HTEC Group Alternative
StepTo is a 15-20 engineer, software-only team in Belgrade. HTEC Group is a 2,500-person software, hardware and design firm. Here is when each is the right call, with sources.
Reviewed by Igor Gazivoda, Founder & CEO of StepTo · Published · Updated
Which HTEC Group Alternative Fits a Team, Not a Program?
StepTo is a direct alternative to HTEC Group for companies whose roadmap is software and only software. We have run dedicated teams from Belgrade (CET) since 2014, with a 15-20 person engineering organization and no other divisions. Three engineers cost a fixed monthly fee from $13.5K/month, start inside 2-4 weeks, and stay for the long term.
HTEC Group is a serious engineering firm and the comparison is not a criticism. It was founded in Belgrade in 2008, its About page describes a team of 2,500 in 20 development and business centres, and its locations page puts development centres in Serbia, North Macedonia, Romania, Hungary, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with consultancy hubs in the US, UK, Germany and Spain. It offers hardware and embedded engineering alongside software and design. Very few companies anywhere can staff a regulated hardware-and-software program across several markets. HTEC can.
The question is whether that is what you are buying. A firm built to run programs of that kind carries the governance, the vertical practices and the cost base needed to run them. If your next twelve months are a web application, a mobile app, some backend consolidation and an AI feature, most of that capability is capacity you are adjacent to rather than using, and the engagement shape, mobilisation, account management, scoped proposals, is heavier than the work requires.
StepTo is the narrow answer. One discipline, published rates, and a start in 2-4 weeks. For a wider view of the market both companies hire from, see our Serbia Software Development Industry Report 2026. Both companies also appear in our alphabetical, unranked comparison of seven software development companies in Serbia.
Below: what each model is actually built to sell, what it costs, and the cases where the larger firm is plainly the right call.
What Is Each Company Built to Sell?
What each company is built to sell, including the row where the larger firm wins
| Factor | HTEC Group | StepTo |
|---|---|---|
| Disciplines under one roof | Software, hardware and embedded engineering and product design, across nine listed industries from healthcare to automotive and semiconductors | Software product engineering only: web, mobile, backend and AI |
| What you are buying | A program: multiple workstreams staffed and governed across markets | A team: one group of engineers on one product |
| Organisational footprint | A team of 2,500 and 20 development and business centres, with headquarters in Palo Alto, London and Belgrade | 15-20 engineers based in Belgrade |
| How pricing works | Scoped per program; standard rates are not published | Published bands: $25-85/hr by seniority, three engineers from $13.5K/month |
| Smallest sensible engagement | Structured for larger, multi-year programs | Three to ten engineers, which is the size the whole business is built around |
HTEC figures are quoted from its About page, read on 8 October 2026, and its Contact page, read on 25 September 2026, and were not confirmed with HTEC directly. HTEC's own location counts have varied over time (20, 20+ and 23 centres in different releases), so check the current figure with HTEC.
Why Do Companies Look for HTEC Group Alternatives?
Rarely because the engineering was wrong. Usually because the engagement was shaped for a program and the buyer needed a team.
You Pay for Capability You May Never Use
HTEC lists hardware and embedded solutions next to software and experience design, for industries running from Healthcare & Life Sciences and Financial Services to Advanced Technologies (Auto & Semi) and Telco & Infrastructure. Assembling and governing that range is expensive, and the cost structure it produces is sized for buyers who need several of those disciplines at once. A pure software product roadmap uses one slice of it.
Belgrade Is a Hub, Not the Company
HTEC was founded in Belgrade in 2008 and moved its headquarters to the US in 2016; its About page now describes headquarters in Palo Alto, London and Belgrade, and says it has built 20 development and business centres. Serbian engineering is one part of a distributed organisation rather than the whole of it.
Program Governance Is Not Optional
Firms running multi-market programs need account managers, delivery leads and practice heads, and those roles genuinely earn their place at that scale. On a small engagement the same machinery is overhead: status reporting, internal escalation paths, and more people between you and whoever changed the code.
A Small Engagement Is an Awkward Fit
HTEC does not publish standard rates on its site, and a firm with a 2,500-person team spread over 20 centres is naturally structured around larger, longer commitments. A three-person team on a mid-sized product is not the shape the commercial model is designed to serve.
Your Roadmap Competes With Regulated Programs
Verticals like healthcare and automotive carry certification cycles and safety-critical deadlines that cannot slip. Sharing an engineering organisation with that kind of work is fine when your program is comparable in size, and less comfortable when it is not.
Who Pays for a Multi-Discipline Range Either Way?
Consider what a firm has to hold in place to offer hardware engineering, product design and software across MedTech, Automotive, Telco and financial services at once. Practice leadership per vertical. Regulatory and certification knowledge that has to stay current. Lab and prototyping capability. Sales and delivery structures that can speak credibly to a car manufacturer and a bank in the same quarter. None of that is waste, and clients who need it could not get their programs built without it.
