Spain is a good place to hire software engineers in 2026 for a company that wants a large European talent pool at a lower salary level than Northern Europe. With 1.06 million ICT specialists, Spain has more than Poland (779,000) and Portugal (284,000), according to Eurostat. Portugal leads on English, Poland on the depth of its outsourcing and R&D sector, and Latin America on working hours shared with the US.
This guide compares the four options on the attributes that decide where to place an engineering team: talent pool, salaries, employer contributions, English level, time-zone overlap, tax regimes for relocated engineers and the usual hiring model. Every figure has a named source; where comparable data does not exist, the guide says so.
What makes a country a good place to hire software engineers
A good country to hire software engineers combines four things: enough engineers with the skills you need, a total employment cost that fits the budget, a working language and schedule the team can share, and a legal route to employ or contract people without excessive risk. No country wins on all four, so the choice depends on which constraint binds first.
For US companies the schedule usually binds first; for European companies, cost and talent pool. For any company without a local entity, the legal route matters from day one, because it decides whether the first hire can start in weeks or months.
Spain vs Portugal vs Poland vs Latin America: comparison (2026)
The table compares the four options on the same attributes. Latin America is shown through Mexico and Colombia, the two countries with comparable salary data.
| Attribute | Spain | Portugal | Poland | Latin America (Mexico, Colombia) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICT specialists (Eurostat, 2025) | 1,060,900 (4.8% of employment) | 283,900 (5.4%) | 778,800 (4.5%) | Not comparable |
| Local salary level, tech | Senior €62,000–75,000 in the product segment (Kulturo) | Average €53,189 (Landing.jobs, 2025) | Senior Java about 23,250 PLN a month on a contract of employment (Just Join IT, 2026) | Remote engineers for US companies: senior about $91,000 (Terminal, 2025) |
| Employer social security | 32.15% for software companies, capped at €61,214 of salary | 23.75% | 19.48–22.14%, pension and disability capped | Mexico varies by IMSS branch; Colombia about 20.5% plus risk insurance |
| English (EF EPI 2025 rank, of 123) | 36 | 6 | 15 | Mexico 103, Colombia 76 |
| Overlap with a US Eastern workday | 2–3 hours | 3–4 hours | 2–3 hours | Most of the day |
| Tax regime for relocated engineers | Beckham Law: 24% up to €600,000, 6 years | IFICI: 20% for 10 years, eligible roles only | None specific; contractors often use B2B flat taxes | Varies by country |
| Usual hiring model | Employment contract; EOR or entity for foreign companies | Employment contract or contractor | Employment contract or B2B contract, about half each | Contractor or EOR for foreign companies |
Sources are named in each section below. Salary figures come from different reports and are not directly comparable across columns; the sections explain what each one measures.
Benefits of hiring developers in Spain
The main benefits of hiring developers in Spain are the size of the talent pool, salaries below Northern Europe for the same seniority, a tax regime that helps relocation, and two large hubs that already host foreign engineering teams. Spain had 1,060,900 ICT specialists in 2025, 4.8% of employment, according to Eurostat.
Madrid and Barcelona concentrate the product and startup segment. Barcelona alone had more than 135,000 digital professionals in 2025, according to Mobile World Capital Barcelona, and Catalonia hosts 203 international technology hubs, according to its Tech Hubs Overview. In that segment a senior engineer earns €62,000–75,000 gross a year, according to Kulturo's guide to developer salaries in Spain.
Relocation is easier than in most of Europe. Under the Beckham Law, eligible new residents pay 24% income tax on employment income up to €600,000 for the year of arrival and five more, according to the Agencia Tributaria, and Spain's highly qualified professional (PAC) permit is decided within 20 days under Article 76 of Law 14/2013.
Disadvantages of hiring in Spain
Spain has three disadvantages a foreign employer should price in: high employer contributions, rigid dismissal rules and a lower average English level than Portugal or Poland. Employer social security is 32.15% of gross salary for a software company, capped at €61,214 of salary, as broken down in Kulturo's guide to the cost of employing a software engineer in Spain.
Dismissal is regulated: an unfair dismissal costs 33 days of salary per year worked, up to 24 months, under Article 56 of the Workers' Statute. On English, Spain ranks 36th of 123 countries in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, but EF scores Spanish IT professionals at 571, above the national 540, so the gap narrows for engineers.
