U.S. web developer pay lands near $70k–$100k a year; BLS lists a $90,930 median with higher totals in top markets.
Curious about pay for this field? Here’s a clear, data-led rundown that answers the salary question up front, then breaks down factors that move the number up or down. You’ll see ranges from government data and large pay trackers, how location and stack shift the picture, and what experience bands look like in practice.
Annual Earnings For Web Developers: Typical Ranges
Pay varies across sources because each one samples a different slice of the market. Government figures track employer-reported wages, while crowdsourced sites pool self-reported pay and job listings. To ground this topic, here are widely cited ranges from large, recent datasets.
| Data Source | Annual Pay | Scope/Notes |
|---|---|---|
| U.S. BLS web developer wage | $90,930 median | May 2024 national median; 10th–90th roughly ~$48k–$163k. |
| Indeed salary tracker | ~$83,500 average | Based on U.S. listings and employee reports, updated 2025. |
| Glassdoor pay estimate | ~$99,000 average | U.S. self-reported total pay, recent as of 2025. |
| Stack Overflow 2024 survey | $60k–$75k common band | Self-reported ranges; broader developer cohort, not just web-only. |
| PayScale profile data | ~$69,000 average | Base pay estimate from user profiles, 2025. |
When you put these side by side, one pattern stands out: base pay clusters near the low-to-mid $80k–$100k range for full-time roles in the U.S., while total pay can stretch higher with equity, bonuses, or high-cost metro premiums.
What Shapes A Web Developer’s Salary
Role Type And Scope
Titles vary, and scope drives pay. A generalist who ships end-to-end features across front-end and back-end often lands higher than a narrow content-site implementer. Roles that own architecture, performance budgets, or system design add value and usually pay more.
Tech Stack And Fluency
Employers pay for skills that shorten delivery time or cut infra spend. Strong command of a modern front-end framework, server-side rendering patterns, and build tooling helps. On the back end, experience with a mainstream language plus a cloud platform, queues, and observability tools bumps offers. Breadth is useful, but depth in one tier still moves the needle.
Location And Cost Of Living
Remote roles exist, yet metro pay bands still matter. High-cost areas tend to post higher rates, and some firms use geo-based bands even for remote staff. Market data shows coastal hubs and fast-growing tech cities offering larger totals than smaller markets.
Company Stage
Early-stage startups often trade cash for equity and broad scope. Later-stage firms and stable product companies lean toward higher base with formal bands and bonus targets. Agencies sit in the middle: varied work, steady learning, and pay that rises with client size.
Experience And Impact
Years help, but impact matters more. Folks who own outcomes—speed gains, conversion lifts, cost cuts, security wins—build leverage to ask for more. Strong code is table stakes; clear delivery, good estimates, and calm incident handling separate pay bands fast.
Salary Ranges By Experience Level
Ranges below reflect the U.S. market across sources above, plus typical bands shared in job posts. Companies label levels differently, so match the scope, not the title.
| Level | Typical Base Pay | What The Role Looks Like |
|---|---|---|
| Entry | $55k–$85k | Builds features with pairing, closes tickets, writes tests, responds to reviews, learns the stack fast. |
| Mid | $80k–$120k | Takes ownership of services or front-end areas, shapes designs, ships reliably, mentors interns. |
| Senior | $110k–$160k+ | Sets technical direction, plans migrations, unblocks teams, improves reliability, and drives outcomes. |
Front-End, Back-End, And Full-Stack Pay
Labels aren’t pay grades by themselves, yet market data hints at patterns. Front-end roles that balance performance, accessibility, and design systems land strong offers. Back-end work tied to scale, data, and reliability also commands healthy pay. Full-stack titles are common at small and mid-sized firms, where one person spans UI, API, and database tasks.
Front-End Patterns
Pay rises with proven results around Core Web Vitals, bundle budgets, and design system upkeep. Employers also prize solid UX judgment: clear forms, fine error states, and smooth interaction details add business value and show up in reviews.
Back-End Patterns
Experience with queues, caching, search, and secure auth often moves a base offer up a tier. Teams care about clear metrics and sane on-call. Candidates who can diagram data flows and reason about failure modes tend to get stronger bands.
