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Tools, Trends, Titles, What Pays (and What Doesn’t) for Web Professionals

John King & Andy Oram

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2016–2017 Web Salary Survey
Tools, Trends, What Pays (and What Doesn’t)
for Web Professionals

John King and Andy Oram

2016–2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY
by John King and Andy Oram
Editor: Allyson MacDonald
Designers: Ron Bilodeau, Ellie Volckhausen
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 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Table of Contents

2016–2017 Web Salary Survey. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Limitations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Large-Scale Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Developers’ Personal Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Company Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Job Characteristics. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Tools, Languages, and Platforms. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Conclusion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

V
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

OVER 2,000 THE RESEARCH IS BASED ON DATA collected through

RESPONDENTS
FROM A VARIETY an online, 56-question survey, including demographic
OF INDUSTRIES information, time spent on specific data-related tasks,
COMPLETED
THE SURVEY and the use/non-use of a broad range of software tools.

2016–2017 Web Salary Survey
THE WEB IS A MAJOR EMPLOYER for computer program-
mers and designers. Many people see the web as their big
chance at a career that is both lucrative and fulfilling—witness
the enormous number of companies that offer courses in
various types of web development, and the large numbers of
applicants from whom they can choose their student bodies.
The World Wide Web began as an interlinked system for
sharing hypertext documents amongst a small community
of scientists. Three decades later, the web is everywhere. It’s
your desktop browser, your phone, an app on your tablet, a
ticketing kiosk at the airport, your television, and even in your
car. The web has grown up and it moves incredibly fast.
In its early days, JavaScript was mostly used to glue things
together in the browser. Fifteen years later, things are much
different. JavaScript is one of the most popular and in-­
demand programming languages, and HTML5, CSS, and
other core technologies making up the modern web have
matured with it.
The web also occupies an interesting space in the field of
software development as it proves a welcoming entry point
for beginning programmers and subsequently a space for
2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY
advancement and specialization. The speed of change in web
development, in terms of favored tooling, techniques, and
standards, allows for much innovation in a vibrant ecosystem
of developers. It also presents some challenges for those trying
to keep up, or those trying to survey the field, for instance.
So what can you earn as a web developer? How does the
type of job, the language you use, or your geographic loca-
tion affect your salary? That’s what this report, based on a
survey of more than 2,000 developers, tries to establish.
For the past few years, O’Reilly Media has conducted world-
wide salary surveys of people working in the computer field.
Following a general survey of all computing positions, we
reached out to those doing web work in order to produce
this report.
In the survey, respondents shared details about themselves,
the companies they work for, and their roles. We asked for
specifics regarding age, number of years in the field, job
description, number of work hours, etc. One of the most
interesting parts of the report, we think, concerns tools,
programming languages, and platforms. These have a major
impact on salary.
1
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY
Limitations
OF COURSE, OUR METHODS ARE INEXACT, and you
should be aware of several ways in which this report may fail
to reflect reality:
• The sample size may sometimes be inadequate. Although
2,000 is a large number of people and worth drawing
conclusions from, the conclusions become less reliable as
we break down the respondents into groups that use a
particular tool.
• We had to group people who differ in known ways.
For instance, we sometimes lumped together people
in different countries to get a sample large enough
to be meaningful, and obviously, salaries will vary in
different places.
• The respondents are self-chosen, not a random sample.
They are likely to be people who use O’Reilly Media
products and resources, and might not reflect the field as
a whole.
2
• Because we depend on what respondents say about
themselves, we have to trust them to be accurate and
objective. Some questions are deliberately subjective—for
instance, we ask respondents to rate their own ability to
negotiate for a higher salary.
• The data behind this report was collected in March and
April of 2016. Technical fields change quickly, and it has
been more than six months since the respondents filled
out their surveys.
• Respondents in the web area vary a great deal in both
responsibilities and skills. There is also a great deal of
churn in the field, and part-timers.
With these caveats in mind, let’s see what our data tells us.