Spain vs Portugal for hiring developers
Portugal offers better English and a lower employer contribution rate; Spain offers a talent pool almost four times larger. Portugal had 283,900 ICT specialists in 2025 against Spain's 1,060,900, according to Eurostat, and ranks 6th in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025 against Spain's 36th.
Salaries are close. The average tech salary in Portugal was €53,189 gross in 2025, and €56,125 in Lisbon, according to the Landing.jobs Tech Talent Trends report; the median of Spain's product and startup segment is €54,000, according to Kulturo's salary analysis. Portugal's employer contribution is 23.75%, according to PwC, against Spain's 32.15%, but Spain's cap reduces the gap on senior salaries.
Both countries have a tax regime for relocated professionals. Portugal's IFICI regime taxes qualifying income at 20% for 10 years, but only for eligible professions and employers, according to PwC; Spain's Beckham Law taxes employment income at 24% up to €600,000 for six years.
Spain vs Poland for hiring software engineers
Poland has a deep IT services and R&D sector and good English; Spain has a larger talent pool and a simpler employment model. Poland had 778,800 ICT specialists in 2025, according to Eurostat, and its business services sector had 2,179 centres employing about 500,000 people in early 2026, according to the industry association ABSL.
Polish IT hiring runs on two models. In 2024, 47% of IT job ads on Just Join IT offered a B2B contract with a self-employed developer and 46% an employment contract, according to antyweb.pl's coverage of the portal's data. B2B pays 15–26% more net, according to Just Join IT, but since July 2026 Polish labour inspectors can reclassify a B2B relationship as employment, as EY Poland explains.
On pay, a senior Java developer in Poland earns about 23,250 PLN gross a month on an employment contract, according to the Just Join IT Salary Report 2026, or about €65,000 a year at 4.25 zloty per euro, within Spain's senior band. Poland's employer contributions are 19.48–22.14%, with the pension and disability parts capped at PLN 282,600 a year, according to PwC.
Spain vs Latin America for hiring developers
Latin America's advantage over Spain is the working day: Mexico City is one to two hours behind New York and Bogotá zero to one, against six hours ahead for Madrid. For a US team that needs real-time collaboration all day, that overlap outweighs most other factors.
The cost advantage is smaller than often assumed when engineers work remotely for US companies. Terminal's 2025 Remote Engineer Salary Insights report puts median expectations for senior engineers at $91,318 in Mexico and $91,170 in Colombia, against $79,257 in Spain, for candidates seeking remote roles with US companies. Those are expectations, not local salaries, but they reflect the market a US company competes in.
English varies widely: Argentina ranks 26th in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, Brazil 75th, Colombia 76th and Mexico 103rd. Foreign companies usually hire Latin American engineers as contractors or through an EOR, because employment contracts carry country-specific contributions; in Colombia, for example, the employer pays about 20.5% for pension and health plus workplace risk insurance, according to PwC.
Best countries in Europe to hire developers in 2026
The best country in Europe to hire developers in 2026 depends on the constraint: Portugal for English, Poland for the scale of its IT services and R&D sector, and Spain for the largest talent pool of the three and a relocation-friendly tax regime. Against Germany, all three are cheaper: German tech pay runs about 25% above Spanish pay at the median, according to Kulturo's guide to average salary in Germany vs Spain.
For a company that also wants an office or a hub, existing foreign teams are a signal. Catalonia counts 203 international technology hubs and Poland's ABSL more than 2,000 business service centres; there is no comparable published count for Portugal.
How to decide where to place an engineering team
Decide by ranking your constraints, then checking the legal route. If real-time collaboration with a US team matters most, start with Latin America; if English across the whole team matters most, Portugal or Poland; if you need to hire many engineers at senior level in one or two cities, Spain.
- Define the overlap you need. Two to three shared hours with US Eastern time is enough for many product teams; it is not enough for support or pairing-heavy work.
- Compare loaded cost, not salary. Add employer contributions with their caps, and the EOR or entity cost, as in Kulturo's guide to hiring in Spain without an entity.
- Check the contract model. B2B contracting in Poland and contractor setups in Latin America are common, but both carry reclassification risk.
- Test the market before committing. One or two hires through an EOR show whether the talent you need exists at the price you budgeted.
Kulturo is a Barcelona tech recruitment agency that recruits engineers in Spain for companies from more than 8 countries, employs hires through its EOR partner Deel when the client has no Spanish entity and supports relocation and the PAC visa.