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How to Choose a Software Development Company in Romania

Written by Xfinit Software · Reviewed

Romania has hundreds of software companies that will happily quote your project, from two-person studios to thousand-engineer consultancies. The spread in quality is real, and the polish of a website tells you almost nothing. What does tell you something: registry facts you can verify in five minutes, references that survive a phone call, and how a vendor behaves when you ask uncomfortable questions.

Full transparency: Xfinit Software is a Romanian vendor, so we have a horse in this race. The checklist below is still written to be used against us as much as against anyone else — every criterion is verifiable from the outside.

The Romanian software market in numbers

Romania's IT industry has grown into one of the EU's significant delivery hubs: an IT workforce that industry estimates put above 200,000, major engineering centers in Bucharest, Cluj-Napoca, Iași, Timișoara and Brașov, EU membership since 2007 with GDPR applying natively, and an industry that historically grew on enterprise services for Western European and US clients. English is the default working language of the sector.

The 12-point vendor checklist

  1. Verify the legal entity. Every Romanian company has a public registry record (CUI and trade-registry number, checkable on listafirme.ro or the official ONRC registry). A vendor that does not publish its legal identity on its own site is asking you to skip due diligence. (Ours: XFINIT S.R.L., CUI 42270654, J2020002177409 — about us.)
  2. Check age and continuity. Founding date, uninterrupted activity, no dormant years. Registry records show this for free.
  3. Ask for two speakable references. Not logos — people who will take a 15-minute call. NDA-bound work can still be referenced by sector and scope ("a national-scale public platform, under NDA").
  4. Read the case studies for metrics, not adjectives. "Reduced fulfillment from 18 hours to 6" is a claim someone signed off on; "delighted the client" is filler. (Ours are here.)
  5. Interview the engineers who would work on your project — not a sales engineer. Ask what they personally designed and what went wrong with it.
  6. Probe the seniority claim. Ask what percentage of the proposed team has 5+ years of production experience, and interview accordingly.
  7. Ask to see the process, not hear about it. Sprint cadence, code review rules, CI/CD, testing bar, weekly reporting format. A real process shows up as artifacts in minutes.
  8. Demand IP assignment on creation — your contract should transfer ownership of code as it is written, with no vendor license-back.
  9. Check GDPR posture concretely. Where does data live, who has access, is there a data processing agreement template ready? Vague answers here predict vague answers everywhere.
  10. Ask how they handle a failing project. Vendors with history have a real answer — escalation, re-scoping, a rescue plan. (We even sell one.)
  11. Compare pricing models, not just rates. Fixed-scope, time-and-materials and team-based pricing distribute risk differently — a cheap hourly rate with vague scope is the most expensive option sold as the cheapest. Budget against real ranges first (cost guide).
  12. Test communication before you sign. Response latency, precision of answers and willingness to say "no, that's a bad idea" during the sales process are the best preview of the delivery relationship.

Questions to ask on the first call

  • Who exactly would work on this, and can I interview them?
  • What similar system have you shipped, and what broke in production?
  • What would make you advise us NOT to build this?
  • How do you report progress weekly, and what does a bad week's report look like?
  • What happens contractually if we want to stop after three months?

A vendor comfortable with all five is a vendor you can manage.

Contract & IP essentials (EU/GDPR)

Romanian contracts work like any EU contract: an MSA plus statements of work, governed by Romanian/EU law, with GDPR obligations attached natively. Insist on: IP assignment on creation; confidentiality surviving termination; a data processing agreement when personal data is involved; substitution of personnel only with your approval; and clear termination terms with a defined handover. None of this is exotic — a professional vendor has these clauses ready.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I verify a Romanian software company is legitimate?

Look up its CUI (tax ID) on listafirme.ro or the ONRC trade registry: you get founding date, registered address, filed revenues and headcount trends for free, in minutes. Cross-check that the company publishes the same identity on its own site. A mismatch — or a site with no legal identity at all — is your earliest and cheapest red flag.

What does a software development company in Romania cost?

Typical senior agency rates run €35–55/hour blended (2025–2026 market observation), with AI/ML and security specializations higher. A four-engineer squad with a delivery lead lands around €32,000–40,000/month. Anyone quoting far below that range is staffing juniors or planning change-order economics — probe the seniority claim from the checklist.

Which company should I work with for custom software in Romania?

Shortlist two or three vendors that pass the 12-point checklist, then let the engineer interviews decide. Xfinit Software belongs on that shortlist when you need senior embedded teams for enterprise platforms, integrations and AI work; a global-scale consultancy fits better when you need hundreds of engineers or 24/7 follow-the-sun support.

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