Go is one of the most well-liked back-end programming languages, with Java and Node.js. In any case, how competitive are the pay for Go developers?
We will give the most reliable information on the typical compensation range demanded by G0 developers from many of the world’s largest markets for software engineers. Go, or Golang as the programming language, is one of the most popular alternatives for back-end development alongside Java and Node.js.
While Google first developed Go, it is now an open-source project with a wide range of potential uses. Its scalability is a key feature. According to the most recent Stackoverflow Developer Survey results, Go is one of the most popular modern technologies, employed by over 12% of professional software developers. It is the fifteenth most popular programming language according to the TIOBE Index.
Here you will discover statistics from the greatest publicly available sources worldwide on typical Go developer pay ranges, which you can use to compare your income with averages in your native country or anywhere else in the world.
It is important to remember that the data sources can lag behind current market circumstances for IT professional wages by as much as a year. Salary inflation has been very significant over the past year, so the actual range may be anywhere from 10% to 30% greater than what is shown here.
Internationally average Developer Salaries
As an employer, you may want to compare Go developer salaries globally. Suppose you have deliberately decided to engage with an IT outsourcing business rather than engaging Go developers directly on full-time, permanent employment contracts. In that case, you should budget to average rates rather than wages.
Assume you want to obtain a ballpark estimate for how much it will cost to hire a Go developer. In that case, you may add 20% to 30% to the average worldwide pay ranges we’ll offer below, depending on the locations where your outsourcing partner recruits. While this increases the headline monthly cost of a Go developer, outsourcing is very uncommon to result in cost savings due to the increased flexibility it affords and the elimination of recruitment fees.
Germany
With the largest economy in Europe, Germany is the continent’s second-largest job market for IT professionals like software engineers. Let’s look at how much money Go programmers in Germany may expect to make, given it is a highly paid market. According to the German pay statistics portal gehalt.de, the typical Golang developer income range, spanning the middle 50 percentile, is between €3418 per month or €42,379 per year and €4838 per month or €59,993 per year.
The income range for a Go developer in Germany is typically between €42,300 and €59,700 per year (or €3525 and €5269 per month), and the data from the Stepstone.de employment portal is remarkably comparable, placing the median wage at €48,400 per year (or €4033 per month).
According to the employment website de.talent.com, more senior Go posts may provide wages of more than €7000 (€7083) per month or €85,000 per year. According to de.talent, the starting wage for a Go developer is €4167 per month or €50,000 per year, and the median Go developer income in Germany is €5625, which is higher than the estimations from our other two data sources.
It’s important to keep in mind that the range is derived from a tiny sample of 14 salary reports for Go developers. While this may be true, our knowledge of the market tells us that the higher figures presented here are more accurate and, if anything, may even be underestimating the extent to which salaries have risen in recent years.
Switzerland
Switzerland is often regarded as having the best wages in the world. Thus it is reasonable to assume that Swiss Go developers make more than their German counterparts. First, let’s find out how much more there is.
Only one salary, at CHF130,000 (€134,929) per year or CHF10,833 (€11,244) per month, is listed on ch.talent.com, which is not very helpful. Additionally, SwissDevJobs.ch, a portal focused on software development and information technology careers, provides useful information.
According to their findings, Go developers in Switzerland earn a median annual income of CHF105,000 (€108,981) or about CHF8750 (€9082) monthly. Even in the worst ten percentile, Go developers in Switzerland make a healthy CHF85,000 (€88,223) per year, or CHF7083 (€7352) per month, while those at the top ten percentile may earn up to CHF132,500 (€137,524) per year, or CHF11,042(€11,461) each month.
The United Kingdom
Despite Germany’s larger economy due to its robust industrial sector, the United Kingdom is Europe’s top jobs market for IT experts, such as software engineers. Let’s take a look at the typical pay scale for Go developers.
This time around, the data set on uk.talent.com is sizable, with 1667 wages reported, so it should be a decent indicator of the typical salary range for a Go developer in the UK. An estimated £65,000 (€76,216) annually or £5417 (€6352) monthly is the average pay for a Go developer in the United Kingdom.
Salary ranges for Go developers in the United Kingdom begin at £50,000 (€58,628) per year (or £4167 (£4886) per month) for entry-level employment and peak at £81,458 (€95,514) per year (or £6788 (€7959) per month) for advanced positions.
ITjobsWatch.co.uk, a specialized portal, is also a reliable source of information on developer wages in the United Kingdom. Over 5,000 developer positions citing go advertised in the six months to the end of August 2022, up from just over 3000 in the corresponding period a year earlier and less than 1000 in the corresponding period two years ago, indicating a sharp increase in demand for Go developers over the past few years.
Using data from around 2,000 salaries, it shows that the median yearly wage for a Go developer in the United Kingdom is £80,000 (€93,804) per year or £6667 (€7817) per month. A Go developer’s starting income may be expected to be around £50,000 (€58,628) per year or £4167 (€4886) per month. Top ten percentile jobs that need Go skills to pay up to £107,500 ($126,050) annually or £8958 ($10,504) monthly.
