Portugal is more than just a scenic destination—it’s fast becoming Europe’s nearshore tech haven. Discover six cities, from the vibrant capital to rising stars, that combine top talent, digital infrastructure, and a welcoming business environment for your IT team augmentation.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally published in [May, 2023] and has been updated for freshness, accuracy, and comprehensiveness.
Putting together an IT team can be complicated, particularly if you’re trying to gather your employees in one city.
Portugal is quickly becoming one of Europe’s most compelling nearshore tech destinations—thanks to its skilled, English-speaking talent pool, competitive operational costs, and strong digital infrastructure. Whether you’re building a new IT team or expanding an existing one, the country offers a strategic blend of innovation, lifestyle, and accessibility that’s hard to match.
In this article, we explore six Portuguese cities that stand out for their tech readiness. Each offering the right mix of talent, business environment, and livability to help your team succeed. From well-established hubs to rising contenders, these locations deserve a spot on your radar (plus there’s also a bonus region you won’t want to miss).
6 Portuguese Tech-friendly Cities to Start Your Nearshore IT Team
Braga
Braga is one of the youngest cities in Portugal, and it has a lot of hidden talent. With an academic population and a growing Brazilian community, the “city of Archbishops” has a lot of infrastructure that’ll allow your nearshore IT team to grow and evolve.
The international Francisco Sá Carneiro airport is only an approximately 30-minute drive away from Braga. Plus, the city also has fast train connections to the whole country. However, what makes this city tech-friendly is its own investment program. “InvestBraga – Agency for the Economic Dynamization of Braga” is a public entity with several spaces that encourage local investment.
One of these spaces is “Startup Braga”, a hub with a strong technological component. It has the particularity of being within a creative and cultural center, “gnration”. In line with this investment policy, InvestBraga also regularly promotes debates and meetings at the Altice Forum Braga, one of the main venues in the city.
Braga offers a great variety of coworking spaces that provide services such as consultancy and continuing training.
Aveiro
Due to the canals that cross the city and the Moliceiro boats that travel its waters, Aveiro is often called the “Portuguese Venice”. This city and district are also known for having strong academic (with a renowned university) and business foundations.
The city knows how to properly integrate projects and creative hubs. It brings people, companies, research institutes, and state-of-the-art tech solutions together to redefine how to live and work in a more digital and connected reality.
This is clearly reflected in the Aveiro Tech City initiative. It turns the city into a living lab for experimenting with technology to improve mobility, education, culture, and the environment. So, you see, Aveiro is definitely a city to consider when deciding where to locate your nearshore IT team.
One of the spaces to keep in mind is the PCI – Creative Science Park – Aveiro Region. It was founded in 2009 by the University of Aveiro to mobilize the business agents in the region and create a space for promoting the economy.
Aveiro’s “Science Park” fosters the transfer of knowledge between Academia and Industry. It focuses on key areas such as Information and Communications Technology (ICT), materials, agroindustrial, energy, blue economy, and health.
The technology park also includes an “innovation space” and the “design factory Aveiro”. Both have a strong connection to the University. In addition, it also includes a business incubator, “UA Incubator”, which has hosted 48 companies and over 150 research projects. Regarding the city’s accessibility, it has fast and daily train connections to Lisbon and Porto.
Porto
The 1987 song “Porto Sentido” by Rui Veloso describes the city as “an old house that extends to the sea”. More than 30 years later, it continues to rise “in the middle of the fog”. It now presents itself as a hub of innovation and creativity, consolidating its position as the second metropolitan area in the country.
The University and the Polytechnic of Porto have been driving this development, greatly supported by Porto Airport’s international connections and its proximity to Galicia.
Being a tech-friendly city came as an addition. Backed by the commitment by public and private entities to invest in business incubators and creative hubs. Thus, there is an increasing number of people interested in working in the “Undefeated” city. It is already solid innovation ecosystem.
To assist companies that want to settle in Porto, the municipality launched an investment promotion agency, called “Invest Porto.”. This agency provides access to installation incentives for companies and teams, including nearshore IT teams in the city.
It also offers access to a B2B marketplace, which brings together service providers in the Porto region, specialized advice by “Invest Porto.”, and a network of young talent, the “Portonauts”.
In recent years, Porto has also been able to keep up with trends, giving assertive responses to those who want to implement a nearshore IT team with multiple coworking spaces in the city.
Lisbon
As the capital, Lisbon could not be left out of our list of Portuguese tech-friendly cities. Connected to the world by plane, boat, train, or bus, Lisbon is a city that everyone loves. It’s, in fact, the scenario for one of the main tech events, WebSummit, which transforms Lisbon into the main European technological hub for an entire week.
At this event, leaders of the biggest companies, politicians, start-ups, and entrepreneurs discuss the trends that’ll take businesses to the highest level, creating an environment for sharing, learning, and networking through talks and a tech show that takes place at the same time as the event.
There are, therefore, good reasons to choose the “city of seven hills” to install your nearshore IT team and create an environment of creativity. There are dozens of coworking spaces (some of them free!) scattered around Lisbon that may suit your team.
If you’re dealing with a large-scale project, the Lispolis – Polo Tecnológico de Lisboa might be a good fit for you. This structure currently includes more than 120 companies and teams, more than 50% of which are connected to technology.