It does, however, set the floor. That range has to be funded by the engagements the firm takes, which is why enterprise suppliers are structured around larger and longer commitments, and why a proposal arrives after a scoping cycle rather than off a price list. Buying three engineers for a web product from an organisation built to deliver embedded systems from 20 centres means paying into an apparatus your roadmap will never call on.
The same logic explains the layers. Account managers, delivery leads and practice heads exist because coordinating multi-workstream programs across markets genuinely requires them. On a small engagement the machinery keeps running anyway: status reporting, internal escalation, a translation step between what you asked for and the engineer who will do it. Necessary at one scale, friction at another.
StepTo carries none of that range and therefore none of that overhead. We build software products, so a rate card can sit on a public page, a team can be composed in 2-4 weeks rather than mobilised over a quarter. With turnover this low the same named engineers are still on your product two years later, which at 15-20 people you can verify rather than take on trust.
So the honest test is not which company is better. It is whether your next two years need disciplines beyond software. If they do, no amount of focus substitutes for range, and you should talk to a firm that has it. If they do not, you are choosing between paying for range and paying for engineers.
Why Is StepTo the Right HTEC Group Alternative?
What a single-discipline supplier can offer that a multi-discipline one structurally cannot
One Discipline, Done Properly
We build software products, web, mobile, backend and AI, and nothing else. No hardware division, no design studio, no regulated-industry practice. A narrower company means the engineers on your product spend their careers on the problem you are paying them to solve.
Published Rates Instead of a Scoping Exercise
Rates are $25-85/hr by seniority and three engineers start from $13.5K/month. You can size a budget from this page rather than waiting on a proposal cycle.
Weeks, Not a Procurement Cycle
A contracted, productive team typically starts within 2-4 weeks of the first call. There is no program mobilisation phase because there is no program, only the team.
Engineers Who Stay for the Long Term
Engineers stay on client engagements an average of 2.5+ years. At 15-20 people that is a claim you can check by name in a year, not an average smoothed across a 2,500-person organisation.
A Shared Working Day With Europe
Engineers work CET/CEST from Belgrade, sharing a full working day with the EU and UK and 3-4 afternoon hours with the US East Coast.
Terms You Can Read Before the Call
A two-week paid trial and free replacement within 30 days are standard terms, so the cost of starting is limited before you commit to a longer engagement.
How Do Teams Choose Between StepTo and HTEC Group?
How is StepTo different from HTEC Group?
The difference is range, not just size. HTEC Group describes itself as a strategic technology partner covering software, hardware and embedded engineering and design, with a 2,500-person team, 20 development and business centres, and headquarters in Palo Alto, London and Belgrade. StepTo does one discipline: software product engineering, from Belgrade, with 15-20 engineers. If your roadmap involves firmware, an embedded device or a regulated hardware-software system, the range genuinely matters. If it is a web, mobile or AI product, you are buying a fraction of what you are being sold.
Source: HTEC, AboutHTEC, Contact
When should we choose HTEC Group instead?
When the work is a program rather than a team. Anything spanning hardware and software together, anything needing deep regulated-vertical expertise such as MedTech or Automotive, anything that has to be staffed simultaneously across several markets, or anything where your own procurement expects a supplier of that scale, all point clearly to a firm like HTEC. We would rather say that here than have the conversation end awkwardly at the scoping call.
What does StepTo cost compared to HTEC Group?
HTEC does not publish standard rates, which is normal for enterprise engineering firms because programs are scoped and priced individually. StepTo publishes: $25-85/hr by seniority, and from $13.5K/month for a three-engineer team. A firm working across nine industries and 20 centres cannot put a number on a page, because the answer genuinely depends on the program.
Both companies have Belgrade roots. Does that make them similar?
Only in the talent they draw on. HTEC was founded in Belgrade in 2008, moved its headquarters from Belgrade to San Francisco in 2016, and now describes headquarters in Palo Alto, London and Belgrade, with engineering distributed across 20 centres, which is a substantial achievement and changes what the company is. StepTo's engineering team is based in Belgrade. So the shared origin tells you both draw on the same regional engineering talent; it does not tell you the engagement feels remotely alike.
Source: HTEC, History
What do you lose by choosing a 15-20 person supplier?
Real things, and it is worth being explicit. You lose surge capacity: we cannot put forty engineers on a problem next quarter. You lose adjacent disciplines, hardware, industrial design, regulatory affairs. You lose the procurement comfort of a supplier with offices in your market. What you gain is that a three to ten person engagement is a significant share of what our company does rather than a rounding error, so it is a visible share of the company rather than one account among many.
We were shortlisting Mistral Technologies, is that a separate option?
Not any more. HTEC Group announced on 2 September 2022 that it had acquired Sarajevo-based Mistral Technologies and its team of 300. A shortlist carrying both names is really one supplier, so the comparison on this page applies to both. Worth knowing too that Mistral is a Bosnian firm rather than a Serbian one, which matters if the shortlist was built around Serbia specifically. StepTo is the different shape on that list: 15-20 engineers in Belgrade, working together since 2014, at published rates of $25-85/hr.
Source: HTEC press release on GlobeNewswire, 2 September 2022
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