Bulgaria vs Georgia
Bulgaria is ahead on legalization, safety, infrastructure. Georgia is ahead on taxes, money & crypto, healthcare. Full criterion-by-criterion data below.
Verified
Scoreboard
The key numbers head-to-head — the stronger side is marked. The overall score stays decoration; what matters is which facts fit you.
| Bulgaria | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost of living (single, excl. rent) | $460/moiNSI Bulgaria — Income, Expenditure and Consumption of Households in 2024 (Household Budget Survey) Curated by SettleMetric
| $220/moiGeostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025 Curated by SettleMetric
|
| Rent: 1-bedroom (city avg) | $570/moiCurated by SettleMetric
| ★$532/moiss.ge / korter.ge listing samples (Tbilisi + Batumi) Curated by SettleMetric
|
| Freelancer tax burden | 18.1%iCurated by SettleMetric
| ★1%iSettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status) Curated by SettleMetric
|
| Homicide rate | ★1.23/100kiEurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB, geo=BG) Open data
| 2.03/100kiUNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia Open data
|
| Internet speed | ★43 MbpsiM-Lab NDT country aggregates for Bulgaria Open data
| 16 MbpsiM-Lab NDT country aggregates for Georgia Open data
|
| English proficiency | HighiEF EPI 2025 — Bulgaria (score 594, rank 18/123, High band) Research
| HighiEF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band) Research
|
| Private healthcare cost | $820/yriCurated market survey of Bulgarian voluntary health insurers (2026) Curated by SettleMetric
| ★$450/yriGeorgian insurers (Ardi, GPI, Imedi L) — comprehensive-tier plans Curated by SettleMetric
|
Verdict
Each lens weighs only the facts that matter to that plan, and names the side it favours.
Contract or freelance in tech, billing clients abroad.
Bulgaria fits better — 2 of 5
| Bulgaria | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Freelancer tax burden | 18.1%iCurated by SettleMetric
| ★1%iSettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status) Curated by SettleMetric
|
| Internet speed | ★43 MbpsiM-Lab NDT country aggregates for Bulgaria Open data
| 16 MbpsiM-Lab NDT country aggregates for Georgia Open data
|
| English proficiency | HighiEF EPI 2025 — Bulgaria (score 594, rank 18/123, High band) Research
| HighiEF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band) Research
|
| Cost of living (single, excl. rent) | $460/moiNSI Bulgaria — Income, Expenditure and Consumption of Households in 2024 (Household Budget Survey) Curated by SettleMetric
| $220/moiGeostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025 Curated by SettleMetric
|
| Domestic delivery quality | ★ExcellentiEcont and Speedy — Bulgaria's dominant courier networks Curated by SettleMetric
| GoodiGeorgian Post + courier service pages (composite) Curated by SettleMetric
|
Relocating with a partner and school-age children.
A close call for this plan
| Bulgaria | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Homicide rate | ★1.23/100kiEurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB, geo=BG) Open data
| 2.03/100kiUNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia Open data
|
| Private healthcare cost | $820/yriCurated market survey of Bulgarian voluntary health insurers (2026) Curated by SettleMetric
| ★$450/yriGeorgian insurers (Ardi, GPI, Imedi L) — comprehensive-tier plans Curated by SettleMetric
|
| English proficiency | HighiEF EPI 2025 — Bulgaria (score 594, rank 18/123, High band) Research
| HighiEF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band) Research
|
Optimising tax, banking and crypto rules.
Georgia fits better — 2 of 3
| Bulgaria | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Crypto regulation | Legal regulatediOfficial source
| ★Legal friendlyiNational Bank of Georgia — Virtual Asset Service Providers Official source
|
| Financial control level | LowiOfficial source
| LowiUS State Dept 2025 Investment Climate Statement (Georgia) / trade.gov Curated by SettleMetric
|
| Freelancer tax burden | 18.1%iCurated by SettleMetric
| ★1%iSettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status) Curated by SettleMetric
|
Prioritising safety, air, and an easy daily life.
