Why Pokhara is Becoming Nepal’s Next Tech Hub

Most people know Pokhara as Nepal’s tourist capital — the city by Fewa Lake, the gateway to the Annapurna trekking routes, the place with the most stunning mountain views in the world. But something else is happening in Pokhara. Quietly, steadily, and with real momentum, Pokhara is establishing itself as Nepal’s next major technology hub.

While Kathmandu has historically dominated Nepal’s IT sector, Pokhara is now attracting IT companies, software developers, digital marketing agencies, and tech entrepreneurs at a pace nobody predicted five years ago. This is not just local optimism — it is backed by real numbers, real companies, and real opportunity.

In this article, we explore why Pokhara is becoming Nepal’s tech hub, what is driving this transformation, and what it means for businesses and professionals in Pokhara and across Nepal.

Table of Contents

• Pokhara’s Growing IT Sector
• Cost Advantages Over Kathmandu
• Quality of Life — Why Developers Choose Pokhara
• World-Class Infrastructure
• Remote Work Culture Taking Hold
• Government and Institutional Support
• Educational Institutions Producing Talent
• Success Stories from Pokhara’s Tech Scene
• Challenges Still to Overcome
• The Future of Pokhara as a Tech Hub

Pokhara’s Growing IT Sector

The number of registered IT companies and digital service businesses in Pokhara has grown dramatically over the past decade. Pokhara now hosts dozens of active IT companies — covering software development, mobile app development, web development, digital marketing, graphic design, cybersecurity, and IT consulting.

This growth is not a coincidence. Pokhara has several structural advantages that make it an attractive location for technology businesses in Nepal. The city has a growing population of educated young professionals, a relatively lower cost of doing business compared to Kathmandu, and a quality of life that increasingly attracts talent from across Nepal and from Nepali professionals returning from abroad.

What began as a handful of IT freelancers and small agencies in Pokhara has grown into a genuine ecosystem — with companies hiring full development teams, serving international clients, and building products used by thousands of people across Nepal and beyond. Pokhara’s IT sector is no longer a footnote in Nepal’s technology story; it is becoming a chapter of its own.

Cost Advantages Over Kathmandu

One of the most compelling reasons technology businesses are choosing Pokhara over Kathmandu is straightforward economics. The cost difference is significant and real:

• Office rent: Commercial office space in Pokhara typically costs 40–60% less than comparable space in Kathmandu’s prime areas like New Baneshwor, Thamel, or Lazimpat. A team of 10 developers in Pokhara can work in a professional office for what renting a small desk space in Kathmandu might cost.
• Salaries: While talent costs are rising in Pokhara, average developer and digital professional salaries in Pokhara remain 15–25% lower than Kathmandu rates for equivalent roles — without sacrificing skill quality.
• Living costs: Employees in Pokhara spend less on rent, food, and transportation than their Kathmandu counterparts. This makes it easier for companies to attract and retain talent at competitive salary packages that feel better in Pokhara than they would in the capital.
• Utility costs: Electricity and internet infrastructure costs in Pokhara are broadly comparable to Kathmandu, meaning the cost savings of Pokhara come without meaningful infrastructure disadvantage.

For technology businesses — where talent is the primary cost — these differences compound significantly. A company that saves 30% on operating costs in Pokhara can reinvest that money in better equipment, more hiring, or competitive benefits for its team.

Quality of Life in Pokhara — Why Developers Choose It

Ask any developer or IT professional why they chose to stay in Pokhara rather than relocate to Kathmandu or abroad, and you will hear the same answers repeatedly.

Pokhara offers a quality of life that is genuinely difficult to find anywhere else in Nepal. The city is clean, calm, and stunningly beautiful. Fewa Lake is a 10-minute walk or bike ride from most parts of the city. The Annapurna range provides one of the most dramatic mountain backdrops of any city in the world. Traffic in Pokhara — while growing — is manageable compared to the gridlock of Kathmandu.

