XB Software 2024 Review: Alternatives and Competitors
Finding and managing reliable software and app developers for your software development project can be challenging.
Given that your company will more than likely be investing heavily in your product, both in terms of time and money, you need to do everything in your power to find a reliable service provider who will help you to get the best return on your investment.
Fortunately, there are lots of online platforms where you can hire a developer or a development team. Some examples include Gigster, Toptal, Arc, and DevTeam.Space. The hard work comes in working out which platform will serve your needs best.
To make it easier for you, let’s review XB Software, one of the alternatives to hire freelancers.
Here is a clickable content of the article:
- What Kind of Developer Do You Need?
- What is XB Software?
- The Pros and Cons of XB Software
- When to use XB Software
- XB Software Alternatives
What Kind of Developer Do You Need?
To ensure that this article on XB Software alternatives delivers real value to you, let’s start by outlining the typical developer requirements for the main kinds of software development projects. This will give you a better idea of what kind of developer and development platform you will need.
- For the most basic kind of project, ie. creating a batch of landing pages for your website, you won’t need much in the way of a development team. A part-time software engineer will be able to undertake such a project in relatively little time. You only need an individual who works on small-scale projects, provided that they have the relevant skills to complete the task. The development process is very simple. Firstly, you can purchase a suitable landing page template and just ask your developer to implement it, as per your outline. After this, they will do all the required tasks, including connecting the landing pages to the email forms and your domain name, and setting up the server, etc. The entire process is relatively straightforward, which depending on the number of pages, shouldn’t take long to complete.
- If your project is a little more complex then it will require a skilled developer. For example, if you intend to build a WordPress-based website for your company then you will need a professional WordPress developer. The most straightforward approach is to simply adapt one of the platform’s design templates, after which, they will set up the backend, the server, and undertake the other steps that are required to launch the site.
- For those companies that intend to create a more complex and sophisticated web product, it is likely that you will need a team of programmers to undertake your project. There are several options that include you managing a team of developers in-house, hiring a complete dev team, or outsourcing to a dev agency. By doing this, you will be able to build a custom-made website to suit your desired specifications. For example, you will be able to build an online marketplace using AngularJS for the frontend and NodeJS for the backend. You will also be able to create a company blog using WordPress where you can post articles to help with your site’s SEO. For this kind of project, you will need to hire a professional designer, frontend and backend developers, and a DevOps specialist. Creating and managing a team can be risky if you don’t have any previous experience. If you don’t, the safest route is to seek professional help and hire a complete dev team.
- After building your own website, it is a good idea to create a mobile application to get an edge on your competitors. It is a costly and complex project that requires an experienced team to undertake. If you don’t already have such a team then you will need to hire a complete mobile development team, mobile experienced designer, and web developers to complete your backend infrastructure and handle the server environment. Most companies choose to create a mobile app for both iOS and Android, in addition to a website. Naturally, this increases the complexity of the project even more and so requires a larger and more skilled team to undertake the development.
- It is possible that you might choose to create a Java or .NET-based software solution for your enterprise-level SaaS product. Such a product will usually incorporate numerous micro-services and complex API integrations. It is also possible that your project will involve some type of data engineering, artificial intelligence integration, or even a blockchain-based solution. Such a complex project will require a team of top-level experts working together efficiently. This team must have all the required expertise in areas such as cyber-security, containers, high-availability systems, and different server architectures, etc. to ensure that it will be able to complete your project successfully.
These are the most common types of development projects that companies undertake.
While your project might not fit exactly into one or the other, we have outlined them to highlight the importance of understanding what your project requirements are before you look to hire developers from specific web development companies.
What Is XB Software?
XBSoftware.com is a software development platform that is headquartered in Minsk, Belarus. The company’s key area of expertise is in developing custom software and mobile apps.
XB Software also claims to provide application modernization and UI/UX design services, as well as code testing and consultancy services.
Its specific software company model allows client companies to engage its services to undertake the full development of their projects so that they don’t need to undertake in-house development themselves.
XB Software claims to have 10 years of industry experience, with 150+ employees. They have completed projects for 175+ clients in 65+ countries to date. It has experience in developing everything from e-commerce and financial services to real estate.
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In addition to the above services, XB Software has specific expertise in the following domains:
- Fleet management systems;
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP);
- Data visualization software;
- School management and administration software;
- Custom eLearning development;
- Blockchain application development;
- Business Intelligence software development;
- Video chat mobile app development;
- Social media mobile app development.
XB Software serves small, medium, as well as large-sized businesses.
They focus on the following development skills:
- Frontend: React.JS, Marionette JS, Webix;
- Backend: Node JS, Laravel, PHP, .Net;
- Testing.
XB Software uses the following key solutions to support development:
- Webix JavaScript UI library: aids in creating rich mobile and desktop apps;
- XB Chat: a peer-to-peer (P2P) video chat app;
- GanttPRO: an online app with Gantt charts;
- KUKU.io: a social media management tool;
- EnjoyHint: a free JavaScript, HTML5, and CSS web tool to create interactive tutorials;
- EnjoyCSS: a CSS code generator tool.
