Average Software Developer Salary Worldwide: Manager’s Guide

Even if a business owner is quite tech-savvy, building, scaling, and maintaining a product alone is exhausting. So sooner or later, you will need to think about hiring software developers for your team. That’s why in this article, we will take a closer look at the worldwide average software developer salary to help you build a strong tech department. 

Factors influencing average software developer salary

When it comes to software development salaries, the salary gap changes depending on multiple factors. On the one hand, a Silicon Valley-based Senior developer can charge you up to $13,800 per month. On the other hand, you can find a Junior developer from Mexico and pay them $2000 as a monthly salary and that would suffice. 

To better understand the specifics of the global tech labor market, let’s look at the factors that determine the value of a tech team. 

Specialization

Software engineering is a broad field that covers many technologies with which you can create different types of products. Naturally, a software developer’s median salary will depend on their skills and core specialization. Here’s an example of how the cost of hiring a developer changes depending on the skill set and the core task an engineer deals with. 

As you can see, the skill set is one of the chief factors that determine the value of a professional in the tech market. To get a precise estimate of a software engineer’s salary, a business owner needs to have a clear understanding of the skills needed to create a product from scratch. 

Experience

Experience is another factor determining the worth of a software developer. Here are the estimates for senior, middle, and entry-level developer salaries (data provided by Glassdoor). 

Location

The salaries of software developers with equal levels of tech knowledge can vary depending on the company’s location. Western markets (the US, UK, Canada, EU) offer significantly higher salaries compared to the companies located in Eastern Europe and the Far East.

Which Country Has The Best Developers in 2022

To get a brief understanding of how the cost of a tech team varies depending on the location, here is a detailed breakdown of developer salaries around the world.

Engagement model

Last but not least, a software developer’s salary depends on the engagement model the company follows when hiring a tech team. There are four tactics to choose from, and each of them promises different pros, cons, and costs.

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• Hire freelance developers. Hiring freelance developers is the simplest tactic at a glance. After signing up on Upwork or TopTal, you can get instant access to the global pool of technical talent, find developers with the necessary skills and experience level, plus match it with your expected budget. However, keep in mind that building a freelance tech team requires strong team management, which can be particularly challenging for first-time startup initiators. 

• In-house development teams. Gathering an in-house development team is the next obvious tactic – and the most expensive one, too. In this case, you will have to pay developers’ salaries taking your local labor market average into account, which is pretty high in the US and some Western European countries. Nevertheless, controlling and managing an in-house team is easier compared to a remote one. Face-to-face communication is also likely to be more effective than Zoom meetings. So, this option is suitable for companies with relatively large budgets and long-running projects. 

• Outsourced development teams. Hiring a dedicated development team following a software outsourcing business model is also worth mentioning. The main benefit of this approach is that you can hire either a ready-made team or ask your development vendor to gather it from scratch according to your requirements. Team management, payroll, and compliance are also your vendor’s responsibility. 
• Remote development teams assembled from scratch. Gathering and hiring a remote team on your own is the smartest and most cost-effective tactic. In this way, you will be able to find software developers with specific expertise around the globe without going beyond the budget. But to tell the truth, finding your hidden gems in a global talent market can be difficult, challenging, and time-consuming. At this stage, Bridge would be happy to help you hire software developers across three continents and find the finest-tuned candidates, depending on their location, skills, and salary expectations. 

Average software developer salary in the US

If you are based in the US, hiring developers locally to work on your project is the most intuitive option. On the one hand, you will not have to spend time researching the labor laws of different countries. There will be no tax-related issues, and keeping your team within a single timezone will make collaboration significantly easier. 

On the other hand, hiring software development talent in the US can be costly. According to statistics, there are over 1.4 million software development jobs, and only about 400,000 professionals are capable of taking them on. As an outcome, software developers become highly selective when choosing their next project. They demand higher average pay for their services and don’t work on one project for longer than 1-3 years. 

Let’s take a look at the numbers – here’s the breakdown of the average developer salaries in states with the highest number of tech job openings. 

Average software developer salary in Western Europe

Western European software developers are known for in-depth tech education and English proficiency. Most of the Western European destinations are pretty promising for hiring software developers due to a number of reasons. 

