Endava Alternative
A deliberately short client list and one Belgrade office, so your engineers sit together and your account is a visible share of the company rather than one of thousands.
Reviewed by Igor Gazivoda, Founder & CEO of StepTo · Updated
Which Endava Alternative Offers a Concentrated Supplier?
StepTo is a direct alternative to Endava for companies that would rather be one of a handful of clients than one account inside a public company. We have run dedicated teams from a single Belgrade office (CET) since 2014, with a 15-20 person engineering organization. Three engineers cost a fixed $15K-25K/month, start inside 2-3 weeks, and then stay.
Endava is one of the largest names in nearshore engineering. Tracing back to 2000 and formed through a 2006 merger of a London consultancy and an Eastern European software services firm, it is headquartered in London, publicly traded on the NYSE under the ticker DAVA, and reports roughly 11,324 employees worldwide, serving 14 industries including payments, finance, healthcare and automotive for enterprise clients such as Mastercard and NatWest. It runs a Belgrade, Serbia delivery presence alongside centres in several other countries.
Both companies hire from the region, so this is not an argument about engineer quality. It is an argument about concentration and scale. An 11,000+ person, publicly traded organisation covering 14 industries means engineering leadership is balancing priorities across a very large book of business, and a multi-country delivery network means the people on your product may be drawn from more than one location.
We keep a deliberately short client list and everyone works from one room in Belgrade. For the wider market context behind nearshore engineering in the region, see our Serbia Software Development Industry Report 2026.
Below: what client concentration and co-location actually change day to day, what each supplier costs, and where a large, publicly traded firm is plainly the better call.
How Do Endava and StepTo Differ on Concentration and Scale?
Same region, very different structure, including the row where the larger firm wins
| Factor | Endava | StepTo |
|---|---|---|
| How much of the supplier your account represents | One account inside a public company reporting ~11,324 employees worldwide | A meaningful share of a 15-20 person company |
| Where your engineers physically sit | Delivery centres across many countries, including Serbia, Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria | One Belgrade office, everyone in the same room |
| Industry breadth and public reporting | 14 named industries served, NYSE-listed (DAVA), audited quarterly financials | Focused software product engineering from a single office |
| Who handles your account | An account structure built for enterprise clients like Mastercard and NatWest | The founder and the senior engineers on your project |
| How pricing works | Negotiated per engagement; standard rates are not published | Published bands: $25-85/hr by seniority, three engineers from $15K-25K/month |
| Company history | Traces to 2000, formed via a 2006 merger, publicly traded since 2018 | Same Belgrade office, same headcount range, since 2014 |
Endava figures (employee count, founding history, industry coverage) are drawn from publicly available company and financial information as of 2026, not confirmed directly with Endava. Verify directly with the provider before deciding.
Why Do Companies Look for Endava Alternatives?
Not over engineering quality. Over how thinly an 11,000+ person public company's attention has to be spread, and where the engineers actually sit.
Your Project Is One of Many Thousands
Endava reports roughly 11,324 employees worldwide and is publicly traded on the NYSE (DAVA). That scale is a real asset for a large enterprise buyer, and it also means engineering capacity and senior review time are allocated across a very large client base, with the biggest programmes carrying the most weight when priorities collide.
Your Team May Not Share an Office
Endava delivers from a network of global centres, with a Belgrade, Serbia presence alongside other Central and Eastern European hubs such as Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria. Staffing at that scale means the engineers on your product can be drawn from more than one location rather than sitting together.
Built for 14 Industries at Once
Endava states coverage across 14 industries, including payments, finance, healthcare, automotive, energy, government, insurance, media, retail, supply chain, technology, telecommunications, travel and private equity. That breadth is genuine range, and it also means engineering leadership is balancing priorities from all of them simultaneously.
Enterprise Procurement, Not a Published Rate Card
As a public company serving enterprise accounts like Mastercard and NatWest, Endava negotiates pricing per engagement rather than publishing standard rates. That is normal for its client base, and it means budgeting starts with a quote rather than a page you can read today.
A Public Company, Not a Small Team
Endava has operated in some form since 2000 and has been NYSE-listed since 2018, with proprietary delivery frameworks (Dava.Flow, Dava.X, Dava.Y, Dava.Rise, Dava.Studios) built for programme-scale engagements. That maturity suits a large transformation programme; it is a different shape of supplier than a small, single-office team.
Which Two Questions Should You Ask a Large Nearshore Supplier?
Endava and StepTo both deliver software engineering out of the Central and Eastern European region, so a comparison based on engineer quality would be mostly noise. The differences that actually change your experience are structural, and they come down to two questions: how large and diversified is this supplier's book of business, and will my team sit together.
