The average salary for a software developer in the Netherlands is €64,500

The median salary for a software developer in the Netherlands is estimated to be €70,500 with an average salary of €64,500. That’s €5,400 per month or €3,700 per month after tax (about 30%). 

Entry-level software developers in the Netherlands positions start at around €36,000 per year. Experienced senior software developer positions earn upwards of €83,000 per year with generous bonuses and equity packages. For more accurate salary estimates check out our salary calculator. 

📚 TL;DR

• Average - €64k
• Range - €38k - €83k
• After-tax - €3,700/mo (or €44k/year)
• Frontend - €47k
• Backend - €65k
• Fullstack -  €71k

💰 more salaries…

• Software developer in Austria
• Software developer in Germany
• Software developer in Switzerland

Salary by Experience 🎓

Glassdoor is a fairly accurate benchmark for average salaries but when it comes to drilling down specific salaries by experience it doesn’t paint the most accurate picture. I prefer to use data from TechPays and the Pragmatic Engineer (a former hiring manager at Uber). Let’s explore salary ranges for the three main categories junior, mid, and senior.

Let’s drill down further.

For each experience level (Junior, mid, and senior) there are three salary tiers. Most developers fall into the first pay bracket which is on the lower end. So using the example below, we can see that most entry-level/junior developers are earning around €30k. There are more job opportunities in that range and less competition. Developer in the second bracket are earning around €40k - €50k, they might have a bit more experience or work for a larger company. They can earn double what the first bracket earns but there are far less job opportunities in this bracket. Then there is the highest bracket which earns 3x what most junior developers will earn. These developers are working for large tech companies and FANNG. Let's break down each bracket and explore the salary ranges.

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Junior/entry-level

Developers in this category have between 0-2 years of experience. The salary range is from €30,000 - €98,000. Looking at the data points, the majority of junior developers earn between €30k - €40k. Junior developers earning +€40k generally have bonus and equity options tied to their salary. They might get an extra €5k - €10k per year through these compensation packages. The highest earners (and the most competitive jobs) can see a base salary of ~€60,000 with an additional €20k in bonuses and equity. The top earners in this category are working at FANNG companies and Big Tech (i.e. Uber, booking.com, Databricks). Here’s one of the highest salaries reported in this bracket:

Mid-level

Developers in this category have over 2 years of experience but are not yet at a senior level. Most mid-level developers in the Netherlands are earning between €45,000 - €60,000 per year. Developers earning beyond €80k are definitely in the top tier working at the biggest companies in the Netherlands. We don’t see base salary extend beyond €80k instead we see companies offering huge bonuses and generous equity. The highest salaries reported are from mid-level developers working at Booking.com and Databricks. Here is the salary breakdown: 

Senior-level

We don’t see a huge difference between mid and senior until we get to the very top salary tiers. Most senior developers in the Netherlands are earning between €50,000 - €80,000 per year. Once senior developers earn around €80k their compensation packages start to include equity and bonuses between €5k - €10k. Top-tier earners are making €120,000 or more (this includes equity and bonuses). These developers are working for companies like eBay, Booking.com, WeTransfer, Loom, and Uber (most likely in Amsterdam). Here is the highest salary reported from a senior developer in the Netherlands:

Taxes in the Netherlands 🇳🇱

As we go through salary by city, experience, role, and technology you can refer to the Dutch tax brackets (below) so that you can roughly estimate your monthly income after tax. Or you can open up a tax calculator. 

In the Netherlands, if your gross annual salary is €100,000 or €8,333 per month, the total amount of taxes and contributions that will be deducted from your salary is €40,326, without accounting for the 30% ruling. This means that your net income, or salary after tax, will be €59,674 per year, €4,973 per month, or €1,148 per week (source: SalaryAfterTax). Here are the Dutch tax brackets:

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Netherlands Public Holidays in 2023

Salary by type and technology 🎮

There are a lot of different types of software developers. So let’s compare how much developers in the Netherlands earn by developer type.

Average salary by city 💰

According to Glassdoor, software developers in Amsterdam are reporting the highest pay on average followed by The Hague and Breda. There is a big pay discrepancy between Amsterdam and other Dutch cities. This could be for two reasons; lack of data or because the highest paying companies are in Amsterdam (most likely). Software developers working in the Netherlands report higher salaries than those working just across the border in Germany. 

Top Dutch companies 🚀

The Netherlands offers some of the highest paying software developer jobs in all of Europe. This is because it’s home to some of the largest tech unicorns in Europe including Booking.com, Mollie, Mambu, Messagebird, and a few others. You’ve also got huge US firms headquartered in Amsterdam that pay developers very well like Uber, Databricks, and Stripe. Here are the top paying companies in the Netherlands according to Glassdoor.