Now that XB Software’s capabilities are a lot clearer to you, let’s review the advantages and disadvantages of their platform. This will help you in determining if they fit your requirements, and when you should consider using their services.
The Pros and Cons of XB Software
Pros
XB Software claims to have expertise in Scrum, which will appeal to some companies. They offer full-cycle development which helps take a big burden of product owners.
Reviews of XB Software show that 19 clients reported being happy with the performance of their development teams. Several of these have noted that XB Software’s developers are skilled and hard-working.
Let’s look at a summary of the platform’s pros:
- With XB Software, your project development will be handled in-house by their development teams.
- If your project has complex testing requirements or HTML5 development requirements, XB Software can help.
- If your project happens to be in an area of software development where they claim the biggest expertise, for e.g. fleet management, school administration, you will likely get industry experience from them.
- You may have a project where the platform’s tools such as their Webix JavaScript UI library or XB Chat could be useful.
Let’s now look at the potential disadvantages of engaging XB Software for your project:
Worrying feedback from one client mentioned that “They should focus on delivering solutions with fewer bugs, and communication can always be improved on both sides.”, continuing on to say that “There have been no major mishaps, but there are always small things to be worked on. It can be frustrating for end-users to encounter the same issues time after time.”
This is an obvious concern for project managers.
- As we have seen from the review above, there is at least one concerning report of poor quality code and repetition of bug types. This is a major concern for any software project owner.
- Because the company is based in Belarus, you will need to familiarize yourself with the laws of the country in order to ensure that you are fully covered should the worst happen. You will need to engage the services of an expert in this area, ideally one from Belarus.
- Since you will unlikely engage XB Software’s services until they are ready to go to the coding phase, this process will require in-house or consultant developers to complete.
- Finally, development agencies with over 50 employees are considered large agencies and have to battle with quality issues and poor communication (mentioned above), and the fact that the best developers are leaving to work in smaller teams.
Ok, those are the main advantages and disadvantages, now we will examine some scenarios where you can consider engaging XB Software.
When to engage XB Software?
The global business environment is increasingly competitive, so demands constant innovation. This can take several forms, for example. you might have decided to launch a new product to enter a new market. On the other hand, your development project might aim to improve your operational efficiency.
Most development companies only maintain an in-house team for day-to-day operations and therefore find it hard to free up resources for new projects. Consequently, most companies need to augment their existing web development team to allow for the kinds of scalability needed to build and implement new projects.
XB Software’s model is not designed for this but rather full-cycle development. Their use is for companies wishing to totally outsource development. This is where they are useful.
Judging by the information on the XB Software website, you are most likely to use them to develop your custom web apps, webix customization and development, and in some cases for cross-platform development.
XB Software provides you with flexibility. After your project is over you can retain them for further development or debugging, etc., on a pay-as-you-go basis. (Please note that if the bugs are an obvious result of their development teams’ errors, as in the case of the review above, you should demand that XB Software fix them free of charge).
For full-cycle software development cases, XB Software is a platform worth considering. However, if you don’t feel totally convinced that its business model suits your needs, then it’s time to consider some of XB Software’s competitors.
XB Software Alternatives: Comparison Chart
| XB Software | Toptal | X-Team | Value Coders | DevTeam.Space | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Community | In-house development teams | Freelance developers, designers, financial specialists | All sort of freelancers | Freelance developers | Field-expert development teams |
| Main Focus | Software development and consulting | Development, design, finance | — | Development | Development and support of complex software products |
| Dedicated Account Manager | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Data Driven Agile Process | No. Scrum used. | No | No | No | Yes |
| Daily project updates | By request | By request | By request | By request | Automated bitesize updates with roadblock tracking |
| Weekly project updates | By request | No | No | Yes | Data-driven project performance reports |
Software development is a very competitive industry, which means you have a wide choice of alternative providers.
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I will now examine a few competitors to XB Software and explain how they shape up. Let’s start with Toptal.
XB Software vs Toptal
Toptal is a freelancer platform where you can hire freelance software developers, designers, project managers, and finance experts. Toptal claims that they provide the top freelance talent in these areas and vet candidates for quality assurance.
As for its developers, the platform claims expertise across a wide range of technology stacks and environments. Their freelancers are fluent in English, which is certainly advantageous for clients looking for painless staff augmentation services.
Toptal offers different contract options, including hourly and fixed-price. The company also gives you the option of a risk-free trial period. Since Toptal has already vetted its developers, companies are more likely to end up hiring high-quality professionals.
However, it is important to note that Toptal doesn’t offer complete development teams. You will need to engage your own project manager to handle the complete development process. Alternatively, it is possible to hire a freelance project manager through another platform such as Upwork. However, this is strongly inadvisable.
Another important point is that Toptal provides you with no processes, methods, and tools (PM&T) for project management. Since they don’t take management responsibility for your project, you are left to build and vet your team, as well as managing it during web application development.
While hiring high-quality freelancers has its advantages, you also need to remember that freelancers are often involved in multiple projects at once. This means you will likely find yourself in situations where freelancers are overworked or distracted. Be warned.