Bulgaria fits better — 1 of 2
| Bulgaria | Georgia | |
|---|---|---|
| Homicide rate | ★1.23/100kiEurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB, geo=BG) Open data
| 2.03/100kiUNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia Open data
|
| Cost of living (single, excl. rent) | $460/moiNSI Bulgaria — Income, Expenditure and Consumption of Households in 2024 (Household Budget Survey) Curated by SettleMetric
| $220/moiGeostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025 Curated by SettleMetric
|
Details
Taxes
Freelancer tax burden% effective burden at €60k/year self-employed profile18.17.4110.0
What this measures
Effective total burden (income tax + mandatory social and health contributions) for a solo IT freelancer with €60,000/year revenue and 10% deductible expenses, using the most favourable eligible scheme in the country's tax-schemes data. Computed by the SettleMetric tax engine; recorded as a curated value with the winning scheme id in method.
Bulgaria
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Method
- Best representative freelancer scheme at €60,000, single = свободна професия (scheme bg-svobodna-profesia): 25% deemed expenses → base €45,000; social 27.8% capped at €7,044.43 (max insurable income €2,111.64/mo); 10% tax on €37,955.57 = €3,795.56. Levies €10,839.99 → 18.1%. The ЕООД company chain (10% + 5% dividend) shows a lower headline (~14.5%) but excludes the compulsory owner-manager social insurance, so свободна професия is the honest freelancer burden.
Georgia
SettleMetric tax engine over Tax Code (Small Business Status)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Method
- Best eligible scheme ge-small-business-1pct at €60,000 = 180,738 GEL (NBG 3.0123 GEL/EUR), below the 500,000 GEL threshold → 1% turnover tax = 1,807 GEL, no mandatory social/pension. Effective burden ≈ 1.0%.
Legalization
Remote-work legalization easeDedicated nomad visa10.0Long stay path6.0
What this measures
Best available legalization route for a location-independent earner with a median (non-EU, non-US) passport, classified from this country's legalization-paths data: dedicated digital-nomad visa; general freelance/self-employment permit; realistic long-stay path (e.g. renewable temporary residence); only short visa-free/tourist stays; effectively none.
Bulgaria
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Notes
- Bulgaria created a dedicated digital-nomad residence route via the June 2025 Foreigners Act amendment, opened to applications for 2026 — for non-EU remote workers earning from abroad (income ≥ 50× the previous year's monthly minimum wage, ~€27,500/year). Combined with the 10% flat tax and low cost of living it is one of the EU's most attractive nomad setups. EU/EEA/Swiss citizens simply exercise free movement.
Georgia
Government Ordinance N255 — visa-free entry
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 3, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Notes
- Exceptionally easy in practice: ~94 nationalities (incl. all EU, US, UK, Ukraine, Russia) may stay visa-free for a full year and register an Individual Entrepreneur with 1% Small Business Status the same day — no residence permit needed. Scored as a long-stay path; there is no formal 'digital nomad visa' and the year of visa-free stay does not itself build toward permanent residence.
Cost of living
Cost of living (single, excl. rent)USD/month, single person, excluding rent46010.022010.0
What this measures
Monthly cost of a defined single-person basket (food, transport, utilities, mobile+internet, modest leisure) excluding rent, curated from national statistics office price data and large local retailers' published prices, converted to USD at the ECB rate recorded in fx-rates. The method field of each value itemizes the basket inputs.
Bulgaria
NSI Bulgaria — Income, Expenditure and Consumption of Households in 2024 (Household Budget Survey)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Method
- NSI HBS 2024 consumer expenditure per household member = BGN 9,466/yr (COICOP consumption, effectively rent-free — Bulgaria doesn't impute owner rent, ~85% ownership, housing line is utilities). 9,466 ÷ 12 = 788.83 BGN/mo ÷ 1.95583 = €403.32/mo × 1.1399 = $459.75/mo → $460. Household-Budget-Survey basis chosen for peer consistency (matching the capture ratio of the Spain/Czechia figures). Bulgaria is the cheapest of the peer set.
- Notes
- The cheapest vs peers (BG ~$460 < CZ ~$785 < ES ~$941), consistent with income levels. Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 Jan 2026 (1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN).