THE MEDIAN SALARY IS $78,000 (we use US dollars for all
money in this report). Naturally, there is a lot of variation, but
75% of respondents had a salary of at least $50,000, and 25%
had a salary of at least $109,000. Things are changing fast,
though: salaries rise quickly. 17% of respondents reported a
salary raise of 20% to 30% over the past three years. The salary
raises also form a bell curve around this 17%. For instance,
although 5% reported a decrease in salary, 16% reported that
their salaries had doubled, or even done better, over three years.
The United States paid the highest salaries, with the average
being $98,000. Canada was also pretty high, with a median
of $79,000 (in US dollars), and Australia/New Zealand at
$74,000. Compensation drops off rapidly after that:
• UK and Ireland: average of $62,000
• Rest of Europe: average of $43,000
• Africa: average of $23,000 (but there was a rather high
top quartile of $41,000)
• Asia: average of $21,000 (with a high top quartile of
$47,000)
• Latin America: average of $21,000 (with a high top
quartile of $44,000)
2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY
Large-Scale Findings
The top quartile means that 25% of respondents earned more
than the amount listed. Of course, countries differ in taxation
and the benefits they offer, so salaries have somewhat differ-
ent meanings in different countries.
Because we got a lot of respondents from the US, we could
break them down by region. High salaries in California are no
surprise (particularly given the cost of living there), but the
high average in Southwest/Mountain states is rather unex-
pected. (This category does not include California, which has
its own category.) Utah, with a large web developer commu-
nity, as well as Colorado and Arizona all saw high salaries.
• California: average of $120,000
• Northeast: average of $105,000
• Southwest/Mountain: average of $102,000
• Pacific Northwest: average of $98,000
• Mid-Atlantic: average of $96,000
• South: average of $83,000
• Midwest: average of $80,000
Next let’s drill down into the differences between respon-
dents. The data might affect your career choices.
3
WORLD REGION
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

5% 6%
CANADA
UK/IRELAND
19%
EUROPE (EXCEPT UK/I)
60% 3%
UNITED STATES ASIA

1%
AFRICA
3%
LATIN AMERICA

3%
AUSTRALIA/NZ
BULGARIA
LUXEMBOURG
LITHUANIA
<1% UZBEKISTAN
KAZAKHSTAN
VIETNAM
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
US REGION
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

8% 15%
PACIFIC NW NORTHEAST

10%
18%
22% MIDWEST
MID-ATLANTIC

CALIFORNIA
10%
SW/MOUNTAIN 13%
SOUTH

5%
TEXAS

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

California
Midwest
Northeast

Region
South
Mid-Atlantic
SW/Mountain
Pacific NW
Texas
0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
Range/Median
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Developers’ Personal Characteristics

WE FOUND THAT EACH YEAR of experience is worth about
$1,350. That is, if you have five years of experience, you’re
likely to earn $1,350 more than someone who is similar to you
but has only four years of experience.
Education makes a big difference in salary—something that
may be surprising, given that the web contains a lot of people
who are self-taught or who got brief educational experiences
at for-profit programs. If you have a doctorate, you can expect
to earn on average $10,434 more than someone without one.
Strangely enough, possessing a master’s degree is slightly bad
for salary: respondents with master’s degrees earned $542
less, all else being equal.
Although older respondents tended to earn more, this was
attributable to years of experience. When experience is held
constant, respondents in the 26 to 30 and 31 to 35 groups
earned the most, with an advantage of $3,932 and $3,347,
respectively, over other age groups. Respondents aged 61
to 65 earned $4,526 less than younger respondents with
similar experience.
We asked respondents to rate their bargaining skills on a 1- to
5-point scale; 5 meaning they are a very good bargainer.
(While this rating is very subjective, the subjectivity is appro-
priate for this question because so much about bargaining
has to do with confidence and being able to assess yourself
highly.) For every self-assessed bargaining point, the respon-
dent’s salary estimate goes up by $5,695. So holding every-
thing else constant, someone who gave themselves 5 points
will make 4 x $5,695 = $22,780 more than someone with
1 point.
Gender had a predictable influence on salary in the web field.
Our analysis showed that everything else being equal, men
earned an average of $2,165 more than women.

6
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

21% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

<5 <5

22% 5–8
5–8
9–12

Years
19% 13–16
9–12

16% 17–20
13–16 > 20
6% 0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
17–20
Range/Median
15%
> 20

GENDER
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

13% 87% Female

Gender
FEMALE MALE
Male

40k 60k 80k 100k 120k

Range/Median
PERCENTAGE CHANGE IN SALARY OVER LAST THREE YEARS
Share of Respondents

8%
+30% TO +40%

11% 6%
+40% TO +50%
+20% TO +30%

17%
+10% TO +20%
6%
+50% TO +75%
14%
+0% TO +10%
5%
+75% TO +100% (DOUBLE)
14%
NO CHANGE
4%
+100% TO +200% (TRIPLE)

4%
NEGATIVE CHANGE 3%
OVER TRIPLE

10%
NA (SALARY WAS ZERO)
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQRC* (US DOLLARS)

