most US, UK and EU software buyers without a hard residency rule, the lower-friction answer is India — comparable quality on mainstream stacks, contractual GDPR compliance, far greater scale, and 40–60% lower cost. The full rate-by-rate breakdown sits on the India vs Romania comparison page.

Get a fixed number for your build

Send AB7 your stack, scope, and deadline, and AB7 will price a dedicated engineer or pod against your current cost — seniority, overlap hours, GDPR Standard Contractual Clauses and named data handlers in writing, from $1,500/month. See the AB7 Digital & Development Services page and the pricing page, then call +1-321-341-7733, email director@ab7solutions.com, or book a 30-minute call with Ashok.