Web Developer Salary

What Is a Web Developer Salary?

Web developers build and maintain websites and web applications. The median salary for that work is $92,650 a year, or $44.54 an hour, according to the OEWS survey, May 2025 release, at bls.gov/oes. The BLS code is 15-1254, Web Developers.

About 70,190 people work in the occupation. They are employed by software companies, agencies, retailers, banks, hospitals, universities and government offices, and a share of them are self-employed or freelance. That mix explains why pay varies so much: a developer at a payments company and a developer maintaining a small business’s site share a job title and very little else.

Web Developer Salary Range

The 10th percentile is $48,100, the median is $92,650 and the 90th percentile is $162,290. That is a wide spread, wider than in most IT occupations.

Near the bottom you find people with limited experience, part-time workers, and developers who maintain simple sites for small organizations. Near the top you find senior developers and technical leads at large employers who design application architecture, own performance and security, and mentor other developers. Moving from the lower part of the range to the upper part is mostly a matter of the work you are trusted with.

What Moves Web Developer Pay

The kind of work. A developer who builds an application that handles payments or patient records is paid more than one who updates a brochure site, because the cost of a mistake is higher.

Back-end and full-stack skills. Databases, server code, APIs and cloud deployment add value. A front-end developer who also understands the back end becomes harder to replace.

The employer. Software companies, financial firms and large retailers generally pay more than small agencies, schools and nonprofits. Agencies often pay less but give you range quickly.

Performance, accessibility and security. These are the areas where simple tools and AI-written code fall short, and they are where employers pay for judgment. A developer who can make a slow page fast, or find a vulnerability before an attacker does, is easy to justify paying.

Experience you can show. Web development is unusual in IT because the work is public. A live portfolio and a record of shipped projects move offers more than a certification does.

Web Developer Salary Outlook

BLS projects employment for web developers to change by 3.8% between 2025 and 2035, with about 5,300 openings a year. That is a modest rate of growth, steadier than network and systems administrators at -4.1% and computer user support specialists at -3.5%.

Two forces pull in opposite directions. Website builders and templates have removed the need for a developer on simple sites, and AI tools now draft routine code. At the same time, more of every business runs through a web interface, and those systems need people who can design, secure and keep them running. The work is moving from building pages to building applications, and pay follows it. For full tables, see the BLS Employment Projections.

The Degree Behind a Web Developer Salary

BLS lists a bachelor's degree as the typical entry education for web developers. Common majors are information technology, computer science and information systems. A degree is not the only way in, but it covers what self-taught developers often miss: databases, networking basics, security, and how to work in a team on a large codebase.

Many online IT bachelor’s degrees offer a web development concentration, so you can study while you work and build your portfolio from course projects. Compare options in our ranking of the best online IT bachelor’s degrees, and look for programs where courses end in a deployed project. If you want a cheaper start, the online IT associate degrees ranking lists programs that transfer toward a bachelor’s.

Because the entry route is flexible, price matters. Choose a program you can pay for without heavy borrowing, since a portfolio can offset a lesser-known school but debt cannot be offset by anything.

Web Developer Salary Compared with Related Jobs

Web developers earn a median of $92,650. Computer network support specialists earn $76,220, and computer user support specialists earn $61,860. Network and computer systems administrators earn $99,130, database administrators earn $104,620, and computer systems analysts earn $105,850. Information security analysts earn $129,180, the highest of the group.

That puts web development above the support jobs and just under the administration and analysis jobs. The security occupation pays more and is projected to grow at 21%. A web developer who learns application security is moving in the direction where both pay and demand are rising.

How to Raise Your Web Developer Salary

Learn the back end if you started on the front end, or the reverse. Add SQL, an API framework, and one cloud platform. Learn to measure page speed and fix what the measurement shows.

Learn security basics well enough to review your own code. Take on projects with higher stakes, such as payments, authentication or data handling, because they teach what employers pay for. Write about your work and keep the portfolio current, since a recruiter who finds a clear write-up of a hard project has a reason to call.

Finally, change employers when the work stops teaching you anything. In web development, a move to a larger or better-funded company is often the quickest way up the range. If you want the full path into the job, read the web developer career guide.

What Web Developers Do Day to Day

The salary pays for work that is partly building and partly fixing. A typical day includes writing new features, reviewing a teammate’s code, chasing down a bug a customer reported, and answering questions from designers and product managers about what is possible.

Much of the real work is invisible. You test pages in several browsers and on phones, make sure forms validate properly, keep libraries updated so known vulnerabilities don’t creep in, and watch performance after each release. When a site slows down or breaks during a busy period, the developer on call is the one who finds out why.

Communication matters more than people expect. A developer who can explain a tradeoff to a non-technical manager in two sentences, and who writes clear notes for the next person, becomes the one who is promoted. That reputation moves a person from the median toward the $162,290 top of the range faster than any single language.

Reading a Web Developer Salary Offer

Use the range to read an offer. A figure near $48,100 fits an entry-level or part-time role with close supervision. A figure near the $92,650 median fits a developer who can own features and work without much oversight. A figure near $162,290 fits a senior developer or lead who is responsible for architecture, quality and other people’s work.

Ask what you will build, how big the team is, whether there is on-call duty, and whether the role includes back-end or only front-end work. A role with room to learn production systems and security often leads to higher pay in two years than a role with a higher starting number and no growth.

Is a Web Developer Salary Worth the Training?

Weigh the pay against the time and cost of getting there. The median of $92,650 is a strong salary for an occupation that can be entered with a bachelor’s degree and a good portfolio, and the 90th percentile of $162,290 is high. The entry route is shorter and more flexible than many IT paths, because employers can see your work.

The honest case against it is competition and change. Many people are trying to enter the field, entry-level postings draw large numbers of applicants, and the tools you learn first will not be the ones you use in ten years. The honest case for it is that the skills transfer to application development, security and technical leadership, and that a developer who keeps learning stays employable.

If you like building things people can see and use, the numbers support the choice. If you are mainly after the fastest pay growth, the security occupation is a stronger bet on a similar set of skills.

Web Developer Salary by State

Washington pays web developers the most, with a median of $130,440, 41% above the $92,650 national figure. Puerto Rico is the lowest of the 45 places BLS reports, at $46,020. Cost of living changes the order: adjusted for local prices, Virginia leads at $126,978 in buying power, while Washington comes to $121,892.

The 10 highest of 45. These figures are for web developers. The adjusted column divides the median by the BEA 2024 regional price parity for the state: an estimate of buying power, not what an employer pays.

Web Developer Salary in Major Metros

Of the 47 metro areas in our city guides with a published figure, San Jose has the highest median at $166,670, and Birmingham has the lowest at $66,640. A metro median covers the whole area, suburbs included, so it can differ from pay in the city itself.

The 10 highest of 47. These figures are for web developers, BLS May 2025.

IT Salaries Side by Side

Web Developers rank 7 of 9 by median pay among the IT occupations we cover. The low and high ends show how much overlap there is: a strong earner in a lower-paid job can out-earn a new hire in a higher-paid one.

Sorted by median pay. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, and Employment Projections, 2025-35.