United States

Europe (except UK/I)

UK/Ireland

Canada

Region
Latin America

Asia

Australia/NZ

Africa

0 30 60 90 120 150
Range/Median

*The interquartile range (IQR ) is the middle 50% of respondents' salaries. One quarter of respondents have a salary below this range, one quarter have a salary above this range.
AGE

8%
20% 51–60
41–50
2%
OVER 60

42%
31– 40
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

under 30

31–40

Age
41–50
29%
UNDER 30 51–60

over 60

0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

Range/Median
 BASE SALARY
Share of Respondents

0k

20k

40k

60k
(US DOLLARS)

80k

100k
Base Salary

120k

140k

160k

180k

200k

>200k

0 5% 10% 15% 20%

Share of respondents
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY
Company Characteristics
THE BEST INDUSTRIES TO WORK FOR, in terms of salary,
were search/social networking and banking/finance. If you are
in search/social networking, you probably earn a whopping
$15,193 more than someone with comparable experience
and characteristics in other industries. In banking/finance,
you can earn $7,043 more. There are a couple of other
advantageous fields:
• Software (including SaaS, web, mobile): $2,142 better
than average
• Publishing/media: $1,376 better than average
But you will be penalized for working in the
following industries:
• Education: $8,608 worse than average
• Carriers/telecommunications: $1,547 worse than average
And think twice before becoming a consultant: they earn
$8,448 less than average.
Company size had a major impact on salary, but not on a
simple linear curve. It looks fairly simple, salary increasing with
12
company size. But when we factor in all the other differences
between employees, it looks like the best salaries are given
out in firms of 1,001 to 2,500 employees, and the next best
size is 101 to 500.
• 1 (4% of respondents): average salary $57,000
• 2 to 25 (22% of respondents): average salary $57,000
• 26 to 100 (17% of respondents): average salary $78,000
• 101 to 500 (18% of respondents): average salary $82,000
• 501 to 1,000 (8% of respondents): average salary $87,000
• 1,001 to 2,500 (8% of respondents): average salary $86,000
• 2,501 to 10,000 (11% of respondents): average salary $88,000
• 10,000 or more (12% of respondents): average salary $98,000
If the company is more than 20 years old, we saw a penalty
of $2,197 for working there. Perhaps this is because people
at such firms stay in one job longer, and don’t experience the
salary boost that others get by moving to new firms.
COMPANY SIZE 8%
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS 1,001–2,500 EMPLOYEES

11%
8% 2,501–10,000 EMPLOYEES
501–1,000 EMPLOYEES

18% 12%
101–500 EMPLOYEES 10,000+ EMPLOYEES

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

17%
26–100 EMPLOYEES 1
2–25
26–100

Company Size
101–500
501–1,000
22% 1,001–2,500
2–25 EMPLOYEES
2,501–10,000
10,000 or more

4% 0 30k 60k 90k

Range/Median
120k 150k

1 EMPLOYEES
INDUSTRY
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
3%
HEALTHCARE/MEDICAL
4%
5%
GOVERNMENT
2%
PUBLISHING/MEDIA CLOUD SERVICES/HOSTING/CDN
5% 2%
BANKING/FINANCE
INSURANCE

6%
RETAIL/E-COMMERCE 2%
NONPROFIT/TRADE ASSOCIATION

6%
ADVERTISING/MARKETING/PR 2%
CARRIERS/TELECOMMUNICATIONS

7% 2%
MANUFACTURING (NON-IT)
EDUCATION

11% 1%
COMPUTERS/HARDWARE
CONSULTING

10%
OTHER

32%
SOFTWARE (INCL. SAAS, WEB, MOBILE)
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

Software (incl. SaaS, Web, Mobile)

Consulting

Education

Advertising/Marketing /PR

Retail /E-Commerce

Banking /Finance

Publishing /Media

Industry
Government

Healthcare /Medical

Cloud Services /Hosting /CDN

Insurance

Nonprofit /Trade Association

Carriers /Telecommunications

Manufacturing (non-IT)

