How Backend Developers Make Money

Making money as a backend developer is a topic that drives interest because we all want to make money from our skills.

In this article, we will explore the different ways to make money as a backend developer with or without working in a company.

We have already created dedicated content on how to become a backend developer, you should check it out. We have detailed how to start your backend development journey, discussing the different steps you need to take and the advanced skills you need to learn.

However, let's start with the most obvious way of making money as a backend developer and different places you can get backend development roles.

1. A Full-time Job

2. Content Creation

3. Backend freelancing

4. Build and Sell Digital Products

1. A Full-Time Job

Getting a full-time job is the most popular and secure way to make money as a backend developer because it promises job security and a steady flow of income. In this section, we will explore the different ways to get backend engineering jobs and the salary ranges of the different levels in backend development.

Backend Development Jobs

There is an increasing number of backend development openings as a result of technological advancement and companies looking for different ways to solve users' problems by providing SaaS products. To create and manage these SaaS products, companies hire backend engineers to develop the business logic of these products.

There are several online acquisition platforms dedicated to providing jobs for software engineers and a few are listed below:

1. Linkedin

2. Indeed

3. Mastering Backend Talent

• Linkedin
  LinkedIn is a social platform for professionals, it also provides everything you need to hire a backend engineer or get hired as a backend engineer.
  Linkedin is my favorite platform both as a professional and also to get hired for my backend development career.

• Indeed
  From the official website, "Indeed is the #1 job site in the world1 with over 250M unique visitors every month. Indeed strives to put job seekers first, giving them free access to search for jobs, post resumes, and research companies. Every day, we connect millions of people to new opportunities."
  With Indeed, you can get hired as a backend developer, as well as you can get salary information and the details of the company you intend to work for all from the Indeed portal.

• Mastering Backend
  Masteringbackend is a professional mentoring community dedicated to backend engineers, it provides mentorship, and a practical playground to train backend engineers on how to build real-world projects to be job-ready while outsourcing these engineers to companies all over the world.
  These companies help backend developers get employed by companies who need engineers to build their business logic. Next, what is the salary of a backend developer, or what should you expect to be paid as a backend engineer?

Salaries of Backend developers

The salary of developers differs depending on the company and roles the developer is occupying, in this comparison, we are going to use average salary ranges from Glassdoor for different frontend developers' titles.

1. Junior Backend Developer

2. Mid Backend Developer

3. Senior Backend Developer

• Junior Backend Developer
  According to the Glassdoor salary report for Junior Backend engineers, the salary of a junior backend developer ranges from $90,000 to $104,000 on average.
  Determining the right salary is always based on different factors such as the company, the location, the job description, and many other factors.

• Mid Backend Developer
  According to the Glassdoor salary report for Mid-backend engineers, the salary of a mid-backend developer ranges from $100,000 to $114,000 on average.
  It's also important to note that the salary reports will differ from country to country and company to company.

• Senior Backend Developer
  According to the Glassdoor salary report for Mid-backend engineers, the salary of a senior backend developer ranges from $133,000 on average.
  A senior role in a company can differ by name, some companies call them principal engineers and staff engineers with different job descriptions and salary ranges.
  Nevertheless, we have explored the averages of salaries backend engineers can get paid working for different companies. However, aside from working full-time/part-time as a backend engineer, there are different ways you can make money in the backend development space.

2. Content Creation

It is not new that tech education (Edtech) is on the rise in every part of the world, take a look at the current rise of Edtech in Africa to draw a fraction of insight into the position Edtech is taking in the world at large.

With this data in place, developers focusing on different forms of content creation are making a ton of money either through creating educational videos on Youtube or creating text-based content on blogs. According to these insights on content creation market size, there are tons of money to be generated from content creation as a backend developer.

Additionally, there are companies paying developers to develop developer-focused content for their blogs or Youtube to help boost their developer marketing. You can get the list of 45+ companies paying technical writers right now.

3. Backend Freelancing

Freelancing is the first point of contact for backend developers because it helps developers to gain real-world experience by practicing with a client project when starting.

However, getting a freelance project from friends and family will not give you the amount of money you could be making if you expose yourself to many freelancing platforms online that connect you with clients all over the world who are willing to pay you more for your skills.

In these modern and present years, it is easy to set yourself up as a freelancer and start bidding for clients' projects. You can start immediately by registering for platforms such as Upwork, and Fiverr and upon acceptance, you will see projects to bid or clients will reach out to you if they demand your skillset.

4. Build and Sell Digital Products

If being a content creator or freelancer doesn’t interest you, then create digital products such as E-books, and technical courses or build mini-projects called MicroSaaS and solve tiny projects for individuals and companies. Another lucrative area is the small-medium enterprises (SMEs)—their adoption of mobile apps for offering and showcasing their services and products is on the rise. So building mobile apps with interactive and beautiful designs that allow them to enlist their products so they can reach out more easily to their customers would be a valuable addition to their businesses. The concept of MicroSaaS may sound new to you but different developers all over the world have been making money building MicroSaaS. You can learn more on What is MicroSaaS by Rick Blyth.