How Much Do Freelance Developers Cost Around the World?

The IT sector is ever-growing today. The number of programmers is not going to decrease in 2025. According to the Development Nation survey, the developer population worldwide should reach 45 million specialists in 2023. To compare, figures for 2021-2022 were 13 million and 24 million of devs around the world.

It is not surprising that the experience pool is increasing as well. More than 40% of present-day developers have practiced coding for more than 6 years, while other devs have less than 5 years of experience. Only 18% of today’s global development stack work in this direction for only several months — less than a year. 

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You can find a skillful software developer almost in any country, in any corner of the world. But the question is still open – is it reasonable to have in-house development team or hire freelancers for tech tasks. There are various pros and cons of both approaches. But the sharpest different is still a developer cost.

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Freelance vs In-House Development: Let’s Compare

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Starting with your in-house dev team, you should prepare monthly salaries for a relevant compensation strategy. Your projects can require from $10,000 up to $500,000 to cover all the expenses, including recruitment costs, onboarding, and all the payments. The final budget directly depends on the programmers’ experience level, the types of digital solutions you need, terms, etc.

Check the average statistics with planned expenditures for hiring a competent in-house developer/tech team:

• Employment expenditures - $200-$250 hourly recruiter’s rate.
• A developer’s salary per hour is from $80 to $230.
• Indirect expenses: office furniture, rent space, electricity, Internet, water, heating, coffee, snacks, etc. – up to $600 monthly.
• Administrative costs - $200-250 per month.
• Insurance – up to $250/month.

To sum up, you may spend up to $15,000 for indirect development expenses to arrange your office space properly. Additionally, for in-house 4-6 developers, you need funds for monthly salaries of up to $20,000 - $500,000. These budgets are impossible for startuppers and middle-size companies. That is why let’s explore the average freelance developer cost as an alternative to in-house tech teams. 

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How Much Do Freelance Developers Cost Compared to In-House Teams?

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The average price of hiring a freelance developer is about $60 per hour. However, these costs can vary depending on your candidate’s geographical position, experience level, and other details. It is better to check statistics on devs from different countries and coding languages IT experts use to complete your tasks. Decide on the best freelance web developer, designer, or other specialists with the Wild.Codes insights.

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Meet Your Employment Budget: Review of Freelance Developers’ Rates in 2024-2025

Hackerrank posted a report on the most widespread languages today’s developers juggle to complete clients’ tasks. Java, Python, C++, JavaScript, and  C# coders are still in favor. It will be attractive to investigate their rates for 2024 and 2025.

It is worth noting that the primary demand most businesses have for IT experts is still tech-driven problem-solving. But among hot-topic requirements are also AI-based solutions, REST API strategizing, and REACT programming. It goes without saying that most freelancers upgrade their skills according to the latest trends to win the competition on the job websites.

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Freelance Costs by Geography

It is worth noting that these rates are average - some countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe can demonstrate higher costs compared to other locations nearby. That is why we will review freelance rates developers have in different countries.

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The Most Expensive Freelance Devs by Countries

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The Most Budget-Friendly Freelance Developers by Countries

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You might be surprised, but there is a list of the most expensive tech cities. Freelance developers have the highest hourly rates there. For example, programmers from Munich can ask you about $89-92 to pay for an hour. At the same time, IT specialists who live in Palo Alto and Brooklyn have hourly rates of $85-87. Among other cities with high-cost freelance development services are:

• Phoenix;
• Mountain View;
• Austin;
• Portland;
• Philadelphia;
• Seattle.

The cheapest development services you can find in Lahore, Cairo, Dhaka, and San Salvador (from $29 up to $36 per/hour).

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Freelance Devs’ Costs by Tech Stack

The highest average hourly rates are observed among Amazon, AWS, and Ruby programmers (from $71 to $74). The adopters of other languages like HTML/CSS, JavaScript, PHP get from $59 to $68 hourly.

Additionally, rates were divided according to years of experience for these or those coders. This way, the ARC.Dev report consists of information about the most expensive freelance developers depending on their proficiency.

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To sum up, the most experienced and well-paid tech specialists use WordPress, C#, and MySQL to handle tasks. They have worked in the direction of these programming approaches for more than 10 years. It goes without saying that their hourly rates will be twice as high as those of inexperienced freelancers with the same skill sets.

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How Much Will You Spend While Hiring Freelance Devs?

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If you are for modern hiring strategies, you will save funds on recruitment. Remote working format will cut your spending on arrangements in the context of office space, coffee, snacks, and other indirect costs.

Wild.Codes offers the best way of attracting talented tech specialists for your project. The employment process is more than just cost-effective for your company. You will not spend thousands of dollars on recruiters and days/weeks of waiting for the best-matching developer.

Just tell about your needs, fill in an online form, and get AI-vetted and expert-verified profiles of the favorable candidates. Your task is just to have an interview with a dev of your interest. Congrats — you found the perfect match that meets your tech stack expectations, budget, and all other requirements! Wild.Codes guarantees access to fantastic talent pools worldwide and fast-hiring technicians who will easily integrate into your company’s culture!