EU Developer Salaries 2026: Salaries, Taxes, Remote & Where To Go

Today we will be looking at different European countries and put them on a tier list. We will be looking at metrics such as developer salary, tax and cost of living, market saturation, interview difficulty, life quality, whether they are remote and English friendly, and finally it's tech ecosystem. Let's start with number one, Germany, one of the biggest countries, if not the biggest, probably yeah, the still the biggest economy in Europe.

Germany it's also the industrial giant, I would say, in Europe, but not the tech giant, and that's a big issue that Germany is facing right now. Their economy seems closer to the 20, to the past century than the next one. Which has a huge impact on you as a software engineer, because software engineers we're working in the new industry. But Germany salaries will be medium. Okay, a junior developer can expect to make between 45 to 55K euros.

Uh median would be around 55 to 65, maybe 70, maybe 75 depending on the company. And finally, seniors can go anything from 65k, if you haven't negotiated your salary, up to 90, maybe 95. The companies that we've seen that are paying more than 90k in Germany are ironically American companies which are hiring in Europe. With that being said, tax is pretty high, same for the cost of living. Cities like Berlin and Munich, cost of housing, it's crazy.

And as I mentioned, after 60k, you will go up to 42% tax bracket. Uh then you've got like VAT, 20% on everything. So even if Germany, let's say 8 years ago, well, that's where I moved there, I moved to Berlin, I live there for 8 years. It was a very attractive place to be in, because the rest of Europe was kind of stuck. And Germany still had hyping jobs. Taxes also went up to social contributions, and they're projected to only go up.

So it's becoming less of less attractive place. Also, what happens in Germany, it's employees usually get a lot of protection through their contracts. Meaning, it's not easy to get to fire someone if things are not going well. Which is maybe great for employees, but also at the same time it tify wise employers to hire slow. So, the job market, it's not so dynamic as, for example, in the UK or even in the US. On top of that, Germany, it's a big country, it has a lot of tech universities, both in Munich, Berlin, I think Heidelberg, Also, um, also in West Germany. So, you've got lots of developers, lots of computer science, uh, red rates. At the same time, with programs like the Chancen Katy, uh, Germany is making it very easy for international developers to move in because they're in the middle of the demographic crisis and the states needs tax paying citizens. But that puts a lot of pressure on the local market and it's decreasing wages at the time where Germany, I think, ever since 2022, 2023, has been in a recession. Again, I hope they manage to solve these issues, but just keep them in mind. In the end, all these factors account for a hard interview, difficulty, I'll say, not because technical interviews in Germany are hard, but because companies are putting you to five stages of interviews, and then they're really taking their time to hire people. Also, also, I would estimate that aside from Munich and Berlin, more than 50% of companies will ask you for some level of German. And we had this joke with Bagan back in Berlin, that it's easier to learn JavaScript than to learn German. God help us. On top of that, life quality, I would grade it as medium. Yeah, you've got infrastructure, you've got security. It's a European country. But in the end, the weather, it's pretty dire, if you live in Berlin, for example. There's six months of complete darkness. And while this is quite cool, it's makes you quite productive, it also depresses the hell out of you. And bureaucracy, drag it, even in this age of the internet and computers and apps, a lot of stuff in Germany gets done with papers. And before moving there, you think, oh, that's not going to be a big deal, I will deal with it. It will get to you somehow. It will get to you, like you'll get penalized. You'll get fees. Uh, Germany is the kind of country that penalizes mistakes, which is why, if you want to start a software company or you want to be a technical co-founder, you might probably consider it.

