Back-end web developer pay in the US centers near $110k–$135k base, with higher total pay in big hubs and senior roles.
Pay for server-side engineers varies with experience, tech stack, and location. This guide lays out real ranges, what shapes offers, and how to read benefits and equity.
Back-End Web Developer Pay: What You Can Expect
Across US data sources, base pay for server-side roles commonly lands in the low-six-figure range. The US government’s latest software developer figures place the median near the mid-$130k mark across titles, while crowdsourced salary trackers show lower medians for general back-end roles and higher medians at large tech firms. Total compensation climbs with bonuses and stock.
Snapshot Salary Ranges By Career Stage
The table below blends public datasets and recent market posts into a simple view. Use it as a compass, not a contract.
| Career Stage | Typical Base (US) | Typical Total |
|---|---|---|
| Entry (0–2 yrs) | $80k–$110k | $85k–$120k |
| Mid (3–5 yrs) | $105k–$140k | $115k–$165k |
| Senior (6–9 yrs) | $130k–$170k | $150k–$210k |
| Staff+ (10+ yrs) | $160k–$210k | $200k–$300k+ |
Why the spread? Two engineers with the same title can see different offers due to market level, company stage, and equity mix. A venture-backed platform may post a leaner base with outsized stock upside, while a mature SaaS group may ship higher base pay and yearly cash bonuses with smaller grants.
How National Data Maps To Back-End Work
Government wage tables report a single bucket for software developers, which includes back-end, front-end, and full-stack. That median gives a ceiling for broad expectations. Crowd sources split by role and show a lower midpoint for generic back-end job titles and a higher midpoint for back-end engineers at big tech. Read both and triangulate.
What Drives A Back-End Offer
Hiring teams weigh impact, not just years served. The strongest signals come from shipped systems, throughput gains, reliability wins, and clean incident records. The items below tend to push offers up.
Language And Platform Experience
Pay tracks with proven depth in common stacks: Java and Spring, C# and .NET, Python and Django or FastAPI, Node and Express or Nest, and Go for high-throughput services. Cloud fluency in AWS, GCP, or Azure and database skill across Postgres, MySQL, and NoSQL stores raise market value.
Systems Scope And Scale
Operating high-load services, shaping APIs used by many teams, or owning latency and cost budgets sets candidates apart. Experience with message queues, caching layers, and observability helps earn senior bands.
Reliability And Security
Hands-on time with SLOs, incident response, and risk-based auth or secrets hygiene usually earns a higher pay. Passing audits or leading remediation projects is a strong signal.
Company Stage And Equity
Early-stage firms may exchange lower base for equity. Public companies often balance base, bonus, and restricted stock units. Read vesting, cliffs, refreshers, and dilution risk before you compare offers.
Location And Remote Pay
Comp bands differ by market. Bay Area and Seattle bands run the highest for the same level, with New York close behind. Many firms now run location-based bands for remote staff. Some pay one national rate, but most still tier by cost of labor, not cost of living.
How Remote Work Changes Pay
Plenty of teams hire across the US. Remote roles widen access but often follow a band set by the nearest hub or a coarse tier list. Expect tighter base pay outside top hubs.
Reading Public Sources Without Getting Misled
Not all datasets mean the same thing. Government medians sample all industries, from finance to retail tech. Crowd sites lean toward tech-heavy firms and self-reported totals. Use both and sanity-check with level-specific data when you can across the board.
Government Wage Benchmarks
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports a median near $133k for software developers with the top decile clearing $211k. See the BLS software developer wage tables. That pool includes many server-side engineers and sets a broad middle for base pay.
Crowdsourced Trackers
Levels-style trackers show medians near the high-$100ks for total pay at large firms when stock vests are included, while broad job-title pages on hiring sites list lower midpoints for “back end” labels outside top hubs. The Stack Overflow Developer Survey also charts pay by role across regions. Treat medians as hints, not promises.
What Back-End Developers Make By Industry
Pay follows revenue per engineer and margin. Finance, ad tech, and top consumer platforms tend to pay more than agencies or smaller business software shops. Specialized sectors with heavy data or trust needs also pay well.
High-Paying Sectors At A Glance
Hedge funds and trading firms bid up senior talent. Consumer platforms and AI-heavy products also post strong totals, with equity in high-growth names creating wide outcomes based on grant size and stock movement.
