Software Developers’ Salary in Portugal – The Cost to Build a Remote Tech Team

Have you ever wondered how much it costs to build a remote tech team in Portugal? If yes, you’re not the only one. Software developers are in high demand, and leading companies are willing to pay quite a lot for Silicon Valley-caliber talent. But in most cases, these sums go beyond the ones mid-sized to enterprise-level companies can afford. Portugal, in turn, offers a reasonable price-quality ratio when it comes to hiring software engineers. 

In this article, we’ll break down average salaries and other costs associated with building a remote tech team in Portugal. We’ll also provide tips on how you can save money while still getting quality talent, so let’s get started. 

IT outsourcing to Portugal – main benefits

Before discovering how much a software engineer earns in Portugal, let’s briefly recap the reasons to choose this country as your IT outsourcing destination. 

Why Hire Remote Software Development Teams in Portugal

• Service-based economy and growing IT segment. In 2022, the software development market size was valued at €914.4 million. This country is also home to more than 4000 software development companies and 2100 startups. 
• The friendliest business environment for startups and their founders. Portugal offers tax incentives that encourage entrepreneurship, as well as a lower cost of living compared to the US. It’s also home to many incubators and accelerators that help entrepreneurs get started with their ideas by providing them with training, mentorship, and funding opportunities.
• The most convenient time zone for both European and US-based projects. Portugal is located in Western Europe in the same time zone as both the US East Coast (New York) and West Coast (San Francisco), so you have no reasons to worry about working out of time zones when your development team is based in Portugal. 
• Cultural proximity to both the US and Europe. Because of the strong cultural fit, people from both US and Portugal will feel comfortable working together on your project—you don’t have to worry about language barriers or cultural differences getting in the way of effective communication!
• Competitive costs to hire software developers. The software developer salary in Portugal is a little higher compared to Eastern European countries, but it is still significantly lower than the cost of hiring programmers in the US and UK. 

Speaking of salaries, below you can find the detailed cost breakdown of Portuguese software developers depending on their seniority, the programming language they specialize in, as well as the comparison with the costs to hire engineers in America. 

The cost to hire software engineers in Portugal by seniority

The practical experience of a software developer is one of the most important factors that directly affects their salaries – a Junior programmer in Portugal earns almost four times less than a Senior engineer. 

• Junior programmer makes $1200 per month
• The average salary of a Mid-level developer is $1700 per month on average. 
• Senior software engineer salary in Portugal is $4100. 

The average cost to hire Portuguese software developers by the programming language

Here’s an average salary of a software developer in Portugal depending on the programming language they are skilled with. 

Portuguese remote developers salaries by specialization

Portuguese developers’ salaries range also differs when it comes to the core specialization of a programmer. For example, DevOps and cybersecurity engineers are the highest-paid tech specialists not only in Portugal but worldwide. 

The cost to hire additional tech-related specialists in Portugal

If your goal is to build a full-fledged development team with diverse and complementary skill sets, you will have to hire other specialists, in addition to software developers. In the table below, you will find the list of specialists who will drive your project growth together with your programmers. Their average salaries in Portugal are specified as well. 

Portugal vs US – what’s the real cost gap?

Portugal, in particular Lisbon, is called the next Silicon Valley located in Europe. Indeed, it has the right to be called so. However, there is a big difference with the original Silicon Valley, and you might have guessed it already – a huge salary gap between Portuguese and American developers. 

So, let’s run the numbers and compare the salaries of the tech team hired for a 6-month project in Portugal vs. America.

As you can see, there is almost a threefold difference between the cost of running a tech project in Portugal compared to the USA. And since the level of expertise won’t be different, why pay significantly more? 

Also, you have one more opportunity to optimize your development costs – and more on this in the next section. 

Hire remote developers in Portugal faster and smarter with Bridge

Hiring software developers in Portugal can become even more cost-effective if you consider partnering with a tech talent sourcing vendor. The matter is that hiring costs usually take a lion’s share of the tech team building budget, and it works in this way for both startups and enterprises. Regardless of your current business development stage, you are welcome to get in touch with Bridge for talent sourcing services and hire a remote tech team in Portugal five times faster and up to 60% cheaper than doing it on your own. For example, when partnering with Obvious.ly, a leading influencer marketing agency, we provided 5-10 viable candidates per week.

Our secret behind cost-effective and fast talent sourcing is simple – we automate 80% of the process with the help of our proprietary data-driven engine. This technology is also responsible for matching the suggested candidates with your job requirements as carefully as possible and finding your hidden gem. With our sourcing-as-a-service, you will get the first candidates in a few days. Proceed with interviewing them immediately or start building a talent pool to always have qualified software developers at hand. 

Start building a remote tech team in Portugal today by sending us a quick note with your project requirements!