App Developer Salary (2024)

With a rapid advance of the mobile app ecosystem that features growing adoption of theInternet of Things ecosystem, Blockchain, Machine Learning and AI technologies, as well as AR and VR (think Meta’s Metaverse), more and more peopledecide to join a multi-million army of mobileapp developers.

Thanks to the Apple’s skyrocketing financial success with the mobile tech, the iOS developer salary has a special appeal to software developers who wants to be on the bleeding edge of mobile and be paid one of the top salaries in the software industry.

On the other hand, Android, that has the widest adoption worldwide, especially in Latin America and Europe, also secures salary of an Android developer that is on par with the iOS app developer salary. We should also mention that both platforms, along with application development industry in general, provide app developers with flexibility of working remotely, ability to relocate anytime they need and, given stable high demand, confidence about their future financial security.

In 2022, the total number of developers, who were building for mobile, reached 27 million. Quoting Marc Andreessen “Software eats the world”, meaning software – and especially mobile – permeates every business vertical on the planet and, as a consequence, we see a desktop or mobile app software developer profession popularity skyrockets.

With this number of people being a part of the mobile app ecosystem, a question like what is an average Android and iOS developer salary becomes paramount for anybody who considers if she or he should choose a career of a mobile app developer.

In this guide, we want to answer this question, provide you statistics about iOS and Android developer salary and how they compare.

Mobile App Developer Salary Key Data Points:

• Worldwide mobile app revenue in 2021 – $170 billion
• US mobile app developer average salary is ~$121k / year
• Indian mobile app developer average salary is $4k / year
• iOS app developer salary highest in the US is $115k / year
• Android app developer salary highest in the US is $113k / year

These are just a few key data points for you to get a quick peek into what is an average mobile developer’s salary, let’s dig deeper.

We’ve divided this research into four major sections, covering the overall health of the app development market plus specific app salary data points for Android and iOS developers in various geographic markets.

Before will get into how much money app developers are making, we’re going to set the stage by looking at how much revenue the app industry churns out year over year.

App Revenue

Let’s start with a broad picture of how much mobile app revenue developers generated in recent years with in-app purchases, in-app advertising and from app copy sales on the app stores combined. In the absence of precise aggregated numbers from app development companies combined, we will compare data from two leading app industry analytical companies – Data.ai (former App Annie) and Sensor Tower.

The recent data from Sensor Towerreveals that in 2020 and 2021 app revenues grew significantly on both App Store and Google Play. The major outcome from both reports is that when it comes to revenue, the Apple’s App Store is still way ahead of Google’s Google Play market. Roughly $9 billion for the Google Play store, from $38.8 billion in 2020 to $47.9 billion in 2021 and $13 billion for the App Store, from $72.3 billion in 2020 to $85.1 billion in 2021.

Worldwide Mobile App Revenue in 2020-2021, ($ billions)

The Data.ai reports provides the other breakdown – Gaming versus Non-Gaming for both the App Store and Google Play. The common trend for both app stores is that the gaming sector still dominates, $35 billion versus $10 billion for Google Play and $55 billion versus $35 billion for the App Store. In total the App Store still generates more than twice as much as Google Play, $90 billion vs. $49 billion for the Google Play counterpart.

Worldwide Gaming vs. Non-Gaming revenue in 2021, ($ billions)

The mobile app industry has grown to a highly competitive and challenging one, where app developers’ revenue level significantly varies. To see how much, let’s take a look at the following graph that presents data for app developers’ revenue for independent developers, medium and large-size studios. A couple of things strike you right away – almost three-quarters of independent app developers make less than $1,000 a month. On the other side of the spectrum are large studios, 55% of those making more than $10,000, and 34% preferred not to reveal their revenue at all, which certainly doesn’t mean they are on a brick of going broke – quite opposite. Overall independent app developers’ average monthly revenue is $1,500, medium-size company developers make $7,500 a month and large studios developers teams generate on average $44,000 monthly.

Monthly mobile app developersrevenue percentage split, by company size ($k)

Source:Mobiversal

Nest up app developer salary benchmark to consider is how much money do mobile app developers do in different countries. The United States still dominates with respect to how much developers can earn a year – roughly $121,000, Australia holds the second position with $96,000, Germany comes next with $68,000 and at the very end of this scale is India with $5,000 (yes, Indian app development market still provides the cheapest workforce). One thing we should remember that a salary figure alone doesn’t indicate how valuable this annual income is in a particular country, we also should factor in an average salary figure in those countries. With that in mind, $5,000 annual salary in India doesn’t look that low because the annual median per capita income in India is around ~$300.

