1 – Developer shortage in France: the real state of the market in 2025
The word "shortage" is overused, wrongly invoked to justify any recruitment failure. But for developers, the data is unambiguous. Here is what the market is really saying, without glossing over the details.
1.1: How many developer positions remain unfilled
France has tens of thousands of unfilled developer positions every year. Estimates vary depending on the source (APEC, Pôle emploi, European Commission), but the finding converges: demand durably exceeds supply. Web development roles consistently appear among the most frequently cited high-tension profiles in BMO (Workforce Needs) surveys.
The problem is not new. It is getting worse. The digital transformation of SMBs is accelerating, software publishers are recruiting continuously, and web agencies are looking for versatile profiles. As a result, a developer with solid React, Laravel or Node.js skills who opens their LinkedIn profile receives outreach the same day. Those actively looking for a position disappear from the market within a few weeks.
For an SMB with 10 to 50 employees, the consequence is direct: the average time to fill a developer position often exceeds 90 days. And in many cases, the position remains open indefinitely, for lack of an acceptable candidate.
1.2: Why SMBs are the first victims of this shortage
Large corporations and scale-ups attract developers with salary packages that SMBs cannot match. A senior full stack developer in Paris negotiates between 55,000 and 75,000 euros gross annually, excluding benefits (full remote work, stock options, training budget). An SMB in the regions offering 45,000 euros starts with a structural disadvantage before the first interview has even taken place.
But salary doesn't explain everything. Experienced developers want to work on modern stacks, in teams where they can grow. An SMB with a solo CTO and a PHP 5 legacy codebase does not attract the same profiles as a fintech deploying on Kubernetes. The tech employer brand of an SMB is often nonexistent — not out of negligence, but because the company has neither the time nor the resources to build it.
In concrete terms, the developer shortage in SMBs creates a vicious cycle: not enough candidates, so compromises on the profile, so high turnover, so back to square one. Quand le recrutement local échoue, l'alternative offshore devient plus rapide que le énième cycle de recrutement en France.
1.3: What the shortage really costs your business
An unfilled developer position does not cost zero. It costs a great deal, indirectly. Every month without reinforcement means delays on your product roadmap. Features promised to your clients slip. Your sales team sells timelines they cannot meet. Your lead dev compensates by working extra hours, which increases their risk of leaving — and when that happens, you lose everything.
The cost of a vacant position is measured in lost opportunities. A software publisher that delays a key feature by six months lets a competitor take the market. A web agency that turns down projects due to lack of resources loses revenue it will never recover. A startup founder who codes themselves instead of selling or fundraising is wasting their most precious time.
Add to this the direct costs of recruitment: posting job ads, time spent screening CVs, interviews with unsuitable profiles, and potential agency fees. A failed hire (resignation before six months) can represent the equivalent of six to twelve months of salary in cumulative costs. Difficulty recruiting a developer is not an inconvenience. It is a silent financial hemorrhage.
2 – The false solutions that do not fix the problem
Faced with the shortage, the temptation is to fall back on quick fixes. Freelancers, IT services firms, internal training: each has its own logic, but none of them solves the underlying problem for an SMB that needs a full-time dedicated developer integrated into its team.
2.1: The freelancer — flexible in theory, volatile in practice
The number-one reflex when a position stays vacant: bring in a freelancer. Fast availability, no permanent contract to sign, day-rate billing. On paper, it's the ideal solution to unblock an urgent situation.
In reality, a competent freelancer is just as scarce as a competent employee. The good ones are already taken, with daily rates between 400 and 700 euros per day. Over a month, the cost far exceeds that of a permanent hire. And most importantly: the freelancer is not dedicated. They juggle multiple assignments. They leave when a more interesting opportunity comes along. They don't know your codebase in depth because they know they won't be staying.
For a one-off need (an audit, a three-week sprint), the freelancer works. For building and maintaining a product over time, it's a risky bet. You invest time onboarding someone who will disappear, and then you start over. Le comparatif entre freelance, agence et développeur dédié offshore montre clairement où chaque modèle atteint ses limites.
2.2: The IT services firm — a developer who is never really yours
IT services firms (formerly known as SSII) offer to place a developer at your company on a time-and-materials basis. The profile is presented quickly, the contract is straightforward, and billing is monthly. But the developer remains an employee of the IT services firm, not your company. They can be reassigned to another assignment if the firm sees a better opportunity. You have no control over retention.
Turnover within IT services firms is a well-documented problem. A developer placed with you for six months and then replaced by another profile means six months of skill-building lost. The new person needs to understand your code, your processes, your business. Meanwhile, velocity drops. And the cycle starts again.