Benefits, Bonuses, And Equity: Reading The Full Package
Base salary is only part of the picture. Cash bonus targets range from 5–20% for many roles. Stock can add a large chunk, but value depends on price, refresh policy, and your tenure.
Equity 101 For Engineers
Public-company RSUs vest on a schedule. Private-company options carry strike price risk and dilution. Refreshers help maintain value as grants vest. Ask about grant cadence, performance bands, and cliffs before signing.
Perks That Matter
Look past coffee and swag. Health coverage, 401(k) match, paid time off, parental leave, education budgets, and on-call pay shape the real deal. Remote setup stipends and home office gear add up too.
How To Benchmark Your Pay
Use a mix of sources and your own history of impact. Track outcomes: latency cuts, error-budget burn, cloud cost trims, and uptime gains. Bring a crisp portfolio of projects that tie to business results.
Steps To Build A Solid Range
- Pull national medians for software developers to anchor the middle.
- Add role-specific medians from reputable trackers and hiring sites.
- Adjust for level, market tier, and equity mix based on your target companies.
- Cross-check with a few recent job posts that list pay bands.
- Validate with peers at similar levels when possible.
What New Graduates And Career Switchers Can Expect
Entry offers depend on internships, projects, and strength in data structures, database design, and API craft. A candidate who shows strong code samples, tests, and clean docs often clears the higher end of entry bands.
Internships And Early Signals
Paid internships in platform teams, open-source service work, and cloud certifications can nudge pay up. Bootcamp grads who ship real back-end projects and write clear readmes often land faster.
City And Region Benchmarks
Market pay varies by metro. The figures below reflect common bands seen in job posts and tracker medians.
| Market | Typical Base (Mid/Sr) | Typical Total |
|---|---|---|
| San Francisco Bay Area | $150k–$190k | $190k–$300k+ |
| Seattle | $145k–$185k | $185k–$280k |
| New York City | $140k–$180k | $180k–$270k |
| Austin | $120k–$160k | $150k–$220k |
| Chicago | $115k–$155k | $140k–$205k |
| Remote (US-wide) | $110k–$150k | $130k–$200k |
Negotiation Tips That Move The Needle
Good prep beats bravado. Aim for a fact-based chat and let the numbers speak.
Set Your Ask With Receipts
Bring a one-pager with your scope, outcomes, and links to repos or write-ups. Add a few public pay sources and a brief level match. A tight packet keeps the chat grounded.
Sequence Matters
Let the company share bands first if possible. When asked for a number, share a range anchored to level and market. Keep timing slack for competing offers if you can.
Hidden Levers
Not every budget flexes on base. You can ask about sign-on bonus, location tier, level calibration, equity refresh timing, on-call pay, or later review. Each can lift the total.
Common Pitfalls When Reading Offers
Titles vary by company, so a “senior” band in one shop may match “mid” elsewhere. A wide range can mask different levels. Watch out for one-time sign-ons that vanish after year one. Ask for written details on bonus targets and equity refresh policy. If base pay looks low, check whether the equity grant is truly meaningful at current price and likely refresh cadence.
Skills That Correlate With Higher Pay
Strong back-end engineers often show depth in concurrency, database indexing, cache design, API design, CI/CD, and observability. Many also read cloud bills well and tune for cost. Hiring teams love candidates who prevent incidents and speed up roadmaps.
Project Ideas That Show Market Value
Build a production-ish service: an API with auth, rate limits, and metrics. Add load tests, tracing, and dashboards. Ship readmes with diagrams and short notes on design tradeoffs. This portfolio proves skill and helps win bands near the top of your range.
Where To Track Market Data
You can cross-reference public wage tables and developer surveys to check trends and anchor your range. For broad national context, see the US agency pages on software developer pay. For role-specific medians and company-level totals, see reputable compensation trackers and large hiring platforms. Use both during prep.
Final Take: What Back-End Pros Make Right Now
Across sources, a clear picture emerges. Base pay clusters near $110k–$135k for many US back-end roles, with mid-career totals often in the $150k–$210k range inside major hubs. Senior and staff roles pass those marks through equity and bonus. The best path to the upper bands is steady impact, clean operations, and proof of scale.