Computers /Hardware

Other

30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

Range/Median
COMPANY AGE
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

22%
11–20 YEARS 39%
> 20 YEARS

19%
6–10 YEARS

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

< 2 years
16% 2–5 years

Company Age
2–5 YEARS
6–10 years

11–20 years

> 20 years

0 20k 40k 60k 80k 100k 120k

4% Range/Median

< 2 YEARS

A MANAGER IN WEB DEVELOPMENT earns $11,689
more than other respondents, and upper management earns
$15,094 more. (We put a number of self-defined job catego-
ries into “upper management:” CEO, president, owner, head
of engineering, VP, etc.) The next best career step is to ascend
to the rank of an architect, where you can earn $9,760 more.
Job titles and company sizes interact in our survey. In small
firms, we get responses from a relatively large number of peo-
ple whose jobs are in “upper management,” but salaries in
small companies are generally lower than those in large ones.
Correspondingly, people whose job titles say “architect” tend
to work for large firms, and benefit from that position.
Other bonuses and penalties added up as follows:
• Senior engineer/developer: $4,311 better than average
• Principal/lead: $1,896 better than average
• System administrator: $2,636 worse than average
• Engineer/developer/programmer: $3,243 worse
than average
2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY
Job Characteristics
And among these job descriptions, consultants again come
out the big losers: $6,547 worse than average.
Hours Worked
On the web, workaholics rule. You get an enormous advan-
tage over other employees for working more than 60 hours a
week. In general, the more hours you work, the better your
salary, but the 60+ bonus of $14,199 stood out. (We did not
calculate what people earn by the hour.)
Activities
Writing code for collaborative projects proved to be a good
investment. Respondents who reported “minor involvement”
in collaborative projects saw a bonus $3,485, while “major
involvement” reaped a bonus of $5,093.
We tried to measure the effects of different tasks. Attending
meetings is correlated with significant salary increases.
This doesn’t mean you should arrange to attend arbitrary
17
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY
meetings. The statistics are probably associated with playing a
role of team leader or manager. Interestingly, more meetings
are not necessarily better—there’s a limit to the benefit. Here
are the correlations:
• 4 to 8 hours of meetings per week: $3,873 better
• 9 to 20 hours of meetings per week: $6,961 better
• More than 20 hours of meetings per week: $2,309 better
Teaching or training others also has a positive effect. All other
things being equal, you earn $2,300 more by being involved
in teaching.
Performance is a good field to enter: you earn $1,434 more
than average for minor involvement in performance and
$2,258 more than average for major involvement.
18
The tasks you do want to avoid are project management and
content management systems. Major involvement in project
management, oddly enough, brings with it a $3,476 decrease
in salary, although minor involvement has no effect. Similarly,
you are penalized $1,476 if you have major involvement in
communicating with less technical or non-technical depart-
ments (but no penalty for minor involvement).
Minor involvement with CMSs costs you $4,647, and major
involvement costs you only $3,824. We don’t know why
major involvement should be better than minor involvement.
The reason may be that CMSs are associated with less techni-
cally sophisticated jobs.
Designers get less money than average; they do not measure
up to programmers in salary. Minor involvement in design
work earns $1,244 less than average, and major involvement
earns $1,094 less than average.
JOB TITLE
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
4% 3%
MANAGER
7% UX/DESIGNER

5% OTHER
3%
ARCHITECT DATA SCIENTIST

6% 3%
UPPER MANAGEMENT
CONSULTANT

7% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

PRINCIPAL/LEAD
Engineer /Developer /Programmer

Senior Engineer /Developer

Principal /Lead

14% Upper Management

Job Title
SENIOR ENGINEER /DEVELOPER Architect

Other

UX /Designer

Manager

Data Scientist

Consultant

30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

49% Range/Median
ENGINEER /DEVELOPER /PROGRAMMER
TIME SPENT IN MEETINGS (hours per week)
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
3%
NONE None

36% 1–3 hours / week

Time Spent
1–3 HOURS/WEEK
4–8 hours / week
43% 9–20 hours / week
4–8 HOURS/WEEK
> 20 hours / week

0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

15% 2% Range/Median
> 20 HOURS/WEEK
9–20 HOURS/WEEK

TIME SPENT CODING (hours per week)

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

2% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

NONE None
4% 1–3 hours /week

Time Spent
1–3 HOURS/WEEK
4–8 hours /week
8% 9–20 hours /week
4–8 HOURS/WEEK
> 20 hours /week

0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

25% 62% Range/Median
9–20 HOURS/WEEK
> 20 HOURS/WEEK
WORK WEEK
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
2% 2%
2% 56–60
60+ HOURS

51–55

12%
46–50

23% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

41– 45
< 30 hours

30–35

36–39

41%

Work Week
40 hours
40 HOURS 41–45

46–50

51–55
10% 56–60
36–39
60+ hours

5% 0 30k 60k 90k

Range/Median
120k 150k
30–35

2%
< 30 HOURS
EASE OF FINDING A NEW ROLE

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
VERY DIFFICULT-1 3%
(very difficult) 1
2 8%
2