a different country in Europe. I'm talking from experience here. In terms of remote and English friendly, we found German companies to be not so friendly, not with remote, not with English. Again, Germany is preferred, especially if you want to grow in the organization. In terms of remote, again, labor laws are not so flexible. So companies cannot just tell you, hey, you can, yeah, you can work from Greece for three months. You probably maybe one in one in 10 companies will do that, but mostly they will want you to be the in a hybrid setup or remote, but based in Germany. So you can go to Berlin or Frankfurt or whatever they have their they have headquarters. And finally, the tech ecosystem, it's very mature. You've got big companies like N26, Zalando, you've got e-commerce, you've got banking, you've got Selonis. But it's not very dynamic and it's growing very slowly. From what I know right now, German companies are growing a lot more outside of Germany and even outside of the EU rather than inside of the country. With that being said, I feel like that's one of the biggest advantage in Germany that, hey, no matter what, you will get some kind of stability, not only because of the, let's say, social state that it's paid with all your taxes, but also because the ecosystem, it's pretty big. And you will find a job. You'll always find someone to to employ you, even if it's not the best paying job ever, right? These are only some of the of the companies and you will see a lot of European companies here like Contentful, Raisin, again, I mentioned Zalando, Trivago, plenty of companies to to work for. Which is why we are going to place Germany in our B tier. This is mostly because of stability. It's used to be an A tier, in my opinion, a few years ago, but now it's kind of stuck. Onto number two, the United Kingdom. The UK, it's a very culturally rich country. It has its pros and cons, great football, great beer, weather, it's a pain. Again, and life in London can be very stressful, not only because of cost of living, but also, you know, commuting, the weather, etc. Now, developer salaries are high and if you look at juniors and mid levels, you'll be like, why why are you saying high?

is for for London, probably outside in the rest of the country, you should account for like 5 to 10k lower. But in London you can go from 40 to 50k. I converted this to euros from pounds. Then a medium dev could look at 60 to 80, and then a senior, and this is why I'm saying high, is because as a senior you can go from 80 to 120, even 150k in London itself. There's a very strong financial sector in London, and they are willing to pay the big bucks, which, for example, in Germany was not the case. So the maximum salary that a developer in the UK, specifically in London, can can reach, it's much higher than other European countries. Now, taxing cost of living, it's high. I mean, I would say crazy. Tax, it's, okay, very similar, slightly lower than Germany, but again, only getting higher. But if you want to rent a flat in a place like London, you'll probably have to rent outside. Okay, London rent, it's crazy, probably I think double or triple than even Berlin, which will eat a big chunk of your salary. That's why I advise you to look for remote and hybrid roles. Which is what most of our students based in the UK are doing. In terms of market saturation, I would say medium. The reason it's the market is pretty big, and also with the UK doing the Brexit and leaving the European area, it means that it's not as easy for European developers from other countries in the EU to immigrate to the UK. Yet, at the same time, the UK has very good relationships still with countries like India, countries that I think belong to the to the British Commonwealth, right? So you'll have more international competition, you know, people from Hong Kong. London, I believe, is probably the most international city in Europe itself, but still the market is big enough to account for that. Interview difficulty, it's medium. I'm saying that because, hey, you don't have to learn German. And British firms are usually more flexible. Again, if you're interviewing for one of the big banks, like JP Morgan or any of the big financial players, do expect a Western style, more American style interview where you might have to do a bit of learning.

code. There will be a huge component of system design. But most small and medium UK companies will test your own skills that are a lot closer to what a developer does day-to-day. For example, if you're a front-end developer, you probably have to build something with React and explain it, etc. In terms of life quality, I would say medium. Burocracy, it's easy. London, even though expensive, there's a lot to do.

It's a huge city, but at the same time, cost of living is very high. The weather is not amazing during most time of the year. So at some point you see developers, you know, going to Spain for three months escaping, then going back to the UK, etc. Which is why we will assign medium to life quality in the UK. Remote and English friendly. Yes, uh, as I said, British companies are a lot more flexible than other European companies, like French, German, Italian.

So you've got tons of remote and hybrid roles. Finally, the technical system, it's mature. It recovered pretty fast from the Brexit. And it seems like it's going to be there for a for a long time. In my opinion, the number one advantage that the UK still has, it's concentration of capital. There's a lot of money in the UK still because of the financial system. And secondly, flexibility. I know if this is cultural, Anglo-Saxon, but this means they are able to navigate crisis a bit better than, let's say, more rigid cultures.

Which is why we will be placing the UK in an A-tier country, I believe the outlook is slightly more positive, Germany. Oh, and by the way, getting to senior will allow you to relocate a lot easier. To find your tinkle gaps, companies are willing to be a lot more flexible for engineers with senior level skills. If you are a JavaScript engineer and you want to find your tinkle gaps to senior, we got you covered.