Finally, if you choose KWAN as your outsourcing partner, you can count on our office in the centre of Lisbon, equipped with monitors, ergonomic chairs and tables, a small kitchen, and meeting rooms – more than ready to receive your team!
Coimbra
Perhaps you know Coimbra for its university, made famous by the voices of students dressed in black, or even for the tragic yet intense love of Peter I of Portugal and Inês de Castro. The city on the banks of the Mondego River is, as the song says, “a lesson of dream and tradition” that keeps alive its connection to academic knowledge and focus on new horizons.
Currently, Coimbra is included in an economically dynamic region, offering a good quality of life and access to qualified human resources. One of the city’s contributions to this dynamism is the Coimbra iParque – Park for Innovation in Science, Technology, and Health.
Complementing other entrepreneurship offers in the city, the space is ideal to install your nearshore IT team. Under the responsibility of the municipality of the city, Coimbra iParque has a Business Center, the “Leonardo Da Vinci Business Center”, with an area of 500 square meters, comprising a meeting room and an auditorium fit for 200 people.
The space welcomes companies from several areas, including ICT, creating a favorable environment for innovation and business development. All information and characteristics of the space are shared on request.
Covilhã
Despite being a city in the interior of the country, Covilhã has established itself as a Portuguese technological hub. Close to Serra da Estrela and boosted by the University of Beira Interior, this city is a great choice for digital nomads and companies who want to settle their nearshore IT teams in Portugal.
The main reason is simple: housing is relatively cheap. In addition, the city has tried to offer suitable infrastructure to accommodate this new digital reality: the CIEC – Covilhã Business Innovation Centre is one of them.
The Centre is a mix of offices, coworking spaces, and workshop spaces, open to welcome entrepreneurs, start-ups, or even multinationals. The aim is to promote business activity and competitiveness while exploring a sense of community among members.
For large-scale projects, Covilhã also has Parkurbis, the Covilhã Science and Technology Park. Its aim is to develop new tech-based activities in the region. They seek to create a link with the university while getting closer to the local business fabric and creating synergies.
The park has various support services, access to a network of contacts, and exchange with other technology parks in Portugal and around the world, in addition to administrative support and business promotion. The integration of startups and teams in these spaces is subject to application.
Algarve – Our Extra Tip
We put Algarve on this list as an extra tip, since it isn’t possible to choose just one city.
The whole region is very tech-friendly! In addition to the beaches and sunny climate Algarve has the right conditions for digital nomads and nearshore IT teams to prosper, as the language barrier is lower due to tourist activity.
However, the economy isn’t just based on tourism, and Algarve has sought to diversify its economy. The region has focused on creating connections to other European countries, using Faro airport as one of the differentiating factors.
In this context, the Algarve Tech Hub appears. It is a tech system at a regional scale that aims to present Algarve as a competitive and technological region, helping the creation and development of a global hub.
This project involves municipalities, institutions, and local companies to assist with the implementation of your team. All of them work together to make the region even more attractive, identifying talent and opportunities, and enhancing international interest.
In addition to this, it claims to be the best “Lifestyle Tech Hub” in Europe. It organizes several community events, such as the “Algarve Tech Hub Summit”, a sought-after event for professionals with technology as their major area of interest.
Why Choose Portugal to Start Your Nearshore IT Team
Portugal has emerged as a strategic hotspot for nearshore IT teams. It offered the ideal mix of skilled talent, cost-efficiency, and connectivity. With a strong educational system producing thousands of tech graduates each year, companies benefit from a workforce that’s not only technically proficient but also fluent in English and culturally aligned with international teams.
Its location—just a short flight from major European cities and in a compatible time zone—makes real-time collaboration seamless. Add to that a business-friendly environment, modern infrastructure, and a high quality of life, and it’s clear why Portugal continues to attract companies looking to build and scale their IT operations nearshore.
The country’s fiber optics and 5G networks allow for stable and high-speed internet connections. This means that you and your team can work remotely from anywhere in the territory. It is a well-known fact that remote work can considerably increase your team’s productivity! Many Portuguese cities embrace this and take advantage of this demand by creating amazing emerging coworking spaces.
6 Portuguese Tech-friendly Cities to Start Your Nearshore IT Team – Final Thoughts
These 6 Portuguese tech-friendly cities present a wide variety of features that make them attractive as a nearshore destination. Whether you’re considering the country’s capital, an inland alternative, or a beachy scenario, by setting up your nearshore business in one of these cities, you can’t fail.
All of these cities offer great infrastructure, dynamism, innovation, and a great quality of life. Some of them have prominent higher education institutions that prepare highly-skilled IT talent who are eager for an opportunity to show what they can do.
In short, there are 6 cities (plus one region) that present attractive conditions and advantages for the challenge of installing a nearshore IT team. The hard part is choosing one of them!
The good news is that you don’t have to.
Access a wider network of talent by setting up your team all around the country! Allow your employees to benefit from remote work and give them the chance to work from wherever they feel most comfortable, be it a coworking space or their own home office. You will soon find out that their happiness will be decisive in the results achieved by your company!
But in the end, remember: whatever you choose, KWAN is available to help you out! We have IT professionals spread across the country with years of experience in remote work. In addition, whether you choose a face-to-face, hybrid, or remote work model, we will help you find the dream team to achieve the best results. Talk to us and let’s assess, together, the needs of your tech team.