For professionals who spend their days staring at screens, Pokhara’s outdoor lifestyle is not just pleasant — it is a genuine productivity and wellbeing advantage. Hiking, kayaking, paragliding, cycling — these are not weekend escapes. They are part of everyday life in Pokhara. Tech professionals who have worked in both Kathmandu and Pokhara consistently rate their mental health and work-life balance as significantly better in Pokhara.

There is also a strong sense of community in Pokhara’s growing tech scene. The city is small enough that professionals in the industry know each other, collaborate informally, and support each other’s businesses. This kind of tight-knit community is a genuine advantage in an industry built on networks and referrals.

World-Class Infrastructure

Infrastructure is the foundation that any tech hub needs, and Pokhara has been improving fast:

Internet connectivity: Fiber internet from providers like Worldlink, Subisu, and ClassicTech is available across most of Pokhara. Speeds of 100–200 Mbps are common, enabling smooth video calls with international clients, fast code deployments, and reliable cloud computing.

Pokhara International Airport: The new Pokhara Regional International Airport, one of Nepal’s most significant infrastructure investments, improves connectivity for Pokhara businesses and opens the city to international business travel.

Coworking spaces: Pokhara now has several coworking and shared office spaces catering to freelancers, remote workers, and small tech teams. These spaces provide professional environments, reliable internet, and networking opportunities for Pokhara’s growing independent tech workforce.

Power supply: Nepal’s power situation has improved dramatically over the past few years, and Pokhara benefits from relatively stable electricity supply — increasingly supplemented by solar and backup systems that tech companies install to protect their operations.

Remote Work Culture Taking Hold

The global shift to remote work, accelerated by the pandemic, has been transformative for Pokhara’s tech scene. Pokhara now has developers, designers, and digital marketers working for companies in the UK, USA, Australia, Germany, and across Southeast Asia — without leaving the city.

This is a genuinely big deal for Pokhara’s economy. When a Pokhara-based developer earns USD 1,500–3,000/month from a foreign client, that income stays in Pokhara. It pays Pokhara rent, supports Pokhara restaurants and shops, and builds Pokhara’s economy in ways that tourism alone never could.

Remote work has also attracted Nepali professionals who previously left for Kathmandu, India, or abroad. Some are returning to Pokhara because they can now earn global salaries while enjoying Pokhara’s lifestyle. This reverse brain drain — small but growing — is strengthening the local talent pool significantly.

Government and Institutional Support

The government of Nepal and Gandaki Province have increasingly recognized the economic potential of Pokhara’s IT sector:

• IT Park initiatives: There have been ongoing discussions and planning around establishing a dedicated IT Park in or near Pokhara to provide purpose-built facilities for technology companies, similar to IT parks in Kathmandu.
• Special Economic Zone (SEZ) prospects: Pokhara is being considered as a potential SEZ location, which would provide tax incentives and facilitated business environment for technology and service export businesses.
• Local government support: Pokhara Metropolitan City has shown increasing awareness of the importance of the digital economy and has taken steps to support digital business registration, digital skills programs, and technology adoption among local businesses.
• Province-level initiatives: Gandaki Province has included digital economy development as a priority in its development plans, recognizing that technology services represent a high-value export opportunity that creates jobs without requiring heavy industry or resource extraction.

Educational Institutions Producing Talent

Pokhara’s tech hub story would not be possible without a steady pipeline of skilled graduates, and Pokhara’s educational institutions are increasingly delivering exactly that:

Pokhara University: One of Nepal’s established universities with strong engineering and technology programs. Pokhara University graduates are increasingly entering the local IT workforce rather than automatically relocating to Kathmandu or abroad.

Private IT colleges: Pokhara has numerous private colleges affiliated with Tribhuvan University and Pokhara University offering BIT, BSc.CSIT, BCA, and related programs. These colleges collectively produce hundreds of IT graduates each year in Pokhara alone.