XB Software is a full-cycle platform whose developers work for the platform. As such, their work is guaranteed by the platform so that should you encounter bugs, etc., as mentioned above, you can expect them to fix them for free.
XB Software vs. X-Team
X-Team is a freelancer platform that is based in Australia.
Established in 2006, it aims to provide companies with software development engineers for their projects. Its key promise is that all its programmers are highly skilled and motivated. They specialize in web development and mobile app development.
A promising factor with X-Team’s approach is that they actively encourage and support the development of their coders. As you know, the industry is dynamic and fast-changing. A skill that might be considered niche today will quickly become a commoditized skill, or in other cases outdated, within a short space of time.
X-Team incentivizes its programmers to learn modern technologies. This not only benefits them but the platform’s clients as well.
The company also claims to have utilized its decade’s worth of experience in the industry to fine-tune its hiring process. It is for this reason that they claim to hire only high-quality developers. If you engage the services of X-Team then you are likely to get reasonable developers.
The company also states that they have invested in employee engagement. X-Team encourages its employees to get involved in community-building activities, something which they claim helps to ensure high levels of motivation.
X-Team provides its clients with a dedicated account manager (upon request) to help with project development.
However, the process will still need lots of input from you as their account managers don’t get involved in actual project management. This means you will still need to keep track of what the project manager is doing and how the team is progressing.
While X-Team can provide you with individual web developers or dedicated development teams, should you need your chosen development platform to deliver a complex project end-to-end, then X-Team may not be the best alternative to XB Software.
XB Software vs. Crossover
Founded in 2014, Crossover is a software development company that provides companies with developers and end-to-end team management solutions. Crossover claims to hire only the top 1% of developers and uses a screening process to ensure this. Unlike Toptal, for example, Crossover hires developers as full-time employees.
When you work with Crossover, you get a skilled mobile app development team and a project manager who will support you in managing the team.
While Crossover ensures that their developers work a full 40 hours a week, there have been reports of staff feeling overworked. The company uses a calendar management tool called “WorkSmart” to monitor its employees.
Given that their developers are full-time employees, Crossover invests in their continuous skill development. This also means that there is a strong likelihood that you will be hiring teams that have worked together before, something which is a big plus. Clients can monitor their teams via WorkSmart to see how the team is performing and how the project is progressing.
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At this point, you might be tempted to think of Crossover as a better choice when compared to XB Software. However, you also need to consider a few more factors.
The fact that Crossover claims to hire only the top 1% means that you are likely to pay a higher price to use them. Given that companies such as Google pay top dollar for the best developers, can this claim even begin to be real? The last thing any company wants to do is start out with a less than transparent relationship with their development company.
Aside from this point, Crossover certainly is an option worth considering when hiring development teams. If you want to undertake full-cycle development, then XB Software is the better option.
XB Software vs Devteam.Space
Mobile app development is a complex process that needs great development teams. Trying to find a software development company that can undertake the simplest web development to the most complex mobile application development is very difficult. This is why you need DevTeam.Space.
DevTeam.Space is a data-driven agile software development platform based in the USA. This means that you get full protection under U.S law regarding your intellectual property, etc. We offer a complete range of development services including access to our community of expert developers and development teams, outsourced web development, software testing, etc.
At DevTeam.Space, you’re matched with the most relevant field-expert development teams who have the technical expertise you need.
The project management process is agile and data-driven. As a part of the process, you’re guided by a dedicated tech account manager and a separate project manager at no additional cost. During your custom software development, you receive daily bite-sized updates and weekly performance reports.
Check out DevTeam.Space’s customers‘ feedback here.
Learn more about the DevTeam.Space process here.
DevTeam.Space model offers enormous flexibility over XB Software, which, as a full-cycle software development company is set up to develop the product in-house. DevTeam.Space offers a wide range of options that allow companies cost-efficient access to its developers, even including the option to source vetted developers from its community to join a company on a full-time, permanent employment basis.
This flexibility is the key difference, as it means that all types of companies can find what they need at DevTeam.Space, from temporary onboarding of expertise such as blockchain or ML skills through one developer, to dedicated teams to build complex solutions, etc.
The DevTeam.Space service is designed for businesses of all sizes and allows teams to be easily scaled from 1 to 100s of engineers in no time, depending on your requirements.
Trying to undertake such projects using XB Software’s full-cycle development could be a costly affair. And, unfortunately, once again, it is worth noting that given this worrying feedback regarding repeated bugs, time overruns and more serious issues with the finished product are a concern.
Also, don’t forget that development agencies with over 50 employees are considered large agencies. This brings all the perils of working with large companies including the best developers are leaving to work in smaller teams and frequent quality issues as mentioned above.
By offering the complete package, DevTeam.Space takes away all the stress and time-consuming effort that goes with complex product development, no matter whether you are on-boarding a single developer, multiple dev teams, or outsourcing your entire project for full-cycle development. This means that you can focus your time and efforts on developing your marketing strategy and on business growth.
Several of our past clients have called DevTeam.Space the AWS of software development. Want to find out why? Simply submit your project request to learn more.
