Researching Developer Rates Is a Pain
Here are two things we can all agree on:
- Developer rates are the main contributor to app development expenses.
- Developer rates in some countries are a lot lower than others.
This means depending on where you live, offshoring your app development can mean significantly lower costs or “more app” for the same amount of money.
But try researching “offshore developer rates by country” and you’ll run into three problems:
- you keep seeing the same countries
- different rates for the same countries
- sources with barely any countries
Yes, seeing the same locations frequently suggests they’re established offshoring spots.
But there are other offshoring sites, since it’s literally the whole world we’re looking at here.
However, some sources never mention them, and many never go beyond the usual suspects.
Now add in the inconsistent rates between sources, and the truth is obvious.
If you want an accurate grasp of global software developer rates, one source isn’t enough.
You need to combine information from multiple sources, and the more the merrier.
Even with AI, that’s a very time-consuming task, which is why we’ve done it for you 🙂
How We Compiled Our Offshore Rates List
We wanted to conduct something like a peer-review, only with more relaxed standards and zero chance of getting published in The New England Journal of Medicine.
First, we compiled a list of 28 sources on offshore developer rates.
Most of them are from the top 30 results we got from searching for “offshore developer rates by country”.
That’s right, we went beyond the first page of Google so you don’t have to.
We put them all together, then specifically sought out sources on countries still missing.
In the end, some coutnries we just couldn’t find any information on.
Others we tastefully decided to leave out.
By the end, we had a list of software development hourly rates in 75 different countries.
Since many sources repeated the same countries (with different rates, naturally), we used Google Notebook LM to tally all mentions of a country and calculate the average.
And now, our findings, listed in several ways all in descending order.
Click to jump to the list that interests you most:
- Rates across all 75 countries
- Rates by region
- Most frequently mentioned countries
- Top 10 most expensive countries
- Top 10 cheapest countries
Average Developer Hourly Rates in 75 Countries
This is our master list with offshore development rates across the world from highest to lowest irrespective of region.
💎 $90 and above
- United Kingdom: 96.75USD
- Canada: 94.67USD
- Australia: 93.25USD
- Switzerland: 90.00USD
🥈 $80 – $89.99
- United States: 87.88USD
- Japan: 83.25USD
🥉 $70 – $79.99
- Germany: 79.56USD
- Netherlands: 78.83USD
- Slovenia: 75.00USD
- Ireland: 72.25USD
🔹$60 – $69.99
- Finland: 68.39USD
- France: 65.50USD
- Sweden: 64.49USD
- Denmark: 62.75USD
- Slovakia: 62.67USD
- Uruguay: 61.00USD
🔸$50 – $59.99
- Croatia: 53.81USD
- Bulgaria: 51.92USD
- Hungary: 51.55USD
- Poland: 50.28USD
⚪ $40 – $49.99
- Argentina: 49.57USD
- Colombia: 49.46USD
- Czech Republic: 49.03USD
- Ukraine: 48.70USD
- Indonesia: 48.25USD
- Romania: 48.11USD
- South Africa: 47.44USD
- Brazil: 46.71USD
- Malaysia: 45.83USD
- Nigeria: 45.67USD
- Greece: 43.35USD
- Singapore: 42.50USD
- Thailand: 41.84USD
- Iceland: 40.50USD
- Austria: 40.16USD
- Serbia: 39.83USD
- Taiwan: 39.30USD
- Peru: 39.00USD
- Russia: 38.50USD
- Estonia: 37.61USD
- Latvia: 37.61USD
- Ethiopia: 37.25USD
- China: 37.25USD
- Kazakhstan: 37.00USD
- Azerbaijan: 37.00USD
- Georgia: 37.00USD
- Uzbekistan: 37.00USD
- Cambodia: 37.00USD
- Albania: 37.00USD
- North Macedonia: 37.00USD
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: 37.00USD
- South Korea: 36.55USD
⚫ $30 – $39.99
- Uganda: 35.47USD
- Italy: 35.00USD
- Spain: 34.00USD
- Lithuania: 33.83USD
- Bolivia: 33.00USD
- Egypt: 32.25USD
- Kenya: 32.11USD
- Vietnam: 31.75USD
- Sri Lanka: 31.67USD
- Philippines: 31.08USD
- Portugal: 30.95USD
- Pakistan: 30.83USD
🟢 Below $30
- India: 29.37USD
- Morocco: 29.33USD
- Nepal: 28.00USD
- Bangladesh: 26.83USD
- Tunisia: 25.50USD
- Tajikistan: 25.00USD
- Laos: 23.75USD
- Myanmar: 22.60USD
- Moldova: 20.25USD
- Ghana: 19.67USD
- Mongolia: 9.65USD
We wonder what Genghis Khan would think of this list.