For SMBs, the IT services firm model creates an additional problem: cost. The daily rate billed by the firm includes a significant margin. A developer billed to your company at 500 euros per day may take home around 250 in net pay. That differential funds the firm's overhead, not the quality of the code you receive. You are paying an intermediary for a developer who owes you nothing and who will leave when the firm decides.
2.3: The web agency — deliverables without continuity
Entrusting a project to a web agency can work for a showcase website or a one-off redesign. But an agency does not replace a developer integrated into your team. The agency delivers a finished product (or one supposed to be), then moves on to the next client. Maintenance, updates, fixes: everything goes through tickets, quotes and delays.
The agency model creates dependency without ownership. You rely on a third party to touch your own code. Every minor change is invoiced. The agency doesn't know your six-month roadmap because its business model is based on project rotation, not long-term support.
For an SMB developing a software product or with a continuous stream of development work (new features, integrations, fixes, optimizations), an agency is a costly and frustrating choice. What you need is a full-time dedicated developer who builds expertise on your stack, understands your business and delivers continuously. Not a service provider who reacquaints themselves with your project at every purchase order.
3 – The alternative that works: integrating a dedicated offshore developer
When the local market no longer responds, the question is not "should we look elsewhere?" but "how do we do it without losing quality, communication or control?" Here is what integrating a full-time dedicated developer from Madagascar actually involves.
3.1: What "dedicated developer" means (and why it is the opposite of an IT services firm or a freelancer)
A full-time dedicated developer works exclusively for you. Not shared between three clients. Not reassignable to another assignment. They join your tools (Git, Jira, Slack, Teams), access your codebase, and take part in your team rituals. The only difference from an in-house employee: they are physically located in Madagascar.
This model eliminates the two major problems of the freelancer and the IT services firm. Volatility, first: the developer is on a local permanent contract, supported by structured management, with a premium working setup (Ryzen 7 workstation, dual fiber and 5G connection). Skill development, second: because they stay, they learn your code, your business, your conventions. After three months, they produce like a full team member.
Recruitment is not a lottery. Every developer presented goes through technical tests, live coding sessions and client-validated interviews before any integration. You choose your developer just as you would recruit internally. Le mode opératoire complet pour renforcer son équipe tech sans recruter en France détaille chaque étape du processus.
3.2: Hiring a developer without blowing up your payroll
The cost of a developer in France includes gross salary, employer contributions (approximately 45% of gross), health insurance, paid leave, equipment and premises. A full stack developer at 50,000 euros gross annually actually costs the company between 70,000 and 80,000 euros per year. For a 15-person SMB, this is a major commitment.
A dedicated offshore developer in Madagascar represents a fraction of this cost, at equivalent competence on the requested stacks (React, Vue.js, Node.js, PHP, Laravel, Symfony, Python). The difference does not come from lower quality. It comes from purchasing power parity and the cost of living in Antananarivo. Le tissu de talents francophones à Antananarivo est le produit d'un écosystème universitaire et tech qui forme des développeurs opérationnels sur les frameworks modernes.
This cost differential allows an SMB to do what it could not afford in France: hire two developers instead of one, cover front-end and back-end simultaneously, accelerate the roadmap without putting cash flow at risk. The savings are not the primary objective. The objective is to deliver. The savings are a lever.
3.3: Ensuring code quality and smooth remote collaboration
The legitimate fear of a manager outsourcing their development: "the code will be sloppy, I won't be able to check it, and I'll end up with unmanageable technical debt." This fear is well-founded when working with an opaque vendor who delivers batches with no visibility.
With a dedicated developer integrated into your team, the dynamic is different. You see every commit. You (or your lead dev) conduct code reviews. The developer follows your naming conventions, your branching strategy, your CI/CD pipeline. Quality is controlled in exactly the same way as for an in-house employee, because the tools and processes are identical.
The time difference between France and Madagascar is one hour in summer, two hours in winter. In practice, working hours overlap almost entirely. Daily standups, scoping calls, pair programming sessions: everything is possible synchronously. The working language is French, which is native to Madagascar. Les retours d'expérience sur l'externalisation de développement web à Madagascar confirment que la barrière n'est ni le fuseau horaire ni la langue, mais le choix du bon prestataire.
Every month without a developer is a month your competitor uses to move forward
The developer shortage in France is not a cycle. It is a structural trend. Waiting for the market to ease means accepting that your product falls behind, that your tech team burns out and that your clients lose patience.
You have three options. Keep posting job ads that find no takers. Pay a freelancer or an IT services firm at full price for a fragile commitment. Or integrate a full-time dedicated developer, recruited to your specifications, trained on your stack, operational in your tools, for a fraction of the cost of a French permanent hire.
Every week a position stays vacant is a week of undelivered features, unresolved tickets and accumulating technical debt. The cost of inaction is measured in months of delay and lost clients. Not in regrets.
