How Much Does it Cost to Hire a Software Developer?

Software engineers are an integral part of every industry. Due to the digital transformation in every field, the incorporation of developers to every sector is vital. However, it seems that companies find it difficult to incorporate full time development teams as an asset due to the high cost of hiring. 

Quality IT individuals can be worth a little fortune nowadays, due to the shortage of developers worldwide. Also, they are an important asset in every single company, making their cost and value even higher. Therefore, businesses are divided between the need for tech staff and the actual budget and opportunity to hire tech experts. 

As a result, we can see that most companies are grasping a rather “global” approach when it comes to hiring a software development team. This refers to the process of hiring international developers to your team, rather than limiting yourself to local talent. Going global enables you to save money, while not having to compromise with the quality of the developers. It’s all due to the difference in the standard of living in different countries. Thus, US developers are getting $103,620 annually, while Indian developers earn an average of $38,229 per year. Another determinator of the cost to hire a software developer is their field of specialization, their experience, and knowledge on the matter, as well as the scope of the project. Various factors will shape the total cost of a developer. 

Besides, all of these points can come as a real burden to the company. So, sometimes businesses can go on and seek dedicated teams by a software development company. This is a way to cut on the recruiting costs while getting an expert tech team for their project. 

In the end, we can see that there isn’t a single cost to hire developers, because salaries can vary from country to country. Nevertheless, in this article, we’ll go over the key points considering the devs’ salaries that are essential in the hiring process.

How to calculate the developer’s cost
Key tips that affect the cost of hiring

What Type of Software do You Need: Common Platform or Specialized Platform?

The type of software that you want to build will more or less determine the necessary budget that you have to set aside for the project and the developers. Here are some of the most common examples:

• Softwares built with the latest AI technology will be more costly than common platforms. 
• Also, developing a game software is more complex and more expensive than a website. 
• IoT applications require experts in software architecture and just because of the unique set of skills, IoT software programmers are more costly than regular software devs. 
• Enterprise applications are more expensive than mobile applications.

Once you have chosen the right platform for your project, you can go through the following list of costs. Here is the range of expenses for each one.

• The cost of building a simple website can vary from $100 to $500. However, custom-built websites that are rich in features can go as high as $30,000. It mostly depends on the time and effort that the developers have to dedicate, as well as the technologies that will be included. 
• Basic mobile apps cost around $25,000; medium mobile apps will cost you anywhere between $40,000 and $70,000; complex mobile apps cost $70,000 and higher. 
• If you’re looking for developers who will create an IoT application for you, here is the basic cost of developers. North Americans will develop for $50 to $150 per hour, Eastern Europeans earn between $30 to $50 per hour, and Indians will work for $25 to $50 per hour. 
• For game creation, bear in mind that a simple version will be around $500. For more details and complex features, the price will go up.

The Scope of Your Tech Project

When hiring a software developer you can see that a lot depends on their experience, location, and technical knowledge. The cost will be according to the skills of the developers, for example, developers skilled in PHP, WordPress, and HTML will be more easily available, and also the cost will be acceptable. Those who are knowledgeable in Kotlin, C++, or AI technologies will cost you more. Their salary is mostly formed according to the number of programming languages they can work with. Also, backend developers usually earn more than frontend developers. 

It all has to do with the scope of the tech project in your company. For instance, for long term projects, you might consider hiring developers full time. Having in mind the other company benefits, such as days off, paid vacation, insurance, etc., you might get tech experts at a lower cost. However, hiring developers for short term projects without getting any additional benefits that your company would offer to regular employees may be a more expensive alternative. So, once you go over the scope of your tech project, you’ll get an idea about whether it’s freelancers or full time employees that you need.

Hire talented developers from LATAM, Canada, and Europe

Key Takeaways

Finding the right developers for your company isn’t something that will be done by scrolling down on social media networks. For that purpose, many companies are leaning on software development agencies to help them find tech experts. On the other hand, if you’re willing to do the search yourself and find a quality and affordable developer for your team, choose global rather than local and adapt your budget according to the scope of your software project.