Full stack developers are coders who work on all parts of the web tech stack — from front end to back end. As far as engineers go, they’re considered to be a jack of all trades. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that job growth for full stack developers is projected to increase 22% by 2029, which is significantly faster than other jobs.
According to Glassdoor, the average salary of a full stack developer in the United States is $98,000 a year. Of course, salary depends on many factors and looking at an average doesn’t tell much information. To get a full understanding, let’s look at company size, location and experience level.
Full Stack Developer Salary Based on Company Size
Company size can make a big difference when it comes to pay. One important thing to keep in mind while looking at these salaries is that they do not include other compensation like cash bonuses, equity or benefits.
Here are the average salaries you can expect based on company size:
- 0-50 employees: $90,131
- 51-200 employees: $95,185
- 201-500 employees: $107,047
- 501+ employees: $104,016
Wondering why the reported salaries dipped a bit between a few hundred employees and over 500? There were over 1,000 salaries reported for the 500+ company size range, while the 200-500 range had only a few hundred reports. This discrepancy could also be due to the fact that companies in the 200-500 employee range are often competing for their place in the market and might offer higher salaries in order to attract top talent.
Full Stack Developer Salary Based on Location
Salaries tend to vary a lot based on location because of job availability and cost of living. The San Francisco Bay Area is not only the original tech hub, but also has an extraordinarily high cost of living, so it typically has the highest salaries. Over the last few years, more cities around the US are becoming secondary tech hubs as well, like Austin, TX and New York City.
Here are the average salaries you can expect based on location:
Bay Area: $127,168
New York: $107,564
Austin, TX: $101,303
Remote: $85,000
While remote work has been around for a few years, the amount of companies hiring remotely skyrocketed in 2020 due to COVID-19. We expect to see the availability of remote roles increase over the next decade and see the pay for remote workers continue to rise.
While the salary for remote full stack engineers is lower than workers in tech hubs, it’s important to keep in mind that working remotely can mean a lower cost of living and no commute to an office.
Full Stack Developer Salary Based on Experience
As a full stack developer, it’s best to have experience with both front end coding and frameworks — like HTML, CSS, Javascript, and React — as well as backend coding and frameworks — like Go, Python, Ruby or Java. Additionally, it’s important to have a good handle on databases, web architecture and APIs.
Here are the average salaries you can expect based on years of experience:
- Entry-level: $106,000
- Mid-level: $85,000 – $98,000
- Senior-level: $91,000 – $95,000
According to Glassdoor’s data, entry level full stack developers get paid more than mid- and senior-level. Why is that? Our theory is that bigger companies tend to hire more people into specialized roles. Full stack developer jobs tend to be mostly available at smaller startups that are looking to attract top talent, so they pay a little more. There is also a chance that the demand for full stack developers is so high, companies are willing to pay more to entry-level positions to attract new talent.
Your Journey to Full Stack Developer
Does working as a full stack engineer and earning $98,000 a year or more sound appealing to you? With flexible and affordable online learning programs like Udacity, there’s never been a better time to start learning how to become a developer.
Check out Udacity’s Full Stack Developer Nanodegree program to get started today.