Average Developer Hourly Rates by Region
Because we’re respectful folks, here’s a list of developer rates with respect to regions.
🗽North America
- Canada: 94.67 USD
- United States: 87.88 USD
🏴 Western Europe
- United Kingdom: 96.75 USD
- Switzerland: 90.00 USD
- Germany: 79.56 USD
- Netherlands: 78.83 USD
- Ireland: 72.25 USD
- France: 65.50 USD
- Austria: 40.16 USD
- Portugal: 30.95 USD
❄️ Northern Europe
- Finland: 68.39 USD
- Sweden: 64.49 USD
- Denmark: 62.75 USD
- Iceland: 40.50 USD
- Estonia: 37.61 USD
- Latvia: 37.61 USD
- Lithuania: 33.83 USD
🌍 Eastern Europe
- Slovakia: 62.67 USD
- Hungary: 51.55 USD
- Poland: 50.28 USD
- Czech Republic: 49.03 USD
- Ukraine: 48.70 USD
- Romania: 48.11 USD
- Russia: 38.50 USD
- Kazakhstan: 37.00 USD
- Azerbaijan: 37.00 USD
- Georgia: 37.00 USD
- Uzbekistan: 37.00 USD
- Moldova: 20.25 USD
🌊 Southern Europe
- Slovenia: 75.00 USD
- Croatia: 53.81 USD
- Bulgaria: 51.92 USD
- Greece: 43.35 USD
- Serbia: 39.83 USD
- Albania: 37.00 USD
- North Macedonia: 37.00 USD
- Bosnia and Herzegovina: 37.00 USD
- Italy: 35.00 USD
- Spain: 34.00 USD
🏯Asia
- Japan: 83.25 USD
- Singapore: 42.50 USD
- Thailand: 41.84 USD
- Taiwan: 39.30 USD
- South Korea: 36.55 USD
- Malaysia: 45.83 USD
- Indonesia: 48.25 USD
- China: 37.25 USD
- Uganda: 35.47 USD
- Vietnam: 31.75 USD
- Sri Lanka: 31.67 USD
- Philippines: 31.08 USD
- Pakistan: 30.83 USD
- India: 29.37 USD
- Nepal: 28.00 USD
- Bangladesh: 26.83 USD
- Tajikistan: 25.00 USD
- Laos: 23.75 USD
- Myanmar: 22.60 USD
- Mongolia: 9.65 USD
- Cambodia: 37.00 USD
⚽️ South America
- Uruguay: 61.00 USD
- Argentina: 49.57 USD
- Colombia: 49.46 USD
- Brazil: 46.71 USD
- Peru: 39.00 USD
- Bolivia: 33.00 USD
🐪 Africa
- South Africa: 47.44 USD
- Nigeria: 45.67 USD
- Ethiopia: 37.25 USD
- Egypt: 32.25 USD
- Kenya: 32.11 USD
- Morocco: 29.33 USD
- Tunisia: 25.50 USD
- Ghana: 19.67 USD
🦈 Oceania
- Australia: 93.25 USD
Most Frequently Mentioned Countries
We think this is important as in theory, the more sources of a country we average, the more accurate the estimates.
- Poland: 8 mentions
- India: 7 mentions
- Ukraine: 6 mentions
- Hungary: 6 mentions
- Czech Republic: 6 mentions
- Romania: 6 mentions
- Germany: 5 mentions
- Bulgaria: 4 mentions
- France: 3 mentions
- Netherlands: 3 mentions
And like we said before, multiple mentions strongly suggest a country is more established as an offshore development location.
This makes it easier to find remote developers and agencies who know how to deal with the unique challenges of offshore software development.
Top 10 Countries with Highest Rates
- United Kingdom: 96.75USD
- Canada: 94.67USD
- Australia: 93.25USD
- Switzerland: 90.00USD
- United States: 87.88USD
- Japan: 83.25USD
- Germany: 79.56USD
- Netherlands: 78.83USD
- Slovenia: 75.00USD
- Ireland: 72.25USD
Top 10 Countries with Lowest Rates
- Mongolia: 9.65USD
- Ghana: 19.67USD
- Moldova: 20.25USD
- Myanmar: 22.60USD
- Laos: 23.75USD
- Tajikistan: 25.00USD
- Tunisia: 25.50USD
- Bangladesh: 26.83USD
- Nepal: 28.00USD
- Morocco: 29.33USD
Now before you start outsourcing to Mongolia, here are some limitations of our findings to consider.
Limitations of Our Research
Our goal was to let you skip to the end of doing research so you go straight to the findings, and all our sources are from top-ranking results in Google search.
