The average salary for a backend developer in Germany is €60,000
The median salary for a backend developer in Germany is estimated to be €63,000 with an average salary of €60,000. That's about €5,000 per month or €3,110 per month after tax (42%). The expected range for Junior to senior backend developers is between €55,000 and €75,000.
That being said, developers can far exceed this range depending on the company, their skills, and their experience. The highest reported backend developer salaries in Germany are from tech companies that have paid senior engineers €105,000 base salary plus bonuses and equity (totalling €126,000).
💰 more salaries in Germany…
Salary by experience
For entry-level positions, with less than one year of experience, you can expect a starting salary of at least €44,000. Working students at big tech companies have reported lower salaries starting at €30,000. For the most accurate salary estimates check out our salary calculator.
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Taxes in Germany
As we go through salary by city, experience, role and technology refer to the German tax brackets (below) so that you can roughly estimate your monthly income after tax. Or you can open up a tax calculator.
If you are living in Germany, in Berlin, and earning a gross annual salary of €60,000, or €5,000 per month, the total amount of taxes and contributions that will be deducted from your salary is €22,683. This means that your net income, or salary after tax, will be €37,317 per year, €3,110 per month, or €718 per week (source: SalaryAfterTax).
| Annual salary |
Tax rate |
| Less than €10,908 |
0% |
| €10,909 – €62,809 |
14% to 42% |
| €62,810 – €277,825 |
42% |
| > €277,826 |
45% |
Germany Public Holidays in 2023
Salary by role and technology
According to StackOverflow, it’s estimated that Go developers earn the highest pay for backend developers at €83,700. Python developers can earn approximately €66,000 on average, while PHP developers earn the lowest at €47,000. Since these are worldwide averages, salaries might vary slightly in the German market.
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Backend developer salary over time
Here is the average backend developer salary by year in Euros. This is worldwide backend salary data from the StackOverflow survey (2017-2022).
Backend salary over time (EUR):
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Highest and lowest salaries
We’ve already put together a list of the highest software developer salaries but to quickly mention, base salaries of €105,000 have been reported.
If you have no hands-on experience you’ll probably be earning less than or equal to €30,000 per year. It’s common in German for graduates or soon-to-be graduates to get work experience with companies in Germany (essentially a paid internship). Engineering working students have reported part-time salaries of between €10,000 and €15,000 per year.
Salary by city
Backend developers are reported to earn the most in Munich with an annual salary of €68,900. This is quite a bit higher than Berlin which offers €62,100 on average. Salaries are generally higher in Munich to match the higher cost of living. But both cities offer plenty of job opportunities for backend developers. Hamburg is the lowest-paying city out of this sample, offering an average salary of about €10,000 less than Munich.
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Top paying companies in Germany
The best companies to work for in Germany are not always going to be the best companies for developers. According to levels.fyi, the top-paying companies in Germany are Facebook, SeatGeek, Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia, VMware, Stripe, Elastic, Wayfair, and GitHub. The below list includes the job position (seniority) and the total base pay.
| Rank |
Company |
Title |
Compensation |
| 1 |
Facebook |
E5 |
€131,802 |
| 2 |
SeatGeek |
P4 |
€170,303 |
| 3 |
Apple |
ICT4 |
€118,398 |
| 4 |
Microsoft |
64 |
€133,552 |
| 5 |
Nvidia |
IC3 |
€110,820 |
| 6 |
VMware |
Staff Engineer 1 |
€108,926 |
| 7 |
Stripe |
L2 |
€96,612 |
| 8 |
Elastic |
C6 |
€102,298 |
| 9 |
Wayfair |
L4 |
€105,139 |
| 10 |
GitHub |
E4 |
€94,720 |