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And yeah, that's just a pretty tough language. But in the Netherlands, I would say developer salary is quite high, mainly because of the same reason as the UK. Juniors can expect about 43 to 55K euros. A medium engineer would go to 55 up to 75, depending on benefits. And as senior dev, this is why I said high, can go anything from 75K to 110, to 120, to 150. That's because, as you'll see later, the Netherlands has big companies, big European players, which can afford to pay huge salaries.

Taxing and cost of living is pretty high. Dutch tax regimes are a lot more flexible than countries like Germany, but housing in major cities like Amsterdam, it's freaking expensive. The reason being, mainly, I would say the size of the market. Interview difficulty, it's medium. If you're being interviewed by the average Dutch company, you should expect an interview that's much closer to what you do on a daily basis as a software engineer, not the kind of American style where you have to lead code and system design, etc.

Something, again, much closer to what you're what you're building. Life quality, it's pretty high. Living aside, the weather, infrastructure is great. You've got bikes, you've got safety. Amsterdam, it's a cool city. There's a lot to do. The Dutch in general are very organized. But again, this is if you can put up the weather. Remote and English friendly, that's amazing. Dutch people and companies are very international.

Amsterdam, it's quite a financial hub as well. So, very easy to get by if you only speak English. The technological system, it's strong, international and it's growing. Yet, again, the Netherlands, it's a smaller country, so don't expect the same scale as Germany or the UK. At the same time, if you look at Europe, most valuable tech companies founded after 1990s, you'll see that the top two of them, Booking and Atian are both based in Amsterdam.

And then even takeaway, it's also based in in Amsterdam was such a small country, the Netherlands has a high concentration of companies. Which is why we will put the Netherlands in our eight tier, especially because as in the case of the UK, we see a positive trend. We see growth in the next three to five years. On to the next country, oh, the Switzerland. Small country in the Alps, mountain country, a lot of nature, expensive watches and chocolate and cheese, right? That's what people think when you say Switzerland.

Well, the Switzerland has very high developer salaries. Right, junior, we're talking about 70 to 90k, uh medium, 90 to 100k, and this is the thing, senior salaries, I mean it's 120, 160, could be even close to 200 euros or franks. The euro and the frank are very close. Now, tax and cost of living is medium. In my opinion, Switzerland compared to other European countries, it's one of the most efficiently well managed, if I can say that, which translates to a lower tax burden.

Your tax money is used much more efficiently. Uh so you are you're looking at 20 25% tax, uh but again, everything is expensive in Switzerland. And I think last time I checked, just a meal at a restaurant uh for two people can go up to 120, 150, even 200 uh franks or euros, which is crazy for European countries. Market situation, it's low. Uh it is a very small market, it's a very elitistic market.

If you're not a EU citizen, it's tough to get in. That's why I'm saying. That's why the number of developers you will compete with it's low, but at the same time the market is it's small. Interview difficulty, I would say it's high because again, German and qualifications are required for most jobs. It's not easy, or at least not as easy to get into the Switzerland as it is to get into Germany or even the UK.

In terms of life quality, Switzerland has one of the highest in in Europe. If you look at cleanliness and safetyness, it's very organized. Back when I was in high school, I remember being in a in a summer camp with a bunch of Swiss people and they told me, uh, their parents told them, they country, it's like, uh, built in a, in a fairy tale, right? It's so beautiful and so clean and they want to keep it that way.

Uh, which I would say congrats to the Swiss. That's the kind of mindset you want to have. But life in Switzerland can get a bit boring. Swiss culture can be very closed. Some people burn out, some people love it. It really depends on your preferences. Remote and English-friendly, no, locals are preferred for jobs, and there are few English roles. Again, Swiss-German, small country, they want to defend their, yeah, national identity, totally makes sense.

And finally, the tech ecosystem, it's small, but elite, uh, there is strong finance, strong biotech. What you will see in Switzerland, especially in these smaller markets, is that tech stacks are usually a bit behind uh what you see in bigger markets. And the reason for that, it again has to do with how dynamic uh the tech ecosystem is in those countries. For all these reasons, we will put Switzerland in the S-tire.