Difficulty
3 23% 3

4 37% (very easy) 5

0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

Range/Median
VERY EASY-5 29%

SELF-ASSESSED BARGAINING SKILLS

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
POOR-1 7% (poor) 1
2 18% 2

Proficiency
3
3 39% 4

(excellent) 5
4 29% 0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
Range/Median
EXCELLENT-5 8%
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Tools, Languages, and Platforms

THE RAW TALLIES OF RESPONDENTS’ ANSWERS fur- −− Knockout: 6% −− Polymer: 3%

nished a few interesting insights. −− Ember: 4% −− Meteor: 2%
• MacOS is the most popular operating system, used by There was no such rush toward any PHP framework;
64% of respondents, but Linux is also surprisingly popular nine different frameworks took less than 10% each of
at 57%. (Respondents obviously use multiple computers, the respondents.
because the shares of operating systems add up to much
• SVG is the most popular graphics environment but is still
more than 100%.)
relatively little used at 30%. D3 was even less popular, at
• Sublime is a surprising favorite for text editors, chosen 19%.
by 42% of the respondents (although once again, totals
• Selenium, at 25%, is the most popular testing tool,
added up to more than 100%.
as might be expected. However, there were other
• Express runs away with the prize for most popular strong contenders:
Node framework. It was chosen by 26% of all survey
−− Mocha: 20%
respondents, whereas hapi, Koa, and Sails each got just
1% to 3%. −− Karma: 19%

• Familiar JavaScript frameworks turned up as favorites, −− Protractor: 6%

although Backbone came out further down the list: −− QUnit: 5%
−− jQuery: 67% −− React: 23% −− PHPUnit: 2%
−− Angular: 37% −− Backbone: 13%

23
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

• MySQL remains the dominant database behind the are much more likely to use certain other tools as well. For
web, at 52%. MariaDB, at 9%, has failed to make instance, Windows programmers tend to use ASP.NET for
great inroads among MySQL fans, at least on the web. their main framework, Visual Studio as their IDE, and SQL
PostgreSQL and SQL Server come up next, both at 26%, Server for their database. Although one would expect to see
and a plethora of diverse solutions follow: that cluster, we found nine other clusters that are much less
−− MongoDB: 25% −− Oracle: 5% predictable. We’ll look at each in this section, along with their
positive or negative effects on salary.
−− Redis: 21% −− Neo4j: 2%
There are two reasons you will find these clusters interesting:
−− CouchDB: 5%
• If you want to get a higher salary, you might be able to
• WordPress is the most popular CMS, although Drupal
do so by learning a cluster that has a positive impact (or
makes a respectable showing:
less of a negative impact) on salary.
−− WordPress: 29% −− Magento: 4%
• If you like where you are, you might broaden your skills by
−− Drupal: 12% −− Django-cms: 2% learning new tools or frameworks that are clustered with
−− Joomla!: 4% −− Umbraco: 1% the ones you already know.

In general, working with libraries or frameworks led to a sal-
ary $1,248 more than average.
Because there are so many tools, libraries, and frameworks,
we applied some basic machine learning to find clusters of
related tools. The principle is that people who use one tool
Many of the most popular tools and frameworks among
our respondents turn up in none of the ten clusters. This is
probably because they are so pervasive (jQuery, for instance)
that they are used by a wide range of programmers across
multiple clusters.

24
LANGUAGES
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
5%
17% 16% 10%
C/C++
PERL
RUBY
ASP/ASP.NET
22% 5%
3%
PYTHON
2% SWIFT
GO

24% 2% C#
JAVA COLDFUSION
2%
28% SCALA SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
BASH
2% JavaScript
HTML
ELIXIR
CSS
39% 1% PHP
PHP Bash
CLOJURE
Java
Python

Languages
ASP/ASP.NET
77% Ruby
CSS C/C++
Perl
Go
84% Swift
HTML C#
ColdFusion
Scala
Elixir
Clojure

91% 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

JAVASCRIPT Range/Median
OPERATING SYSTEMS
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

12% 12%
13% IOS (AS A DEVELOPER) ANDROID (AS A DEVELOPER)
UNIX

57%
WINDOWS

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

Mac OS X

Linux

Company Size
57% Windows
LINUX
Unix

iOS (as a developer)

Android (as a developer)

40k 60k 80k 100k 120k

Range/Median
64%
MAC OS X
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Express Cluster Ruby/PostgreSQL Cluster

