How Much Do Web Developers Make? What Can You Expect to Make? : Web Developer Salary
If you want to learn coding and web development to start a career in tech, one of the first questions you have is: How much do web developers make? After all, it’s only natural that you want to make sure you’ll get fair compensation for your efforts while learning to code, right? Remember there are Levels of experience: Entry-level, junior, and senior developers: When you start browsing through web developer jobs, you’ll bump into a whole lot of terminology and experience-level requirements. Broadly speaking, most web programmer jobs are categorized into three groups according to the level of job requirements: Whether you’re doing preliminary research in the field or already working as a web developer, it’s important to look at hard numbers and get realistic salary expectations. You will learn the average web developer's salary and salary ranges for many web development technologies. Software has become an integral part of almost every industry, and there is no going back. Software development is one of the most in-demand, lucrative professions today. But programming is a valuable career for more than just monetary reasons. Soon, every industry is going to be dependent on software.
Even if you don’t want to be a career developer, some programming skills will help you maintain your level of work independence as software keeps taking over the world. There are tons of factors that affect web developer salary levels. You could also ask what’s an entry-level web developer's salary, what is a back-end web developer's salary, etc. Do back-end developers make more money than front-end developers?
If you do decide to pursue a career in web development, building your skill set is key. Whether you are self-taught, get a degree from a university, attend an immersive coding bootcamp like AlienRoom, or buy our video tutorial courses, there are plenty of learning options.
Average Full-Stack Web Developer Salary Once you become confident in your coding skills, it’s easy to start imagining yourself as a successful developer making big bucks, but a lot of how much you can expect to make is tied to which aspects of development you’re trained in and how in-depth that skill set is. Let's dig in.
According to Indeed.com, as of 2020 the average salary for a full-stack developer in the United States is $111,644.
Web Developer Salaries Depend On Experience A full-stack web developer can do it all. They have proficient skills in both front-end and back-end technologies. That means they feel comfortable working with code that affects the user experience, but also with the logic that drives the back end. They’re proficient with languages like JavaScript, C++, Ruby, HTML, and CSS--plus they have the expertise to make beautiful, functional, interactive front-end web applications. If you can master the skills to do what typically requires two employees, you can expect to garner a higher salary than either a strictly front-end or back-end developer.
Average Front-End Developer Salary
When we get into the specifics of a developer’s salary in relation to their particular programming skills, definitions blur and borders become less rigid. In reality, "front-end developer" is a relatively new term, replacing what used to be known as a “web designer.” While front-end work was formerly focused on markup languages, there’s now a significant amount of down-and-dirty programming work to be done, particularly within JavaScript. As a result, front-end developer salaries can now rival those of back-end devs.
As of 2020, the average front-end developer salary according to Indeed is $102,799.
Average Back-End Developer Salary
“back-end developer? is a type of programmer who creates the logical back-end and core computational logic of a website, software, or information system. The developer creates components and features that are indirectly accessed by a user through a front-end application or system.”
Sounds impressive and difficult, no? It’s common in the tech industry for back-end developers to be paid more because the work is more technically driven and therefore seen as more demanding. But the gap is closing--particularly as front-end development becomes more technically rigorous and more technologies are shared between the two roles (JavaScript server-side applications through node.js, for example).
The average back-end developer salary in 2020 is, according to Indeed, $121,071.
Average Salaries for Different Programming Languages
Another factor that influences your developer salary is how in-demand your skills are. At any given time, the software engineering industry will converge on just a handful of key languages. If your specialty is Perl, you may find work, but it’s unlikely you’ll be pulling in the same kind of paycheck as the Python developer next door.
Three very sought-after programming languages are JavaScript, Python, and Ruby. Using a simple search on indeed.com for “(language) developer salary” in New York, we can see that all three have relatively high average salaries, between $125,000 and $130,000 annually. These averages also vary based on how much experience the role requires. (Note: These figures change incrementally as listings are added and removed. We recommend conducting your own search for your specific needs.) The numbers above are for New York City, a large metropolitan area with a high cost of living. To compensate for that inflation, salaries are higher there. But to give you an idea of how earnings vary by location, here are the salary estimates we found after searching “web developers” on Indeed.com across five different metro areas.*
JavaScript Developer: $127,086 New York Salary
Python Developer: $130,071 New York Salary
*Disclaimer: The validity of any stat istics depends on the calculation criteria and search terms used. For example, searching “software developer,” though synonymous with aweb developer, yields different results.
When deciding which programming language to learn, you should also consider the sheer number of job openings per language. If we run that same Indeed.com search, again using New York as an example, here is the number of job openings for each language:
JavaScript Developer: 2,177 New York jobs
Python Developer: 2,146 New York jobs
Ruby Developer: 402 New York jobs
According to these results, learning JavaScript or Python would be your best bet, as they offer both better job prospects and compensation.
How Location Affects Your Salary When researching the average salary of a web developer, you will find quite a wide range. Don’t be confused; this spread has much to do with the web developer’s level of expertise and accumulated knowledge.
San Francisco, CA: $118,000
New York, NY: $109,000
Washington: $94,060
District of Columbia: $87,320
Dallas, TX: $87,000
Omaha, NE: $75,00
Columbus, OH: $70,000
Utah: $69,940
Vermont: $60,790
*Disclaimer: The validity of any statistics depends on the calculation criteria and search terms used. For example, searching “software developer,” though synonymous with a web developer, yields different results.
But salary isn’t the only element of the equation that varies by location. Demand for specific technologies also changes. While languages like JavaScript, Python, and Ruby are in demand everywhere, a language like Java will be more prevalent--and thus offer more prospects--in Silicon Valley and Washington, D.C., since it’s the basis for Android development, and Android is commonly used in government organizations.
Remember, You Can Negotiate
Developer salaries are like any other job: If you have previous industry experience, you’ll bring more value to a prospective employer and be qualified to receive a higher salary. Graduates of AlienRoom University who are straight out of college are more likely to receive an entry-level salary (around $80,000 per year in New York), while those with previous experience could move directly into a six-figure income.
Salary negotiations are intimidating, but because they help determine your short-term and long-term compensation, they can pay off quite handsomely. Before going into negotiations, set your minimum acceptable salary, or your "walk away number." Then, conduct some research to come up with a desired salary range based on your experience level, skill set, location, and any salary info you can find on the company or its competitors. Glassdoor and Pay-scale can be useful resources to reference.
Check out this video for more salary negotiation strategies. Know your worth and don't sell yourself short, and you're likely to come out on top.
What Next?
Thinking about becoming a full-stack developer? You'll need to buckle down, hit the books, and keep building your coding skills. Getting a top-tier tech job is challenging, and you'll need to stay committed.
AlienRoom University video tutorial courses are designed to advance your career to the next level, so you can land roles at IBM, Twitter, Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other prestigious tech companies.
Source: Paper.li
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