If you're a software engineer in Europe and you want to make a lot of money and pay little tax and get a high level of life quality in return, then Switzerland, it's for you. Onto our next country, Ireland. It's also a small European country with amazing beer, amazing songs, uh not so great weather, but with a lot of American tech companies being headquartered in Dublin. Which is why I would say developer salary, it's very high in Ireland.

Not junior, not medium, junior 40 60k. Again, for a city like as expensive as Dublin, it will be tough for you to get by. Medium salary, maybe 60 to 80k for people that are close to senior. But again, here is where where it gets interesting because senior salaries can scale from 80k, which I'll say is the lower on the lower spectrum, up to 120, but even up to 180 as a final package, right? If you work for one of the frank companies.

In terms of tax and cost of living, it's high. Tax is high, and rent, it's insane. Okay, so you have to keep that in mind. If you are a senior dev, or if you get to senior, your salary will make up for it. In terms of market saturation, I'll say medium. Again, it's a small market. There is lots of foreign talent, but still not as big as other countries in Europe. Interview difficulty, I'd say is medium, but there's lots of US-style interviews at Big Tech.

If you're going to interview for one of the American companies out there, then be prepared for a lead code round, and probably system design, maybe some hands-on coding in your in your language of choice. Life quality, it's pretty high, I'd say. It's safe, it's friendly. People single a lot. They drink a lot of Guinness. Uh, but, but be careful with the summer. Because it's probably non-existent. Uh, remote and English-friendly, 100% companies based in Ireland are quite flexible on that side.

A lot more flexible than companies in Germany or Switzerland. The technical system, it's I'd say excellent. You've got strong US tech presence, probably the biggest US tech presence in Europe. You've got companies like Meta and Google and Stripe, they have their offices there. These are just a few of them. But as you can see, a lot of the big American players are present there, and they are hiring.

Which is why we will place Ireland up in our S tier, because if you want to work for top tech companies in Europe, it's probably your best choice. If you want to work for one of the big names, Poland. We are now moving towards Eastern Europe, beautiful country, very green. Developer salary in Poland, it's I'd say medium. Okay, junior can be quite low, 22 to 35k. Medium, 35 to 45k. This is new euros and senior 45 to 60, maybe you can even reach 70k or more in cities like Warsaw.

But again, cost of living, it's also scaled. And the nice part with Poland, it's developer salaries are going up. IT and software development have been going a lot. But at the same time, cost of living, it's scaling. Tax and cost of living are medium. Why? I mean, tax on employees, it's still high, but it's mostly paid by the employer. If you go into a B2B contract, which is very common, in Poland, that you work for a company but as a freelance uh independent contractor, you get a flat tax regime going from 12 to 20% tax and a very affordable cost of living.

In terms of market saturation, it's medium. I'd say, yes, there are many developers. Uh it's a competitive market, but that competition will mostly come from the local market. Polish culture has not been I'd say traditionally so open to immigrants in especially international immigrants, which kept the market quite tight. Interview difficulty, it's medium, unless, again, you're interviewing for an American or American style companies, some of the many of them are actually opening offices in Warsaw.

Life quality, it's medium I'd say. Poland, it's very safe. Uh it's relatively cheap compared to neighboring countries. But, again, the freaking weather. Just like in Germany, you will get gray skies for about six months. And if you're used to the cold and grew you grew up in such a country, then you're going to be fine with it. If you're someone coming from warmer climates like Latin America or Mediterranean countries, you might suffer a bit.

In terms of remote and English friendly, there's a strong outsourcing culture in Poland. Actually, this is one of the drawbacks, I'd say, of the Polish ecosystem. They still have to build their own players. As of now, they're together with together with other countries in Eastern Europe, they are a capital of outsourcing. But you have many English teams and as you probably know, people in East Europe, programmers usually have very good level of English.

Finally, they take ecosystem, it's going fast and has been growing incredibly fast, just like the Polish economy as a whole. Yet, a lot of the jobs are more focused on outsourcing than rather than product development. And this is something that will dictate the kind of work you do as a software engineer. And the same can be said about another country, which is the Czech Republic, also in Eastern Europe.