For example, Germany has the largest and most stable economy in the European Union, plus a tech talent pool represented by 900,000 IT professionals. France is also becoming attractive for tech startup founders. French software development market revenue is projected to reach an annual growth rate (CAGR 2023-2027) of 4.26%, resulting in a market volume of $23,14 billion by 2027.

So, if you choose Western Europe as a talent pool for your next project, how much will you have to pay for gathering a team? Here’s the breakdown of salaries in top European software development outsourcing destinations. 

Average software developer salary in Eastern Europe

In the last 5-7 years, Eastern Europe emerged as a powerful software development hub. Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Romania, and the Czech Republic are the most promising locations in this region. 

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While each of the countries has its specifics, they are united by several advantageous factors that make them promising for starting up and running a software project. Eastern Europe has one of the largest and most thriving technical talent pools in the world. Only China and India exceed it in terms of quantity while the quality of the development is exceptionally high there. 

Eastern European countries have an attractive investment climate and business environment. They can also boast of a globally recognized level of technical education – 15 European universities are listed in the Top 100 Best Universities List. Most software developers here are fluent in English (and some of them in English and German), while the cost to hire them remains competitive in 2023. Now, let’s take a look at the salaries of Eastern European software engineers: 

Average software developer salary in Latin America

Latin America is another attractive market for creating a tech team. The region’s proximity to the US means that the business owner and the development team will share the same time zone, while the absence of a language barrier and cultural match will facilitate communication and collaboration.

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What’s more, the LATAM tech market can boast of a large talent pool – just take a quick look at the numbers provided by Statista. 

• Brazil – 500,000 developers
• Mexico –  225,000  developers
• Argentina – 115,000 developers
• Colombia – 62,000 developers
• Chile – 61,000 developers

The IT market in Latin America is projected to reach $3.68 billion from 2020 to 2025. It is also the global fastest-growing region for venture funding, according to Crunchbase. The long-lasting presence of large multinational tech companies (Oracle, IBM, HP) is another solid reason to pay attention to LATAM. Lastly,  the workforce there is more affordable compared to other regions, as well.

Here’s an overview of Latin American software developer salaries. 

So, Latin American countries are full of potential when it comes to hiring a tech team, especially if your company is based in the US. In addition to a convenient time zone overlap and no communication barriers, the cost to hire software developers in LATAM are pretty competitive. We recommend paying special attention to Mexico. According to our tech talent sourcers, Mexico is full of programmers skilled with both popular technologies like Java and JavaScript, and more specific ones, like C# and .NET. 

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Software technologies with the highest average software developer salary

As mentioned above, the software developer’s salary directly depends on the area of expertise. To clearly show the interconnection of the developer’s core skill and their salaries, StackOverflow surveyed over 85,000 tech specialists and discovered that Scala, Go and Erlang are the highest-paying programming languages. Let’s find out more about these technologies and take a quick look at the figures those skilled with the hardest-to-learn languages earn. 

Scala

Scala is one of the hardest-to-learn programming languages out there, used for machine learning development and big data programming. Since there aren’t too many Scala developers around, those who are skilled in the technology are highly picky about the offers. As a result, companies need to go the extra mile to hire a skilled Scala software engineer. 

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Other than that, it’s worth mentioning that Scala is not the language SMEs owners typically use. It’s mostly found in the stack of large-scale products, the owners of which are capable of spending more on tech teams. 

Here are some projects powered by Scala:

• Netflix relies on Scala for multiple platform components – recommendation engine, search algorithms, and RESTful APIs. 
• Tumblr added Scala to its tech stack to ensure scalability and lay the groundwork for Colossus – the company’s proprietary framework. 
• LinkedIn Data Platform uses Scala for faster data processing and internal tools development.
• Twitter uses Scala to support large-scale caching. The development team repeatedly praised the platform for its flexibility and speed. 
• Airbnb used Scala to improve the platform’s performance time, facilitate scaling, and improve fault tolerance. 
• Uber uses Scala to power their Big Data platform, Michelangelo. 

Average Scala developer salary in the US: 

Go

Similarly to Scala, Golang, or simply Go, is another language tech companies use to support their products. Apple, Google, Dropbox, IBM, and Twitter are only a fraction of top-notch corporations relying on this technology. 

Having to compete for talent with large-scale companies, business owners go out of their way to lure skilled Golang developers even if that means paying a dime. Go is easier to learn than Scala – however, there aren’t that many developers who know how to use the language well. That’s why Go software engineer salaries are at a stable high level. As a result, experienced developers have plenty of job offers and get to choose the most lucrative one.

