Software Tester Contracts in the UK excluding London

Software Tester
UK > UK excluding London

The median Software Tester daily rate in the UK excluding London is £330, according to job vacancies posted in the 6 months leading up to 1 May 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
1 May 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 328 396 435
Rank change year-on-year +68 +39 +50
Contract jobs requiring a Software Tester 8 3 27
As % of all contract jobs advertised in the UK excluding London 0.063% 0.014% 0.11%
As % of the Job Titles category 0.068% 0.016% 0.12%
Number of daily rates quoted 3 2 20
10th Percentile £315 - £193
25th Percentile £319 - £250
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £330 £450 £290
Median % change year-on-year -26.67% +55.17% -17.14%
75th Percentile £363 - £383
90th Percentile £378 - £430
UK median daily rate £438 £450 £290
% change year-on-year -2.78% +55.17% -23.68%
Number of hourly rates quoted 1 0 0
Median hourly rate £12.76 - -
UK median hourly rate £12.76 - -

All Contract 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.

Contract vacancies in the UK excluding London with a recognized job title 11,767 19,240 22,667
% of contract IT jobs with a recognized job title 92.17% 92.63% 94.18%
Number of daily rates quoted 7,552 11,748 15,893
10th Percentile £213 £213 £225
25th Percentile £363 £363 £395
Median daily rate (50th Percentile) £475 £492 £500
Median % change year-on-year -3.46% -1.60% +5.26%
75th Percentile £575 £598 £595
90th Percentile £650 £688 £688
UK median daily rate £515 £525 £540
% change year-on-year -1.90% -2.78% +2.86%
Number of hourly rates quoted 829 2,243 1,165
10th Percentile £14.00 £12.50 £13.45
25th Percentile £17.61 £15.75 £18.09
Median hourly rate £28.00 £39.55 £42.50
Median % change year-on-year -29.20% -6.94% +117.95%
75th Percentile £64.50 £61.30 £65.00
90th Percentile £75.00 £73.75 £75.00
UK median hourly rate £29.00 £36.42 £45.00
% change year-on-year -20.37% -19.07% +91.49%

Software Tester
Job Vacancy Trend in the UK excluding London

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

Job vacancy trend for Software Tester in the UK excluding London

Software Tester
Contractor Daily Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average daily rate quoted in jobs citing Software Tester in the UK excluding London.

Daily rate trend for Software Tester in the UK excluding London

Software Tester
Contractor Hourly Rate Trend in the UK excluding London

3-month moving average hourly rates quoted in jobs citing Software Tester in the UK excluding London.

Hourly rate trend for Software Tester in the UK excluding London

Software Tester
Contract 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 Software Tester within the UK excluding London region over the 6 months to 1 May 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
Contract
IT Job Ads
Median
Daily Rate
Past 6 Months
Median Daily Rate
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
North of England +24 7 £328 -27.22% 3
North West - 6 £330 -
Yorkshire +7 1 £325 -27.78% 1
Scotland - 1 £375 -
Software Tester
UK

Software Tester Skill Set
Top 30 Co-occurring Skills and Capabilities in the UK excluding London

For the 6 months to 1 May 2025, Software Tester 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 Software Tester in the job title.

1 8 (100.00%) Software Testing
2 7 (87.50%) Test Automation
3 6 (75.00%) SQL
3 6 (75.00%) Selenium
4 5 (62.50%) Manual Testing
4 5 (62.50%) Analytical Skills
4 5 (62.50%) Social Skills
5 4 (50.00%) CI/CD
5 4 (50.00%) End-to-End Testing
5 4 (50.00%) DevOps
5 4 (50.00%) System Integration Testing
5 4 (50.00%) Process Improvement
5 4 (50.00%) Test Strategy
5 4 (50.00%) System Testing
5 4 (50.00%) Data Validation
5 4 (50.00%) ISTQB
5 4 (50.00%) Integration Testing
5 4 (50.00%) User Acceptance Testing
5 4 (50.00%) Performance Testing
5 4 (50.00%) Validation
5 4 (50.00%) LoadRunner
5 4 (50.00%) JMeter
6 2 (25.00%) Test Scripting
6 2 (25.00%) QA
6 2 (25.00%) BDD
7 1 (12.50%) SpecFlow
7 1 (12.50%) Gherkin
7 1 (12.50%) Analytics
7 1 (12.50%) API Testing
7 1 (12.50%) Nightwatchjs

Software Tester 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:

Applications
1 1 (12.50%) Microsoft Excel
Development Applications
1 6 (75.00%) Selenium
2 4 (50.00%) JMeter
2 4 (50.00%) LoadRunner
3 1 (12.50%) Postman
3 1 (12.50%) SpecFlow
General
1 5 (62.50%) Analytical Skills
1 5 (62.50%) Social Skills
2 1 (12.50%) Finance
2 1 (12.50%) Games
2 1 (12.50%) Manufacturing
2 1 (12.50%) Pharmaceutical
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 1 (12.50%) Gherkin
1 1 (12.50%) Nightwatchjs
1 1 (12.50%) Playwright
Processes & Methodologies
1 8 (100.00%) Software Testing
2 7 (87.50%) Test Automation
3 5 (62.50%) Manual Testing
4 4 (50.00%) CI/CD
4 4 (50.00%) Data Validation
4 4 (50.00%) DevOps
4 4 (50.00%) End-to-End Testing
4 4 (50.00%) Integration Testing
4 4 (50.00%) Performance Testing
4 4 (50.00%) Process Improvement
4 4 (50.00%) System Integration Testing
4 4 (50.00%) System Testing
4 4 (50.00%) Test Strategy
4 4 (50.00%) User Acceptance Testing
4 4 (50.00%) Validation
5 2 (25.00%) BDD
5 2 (25.00%) Test Scripting
6 1 (12.50%) Agile
6 1 (12.50%) API Testing
6 1 (12.50%) Security Testing
Programming Languages
1 6 (75.00%) SQL
2 1 (12.50%) Java
Qualifications
1 4 (50.00%) ISTQB
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 2 (25.00%) QA