Georgia
Geostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Method
- Geostat 2025 average per-capita monthly consumption (603 GEL) split by the survey's COICOP category shares, with the imputed-housing portion removed, converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD (NBG 2026-07-02). Categories sum to this figure. Geostat has no clean single-person-excl-rent basket, so treat as a curated estimate.
| Category | BulgariaiNSI Bulgaria — Household Budget Survey 2024 (consumer expenditure by group) Curated by SettleMetric
| GeorgiaiGeostat — Households Expenditures survey 2025 (category shares) Curated by SettleMetric
|
|---|---|---|
| Food & non-alcoholic beverages | $163 | — |
| Food & non-alcoholic drinks | — | $88 |
| Transport | $41 | $26 |
| Housing utilities (water, electricity, gas, fuels) | $61 | — |
| Restaurants, recreation & communications | — | $41 |
| Recreation, culture & education | $38 | — |
| Health | $35 | — |
| Clothing & footwear | $21 | $13 |
| Miscellaneous goods & services | $28 | — |
| Furnishing & household maintenance | $28 | — |
| Healthcare (out-of-pocket) | — | $25 |
| Communications | $23 | — |
| Alcoholic beverages & tobacco | $22 | — |
| Utilities & energy | — | $18 |
| Household goods | — | $12 |
| Education | — | $7 |
| Total (excl. rent) | $460/mo | $230/mo |
Housing
Asking rent, central price with outside-centre in parentheses ($/mo).
| Apartment | BulgariaiSettleMetric — population-weighted average of covered cities (Plovdiv, Sofia) Curated by SettleMetric
| GeorgiaiSettleMetric — population-weighted average of covered cities (Batumi, Tbilisi) Curated by SettleMetric
|
|---|---|---|
| Studio | $378 ($266) | $450 ($303) |
| 1-bedroom | $504 ($355) | $592 ($471) |
| 2-bedroom | $758 ($532) | $892 ($635) |
| 3-bedroom | $1,072 ($754) | $1,370 ($970) |
Safety
Homicide rateintentional homicides per 100,000/year1.28.527.0
What this measures
Intentional homicide victims per 100,000 population, latest available year. Country level: UNODC national series. City level: official municipal/police statistics where published; otherwise null (country value shown as country-level).
Bulgaria
Eurostat — police-recorded intentional homicide (crim_off_cat, ICCS0101, unit P_HTHAB, geo=BG)
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2024
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Notes
- Police-recorded intentional homicide, 2024 (1.23). Downward trend from 2.29 in 2008; recent years 2020 0.96, 2021 1.29, 2022 1.11, 2023 1.15, 2024 1.23. Moderate by European standards.
Georgia
UNODC (via World Bank mirror) — intentional homicide, Georgia
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2019
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Notes
- 2019 is the latest year UNODC publishes for Georgia. Low by global standards (world average ≈ 5.8); Georgia is widely regarded as very safe for residents. No city-level series is published.
Healthcare
Private healthcare costUSD/year, comprehensive private insurance premium, healthy 35-year-old8209.145010.0
What this measures
Median of at least three publicly quoted annual premiums for comprehensive private medical insurance (outpatient + inpatient, ~$100k coverage, small deductible) for a healthy 35-year-old resident foreigner, from local and international insurers. Method field lists the insurers quoted.
Bulgaria
Curated market survey of Bulgarian voluntary health insurers (2026)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Method
- Bulgaria has mandatory public health insurance (НЗОК) with no full private-replacement market, so this is the VOLUNTARY supplementary premium: a comprehensive mid-tier plan (outpatient GP+specialist, labs, imaging, hospitalisation) ~€60/month = €720/yr → $821/yr at 1.1399. Range €30–60/mo (basic) to €60–120/mo (premium with dental/vision).
- Notes
- Supplementary to mandatory public НЗОК, not a replacement (like Austria's Sonderklasse). Main voluntary insurers: DZI, Bulstrad VIG, Generali, Allianz Bulgaria, DallBogg, UNIQA. Indicative premiums, vary with coverage caps and deductibles.
Georgia
Georgian insurers (Ardi, GPI, Imedi L) — comprehensive-tier plans
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jul 3, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Method
- Midpoint of comprehensive local plans: Ardi Medi Premium from ~$340/yr up to market comprehensive ~$795/yr (converted at 2.6431 GEL/USD). Expat international plans run higher ($1,000–2,000/yr).
- Notes
- Georgian insurers quote by callback rather than public age-rated engines, so this is a curated market midpoint for local comprehensive cover, not a bound quote.
