Check the company first, then read the pitch

Search software development companies in Vietnam and you get three result types. Directories, ranked listicles published by vendors about themselves, and a handful of vendor home pages. The wording varies and the question does not: software development company in Vietnam, vietnam software company, software company in vietnam, or simply it companies in Vietnam. Every one of them is somebody trying to work out who is safe to sign with.

Vietnam runs a national business registration portal at dangkykinhdoanh.gov.vn. You can search by enterprise code or by the registered Vietnamese name, and the free public profile carries everything below.

Enterprise code

Ten digits for a main entity, thirteen for a branch or dependent unit. Under Decree 168/2025/ND-CP, effective 1 July 2025, this number is also the tax code, so there is only one number to ask for.

Registered Vietnamese name

Often different from the English trading name on the website. The contract is with the registered name, so check that the two belong to each other.

Entity type

A limited liability company, a joint stock company, or a branch of something else. A branch is not the same counterparty as the parent, and it matters when something goes wrong.

Registration date

The age of the legal entity. Marketing history is frequently longer than this date, which is worth one polite question rather than an assumption.

Charter capital

The declared capital of the entity you would be claiming against. It is not a measure of quality, and it is a measure of what stands behind the signature.

Legal representative

The person entitled to sign. It is often not the person on your calls, and knowing the name before contract stage saves a week later.

Current status

Active, suspended, dissolved or bankrupt. Check this one every time, including on a company somebody recommended to you.

Two things the record will not show. It does not grade engineering, and it does not reveal who owns the entity, so a Vietnam software development outsourcing arrangement with a foreign parent needs its own question about which company signs.

Every supplier carries a row of logos. They are not equal, and several of them are about the company rather than about your project.

ISO 27001

An audited information security management system. Ask which entity holds it and ask to see the certificate, because a parent company certificate does not cover a subsidiary outside its scope statement.

ISO 9001

An audited quality management system. It proves processes are written down and followed. It says nothing about whether the code is any good, and it is read as a quality guarantee far too often.

Directory rank and star rating

Driven by how many clients were asked for a review and said yes. It is a real signal about how organised a company is and a weak one about engineering.

Headcount claims

Ask how many of those people are employed by the entity signing your contract. Group totals across several countries are common, and that is not the pool your team comes from.

Retention

Almost nobody publishes it and it predicts your cost better than the rate does. Ask what proportion of engineers have been there more than two years, and treat a vague answer as an answer.

Case studies

A case study without a number is a logo. Look for what changed, stated as a figure, in a sector close enough to yours that the problem rhymes.

A few Vietnamese suppliers publish their bands openly. Saigon Technology, for example, lists developer rates of 22 to 46 US dollars an hour and tech lead rates of 55 to 85 on its own site. Treat that as a reference point rather than a benchmark.