Average Go developer salary in the US: 

Erlang

Erlang is a programming language used by WeChat and Whatsapp, two of the most popular messaging apps in the world. It was developed in the early 1980s by Ericsson. The first version was released in 1986, and since then, it has been used by many companies that need high-speed and reliable systems.

Erlang is a functional programming language, which means it emphasizes the building of abstractions rather than the modification of concrete data structures. Erlang is also one of the few languages that are suitable for building distributed applications and systems. It has a small but mature community. Still, a relatively small number of specialists compared to other languages is the reason why hiring Erlang developers can be very challenging.

According to a StackOverflow survey, Erlang leads the top of the highest-paid programming languages.

Average Erlang developer salary in the US:

Tips to hire and retain top-skilled software developers

The American software development market is highly cutthroat. According to statistics, by 2030, the lack of people capable of fitting the needs of a digitalized economy will cost businesses up to $8.5 trillion. 

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If you are a US or EU-based business owner, you’ve likely experienced the aftermath of talent shortage firsthand. If time-consuming hiring campaigns, picky candidates, and high software developer salary expectations halt your progress in product development, follow these tips to fill in software developer job openings faster. 

Leverage untapped talent pools globally

According to Statista, there are 27,7 million software developers globally. So if you struggle to find talent at home, maybe, it’s time to look for skilled software developers abroad? Hiring international software developers is one of the most efficient ways to fight talent shortage – take a look at the number of available tech countries in some promising tech hubs. 

Use referral hiring programs

If you want to find a highly skilled professional quickly without having to make a skyrocketing salary offer, a recommendation program within your team is a powerful way to deal with a talent shortage. According to statistics, 50% of referrals will stay at their job for more than three years, so this practice is worth implementing to get qualified employees with a high probability of a decent retention rate. 

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Here are some additional recommendations that’ll help you start a successful referral program within the team:

• Encourage teammates to refer to professionals both within and outside their skill set. 
• Create and explain the reward system in detail – this will motivate your peers to invite more referrals. 
• Set referral program KPIs and let your team know about them.

Offer a flexible schedule

If there’s a force powerful enough to cover for the lack of a lucrative offer, it’s hands-down flexible schedule. According to statistics, being in charge of their working hours is so important to employees that 21% are willing to reduce their paycheck or postpone a promotion. 

If you have a limited hiring budget, consider compensating for a top-tier salary with a nonlinear schedule. Allowing people to work when they feel comfortable (some prefer early hours, others would put in more work at night) will help you appeal to more candidates. 

Offer interesting and uncommon tasks

Last but not least, startup owners, who can’t lure candidates in with shiny offices and a pack of benefits should consider a different talent acquisition strategy, focusing on giving new hires freedom, interesting tasks, and room for learning. In addition to salary and benefits, these are just the things that software developers pay great attention to when choosing a new project.

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By creating a growth-driven environment, business owners both improve the team’s efficiency and get the right to compete with higher-paying employers. 

Here are examples of non-standard tasks for software developers:

• Implementing new algorithms and simulations. 
• Brainstorming product features and new ways to redesign a low-performing product.
• Working on creative products (for instance, game development). 

Switch to data-driven tech talent sourcing

Given the tech talent shortage, building a team of developers from scratch is not easy. To make sure your offer appeals to skilled software engineers, it’s crucial to keep tabs on software developer salary trends. But the fact is that the wage-setting power is in the hands of both top software developers and leading companies that can afford to hire premium development talent at a higher cost. For smaller companies and startups, meeting software developers’ salary expectations becomes more difficult, especially with the recession and the Great Resignation we are facing today.

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That’s why now is the right time to switch to smarter tech talent acquisition practices. At Bridge, we have a ready-made solution to help you hire top-tier software developers across multiple locations and at a reasonable cost. And our clients can prove that. We’ve helped Jasper.ai, an AI content platform, grow its team by sourcing 20 qualified candidates in just one month.

Our data-driven talent sourcing engine was built to find hidden tech gems in a global talent pool, using the power of data analytics and automation. It also comes with multiple filters in-built, allowing us to suggest the most suitable candidates depending on their location, skills, experience, and salary expectations. 

Hire the finest-tuned developers five times faster and 60% cheaper with our sourcing-as-a-service. Contact us now to get started!