Coding bootcamps and skill programs: Beyond formal degrees, Pokhara has seen growth in coding bootcamps, digital marketing training programs, and professional development courses that are upskilling working professionals in the city.

The result is that Pokhara’s supply of trained IT professionals is growing steadily — a prerequisite for any genuine tech hub. Companies establishing themselves in Pokhara can recruit locally with real confidence that talented candidates are available.

Success Stories from Pokhara’s Tech Scene

The most convincing argument for Pokhara as a tech hub is not statistics — it is the real stories of companies that are succeeding here in Nepal.

A digital marketing agency that grew from 2 to 20+ team members: What started as a two-person operation running social media campaigns for local tourism businesses in Pokhara has grown into a full-service digital marketing agency with over 20 staff, serving clients across Nepal and internationally. The founders stayed in Pokhara deliberately, believing the city’s cost structure and talent pool made it a better base than Kathmandu. They were right.

A software company serving clients in 3 countries: A Pokhara-based software development firm that began building local business applications now delivers custom software projects to clients in Nepal, Australia, and the United Kingdom. The team works entirely from Pokhara, collaborates through modern project management tools, and has built an international reputation without ever relocating from the shores of Fewa Lake.

NepTechPal — Building Pokhara’s Digital Economy: NepTechPal is itself a part of this Pokhara tech success story. Based in Pokhara, Nepal, we provide web development, digital marketing, SEO, graphic design, and mobile app development services to businesses across Nepal and beyond. Our growth reflects Pokhara’s potential — proving that world-class digital services can be delivered from Nepal’s lake city to clients wherever they are.

These are not isolated cases. Across Pokhara, IT businesses are quietly building impressive client rosters, professional teams, and sustainable revenues — demonstrating that Pokhara is not just a place where tech businesses survive, but where they genuinely thrive in Nepal.

Challenges Still to Overcome

An honest assessment of Pokhara’s tech hub story requires acknowledging the challenges that remain:

Power reliability: While Nepal’s load-shedding crisis has largely ended, power outages do still occur in Pokhara. Tech companies require reliable power, and most serious operations now invest in backup power systems — an added cost that Kathmandu companies also face but that remains a barrier for smaller Pokhara startups.

Internet reliability: While fiber internet is available in most of Pokhara, reliability during heavy rain or infrastructure issues can be a challenge. Redundant internet connections (two ISPs) have become standard practice for serious tech businesses.

Brain drain to Kathmandu and abroad: Despite improvements, Pokhara still loses some of its best young tech talent to Kathmandu’s larger job market and to foreign countries. Changing this trend requires more high-paying tech jobs in Pokhara — a chicken-and-egg problem that the growing tech ecosystem is slowly solving.

Lack of formal tech community infrastructure: Pokhara lacks the density of tech meetups, startup incubators, and formal networking events that Kathmandu offers. Building this community infrastructure will be important for sustaining the tech hub momentum in Nepal’s second city.

The Future of Pokhara as a Tech Hub

The trajectory for Pokhara’s tech sector is clearly upward. As internet infrastructure improves, as more Nepali companies discover that top-quality digital services can come from Pokhara, and as the global remote work trend continues to unlock economic opportunities for talented Pokhara-based professionals, the momentum will only grow.

Pokhara will not replace Kathmandu as Nepal’s primary tech hub — but that is not the goal. The goal is for Pokhara to develop a thriving, sustainable technology sector that creates high-quality jobs for Pokhara’s graduates, contributes meaningfully to the city’s economy, and puts Nepal’s second city on the global map as a place where serious technology work gets done.

That future is not a distant dream. It is already beginning. And Pokhara’s tech community — the developers, designers, digital marketers, and entrepreneurs building their careers and businesses here — are the ones making it happen, one project at a time.

NepTechPal is proud to be part of this story. We are a Pokhara-based digital company committed to growing alongside our city and helping other Nepal businesses succeed in the digital economy. Learn more about our story and our team.