There are differences between Poland and Czech Republic, mainly, I'd say the Czech Republic, it's smaller, The cost of living in the Czech Republic, it's I'd say slightly higher, especially in Prague, but the tech ecosystem dynamics are very, very similar. So, we are going to place Poland and the Czech Republic into the B-tier, if these countries keep developing the way they did, someday, I'm sure they will get into the A-tier and will even overpass countries like Germany. Onto number seven, France, Spain, Italy, and Portugal. Our beloved Mediterranean countries, these countries are famous for nice weather, delicious food, and culture. If you look at the data, France, Italy, and Spain consistently rank between the most visited countries worldwide. Very beautiful countries to visit and to live in. But, salaries are quite low compared to other European countries, a junior dev can look at 20 to 30K euros. A mid-level dev will be somewhere between 30 and 45K, and seniors can expect between 45 and 65. Even 75 in some of the big companies in Paris, for example, in France. Tax and cost of living, it's high. This is mainly because, of course, the welfare state, very strong welfare state that these countries has, but also the aging population, which means that existing young taxpayers have to pay contributions of the pensioners, but right now, every year pensioners are outpacing young workers. Which is an issue at European scale, but these countries are one of the most affected. Cost of living, on the other side, it's high, mainly because of tourism, which increases housing price in cities like Barcelona and Rome and Milan and Paris, making it a lot higher for locals to to get by. Market saturation, I'd say it's medium. Uh yeah, you have many local devs, but they struggle with English, so not so much competition for jobs that require English. And you don't have such a tech and I'd say senior culture. Again, tech ecosystems in this country are younger, relatively younger.

France. So you don't have this matured tech culture that you can find for example in the UK. Interview difficulty, I'll say it's medium because of the same reason. It's just the level of the tech eco system as a whole. And for example, developers from these countries that we work for, they want to get a remote job for maybe an American company or a more international company. And that's when you can clearly see the gap in English level, tech skills, etc. This is something they need to work on for them to be competitive.

But life quality, it's freaking amazing. I mean, you get sun, you get food, you get amazing culture. There's always something to do. Back in Germany, we had this joke that, hey, why are Spanish people not living in masses? from Spain if they've got a a European passport? And the answer was, well, because the best thing that a Scandinavian or a German or a UK salary can can buy you in the end, it's two weeks of holidays in Spain.

In terms of remote and English friendly, not really. Uh, it's improving, but if you want to get by in a city like Madrid or even Milan, especially Paris, you need to speak French, Italian or or Spanish, whatever the the the local language is. I believe Lisbon, Portugal, it's a lot more English friendly these days. But again, if you truly want to integrate, you will have to learn the local language.

Also, many companies in these countries are a bit more old school in terms of management style, in terms of remote, so you won't get as much flexibility as you will get from international companies. Finally, the tech eco system, it's growing, but slowly. You've got very few high paying startups. That's because when companies scale, they usually get out of those countries. They look for more capital, bigger markets, etc.

It's a great deal if you get a remote job. Which is why we are going to place these countries in the C tier. Oh, and by the way, congratulations on making it this far. Make sure you hit that subscribe button before we move on to our honorable mentions. And our first mention, it's the Nordics, where Santa comes from, and Denmark. The Nordics are relatively small countries in the northern Europe, very famous because of the Vikings and cold winters, and they very protective welfare state, which has an influence on the tax you pay.

Developer salaries there are very high, I would say. Junior can start at 45 to 60k, medium 60 to 85, senior 90 to 120k. In this case, Norway and Denmark are paying the most, Sweden and finally Finland are slightly lower. Even if salaries are high, tax and cost of living, it's insanely high, I believe top tax bands go up to 45 to even 55% and you have very high rents in capitals. But hey, once you have a job and you're in the system and you pay your tax, the government will really take care of you.

You've got free high quality education, free healthcare, unemployment insurance, you've got culture, you've got a lot of things. Let's say that even if you pay a lot, the government is famous for really doing their job in these countries. Now, market saturation it's medium, I would say. Again, those are small markets. It's not so easy to get in, but once you're in, you're in. In terms of interview difficulty, I would say medium, except for some maybe high-tech companies.

Expect a very normal interview. These days, some companies will throw in some system design, but nothing close to a company based in Silicon Valley. Life quality, I would grade it medium. You've got amazing social security and infrastructure. Yes. Damn, the winter, I mean, you are up north, brother. You will spend six to seven months in complete darkness. If you can put up with that, then it's amazing.