Full-Stack Patterns
Smaller companies like folks who can take a task from ticket to prod. Proof that you can set up scaffolding fast, wire API routes, tune queries, and add fit-and-finish on the UI side is persuasive during offers.
How Location Shifts The Numbers
Pay follows market demand. Large metros with deep product teams pay more, and remote roles often index to those hubs. Pay trackers show that many city pages sit above the national average, while smaller markets trail by a band or two.
Remote-First Bands
Plenty of firms offer single nationwide bands. Others publish two to four bands tied to regions. Read postings carefully: some ads list a broad U.S. range, then apply a location factor during offer stage.
Negotiation Moves That Work
Great projects are currency. Bring two or three concise stories that tie work to outcomes—page speed slashed, cart steps removed, server spend reduced, or uptime improved. Keep receipts: dashboards, PRs, and brief diagrams make pay talks smoother.
Market Data You Can Cite
Walk in with sources. Point to the BLS occupation page for the national median and ranges. Then add one crowdsourced tracker that matches your location or stack. Two solid links plus your portfolio carry more weight than a dozen unvetted charts.
Offer Framing
Ask about total compensation: base, annual bonus target, equity size and refresh policy, and any location factors. Confirm level, ladder, and next review date. If an offer lands below your research, present your data and one concrete recent win that supports a higher band.
How Skills Map To Pay
Hiring managers look for speed with quality. That means short feedback loops, tight PRs, and code that’s easy to change. Beyond the basics, these pockets of skill tend to lift pay bands:
- Accessibility and semantic HTML that pass audits without drama.
- Performance habits: lazy loading, code splitting, cache rules, and image discipline.
- Security awareness: auth flows, secrets handling, and safe defaults.
- Strong data habits: migration plans, backfills, and rollback paths.
- Clear writing: crisp tickets, runbooks, and change logs.
What The Data Says About Trends
Large annual surveys report some softening in pay bands for certain roles in the past year. The big Stack Overflow sample shows many respondents landing in the $60k–$75k bracket, which trails employer-reported medians. That gap can reflect experience mix, regional sampling, and role definitions inside surveys. Reading across sources avoids a skew from any one dataset.
Government data also separates web developers from adjacent roles such as software developers and programmers, which helps when you compare bands. Broader software developer medians run higher than web-only roles, while programmer bands fall in a different place. Comparing like-for-like roles keeps your benchmark honest.
How To Read Job Post Ranges
Many U.S. states require pay ranges in postings. Bands can be wide, and listings often describe “total pay” while the base sits lower. When a post lists a wide band, look for clues in the bullet points: ownership, scale, and on-call. If the scope is big, expect the top half of the band to match the level expected.
Contract And Freelance Work
Plenty of teams hire contractors for site rebuilds, migrations, and seasonal surges. Hourly rates can beat employee base pay on paper, yet they come without benefits, paid time off, or employer-paid taxes. When comparing, convert hourly to annual, then factor health care, time off, and bench risk.
Realistic Paths To A Higher Band
Pick one growth area and ship proof. That could be a design system token cleanup, a query plan that trims p95, or an auth flow hardening pass. Share the before and after, and measure. Small wins stack into a story that pairs clean code with business value, which is what comp committees reward.
Portfolio Tips That Pay Off
- Link to a repo that shows tests, CI, and clear commit history.
- Add a short readme that states goals, trade-offs, and results.
- Host a live demo and include a tiny status page.
- Show one or two bugs you fixed with a quick note on root cause.
FAQ-Style Myths, Debunked
“Only Big Tech Pays Well”
Plenty of small product firms pay solid bands, especially when the role guards revenue—checkout, growth loops, or uptime. Agencies with enterprise clients can pay well, too.
“Remote Means Lower Pay”
It depends on the employer. Some match top-metro cash nationwide, others apply a location factor. Read the postings and ask early in the process.
“A Bootcamp Grad Can’t Earn Six Figures”
Plenty do after a strong year or two on the job with real delivery. A clear track record and a manager who can vouch for outcomes matter more than pedigree.