Three figures frame every quote: what developers earn where the work is done (public wage data), what it costs an employer on top of that (benefits, overhead, idle time), and what the provider adds (cover, a lead, margin). A rate is honest when you can see all three inside it.
The figures below are medians and averages from government statistics, read on 8 November 2026. They are context, not prices; a quote for your stack, your seniority and your overlap hours is the only number that applies to you.
The public wage figures: USA and Canada
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics' Occupational Outlook Handbook puts the median annual wage for software developers at $135,980 in May 2025. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $82,460 and the highest 10 percent more than $214,670. The occupation held about 1.7 million jobs in 2025, and employment is projected to grow 10 percent from 2025 to 2035, much faster than the average for all occupations, which keeps pressure on wages.
The Government of Canada's Job Bank gives hourly wages for software developers (NOC 21232) in Canada, updated 19 November 2025 for the 2023 to 2024 reference period: a low of $30.00, a median of $48.08 and a high of $76.92 an hour, in Canadian dollars, with provincial figures on the same page. It also notes that 94.8 percent of workers in the occupation receive at least one non-wage benefit.
To put the US figure on an hourly footing, divide by 2,080 working hours a year: the median salary is about $65 an hour, the 10th percentile about $40 and the 90th about $103. That is our arithmetic on BLS figures, before benefits, and it is a wage, not a rate.
From salary to true hourly cost
An employee costs more than the wage. The BLS's Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release for June 2026 reports that across private industry, wages and salaries were 70.0 percent of employer costs and benefits 30.0 percent, and that for full-time private-industry workers benefits were 31.5 percent. On that frame, a developer paid the US median costs the employer roughly $190,000 a year in wages and benefits, before recruiting, equipment, software, training and management time, and before the hours in a year that are not billable to any project.
That is why an honest contractor or provider rate sits above the wage. It has to carry the person's benefits and time off, the overhead of employing them, the idle time between engagements, and a margin. A rate that sits at or below the local wage is not covering those things, and something is being left out: the seniority on the invoice, the overlap with your day, the cover when the person is away, or the quality of the work.
What moves a developer's hourly rate
Seven things set the number on a quote:
- Seniority and track record. A developer who has shipped the kind of system you need costs more per hour and usually less per feature. Ask for the person, not the band.
- Stack and scarcity. Common web stacks price lower than specialist ones; a skill with few practitioners in your time zone prices higher.
- Where the work is done. Wages differ by country and city, and the public figures above show the spread inside one country. A provider's location sets its cost base; what you should judge is the rate against the seniority, overlap and cover it includes.
- Overlap hours. A developer online for your full working day costs more than one who overlaps for two hours, because it constrains the provider's scheduling.
- Commitment. Hourly work for small tasks carries a higher rate than a part-time block, which carries a higher rate than a dedicated full-time developer on a longer term.
- What is included. A lead who plans and reviews, cover when someone is away, project management, testing and documentation each add to the rate or appear as separate lines; ask which.
- Risk and terms. A rate with a monthly cap, an estimate before each task and your right to stop on short notice is priced differently from an open-ended retainer.
How to compare quotes
Put every quote on the same sheet with the same columns, and compare the columns rather than the number:
- The named person or people, their seniority, and whether you can speak to them before signing.
- The overlap hours with your working day, in writing.
- What is inside the rate: a lead, code review, testing, cover, project management, documentation.
- How time is estimated, logged and shown before billing, and whether there is a monthly cap.
- The contract: code assigned to you in writing, your accounts, an NDA, notice on both sides.
- The rate itself, last, and against the public range for the seniority quoted.
Our hourly developers page describes how we handle the fourth column: an estimate before each task, hours logged against the task, and a monthly cap if you want one. Our guide to in-house vs outsourced development compares the full cost of hiring, outsourcing and augmenting.
Hourly, part-time or dedicated: which way to buy
The same developer costs a different amount per hour depending on how you buy their time, and the right way depends on the work. Hourly suits fixes, small features, updates and cover, where the work is uneven and you want to pay only for what is done. Part-time suits a product that needs a steady ten or twenty hours a week. A dedicated developer or team suits a steady stream of work that fills a week, where a lower rate per hour comes with a longer commitment and, for a team, a lead. Our guide to the dedicated development team model covers the last.
If you want a rate from us
PromotEdge International is an international strategy, technology, marketing and design company, and our delivery team is in India. We do not publish rates, because they depend on the role, the seniority, the overlap hours and the length of the commitment; you see the rate and the terms in writing before anyone starts, and you meet the developer first. Our hire developers page lists the ways to buy time from our team, and the code is assigned to you in writing in every one.
Facts we rely on: see our company facts for what we state about ourselves and where each fact comes from.