If not, you won't last a long time. These countries are very remote and English friendly. Everybody speaks English, but to integrate, keep in mind, these societies, again, they are very small countries, kind of a colder culture, maybe because of the weather. So, if you really want to stay there long term, I mean, you've got strong startups, like Spotify, Kleer, Unity, but not a huge market. Again, small countries, small market.

Which is why we are going to place Sweden, Denmark, and Norway into our A-tier. The reason for that is salaries are still high enough for them to offset cost of living and taxes. But Finland will go into our B-tier, the main reason behind that is they've been having some economic troubles in the last couple of years. And finally, onto our next stop, the rest of Eastern Europe, Hungary, Romania, my native country, Bulgaria, and Serbia.

And for my American friends, but also European friends who never been to Eastern Europe. I know this is probably how you think the place looks like, based in certain movies. But hey, we also have castles and mountains, and they are very beautiful places to visit. Now, most countries in Eastern Europe are small and they have a very strong national identity. Even I would say stronger than than the Nordics. Many of them are also still developing or catching up ever since the 90s. So, the majority of the tech sector there, it's heavily dependent on the more developed economies to outsourcing.

Dev salary, it's pretty low. I'll say 20 to 30k for a junior. Mid can get anything between 30, 40, even 45. Again, there are variations by country, and seniors can go up to 45, even 70, 75, even 80ks in some cases. And the best part, it's tax and cost of living. It's relatively low compared to Western Europe. If you're an employee, this is mostly paid by the employer, but but as in the case of Poland, a lot of developers in these countries are B2B contractors, in which case you can benefit from a 10 to 20% tax.

But you also have to keep in mind, in the last 10 years, especially in the case of Romania who already have an aging population. So, be prepared for tax to go slightly up. Yet, again, cost of living, it's very low. In terms of market saturation, again, I'll say medium. There is a lot of outsourcing, there's many local developers. But, many jobs, and funny enough, while a lot of countries in Western Europe were facing layoffs, these countries were growing and growing because a lot of companies are relocating their developer teams there.

In terms of interview difficulty, I'd say easy to medium. But, I will also say it depends, companies in Budapest or Bucharest will be pretty tough on interviewing. Why? Well, because they can. It's a big city, they can find people, so do expect hard interviews if you are interviewing for certain companies. Especially in the last couple of months and years, technical interviews are getting more and more competitive in these countries.

In terms of life quality, I'll say it's medium. Yeah, it's it's cheap, but again, there is still a lot of corruption, politics, everything that comes with a developing country. And we have this joke in in Romania that we we've been developing for 100 years, you know, like like we never get out of that of that stage. The quality of state services is pretty poor, including education and healthcare. So, again, you are in a country which is still behind in terms of Western standards, specifically when we talk about public services.

In terms of remote and English friendly, that's pretty great. Companies are quite open and everybody's got a good level of English. Now, the main reason for that is not that we get a lot of tourists or foreigners, is because they are very open to business, especially with foreign companies, which bring investment, etc. And finally, the technical system. I mean, Romania and Serbia, they probably have the strongest one.

You've got, you know, Fintech, you've got gaming, security. I still believe the biggest sector it's outsourcing, like software outsourcing. Hungary, it's a bit weaker and it's been stagnating in the last couple of years. And Bulgaria, it's improving steadily. I think they are going to join the euro uh pretty soon, so they are moving totally for white. Which is why we are going to place these countries in the C tire.

And if they keep up the good work in the next couple of years, hopefully not decades, they might get up to the B tire. And finally, we stay on the east, but we go south, Greece, amazingly beautiful country in the southern Eastern Europe. Tons of culture, one of the major influence actually in European culture as a whole. Unfortunately, it's very similar to Spain and Italy, but with lower salaries and higher taxes, which is why sadly we will place Greece in our D tire.

If you are a software developer there and you want to grow, you want an international career, you'll probably have to leave the country. I truly hope things will improve in the next couple of years, but you never know. With that being said, folks, question for you, do you agree with the ranking? Is there any country I missed that you would like to add? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you, folks, in the next one.