---
title: "The Software Engineering Market in Thailand | Azendo"
description: "Who builds software in Thailand, where the engineering talent sits, and how the outsourcing market here differs from India, Vietnam and the Philippines."
url: "https://azendo.co/blog/thailand-and-offshore/software-development-in-thailand/"
---

[Newsroom](https://azendo.co/newsroom/) [Thailand and offshore](https://azendo.co/blog/thailand-and-offshore/) 

# IT outsourcing in Thailand, described from inside it.

Search for IT outsourcing in Thailand and you will mostly find job boards, a market-size chart, and a ranking written by a company in another country. Here is a more useful account of the IT outsourcing market in Thailand, written by a company that delivers from inside it.

By Mikkel Schmidt  18 September 2026 

The Thai software market, described from inside it.

## Bangkok, Chiang Mai and the rest

Bangkok holds most of the country’s engineering employment, concentrated around enterprise IT, banking and a maturing startup scene. Chiang Mai is smaller, cheaper, and has a distinct character: a strong remote-work culture and noticeably better retention, partly because people who move there are choosing a life rather than chasing a salary step.

## Three kinds of provider

Local IT services firms serving Thai enterprises, largely in Thai. International outsourcing arms of larger Asian groups, usually treating Thailand as one delivery location among several. And a small number of foreign-founded delivery companies built to serve clients abroad, which is where Azendo sits.

The third category is small. That is a genuine limitation of the market and worth knowing before you shortlist.

Why we chose to build here, and what the trade-offs are, is covered under [why we deliver from Thailand](https://azendo.co/why-thailand/).

## Thailand against India, Vietnam and the Philippines

| Compared    | Scale             | Cost     | Retention | Europe overlap |
| ----------- | ----------------- | -------- | --------- | -------------- |
| India       | Very large        | Lowest   | Variable  | Good           |
| Vietnam     | Large and growing | Low      | Moderate  | Good           |
| Philippines | Large             | Low      | Moderate  | Moderate       |
| Thailand    | Moderate          | Moderate | Strong    | Good           |

This table is our own assessment from operating here since 2010, not a published index. Scale and cost are well documented elsewhere; retention is the column we would treat most sceptically from any provider, including us, because almost nobody publishes it. Ask for a specific number and how it is calculated.

The structural picture is easier to verify. Thailand’s digital economy policy, the investment incentives behind the data-centre build-out and the size of the promoted digital sector are published by the [Thailand Board of Investment](https://www.boi.go.th/) and the [Digital Economy Promotion Agency](https://www.depa.or.th/en).

## Where the market is heading

Thailand’s BOI framework has made foreign-owned technology companies straightforward to operate, and the engineering workforce has grown steadily with it. The notable shift over the last five years is the move from back-office and support work toward genuine product engineering.

What Azendo delivers from this market starts with [outsource software development services](https://azendo.co/services/software-development/).

## Questions people ask.

Is IT outsourcing common in Thailand? 

It exists but the market is smaller than India, Vietnam or the Philippines, and much of it serves Thai domestic enterprise rather than foreign clients.

Where are software companies in Thailand based? 

Mostly Bangkok, with a smaller and growing cluster in Chiang Mai.

Can a foreign company own a software business in Thailand? 

Yes, under the BOI framework, which is how a number of foreign-founded delivery companies including Azendo operate.

## Tell us what the roadmap needs and we will tell you what it takes.

A service delivery manager replies with the disciplines we would assign, the monthly capacity and what the first month looks like.

[Get in touch](https://azendo.co/get-in-touch/) [How it works](https://azendo.co/how-it-works/) 

## Thinking about delivering from Thailand.