Money & crypto
Crypto regulationLegal regulated8.0Legal friendly10.0
What this measures
Own classification of the legal status of holding, trading and cashing out cryptocurrency for individuals: legal-friendly (legal with clear, favourable rules or explicit tax exemptions), legal-regulated (legal under standard licensing/AML and taxation), restricted (partial bans: payments or banking access prohibited), banned (holding/trading prohibited). Classified from national regulators' and central banks' official positions.
Bulgaria
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Notes
- Crypto is legal. Individual gains from crypto disposals are taxed as investment income at the 10% flat rate (a 10% deemed-cost deduction makes the effective rate ~9%), declared on Annex 5 of the annual return. MiCA is fully in force EU-wide; crypto-asset service providers must be licensed by the Financial Supervision Commission (FSC), transitional-regime deadline 1 July 2026. Supervisor FSC (fsc.bg); tax authority НАП (nap.bg).
Georgia
National Bank of Georgia — Virtual Asset Service Providers
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Notes
- Individuals pay 0% income tax on crypto gains (Minister of Finance Public Decision N201, 2019 — crypto is not Georgian-source income for individuals) and crypto↔fiat exchange is VAT-exempt. Service providers must register as VASPs with the NBG (regime since 1 July 2023). Very favourable for individual holders, hence legal-friendly.
Financial control levelLow10.0Low10.0
What this measures
Own composite of state control over personal money flows: currency/capital controls (IMF AREAER), restrictions on foreign accounts and transfers, mandatory income declaration scope for residents, cash payment limits, banking access for foreigners. Low = free movement of personal funds and easy non-resident banking; very-high = strict capital controls and pervasive reporting. Method field on each value lists the inputs used.
Bulgaria
Official source
- Data as of
- Jan 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Method
- Composite: Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 Jan 2026 (fixed 1 EUR = 1.95583 BGN); EU member with full free movement of capital, no capital controls or currency-conversion limits. The only notable restriction is a domestic cash-payment ceiling (Law on Limitation of Cash Payments): payments at/above ~€5,113 (BGN 10,000) must be non-cash — a routine AML measure. The EU-wide €10,000 cash cap applies from 2027. No limits on holding foreign currency or cross-border transfers → 'low'.
Georgia
US State Dept 2025 Investment Climate Statement (Georgia) / trade.gov
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Method
- GEL freely convertible (float since 1998; IMF Article VIII since 1996); no capital controls; funds transfer abroad freely (except sanctioned destinations); no routine cash caps or resident foreign-account exit restrictions.
- Notes
- Caveat: since Georgia joined CRS (2024) and post-2022 de-risking, non-resident bank account onboarding has become notably stricter (source-of-funds documentation, some rejections). The FX regime itself is open; the friction is at bank KYC.
Infrastructure
Domestic delivery qualityExcellent10.0Good7.0
What this measures
Quality of in-country parcel delivery. excellent = nationwide next-day widely available, dense parcel-locker network, real-time tracking standard; good = 1–3 day delivery, lockers in major cities; basic = reliable but slow (3–7 days), mostly to-door or post-office pickup; poor = unreliable delivery, street addresses often unusable, informal workarounds common. Classified from official service/coverage data of the national postal operator and the two largest private carriers; inputs itemized in each value's method field.
Bulgaria
Econt and Speedy — Bulgaria's dominant courier networks
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Method
- Econt and Speedy form a dense duopoly with nationwide office + automated-locker networks and next-day domestic delivery; cash-on-delivery ('наложен платеж') is the default e-commerce payment method. Fast, cheap, reliable → excellent.
Georgia
Georgian Post + courier service pages (composite)
Curated by SettleMetric
- Data as of
- Jul 3, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Method
- Georgian Post ~500 branches nationwide (1–3 day domestic parcels, some lockers/pickup points); Wolt Drive and Glovo last-mile in Tbilisi/Batumi; DHL/FedEx/UPS present. Dense and reliable in cities; locker density and nationwide same-day coverage thinner than EU leaders → good, not excellent.
International delivery easeMinor friction7.0Minor friction7.0
What this measures
Ease of receiving goods from abroad. seamless = major international carriers deliver door-to-door, meaningful duty-free de-minimis threshold, customs clearance predictable in days; minor-friction = carriers present but low de-minimis, extra paperwork or routine delays; significant-friction = frequent customs holds, high brokerage fees, some marketplaces refuse to ship; unreliable = parcels regularly lost or blocked, informal import channels dominate. De-minimis thresholds and clearance rules from the national customs authority (official source, cite the regulation); carrier presence from carriers' official pages.