We think this is valuable, but defintiely not without shortcomings.
1. No Accounting for Developer Seniority
Our research does not differentiate between rates for senior, mid-level, and junior developers, which will vary significantly.
This goes beyond the scope of this guide which is to offer a high-level comparison of rates across countries.
And ultimately, a more senior developer will always cost more than a junior developer in any country.
And a senior developer in Mongolia will always charge less per hour than their Australian counterpart.
2. We’re Uncertain Where the Numbers Come from
We don’t actually know the exact origin of the numbers provided by our 28 sources.
The internet is a vast web of self-referencing and sources often cite each other without saying.
3. Many Countries Are Mentioned Just Once
A third limitation is that many countries were only mentioned in a single source.
This reduces the accuracy and reliability of the rate estimates for those countries, as having multiple sources would help ensure the data is more consistent and trustworthy.
However, we think it’s better to have a source than no source at all 🙂
Above all else, we at Upstack Studio think that the biggest limitation is using hourly rates for software development in the first place!
Hourly Rates for Software Development Isn’t Ideal
Quality coding requires flexibility as new issues and requirements get discovered and addressed.
So software development doesn’t work with rigid timelines the way a construction project might.
But that ambiguity is why hourly billing can be risky if you’re the one paying.
Why? An hourly system rewards the service provider for taking longer.
In the worst-case scenario, it opens the door to you getting misled or lied to.
And even in the best case, it’s still misaligned.
Believe it or not, your app idea probably isn’t that unique.
If you’re building a “Netflix, but for insert here”, most experienced developers have built something like it before.
And if we’ve built it before, we’ll know the basic requriements and how long those take to build.
It’s just the customizations on top of that boilerplate that we need to figure out.
Which means we should be okay with project-based packages that give clients certainty on:
- Budget
- Development process
- Time to market
And you might wonder, well what if the developer doesn’t have experience building my type of software?
To that we say, with a world of developers to choose from, why the heck would you hire one without experience?
How to Hire the Right Offshore Developers
We’d like to address two stereotypes here:
- Devs from North America and parts of Europe equals high costs but high quality.
- Devs from everywhere else equals low costs but low quality.
The idea is if you’re based in North America, hire locally for quality or overseas for cost-savings, but never both.
We think this is absolute nonsense.
There are competent and incompetent developers in every country.
Offshoring software development lets you buy the same level of competence for less on the other side of the world.
But once you compromise on that competency for cost-savings, you’re not outsourcing.
So even if you don’t mind an hourly rate system, make sure you vet developers thoroughly by:
- Reviewing their portfolios and customer feedback
- Requesting a free strategy session or roadmapping workshop
- Ensuring at least 1-hour daily overlap for real-time communication
- Using tools to coordinate meetings, manage projects, and share mockups
- Making sure you and they share a common language
We cover all this and more in our guide to managing offshore development teams.
But in summary, the idea is that you don’t want to mange them, you want them to manage themselves.
Happy offshoring!
Our sources
Here’s some link juice for your help!
- https://qubit-labs.com/average-hourly-rates-offshore-development-services-software-development-costs-guide/#Offshore_Software_Development_Rates_by_Country
- https://www.toptal.com/external-blogs/youteam/offshore-developers-rates-in-2020-best-countries-and-best-platforms-to-hire-a-remote-development-team
- https://www.orientsoftware.com/blog/offshore-software-development-rates/
- https://geniusee.com/single-blog/cost-of-outsourcing-software-development#it_outsourcing_market_rates
- https://acropolium.com/blog/offshore-software-development-rates-2022/
- https://neontri.com/blog/offshore-developer-rates/
- https://ncube.com/your-guide-to-offshore-software-development-rates-by-country
- https://devtechnosys.com/insights/cost-to-hire-developers-in-ghana
- https://www.inapps.net/hourly-rate-for-app-developer
- https://ncube.com/the-cost-of-it-services-in-europe
- https://www.twine.net/find/app-developers/ug
- https://web3.career/web3-salaries/uganda
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/kr/mobile-developer#salary-section
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/tw/software-developer
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/mm/software-developer
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/la/software-developer
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/mn/mobile-developer
- https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/software-developer/spain
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/pt/software-developer
- https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/software-developer/portugal
- https://inoxoft.com/blog/complete-comparison-of-software-development-hourly-rate-usa-vs-europe/
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/no/software-developer
- https://ncube.com/the-cost-of-it-services-in-europe
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/gr/software-developer
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/at/mobile-developer
- https://www.salaryexpert.com/salary/job/software-developer/austria
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/lt/software-developer
- https://jobicy.com/salaries/md/software-developer
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