Data from the portal reveals that the median wage for Go developers has increased by 14.29% over the past year. However, developers in the top 10% have seen their salaries decrease by an average of £5,000 annually. Overall wage inflation for UK-based developers was 31.25% year-over-year, propelled by significant increases for professionals in the bottom 25% of the income distribution.
Poland
There are over 430,000 IT professionals working in Poland, making it the largest labor market for IT specialists in Eastern Europe. This compares to about 275,000 in pre-war Ukraine. Let’s have a look at what the going rate in Poland is for Go developers.
The average yearly wage for a Golang developer in Poland is just PLN60,000 (€12,639), according to data from pl.talent.de based on 21 cited salaries, with a rise to PLN98,763 (€20,804) for more senior employees. Our investigation has led us to believe these estimates are grossly off the mark.
The salaries advertised for open positions for Go developers on pl.talent.com corroborate our observations. Junior Go developer positions in Poland typically pay between PLN5,000 (€1053) and PLN10,000 (€2106) a month, or PLN60,000 (€12,636) and PLN120,000 (€25,272) per year.
Current offers for senior Go developers on NoFluffJobs.com indicate monthly salaries of up to PLN32,000 (€6741) or annual salaries of up to PLN384,000 (€80,888), which is broadly in line with our experience in the Polish employment market. Mid-level Go developers in Poland may expect to make between PLN204,000 and PLN264,000 per year (€42,972 and €55,610). This equates to about €3581 and €4634 each month.
Ukraine
It’s remarkable how resilient Ukraine’s IT outsourcing economy has been, given its protracted war with Russia. Before the conflict broke out, the Ukrainian economy relied heavily on the services of an estimated 275,000 IT professionals who worked for Western companies. They can keep working without interruption since most of them are located in relatively secure parts of the nation. Let’s take a look at the salaries of Go specialists.
According to djinni.co, a Ukrainian IT employment portal, the typical income ranges from $3,500 per month (at the time of writing, the dollar and euro are at perfect parity with one another) to $6,000 per month or $42,000 to $72,000 per year. Those figures align with what we’ve seen in the Ukrainian market for Go developers, where the typical income ranges from $4000 to $4500 per month or $48,000 to $54,000 annually.
The average salary for a senior Go developer in Ukraine is $72,000, with the top 10% earning over $90,000.
India
While Eastern Europe’s tech talent pool may be larger, India has been known as a major IT outsourcing market due to its abundance of highly skilled workers in this field. However, due to the country’s large labor pool, salary ranges for IT professionals in India can be very extensive. Businesses can find various experience and skill levels when recruiting from India.
As the labor market globalization continues, senior IT professionals have seen their compensation gap close to that of their foreign colleagues. This is especially true for positions that need specialized knowledge, such as Go developers.
According to in.talent.com, the typical annual compensation for a Go developer in India is 1,500,000 Indian Rupee (€18,752), or 125,000 Indian Rupee (€1562) per month, while the median annual salary for a senior Go developer is 2,500,000 Indian Rupee (€31,254), or 208,333 Indian Rupee.
The average salary for a Go developer in India is just 800,000 Indian Rupee (€10,013) per year, according to data from the employment portal AmbitionBox, with the range going all the way up to 2,250,000 Indian Rupee (€28,162).
In India, the highest-paid Go developers should expect earnings in line with their Eastern European counterparts, while those farther down the pay range can expect significantly lower rates.
The United States of America
Finally, we’ll look at the United States of America (the world’s largest economy and the greatest market for software talent) to compare typical Go developer salaries and rates throughout the world. Because of the strong demand and low supply of qualified software developers, wages in the United States are already rather high for those who specialize in Go.
According to data on wages for 1223 Go developers on talent.com, the average salary is $135,000. This equates to a monthly wage of $11,250. The jobs board reports that the starting salary for a Go developer is $117,000 per year (the salaries questioned probably did include junior roles). This equates to $9750 per month. Go developers in the United States may make as much as $170,000 per year (or $14,167 per month) at the top of the pay range.
Salary ranges for Go developers are more varied on ZipRecruiter.com, another prominent US jobs marketplace. This range illustrates that junior Go developer roles may start at a more reasonable $49,000 per year, or $4083 per week, despite the median value being practically the same at $133,385. According to ZipRecruiter, though, the highest-earning Go experts may make up to $208,500 yearly, or $17,375 per month.
Compared to other back-end developers like Node.js or Java, do Go engineers make more or less money?
This analysis shows that Go engineers earn, on average, somewhat more than their back-end peers with competence in other prominent back-end technology choices like Node.js and Java when comparing global averages. The numbers are nearly the same in Germany. However, the median wage for Go engineers in the UK is around £65,000, whereas it is just £55,000 for those with experience in either Node.js or Java.
The average salary for a Node.js developer in the United States is $120,000 per year, whereas Java developers make $106,000 and Go developers get $135,000. That’s probably because there aren’t as many available Go developers, so companies are bidding against one another to hire them.