33 Honest Software Developer Salaries

The apps that book your flights, stream your shows, and unlock your front door didn’t appear by magic; someone wrote the code. That “someone” is the software developer, equal parts code writer, puzzle-solver, and bug fixer. 

With demand for this position growing, salary transparency matters. Pay can jump or slump based on experience, tech stack, location, company type, and even a well‑timed certification. 

To help you ensure you're earning a fair salary, we'll break down what developers do, share real‑world pay numbers, and show the steps you can take to push your salary higher. First, let's talk about what a software developer is (and what they aren't!) 

What is a Software Developer?

A software developer is a professional who designs, codes, tests, and maintains the applications and systems that power our digital lives. Everything from mobile games to payroll platforms started in the mind of a software developer. 

On any given day, a developer might sketch a new feature in whiteboard scribbles, translate it into clean, efficient code, and then write automated tests to keep tomorrow’s releases from breaking today’s successes.

Beyond the keyboard, developers work hand‑in‑hand with product managers, UX designers, QA testers, and system administrators to turn business goals into working software. It's a long process that requires coding skills and the ability to communicate and collaborate. 

Titles for this role can vary by scope and specialization—junior developers handle bug fixes and small updates, software engineers design and build more significant components, front‑end and back‑end developers focus on user interfaces or server logic, and full‑stack developers bridge both worlds. Regardless of the label, the mission stays the same: ship reliable, maintainable code that solves real problems.

33 Honest Salaries for Software Developers

ZipRecruiter’s nationwide snapshot puts the average software developer's salary at about  $112,000 a year. But that single figure hides huge regional and experience-related swings. 

To make the picture clearer, we pulled fresh ZipRecruiter listings (May 2025) for 33 diverse U.S. areas—then sanity‑checked those numbers against recent job ads and local‑market reports to smooth out obvious outliers. We’ve grouped each city into three buckets:

• Low‑End (10th-25th percentile): Junior roles, smaller firms, or legacy stacks. 

• Average (50th percentile): The midpoint ZipRecruiter reports for “Software Developer.”

• High‑End ( 75th- 90th percentile): Senior engineers, in‑demand stacks, or FAANG/MAMAA offers. 

Here's what you can expect to make as a software developer in 33 cities across the United States: 

There are several trends worth noting in this table: 

Tech Hubs Still Lead: San Jose and San Francisco are the only markets where the midpoint clears $150k—but Seattle, Portland, Denver, and San Diego aren’t far behind. Coastal (or near‑coastal) demand plus higher living costs keep those bands elevated.

Heartland Salaries Have Closed the Gap: Minneapolis and Salt Lake City both post midpoints north of $140k, beating several East Coast metros. A remote‑friendly hiring boom and lower churn have pushed local employers to pay up.

Smaller Cities Aren’t Lightweights: Boise, Tallahassee, and Duluth may sit around the $105k mark, but high‑end offers (remote roles or niche stacks) still creep close to $130k-plus salaries, well above their local medians.

Range Width Signals Opportunity: Detroit, Kansas City, and Mobile show narrower spreads ($25K to 30k), suggesting fewer high-level senior roles. In contrast, Seattle’s $75k gap means big jumps are possible as you climb the ladder.

National vs. Local Reality: The U.S. average of $112k is closer to Chicago or Philadelphia pay than the Bay Area. Always benchmark against your target city (or your company’s geo‑pay band) before negotiating.

These figures give you a defensible baseline so you can tackle that next salary conversation armed with fresh, city‑specific data instead of guesswork. But there are other factors at play. 

Salary Considerations for Software Developers

Before you start polishing that resume, remember: the dollar figure on an offer letter isn’t decided by a single variable. It’s a blend of what you code, where you live, who you work for, and how you prove your chops. The following factors carry the most weight at the negotiation table.

Programming Language

Some languages simply pay better than others. Go, Rust, and Kotlin are at the premium end of the pay band because few developers know them well, and the companies that use them tend to chase performance at scale. 

JavaScript, Python, and Java still pay respectably, but their larger talent pools keep averages a bit lower. Meanwhile, legacy favorites like PHP or classic Ruby often top out sooner unless you’re the resident wizard who keeps a legacy system humming along.

Specialization

Your domain can swing compensation as much as your syntax. Web CRUD apps pay the bills, but AI/ML engineers, low‑latency systems programmers, and blockchain devs routinely land in higher brackets. The narrower—and harder—the niche, the fatter the paycheck.

