Salaries for Web Developers in India? How high are they?
Web developers are a group of people who are always in high demand. There might be a rise and a lull in other kinds of jobs, but a web developer will never go out of a job, irrespective of whether they are a fresher or an experienced developer. Web development is the comprehensive process of building a website from scratch, it could be a simple one-page website, or a full fledged website suitable for myriad businesses. This job is done by web developers, so their duty starts with designing the website to executing and maintaining it.
When hiring a web developer or a team of web developers, you need to pay them as per their skill and knowledge. The job might look similar, but the complexity of the task (web development) depends on the project, it could be a simple website about your business or a full fledged e-commerce site.
Qualifications of a web developer
Educational qualifications:
Web developers are required to have a bachelor’s degree in computer science, computer programming, informational technology, Multimedia and Web Design, Post graduation in E-commerce and Web Design.
Communication skills
A web developer must have excellent communication skills, because he has to coordinate with web designers, and work in a team environment.
The developer must interact with the client, and make the changes suggested by them if the need arises, pay attention to detail and meet deadlines.
Knowledge of Javascript HTML and CSS
Since the developer has to build the website from scratch, knowledge of all the necessary programming languages is a must.
Be updated on the latest technologies
The web developer must be proficient in the basics of programming language like HTML, Javascript, C++, CSS for starters. It is also good if they know more programming languages and their versions including Angular JS, Ajax, Python, Golang, PHP and Ruby.
There are different kinds of developers, depending on the task they are assigned to do:
- The full-stack developer
- The back-end developer
- The front-end developer
The full stack developer
The full-stack developer will have an all-round knowledge of different technologies, not just one area of development. They share their expertise on the front-end server and the back-end too.
The back-end developer
For a website, the backend part means server, application and database, and this is where the developer will focus his skills on. A backend developer should have expertise in tools like MySQL, Oracle and SQL Server. They have the power to change data and respond to user in the front-end.
The frontend developer
The frontend developer deals with that part of the website that users interact with. Everything that the user does while navigating the internet, is the work of a front-end developer, and then the backend developer.
If you wonder what the difference is between a web designer and a web developer, then let’s make that clear. A web designer concentrates on the visuals/graphics and multimedia aspect of the website with the help of creative tools like Adobe.
A front-end developer concentres on building the interface for the website’s designing uses coding languages like CSS, HTML and Javascript.
Similarity: They both focus on the user-experience aspect
What’s different: The web designer is more worried about the appearance of the surface, and the web developer works hard on the functional aspect of each element that you see on the website.
There are no compartmentalised roles between frontend and backend developer, because they have to know the processes involved in both. If you are looking for a generalised role and are cutting back on resources, then going for a full-stack web developer would be a good idea.
The pay aspect
Now comes the real question. How much to pay for the web developer? A lot of things can be factored in when you think about the salary to pay developers.
Location: The salary depends on the location, because though comparatively cheaper in India, the exact remuneration depends on which city in India you are hiring them from. Metro cities. The salary in B-tier cities will be even lower. Therefore, the salary can range from Rs $7 an hour to $50 an hour depending on where you are hiring from. The advantage of hiring a high salaried web developer is that you get someone with several hours of work experience. Bengalurru, Hyderabad, Mumbai are places where the salary is the highest, and developers from Chennai, Kochi and Calcutta fall in the next slab.
Experience: Experience always demands money. Sometimes, a fresher might have new and raw talent that really might work in the outside world, but little practical experience. A seasoned programmer might know how to handle this better, and so would be able to guide the fresher through the process.
The business: Everybody needs a web developer, startups usually hire freshers because they cannot afford to spend too much money at first, whereas big, reputed companies will need to hire experienced developers with premium-level skills. The high the brand of company, the higher the salary. So web developers that start small always aim for bigger fish.
Skill set: Obviously, the higher the skill level of the developer, the higher the cost. Once again, location will factor in too.
The salary would also depend on whether you are getting a full developer for your company, a team of developers with a mix of talent or hiring on a contractual basis from an agency.
Freelance web designers are in great demand, and you can hire them from any online job portals, LinkedIn, community forums and so on. Hiring from a web development agency would make the job easy for you because they have already done all the hard work of whetting the developer, according to their skill and expertise.
A full-stack developer has the skills of both frontend and backend developer, so they will have high chances of getting hired by a big brand for a higher salary. If you have skills in web designing, it would be adding to the skills in the arsenal, and therefore higher salary.
On an average, a full-stack developer can earn as high as 7 lakhs INR per annum in Hyderabad, and lower, if coming from other cities. You can expect to paya web developer the starting salary of 1 lakh INR per annum, depending on location. This is without adding the other perks and bonuses.
Conclusion
Web development is a vast field, and a lot of factors are involved while deciding the salary, as explained above. The real influencer of the salary is of course, the skills and your mastery over them. If you can make the company grow, then you will grow as well, and vice versa.
Interesting Links:
More information about Web Development
Want to become a Web Developer?
Pictures: Canva
The author: Sascha Thattil works at Software-Developer-India.com which is a part of the YUHIRO Group. YUHIRO is a German-Indian enterprise which provides programmers to IT companies, agencies and IT departments.
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