The first cluster surrounds the popular Express framework. This cluster includes many well-known tools, but none of
It is the most lucrative cluster we found because each tool them are among the most popular in the survey. However,
in it adds an average of $2,068 to salaries. (We found this they tend to be used together, and knowing each one adds
to be true up to a maximum of eight tools in this cluster—if an average of $1,442 to salaries (up to a maximum of seven
you keep adding tools, your salary tops out after eight). The tools):
cluster includes: • Capistrano continuous integrator
• Charles debugger • PostMan • Chef configuration manager
• Express framework Chrome extension
• Haml templating framework
• Jade • React framework
• JSONView display tool
templating framework • Swagger web framework
• Jekyll continuous integrator
• Mocha test framework • Webpack module bundler
• PostgreSQL database
• MongoDB data
• Redis caching server
storage engine
• Ruby language
It is hard to see a rationale for using these particular tools
together. React is a fairly popular framework in its own • Travis CI continuous integrator
right, but other tools, such as Jade, are used by relatively few It would make sense for Ruby programmers to rely on
programmers. In any case, our statistics suggest they make a Capistrano, which was designed for Ruby. Haml is also
good combo.

27
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Ruby-oriented, with a Ruby on Rails plug-in. Most of the other

GitHub Cluster
tools are language agnostic and don’t have obvious intercon-
nections. And as already mentioned, none are among the In contrast to the previous cluster, which tended to use
most popular tools among our respondents. GitLab, the far more popular GitHub has its own cluster.
npm, another tool in this cluster, was the most popular in its
Free Software Cluster category, used by 51% of respondents. But the cluster has no
effect on average salary.
The tools in this cluster are mostly familiar and are generally
used together. Our respondents chose Vim (29%) much less • Atom text editor • Grunt task manager
than Sublime (42%) but more than Emacs (5%). The Perl • Backbone • Gulp task manager
language is used by only 5% of respondents but turned up JavaScript framework • Handlebars
in this cluster along with Python (22%). This cluster has no
• Bitbucket version control templating framework
effect on average salary.
• Bower package manager • npm package manager
• Bash shell command line • Perl language
• Browserify • RequireJS
• cURL downloader • Python language
package manager package manager
• GitLab source • Unix operating system
The connections among these tools make sense. Most are tied
code repository • Vim text editor in with Node.js, and many depend on npm.
• Linux operating system

28
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Graphics Cluster the computing infrastructure, although most web developers

have abandoned them for slicker and newer languages (and
The relationship among these tools is obvious. They are used 39% of respondents use PHP as well). Oracle is also going
for designing, creating, and testing user interfaces. This cluster strong. Still, among our respondents, Jenkins CI is the only
has no effect on average salary. tool in the following cluster that appears at the top of their
• Canvas graphics engine • SVG graphics engine choices (31%).
• D3 graphics library • WebGL graphics API This cluster has no effect on average salary.
• Sketch user interface • WebPagetest • C/C++ language
design tool performance tool • Eclipse integrated development environment

Established Tool Cluster • JMeter performance tool

• Java language
We have tried to choose a neutral name for this cluster, but
to many readers, it may smack of “legacy” tools. One can • Jenkins CI continuous integrator
well wonder where Subversion users have been hiding during • JetBrains IDE integrated development environment
the past decade’s move to distributed version control, but
• Oracle database
Subversion still holds the allegiance of 20% of our respon-
dents (more than GitLab at 14%, or Mercurial at a mere 3%). • SoapUI functional test tool
There is no doubt that C++ and Java remain critical parts of • Subversion version control system

29
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Test Cluster Code Development Cluster

Several tools and frameworks for testing appear in this cluster,
some of them very popular and some of them used by only a
few people. Other tools appear here too, for unclear reasons.
This cluster has no effect on average salary.
• Angular JavaScript framework
The tools and websites in this cluster help JavaScript develop-
ers learn, share, and develop code in various ways. Some of
the tools may be more popular among newer programmers,
although they have broad value. This cluster has no effect on
average salary.

• Jasmine test framework • Brackets text editor

• Karma test runner • CodePen code repository

• LESS database modeling tool • Gist code sharing tool

• Protractor test framework • JSBin code repository

• Selenium test framework • JSFiddle text editor

• WebStorm integrated development environment • Sublime text editor

30
 2016 –2017 WEB SALARY SURVEY

Windows Cluster LAMP Cluster

Most of the tools in this cluster work only in a Windows envi-
ronment. None are popular across our respondents overall,
but they clearly form an important subculture. However, using
each tool in this cluster is shown by our analysis to reduce
average salary by $1,129.
• ASP/ASP.NET framework
Most of the tools in this cluster are part of the classic web
stack of Linux, Apache, MySQL, and PHP. Composer is a
PHP package manager. We don’t know why Photoshop and
WordPress turn up here. In any case, these tools impose a
penalty, despite their popularity: each one (up to a maximum
of seven) decreases average salary by $2,257.