The first is about the arithmetic of attention at scale. An organisation reporting roughly 11,324 employees across 14 industries and answering to public shareholders is optimised to serve a very large and varied client base well, and that means finite senior review time, architectural oversight and leadership bandwidth spread across all of it. We run a deliberately short client list because 15-20 engineers cannot serve a long one honestly, which makes senior attention a default rather than something you escalate for.
The second is about physical proximity. Endava delivers from a network of centres that, by public reporting, includes a Belgrade, Serbia presence alongside other Central and Eastern European hubs such as Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria, so a team assembled from that network can be drawn from more than one location. Every StepTo engineer works from one Belgrade office, so the overheard problem, the whiteboard argument and the new joiner absorbing conventions by proximity all still happen.
There is a third difference worth naming plainly: Endava is a public company, listed on the NYSE since 2018, with audited quarterly reporting and proprietary delivery frameworks built for programme-scale engagements. That is a genuine advantage for enterprise procurement teams that need financial transparency and process maturity at scale. StepTo has stayed a private, 15-20 person company since 2014, which trades that assurance for concentration and speed.
Where that logic reverses: if you need a large, multi-workstream enterprise programme, regulated-industry experience across several sectors at once, or the financial transparency of a publicly traded supplier, scale is worth choosing and a larger firm is the better answer. Ask both questions, then decide which shape you are buying.
Why Is StepTo the Right Endava Alternative?
What a short client list and a single office buy you that an 11,000+ person public company cannot
Few Enough Clients to Count on One Hand
StepTo deliberately runs a short client list, because 15-20 engineers cannot serve a long one honestly. Your engagement is a visible share of the company rather than one line in a portfolio spanning thousands of employees.
Published Rates, No Negotiation Cycle
Rates are $25-85/hr by seniority and three engineers start at $15K-25K/month, with management, HR and equipment inside the figure. You can build a budget from this page instead of waiting on an enterprise quote.
Assembled Once, Then Left Alone
Candidate profiles arrive within days and the team is contracted and productive inside three weeks. After that the composition stays put, with no resourcing pool reallocating people between accounts.
Engineers Who Do Not Rotate Off
Engineers stay on client engagements an average of 2.5+ years. At this size that is checkable by name rather than an average across thousands of employees serving many accounts.
One Office, One Room
Everybody works CET/CEST from the same Belgrade office, so architecture debates happen at a desk rather than across countries. There is 3-4 hours of afternoon overlap with the US East Coast and a full shared day with the EU and UK.
The Founder Is on the Call
Escalation goes straight to the founder. There is no account layer built for enterprise clients, so a problem is raised with the founder and the senior engineers on your project and resolved in the same conversation.
What Do Buyers Ask When Comparing StepTo and Endava?
How is StepTo different from Endava?
Scale, structure and listing status. Endava is a publicly traded company (NYSE: DAVA) reporting roughly 11,324 employees across many countries and 14 named industries, built for large, multi-year enterprise programmes. StepTo is a privately held, 15-20 person engineering organization running dedicated teams from a single Belgrade office. Neither is a comment on engineer quality; it is a comment on what kind of supplier you are buying.
Would my team sit in one office, or be split across several countries?
StepTo staffs every engagement from one Belgrade office. Endava delivers from a network of centres that, by public reporting, includes Serbia alongside other Central and Eastern European hubs such as Romania, Moldova and Bulgaria, so a team assembled from that network can span more than one location. Co-location changes the small things: resolving an interface decision at a desk in five minutes, a new joiner absorbing conventions by proximity rather than documentation.
What does StepTo cost compared to Endava?
Endava does not publish standard rates; as a public company serving large enterprise accounts, pricing is negotiated per engagement. StepTo publishes: $25-85/hr by seniority, and $15K-25K/month for three engineers, with delivery management, HR and equipment included. We can publish precisely because our engagements are narrow and similar in shape; a public company serving 14 industries at enterprise scale genuinely cannot reduce that to a single number.
When is Endava the better choice?
When you need scale, industry breadth or the assurances of a publicly traded, audited supplier that we do not offer. Endava's reported ~11,324-employee organization can staff a large, multi-workstream transformation programme, its 14-industry coverage brings regulated-domain experience most small teams lack, and being NYSE-listed gives enterprise procurement teams a level of financial transparency a private 15-20 person company cannot match. If your requirement is a large enterprise programme, we are the wrong call and would tell you so.
Is Endava a Serbian company?
Not originally. Endava traces its roots to 2000 and formed through a 2006 merger of a London consultancy and an Eastern European software services firm; it is headquartered in London and listed on the NYSE. It operates a delivery presence in Belgrade, Serbia alongside centres in several other countries, which is different from a company built and run from Serbia. StepTo has run its single Belgrade office since 2014. For wider market context see our Serbia Software Development Industry Report 2026.
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