Bulgaria
European Commission — removal of the €150 duty-free import threshold (EU-wide, from 1 July 2026)
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 1, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Notes
- Intra-EU shipping is frictionless (single market/customs union). From 1 July 2026 the EU removes the €150 duty-free threshold for non-EU imports (a transitional flat per-item customs duty applies; VAT already collected since 2021). Minor friction on non-EU inbound parcels — the same EU regime as other member states.
Georgia
Revenue Service of Georgia — customs procedures
Official source
- Data as of
- Jul 3, 2026
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Notes
- Georgia is outside the EU/EAEU. Personal-import de minimis: 300 GEL (≈ $113) and ≤ 30 kg, once per calendar month, exempt; above that, 18% import VAT + 0–12% duty + a small customs fee. All major integrators (DHL, FedEx, UPS, Aramex) present. Predictable but the low monthly de-minimis cap adds friction.
Internet speedMbps, median fixed download42.84.115.80.7
What this measures
Median fixed-broadband download speed over the trailing 6 months from M-Lab NDT open data (CC0), aggregated at country or city level. Not comparable with Ookla figures (different test methodology) — do not mix sources within this criterion.
Bulgaria
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Bulgaria
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Method
- Median of the 343 daily country-median download values for BG in 2023 = 42.85 Mbps (139,790 download tests). M-Lab NDT is single-stream and understates real line speeds — Bulgaria has very fast, cheap fibre (commonly 100–1000 Mbps advertised) — comparable only within this criterion. 2023 is the latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API.
- Notes
- Bulgaria is known for fast, inexpensive fixed broadband; the M-Lab single-stream median is used only for cross-country comparability on one consistent method.
Georgia
M-Lab NDT country aggregates for Georgia
Open data
- Data as of
- Dec 31, 2023
- Verified
- Jul 4, 2026
- Method
- Median of 343 daily country medians (download_MED), 47,852 download tests (2023 — latest full year in M-Lab's public stats API; the 2024 file is only Jan–Mar, and 2025/2026 are not yet published). Georgia sits under continent code AS in M-Lab.
- Notes
- M-Lab NDT is single-stream and reads well below Ookla-style figures — comparable only within this criterion. Cross-check: the World Bank's July-2024 median of ~20 Mbps (Ookla-derived, so not citable here) is consistent with this once the M-Lab-reads-low offset is accounted for. Speeds are trending up (~10%/yr: M-Lab yearly medians ran 9.7 in 2020 → 15.8 in 2023), so multi-year pooling would understate current speed; the latest full year is used instead. GNCC/comcom.ge publishes operator quality-of-service measurements (e.g. Magticom fixed ~56 Mb/s advertised-tier average, 2025/26) but no national measured median, and its own speed commentary relies on the same Ookla data we can't redistribute.
Language
English proficiencyHigh7.0High7.0
What this measures
Own banding of how far English gets a resident in daily life (government offices, healthcare, housing, services). Informed by EF EPI band (research source, cited with attribution, not republished) plus official language status and service-sector realities. Values are our bands, not EF scores.
Bulgaria
EF EPI 2025 — Bulgaria (score 594, rank 18/123, High band)
Research
- Data as of
- Nov 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 14, 2026
- Notes
- Own band informed by EF EPI 2025 (attribution: EF Education First): Bulgaria ranks #18 of 123, score 594 (global average 488), 'High Proficiency' band. English is broadly workable in Sofia's tech and service sectors and among younger Bulgarians; Bulgarian (Cyrillic) remains essential for administration and daily life outside the capital.
Georgia
EF EPI 2025 (score 541, rank 35/123 — High band)
Research
- Data as of
- Nov 1, 2025
- Verified
- Jul 3, 2026
- Notes
- Own band informed by EF EPI (attribution: EF Education First). English is workable in Tbilisi/Batumi tourism and the younger service sector; less so in government and older generations. Russian remains widely understood.
Deep dives: taxes in Bulgaria ·taxes in Georgia ·net-income calculator