• Fiddler debugger • Adobe Photoshop graphic • MariaDB database

manipulation program • MySQL database
• Knockout JavaScript framework
• CodeIgniter • PHP language
• Notepad++ editor
PHP framework
• SQL Server database • Symfony PHP framework
• Composer
• Visual Studio Code text editor • WordPress content
package manager
management system
• Visual Studio integrated development environment • Drupal content
• Zend Framework
• Windows operating system management system
PHP framework
• Laravel PHP framework

31
TEXT EDITORS/IDE 7% 5%
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
11%
BRACKETS EMACS
3%
Conclusion
CODA
12% VISUAL STUDIO CODE

15%
WEBSTORM 2%
BBEDIT
ECLIPSE

20%
OUR 2,000 RESPONDENTS VISUAL collectively
STUDIO give us a fascinating
view into what developers are using on the web and how
23%
they are remunerated. We have used robust statistical tech- SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
NOTEPAD++
niques to ensure that our results are significant, but as we said
near the beginning, you should be careful drawing real-life Sublime

24%
conclusions from them. Vim
Atom
One overall positive lesson
JETBRAINS IDE to take from this report is that
salaries tend overall to increase. If you just stay in this field, JetBrains IDE
you are likely to prosper. Certain steps, such as moving into Notepad++

Text Editors
management or learning new tools, may help you even more. Visual Studio
24% Eclipse
ATOM
WebStorm
Visual Studio Code
29% Brackets
VIM Emacs
Coda
BBEdit

42% 30k 60k 90k

Range/Median
120k 150k

SUBLIME
VERSION CONTROL /CODE SHARING TOOLS
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

6% 3% 3%
9% JSBIN MERCURIAL TFS 3%
12% GIST PLUNKER
13% CODEPEN
JSFIDDLE
14%
GITLAB
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
20%
SUBVERSION Git
GitHub
Bitbucket
28% Subversion
BITBUCKET
GitLab

Tools
JSFiddle
CodePen
Gist
59% JSBin
GITHUB
Mercurial
TFS
Plunker
30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
69% Range/Median
GIT
NODE FRAMEWORKS

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

27%
EXPRESS

3%
HAPI

2%
SAILS

1%
KOA

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

Express
Frameworks

hapi
Sails
Koa
30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
Range/Median
JAVASCRIPT FRAMEWORKS
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
4% 3%
6% EMBER POLYMER 2%
KNOCKOUT METEOR

13%
BACKBONE

23% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

REACT jQuery

Angular

React

Frameworks
Backbone
37% Knockout
ANGULAR
Ember

Polymer

Meteor

30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

Range/Median

67%
JQUERY
PHP FRAMEWORKS
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

3% 2%
3% SLIM
MAGENTO 2%
YII
CAKEPHP

5% 1%
SILEX
CODEIGNITER

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

6% Laravel
ZEND FRAMEWORK
Symfony
Zend Framework

Frameworks
CodeIgniter
7% CakePHP
SYMFONY
Slim
Magento
Yii
Silex

9% 20k 40k 60k 80k 100k

LARAVEL Range/Median
TASK RUNNERS, PACKAGE MANAGERS,
JS MODULE BUNDLERS
2%
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS 2%
12% CODEKIT

12% COMPOSER
BROCCOLI
1%
16% BROWSERIFY JSPM

REQUIREJS
1%
18% BRUNCH
WEBPACK

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

30% npm
BOWER
Gulp
Grunt

Runners/Managers/Bundlers
Bower
33%
GRUNT Webpack
RequireJS
Browserify
Composer
36% CodeKit
GULP
Broccoli
JSPM
Brunch
51% 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
NPM
Range/Median
DESIGN
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

60% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

CSS3 CSS3
42% Sass
SASS Adobe Photoshop

Design
34% LESS
ADOBE PHOTOSHOP Sketch
Compass
22% 40k 60k 80k 100k 120k
LESS
10% Range/Median
SKETCH 8%
COMPASS

