Developer/Software Engineer Contracts in the UK excluding London

Software Engineer/Developer
UK > UK excluding London

The median Software Engineer/Developer daily rate in the UK excluding London is £695, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 22 August 2025.

The table below provides contractor rate benchmarking and summary statistics, comparing them to the same period in the previous two years.

6 months to
22 Aug 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 365 368 428
Rank change year-on-year +3 +60 +30
DemandTrendContract jobs requiring a Developer/Software Engineer 2 2 13
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.013% 0.011% 0.060%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.014% 0.012% 0.063%
Number of daily rates quoted 1 0 5
10th Percentile - - £542
25th Percentile £688 - £579
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £695 - £600
75th Percentile £703 - -
90th Percentile - - -
UK median daily rate £775 £725 £650
% change year-on-year +6.90% +11.54% +8.33%
Number of hourly rates quoted 0 2 0
Median hourly rate - £80.00 -
UK median hourly rate - £80.00 -

All DemandTrendContract IT Job Vacancies
UK excluding London

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all contract IT job vacancies in the UK excluding London. Most job vacancies include a discernible job title that can be normalized. As such, the figures in the second row provide an indication of the number of contract jobs in our overall sample.

DemandTrendContract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 13,843 16,779 20,567
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 90.05% 92.24% 94.50%
Number of daily rates quoted 8,464 10,141 13,885
10th Percentile £213 £220 £225
25th Percentile £361 £375 £388
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £500 £500
Median % change year-on-year -5.00% - +1.01%
75th Percentile £575 £600 £600
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £500 £525 £534
% change year-on-year -4.76% -1.69% -1.16%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1,257 1,678 1,148
10th Percentile £13.32 £13.86 £14.00
25th Percentile £16.35 £18.20 £17.72
Median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £37.50
Median % change year-on-year -41.51% +14.67% +76.47%
75th Percentile £55.00 £65.00 £65.00
90th Percentile £73.75 £75.00 £77.50
UK median hourly rate £25.15 £43.00 £42.35
% change year-on-year -41.51% +1.55% +64.89%

Developer/Software Engineer
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

Job postings that featured Developer/Software Engineer in the job title as a proportion of all IT jobs advertised in the UK excluding London.

Job vacancy trend for Developer/Software Engineer in the UK excluding London

Developer/Software Engineer
Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer/Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor daily rate distribution trend for Developer/Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Developer/Software Engineer
Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer/Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London.

Contractor hourly rate distribution trend for Developer/Software Engineer job vacancies in the UK excluding London

Developer/Software Engineer
DemandTrendContract Job Locations in the UK excluding London

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median contractor rates quoted in IT jobs citing Developer/Software Engineer within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 22 August 2025. The 'Rank Change' column provides an indication of the change in demand within each location based on the same 6 month period last year.

Location Rank Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Matching
DemandTrendContract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
Yorkshire - 1 £695 - 3
East Midlands - 1 - - 1
Midlands - 1 - - 1
North of England - 1 £695 - 3
Developer/Software Engineer
UK

Developer/Software Engineer Skill Set
Top 18 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 22 August 2025, Developer/Software Engineer contract job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number co-occurrences and as a proportion of all contract job ads across the UK excluding London region featuring Developer/Software Engineer in the job title.

1 2 (100.00%) Software Engineering
1 2 (100.00%) Problem-Solving
1 2 (100.00%) Social Skills
1 2 (100.00%) Clean Code
2 1 (50.00%) Web Services
2 1 (50.00%) TDD
2 1 (50.00%) Degree
2 1 (50.00%) Computer Science
2 1 (50.00%) RESTful
2 1 (50.00%) Akka
2 1 (50.00%) Play Framework
2 1 (50.00%) TypeScript
2 1 (50.00%) Mentoring
2 1 (50.00%) Data Structures
2 1 (50.00%) Algorithms
2 1 (50.00%) Performance Optimisation
2 1 (50.00%) SOLID
2 1 (50.00%) Computer Science Degree

Developer/Software Engineer Skill Set
Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London by Category

The follow tables expand on the table above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. The same employment type, locality and period is covered with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each of the following categories:

General
1 2 (100.00%) Social Skills
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (50.00%) Akka
1 1 (50.00%) Play Framework
1 1 (50.00%) RESTful
1 1 (50.00%) Web Services
Miscellaneous
1 1 (50.00%) Algorithms
1 1 (50.00%) Data Structures
Processes & Methodologies
1 2 (100.00%) Clean Code
1 2 (100.00%) Problem-Solving
1 2 (100.00%) Software Engineering
2 1 (50.00%) Computer Science
2 1 (50.00%) Mentoring
2 1 (50.00%) Performance Optimisation
2 1 (50.00%) SOLID
2 1 (50.00%) TDD
Programming Languages
1 1 (50.00%) TypeScript
Qualifications
1 1 (50.00%) Computer Science Degree
1 1 (50.00%) Degree