Mobile App Developer average annual salary in 2022, by country, ($k)

Source: Indeed.com

One of the crucial factors that influences mobile app developers’ salary is what app coding experience they have, it directly translates into how much money companies are willing to pay for their service. Let’s take a look at top software development markets such as Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States so we can approximate its trends on mobile app developers’ salaries in general.

Software developers with up to 5 years of experience can make about $40,000 in France and UK, close to $50,000 in Germany and Canada, and almost $75,000 in the US. Having 5 to 10 years of coding experience under their belt, allows developers to ask for $100,000-112,000 in the United States, around $55,000-70,000 in Canada, and only $50,000 in France. US developers who have dedicated 15 years of their life and more make about $125k / year, on the other hand, French developers with the same experience make about $60k / year.

Annual median app developer salary, by coding experience($k)

Source: Stackoverflow

iOS vs. Android Development Salary

Mobile app developers are being paid a different salary based on their location. Let’s take a look at the salary they get in a few cities in the US and analyze the impact of choosing a specific mobile platform on how much money they make. Among six US cities there is a significant number of mobile app developers located in the following cities – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, New York, and Cupertino. San Francisco is where iOS developers make the most – on average $141,000 a year. On the Android side, again – San Francisco is the place where Android app developers make the most – $139,ooo a year. Even though, in other cities developers are paid less, the overall trend remains – app developers for both leading platforms are being paid almost the same salary. It’s yet another proof of an observation made by Benedict Evans, ex analytic of the Andreessen Horowitz VC firm – both iOS and Android mobile platforms won.

Annual iOS vs Android app developer salary, by the US city ($k)

Source: Indeed.com

After comparing what major mobile app development platforms iOS and Android have to offer developers, let’s review them separately.

iOS Developer Salary

First up is the Apple’s mobile operating system. Let’s analyze how much iOS developers make in different countries. It’s a small wonder that the US is the leader with iOS app developers making $115k a year on average. Australian iOS coders take the second place with $87k a year, followed by Canadian and British app developers making $77k and $78k annually respectively. In Germany iOS developers can secure $66k a year and India to this day is the cheapest app development market, with $4k a year is what Indian iOS developer can expect to be paid.

iOS app developer salary, by location ($k)

Source: Indeed.com

Turning to how app development experience influences iOS app developers’ annual salary. An entry-level (0-5 years of experience) iOS developer may expect to be paid about $69k a year, having 5-10 years of experience under your belt, brings an additional $15k of an annual income. iOS development professionals at the middle of their career make $107k on average, which is followed by another $16k extra later on as they reach the Late Career stage.

The US iOS app developer annual salary, by experience ($k)

Source: Payscale.com

Android Developer Salary

Moving from iOS to Android, yet again the US is leading the pack with Android developers making $113k a year, Australia takes a distant second place with $97k and the UK closes the top three with $78k salary British app developers make a year.

Android app developer salary, by location ($k)

Source: Indeed.com

For Android app development we can see a similar pattern, with slightly different rates. It starts with $68k annual salary for the Entry Level skills in the Android app development, followed by an $18k increase once you reach the Early Career stage, maximizing at the Experienced stage when Android app developers make $116k a year and then surprisingly goes down to $98k a year for the Late Career stage.

US Android App Developer Salary, by experience ($k)

Source:PayScale

Final Thoughts

As of March 2022, an average annual salary of a mobile app developer in the US is $121,000. Mobile app developers counterparts in other countries are being paid significantly different, ranging from $96,000 in Australia to $4,000 in India, both the local economy and the scale of the mobile app ecosystem influence the financial compensation mobile app developers get in these countries. The mobile ecosystem has engulfed all developed and many developing countries are on the path to become fully mobile, latest cutting-edge technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence allow to significantly increase the value of several billion mobile devices people own. Internet of Things ecosystem adoption is slower than people believed but it is growing too. All three vectors bring lots of new opportunities for mobile app developers, including generating greater income thanks to high demand for these above-mentioned tech.