GRAPHICS/VISUALIZATION
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

30% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

SVG SVG

Visualization
D3
19% Canvas
D3
WebGL
15% Raphael
CANVAS
30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
5% Range/Median
WEBGL 3%
RAPHAEL
DEPLOYMENT/SERVER AUTOMATION
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

8% 7%
9% PUPPET CHEF
ANSIBLE
9% 6%
TRAVIS CI
CAPISTRANO

18%
VAGRANT
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

(Do not use)

Jenkins CI

31% Vagrant

Deployments
JENKINS CI Travis CI
Ansible
Puppet
Chef
Capistrano
30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
Range/Median
41%
(DO NOT USE)
DEBUGGING/TROUBLESHOOTING TOOLS

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

85%
BROWSER DEVELOPER TOOLS Browser Developer Tools

Tools
Fiddler
17% Charles
FIDDLER
30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

9% Range/Median
CHARLES

TEMPLATING

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

21% Handlebars

Tools
HANDLEBARS Jade
Haml
9% 40k 60k 80k 100k 120k
JADE
Range/Median
5%
HAML
PERFORMANCE
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

16% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

WEBPAGETEST WebPagetest

10% JMeter

Tools
JMETER mod_pagespeed
4% CriticalCSS
MOD_PAGESPEED
Picturefill

2% 2% 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

CRITICALCSS Range/Median
PICTUREFILL

STATIC SITE GENERATORS

SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)
11%
JEKYLL Jekyll
Middleman
3%

Tools
GitBook
MIDDLEMAN
Hugo
2% Octopress
GITBOOK
1% 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k
HUGO 1% Range/Median
OCTOPRESS
TESTING
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

6% 5%
PROTRACTOR
QUNIT 2%
PHPUNIT

19%
KARMA

20% SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

MOCHA

Selenium

Jasmine

Mocha

Tools
Karma
24%
JASMINE Protractor

QUnit

PHPUnit

30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

Range/Median
25%
SELENIUM
WEB SERVICES/APIS
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS
3% 2%
APIGEE
4% APIARY
1%
HTTPIE RUNSCOPE

10%
SOAPUI

13%
SWAGGER

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

14% cURL
JSONVIEW
PostMan (Chrome extension)

JSONView

Swagger

Tools
34% SoapUI

POSTMAN (CHROME EXTENSION) HTTPie

Apiary

Apigee

Runscope

30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

36% Range/Median
CURL
DATA STORAGE/MANAGEMENT
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS 5%
10% COUCHDB
MARIADB

21% 5%
ORACLE
REDIS

2%
25% NEO4J
MONGODB

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

26% MySQL
SQL SERVER
PostgreSQL

SQL Server

MongoDB

Tools
26% Redis
POSTGRESQL MariaDB

CouchDB

Oracle

Neo4j

30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

52% Range/Median
MYSQL
CONTENT MANAGEMENT
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS

2% 1%
DJANGO-CMS UMBRACO
3%
MAGENTO

4%
JOOMLA!

SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

WordPress
12% Drupal
DRUPAL
Joomla!

Tools
Magento

Django-cms

Umbraco

0 30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

Range/Median

29%
WORDPRESS
TASKS (Major Involvement Only)
SHARE OF RESPONDENTS 32%
PERFORMANCE
34%
TEACHING/ 27%
41% TRAINING OTHERS WORKING WITH CONTENT
MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
WRITING CODE FOR
42% NON-COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS
TESTING (NO ONE ELSE WILL WORK ON THIS CODE) 27%
44% CREATING DOCUMENTATION
COMMUNICATING WITH OTHER
LESS OR NON-TECHNICAL DEPARTMENTS
26%
52% DESIGN WORK
DEPLOYING CODE
26%
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
68%
FRONTEND DEVELOPMENT
24%
COMMUNICATING WITH PEOPLE
OUTSIDE YOUR COMPANY
69% 22%
WORKING WITH LIBRARIES/
FRAMEWORKS WEB SERVER CONFIGURATION

20%
71% SECURITY
WRITING CODE FOR
COLLABORATIVE PROJECTS 15%
NETWORKING
79%
DEBUGGING/
TROUBLESHOOTING CODE
SALARY MEDIAN AND IQR (US DOLLARS)

Debugging/troubleshooting code
Writing code for collaborative projects
Working with libraries/frameworks
Frontend development
Deploying code
Communicating with other less or non-technical departments
Testing
Writing code for non-collaborative projects
Teaching /training others

Tasks
Performance
Working with content management systems
Creating documentation
Design work
Project management
Communicating with people outside your company
Web server configuration
Security
Networking

30k 60k 90k 120k 150k

Range/Median