The average salary for a software developer in Germany is €62,200
The median salary for a software developer in Germany is estimated to be €65,800 with an average salary of €62,200. That's about €5,200 per month or €3,200 per month after tax (42%). The expected range for Junior to senior developers is between €58,000 and €80,000.
That being said, developers can far exceed this range depending on the company, their skills, and their experience. The highest reported software developer salaries in Germany are from US-based tech companies which have paid senior developers €180,000 base salary plus bonuses and equity (totalling €480,000).
💰 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 €40,000. Working students at big tech companies have reported lower salaries starting at €30,000 — which is understandable given the lack of experience. If you're an average software developer earning less than €40,000 it might be time to look for a new software developer job. For the most accurate salary estimates check out our salary calculator.
Below we’ll break down the median salaries based on experience. Keep on reading to discover software developer salaries for cities in Germany and the top-paying companies.
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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 and earning a gross annual salary of €62,000, or €5,167 per month, the total amount of taxes and contributions that will be deducted from your salary is €23,566. This means that your net income, or salary after tax, will be €38,434 per year, €3,203 per month, or €739 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
It’s estimated that backend developers earn the most at €63,000 compared with frontend developers (€57,750) and fullstack developers (€63,000). While React developers are highly sort after in Germany, on average, they don’t earn as much as Java developers. Below are the median salaries by top roles and technologies.
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Average software developer salary over time
Here is the average software developer salary by year and role (frontend, backend, and fullstack). This is worldwide software salary data from the StackOverflow survey (2017-2022).
Software developer frontend vs backend vs fullstack (EUR):
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Lowest and highest salaries reported
We’ve already put together a list of the highest software developer salaries but to quickly mention, the highest salaries for a software developer in Germany are between €125,000-€180,000. And when we include annual bonuses and equity, these developers can earn upwards of €450,000. So despite the overall average salary, there is money to be made in Europe.
On the flip side, if you have very little 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.
Average salary by city
In Germany, Berlin and Munich are the biggest hubs for software developers and generally offer the highest salaries for developers. The average salary is usually a little lower in Berlin compared with Munch as there are a lot of startups and it’s a cheaper city. That being said, you’ll also find the top earners in Berlin, working at big tech companies (since they’re all headquartered there).
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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 |