Tech Stack and Tooling

Knowing how to code is baseline; knowing how to deploy, monitor, and scale in the cloud is a differentiator. Developers fluent in Docker, Kubernetes, and infrastructure‑as‑code tools (Terraform, Pulumi) tend to earn more because they shorten the path from “it works on my laptop” to production.

Company Size and Product Type

Startups often trade a modest base for high‑risk, high‑reward equity. Enterprise giants flip that equation with strong base salaries, bonuses, and predictable salary increases. Product‑led firms (think SaaS) usually outpay pure consulting shops, and heavily regulated industries—finance, healthcare, defense—add premiums for domain knowledge and security clearances. So, who you work for can make a massive difference in your paycheck. 

Certifications

Certifications aren't the end-all, be-all in salary negotiations. But certifications do help you negotiate into the top half of a salary band. This is especially true for cloud‑provider badges (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform) and Kubernetes credentials that signal real deployment experience.

Remote vs. On‑Site

Remote work hasn’t flattened salaries as much as experts predicted. Companies with U.S. headquarters frequently connect pay to big‑city bands even when you’re coding from Duluth. If you’re in a high‑demand niche and willing to overlap U.S. hours, you can still command coastal compensation without the coastal rent.

How Experience Impacts Salary

Tech stack and zip code matter, but nothing nudges your paycheck like time in the trenches. As you move from fixing typos to designing whole systems, your salary will go up. What increases can you expect? Here's how it typically plays out: 

Entry‑Level (0 – 2 Years)

Typical range: $60K–$85K

Fresh hires spend most days tackling bug tickets, writing unit tests, and adding minor features under senior guidance. Success here means learning the codebase fast, asking good questions, and shipping clean pull requests. 

Mid‑Level (3 – 5 Years)

Typical range: $85K–$120K

Now you own modules instead of single files. You review junior code, sketch design docs, and work directly with product or UX to scope new features. Demonstrating reliable delivery and mentoring skills is what bumps you toward the top of this band.

Senior‑Level (6 Years and Up)

Typical range: $120K– $160K +

Senior developers make architecture calls, lead cross‑team projects, and keep an eye on performance, security, and long‑term maintainability. Add influencing skills (think roadmap discussions and executive demos) and your compensation can push well past the $160K mark, especially in high‑demand domains or top‑tier firms.

Must-Know Tools for Software Developers

Hiring managers don’t just want to see that you can code—they want proof you can deliver working software in today’s cloud‑first, fast‑release world. The stacks below show up in technical screens again and again.

Languages

Choose one primary coding language to master and keep a backup or two in your toolkit:

• Python: Versatile from scripting and data pipelines to backend APIs.

• JavaScript/TypeScript: Runs the modern web on the front end and powers Node on the server. 

• Java: Enterprise staple and the backbone of countless Android apps.

• C#: Core language for .NET services and cross‑platform game development with Unity.

• Go: Cloud‑native favorite for microservices that need speed and low memory overhead.

• Rust: Systems‑level performance with memory safety—great for performance‑critical tooling.

Frameworks

Frameworks accelerate development by handling boilerplate, routing, and security for you. Here are the top frameworks you'll want to be familiar with: 

• React: De facto standard for building interactive, component‑based UIs.

• Node.js/Express: Lightweight, event‑driven backend stack that keeps everything in JavaScript.

• Django/Flask: Python frameworks that make spinning up full‑stack or micro APIs fast.

• Spring Boot: Opinionated Java framework that brings production‑ready defaults out of the box.

• ASP.NET Core: Modern .NET framework for high‑performance, cross‑platform web apps.

DevOps and Cloud Tools

Knowing how to ship and scale code is as valuable as writing it. To do that, you'll need to be familiar with: 

• Git: Industry‑standard version control; every team expects fluency.

• Docker: A container platform that makes “works on my machine” a relic.

• Kubernetes: Orchestrates containers at scale for resilient, cloud‑native deployments.

• CI/CD (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, GitLab CI): Automates testing and deployment pipelines.

• AWS/Azure/GCP: Master at least one major cloud’s compute, storage, and monitoring basics.

Databases

Data persistence underpins nearly every application, so make sure you pick the right engine for the workload. Common ones include: 

• PostgreSQL: Feature‑rich, open‑source relational database that handles complex queries with ease.

