The demand for blockchain developers is at an all-time high. It is currently the fastest-growing skill on upwork.com: blockchain developers saw a jaw-dropping 6,000% increase in demand, compared to the same period from 2017.
Another freelance marketplace, Toptal, has reported a similar trend. The blockchain developer demand here grew 700% in just a year.
Yet, where there’s demand there’s not always the supply. Blockchain is still a pretty rare skill. As a result, most employers struggle to find the right talent fast. And, while remote hiring can potentially solve the problem, blockchain developer salaries represent another burning issue businesses need to address.
How much does it cost to hire a blockchain developer in 2018? How do the prices range depending on location? Does it make sense to look for in-house blockchain developers in the US or is it better to hire remotely?
In this article, we will look into the given questions to help you make one of the most important hiring decisions in terms of location and rates. Now, let’s get down to the facts.
Blockchain developer salary in the US
As the world’s major tech hub, the US has always had the highest demand for skilled IT specialists. Quite naturally, the situation with blockchain specialists is no different. There are thousands of companies and startups hiring developers and consultants for their projects.
To score the best talent, the employers have been raising the bar for salary expectations. As a result, the average blockchain developer salary in the US currently equals $95,545, according to paysa.com.
Source — paysa.com
On the other hand, the reported average salary for blockchain developer on Glassdoor is considerably lower — only $79,985. Here’s how blockchain developer salaries in the US differ from city to city, according to the resource.
Source — glassdoor.com
As we can see, San Francisco and New York are the highest-paying cities in the USA. An average blockchain developer salary in San Francisco is $100,819 while a blockchain developer in Atlanta can expect to get only around $80,000.
However, the salary reports provided by other resources tend to vary. Hired.com has a different data regarding the salary ranges depending on developer’s location. For example, blockchain developer in Chicago earns $112,333, according to the resource (compared to $80,988 reported by Glassdoor).
Source — glassdoor.com, hired.com
In any case, you can’t expect to hire an in-house blockchain specialist for less than $80,000 per year.
If you don’t have the budget to grow your in-house team, consider remote hiring. It can be a viable alternative to traditional hiring as well as a great way to reduce your expenses up to 30%. There are many online platforms for hiring remote blockchain developers to choose from.
Blockchain developer salary in Europe
Compared to the USA, the hiring landscape is somewhat different in Europe. There aren’t that blockchain developer jobs in Germany or, for example, France. In this case, Europe is still far behind the US blockchain development eco-system. Except for the UK which seems to be a separate hub.
According to itjobswatch.co.uk, the average pay here equals £73,750 (around $98,824). A blockchain developer in London can expect to get a somewhat higher wage — £75,000 ($100,495).
Another popular job search portal, hired.com, shows a somewhat lower blockchain developer salary in London — only £69,654 ($93,347). As for the rest of the country, there aren’t enough data to draw any conclusions. The number of job postings across the cities other than London is very small.
As for the employment type, most companies prefer hiring permanent in-house workers rather than short-term contractors. The trend has become especially prominent in the UK over the last year.
Source — www.itjobswatch.co.uk
We believe this trend can be explained by the fact that most of the big companies such as Accenture, for example, hire blockchain developers in-house and not remote contractors because of sensitive data trust required on their internal projects.
Switzerland, another popular European IT hub and the country with the world highest software engineer salaries, is reportedly offering a very generous pay. Blockchain developers here can expect to earn from $120,000 to $180,000 per year, according to the Business Insider.
Blockchain developer salary in Australia
Most jobs advertised on the local job search portal jora.com list the estimated compensation of between $90,000 and $110,000. Almost 30% of the companies are ready to pay more than $110,000 per year.
The employers in Australia also seem to be well-aware of the cost of a great talent: just under 1% of them expect to hire a blockchain developer with the salary lower than $50,000.
Source — au.jora.com
Melbourne and Sydney are quite predictably the two cities with the most blockchain jobs advertised. Despite the fact that there is a clearly higher demand for blockchain developers in Melbourne, Sydney offers higher wages on average. Around 95% of blockchain developers in Sydney get more than $70,000 (compared to 90% in Melbourne).
Freelance blockchain developer hourly rates
As we can see, hiring blockchain developers on-site can be costly, especially if your business is located in the most pricey countries, such as the USA or Switzerland. That’s why so many businesses choose to hire freelance contractors instead of in-house employees. Yet, there are still certain challenges to consider.
One of the freelance marketplaces, Upwork.com currently features around 300 blockchain developers (when searching by the title). However, only 129 of them have earned at least a $1 on the platform. If we go into more details, there are just 74 specialists with the job success rate of 80% and higher.
As for the cost, most freelance blockchain developers on Upwork.com charge $10-$30 per hour (46% of the freelancers).
A more detailed look at the freelancer rates shows that the average blockchain developer hourly rate equals $55 with the minimum of $5 and the maximum of $300.
A popular blockchain hiring platform, Cryptohire, has a more narrow price range: from $40 to $135. The average hourly rate of a blockchain developer here is around $50-$70. The price difference can be explained by the fact that the specialists here are pre-vetted and trusted professionals working for some of the best IT consulting companies in the world.
General trends and companies hiring blockchain developers
Browsing through some blockchain developer jobs (remote as well as on-site), you can see any types of forward-thinking companies. There are corporate giants like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Visa, Mastercard, Accenture, and Facebook. Even some companies in the automotive industry, including BMW, GM, Ford, and Renault, are looking to hire blockchain developers.
Many startups across different industries are also in search of blockchain developers for hire, including Udacity, Circle, Blockstack, CoinList, Paxos, Bloom, just to name a few. And of course, there are dozens of blockchain startups targeting to disrupt specific industries like real estate or banking.
Most companies are looking for middle-level specialists, full time. Only around 8% of employers offer contract-based positions.
Source — indeed.com
However, it can be viewed as a good news: while bigger companies are looking for in-house full-time employees, the talent pool of remote contractors specializing in blockchain development remains open for the new opportunities.
Wrapping up
There are dozens of aspects that influence the blockchain developer salaries: location, experience, type of employment, company size, additional skills, etc. One thing always remains unchanged: great talent comes at a cost. Be it San Francisco, Berlin, or Bangkok — you can always find someone to do the job cheaper. The question is, will it be worth it?
Of course, you can always save a few bucks by filling blockchain developer jobs remotely. Yet, freelance marketplaces, as well as freelancers themselves, cannot give you the quality and reliability you need to build a great product.
Here is the solution. A great alternative which combines the flexibility and cost-efficiency of freelance developers with the reliability and quality of in-house employees. Plus you can pay engineers in Bitcoin, Ethereum or other tokens on this platform if you wish:
Cryptohire provides you with the access to some of the best blockchain talents, hand-picked and managed by pre-vetted software firms. You can browse through the available profiles of remote specialists, compare their rates, and set up your offshore development team of blockchain developers, 10 times faster than with traditional recruiting. Cryptohire enables the payments only for the work you accepted with a 3-sided Ethereum smart contract.
I hope now you’ll have enough information to make the right decision where and how to hire your next blockchain development team and what rates to expect.