• MySQL: Ubiquitous RDBMS, especially in legacy LAMP stacks and smaller web apps.

• MongoDB: Document‑oriented NoSQL store for flexible, JSON‑like data models.

• Redis: In‑memory key‑value store used for caching, real‑time analytics, and message brokering.

Lock down one language–framework pair, add solid DevOps chops, and understand when to reach for SQL versus NoSQL. That well‑rounded tool belt will keep you relevant and valuable across most software development roles.

Must-Have Certifications for Software Developers

Certifications won’t replace a strong portfolio, but they do two things recruiters love: they validate specific, job‑ready skills and show you can stick with a structured learning path. Most certification companies refresh their exams often, so a current badge signals you’re keeping pace with the tech stack, not coasting on five‑year‑old knowledge.

AWS Certified Developer – Associate

The DVA‑C02 exam tests how to design, deploy, and debug AWS‑based applications—think Lambda, DynamoDB, SQS, SNS, and step-function orchestration. You’ll answer scenario questions on IAM, monitoring, and CI/CD in CodePipeline and CodeBuild.

Microsoft Certified: Azure Developer Associate

Focused on Azure App Service, Functions, Event Grid, and Azure DevOps, the AZ‑204 exam measures your ability to build, test, and maintain cloud apps end‑to‑end. Expect questions on ARM templates, container registries, and monitoring with Application Insights. 

Want to earn this cert? Start with CBT Nuggets' Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals training. 

Google Associate Cloud Engineer

Unlike AWS and Azure’s “developer” tracks, ACE is a broad, hands‑on operations cert. You’ll spin up compute instances, manage IAM, configure VPCs, and deploy containerized workloads in GKE. This is great for full-stack developers who also wear the infra hat.

Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)

Issued by the CNCF, CKAD is entirely performance‑based: 19 tasks in a live command‑line environment. You’ll define Deployments, manage ConfigMaps and Secrets, handle networking policies, and troubleshoot failed Pods—skills every cloud‑native dev needs.

Oracle Certified Professional Java Programmer (OCPJP)

OCPJP dives deep into Java SE, including modules, generics, concurrency, and the Stream API. Passing proves you understand the language beyond frameworks, which still carries weight in enterprises running hefty Java Virtual Machine stacks. 

Earning even one of these badges can nudge you into the upper half of a salary band, especially when paired with hands-on projects that show you’re more than test‑prep savvy.

How to Increase Your Salary as a Software Developer

Raw talent, location, and industry will only get you so far. Even the proper certifications will only get your foot in the door. Strategic moves are what lift you from the middle of the pay band to the top. Here are the most reliable steps to help you add zeros to the end of your salary: 

• Master In‑Demand Languages and Frameworks: Go, Rust, Kotlin, and React + TypeScript remain hard to staff; proven expertise can justify premium offers, especially in projects where hiring managers can’t afford a long ramp‑up.

• Move Into High‑Value Specialties: Cloud‑native development, cybersecurity engineering, and machine‑learning command bigger budgets than traditional web apps. A short pivot—say, from REST APIs to event‑driven microservices—can lead to double‑digit percentage gains.

• Show Your Work on GitHub or Open‑Source Projects: Recruiters often skim public repos before they read resumes. Contributions to popular projects or a polished personal app demonstrate code quality, collaboration habits, and highlight overall skills. 

• Earn Cloud and DevOps Certifications: A current AWS, Azure, GCP, or Kubernetes badge verifies you can deploy and scale code in production—skills that save companies real money. Certifications also help remote candidates stand out when interview slots are scarce.

• Pursue Senior or Lead Paths—or Shift to Solutions Architecture: Moving from “gets tasks done” to “sets technical direction” dramatically widens salary bands. If people management isn’t your goal, solutions architects and principal engineers often out earn managers by owning design decisions without the HR overhead.

Pick at least two of these strategies and invest consistently; within a review cycle or two, you’ll see tangible results in your salary. 

Conclusion

Software development remains one of the most rewarding and competitive careers in tech. Paychecks rise the fastest when you combine advanced skills and business impact, but geography, company size, and certifications can all push the numbers up or down. 

Use the city‑by‑city data we shared to benchmark your market, then lean on the strategies that matter most: deepen an in‑demand stack, earn a cloud badge, showcase real projects, and aim for roles that influence architecture, not just code.

Need a structured path to get there? CBT Nuggets’ hands-on software developer courses and labs help you get there.