Software Developer Job Trends

Software Developer
UK

The median Software Developer salary in the UK is £55,000 per year, according to job vacancies posted during the 6 months leading to 24 December 2025.

The table below compares current salary benchmarking and summary statistics with the previous two years.

6 months to
24 Dec 2025
Same period 2024 Same period 2023
Rank 199 216 188
Rank change year-on-year +17 -28 -13
Permanent jobs requiring a Software Developer 731 802 902
As % of all permanent jobs in the UK 1.23% 1.43% 1.83%
As % of the Job Titles category 1.36% 1.53% 1.93%
Number of salaries quoted 661 695 792
10th Percentile £28,250 £41,250 £38,750
25th Percentile £38,750 £47,500 £45,000
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £57,500 £57,500
Median % change year-on-year -4.35% - +5.50%
75th Percentile £70,000 £75,000 £75,000
90th Percentile £90,000 £85,000 £112,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £52,500 £55,000 £55,000
% change year-on-year -4.55% - +10.00%

All Permanent IT Job Vacancies
UK

For comparison with the information above, the following table provides summary statistics for all permanent IT job vacancies. 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 permanent jobs in our overall sample.

Permanent vacancies in the UK with a recognized job title 53,587 52,523 46,843
% of permanent jobs with a recognized job title 90.41% 93.50% 95.20%
Number of salaries quoted 33,039 28,023 36,198
10th Percentile £28,500 £33,000 £31,250
25th Percentile £36,250 £44,250 £42,500
Median annual salary (50th Percentile) £55,000 £60,000 £60,000
Median % change year-on-year -8.33% - -
75th Percentile £75,000 £78,458 £78,750
90th Percentile £93,750 £97,500 £97,500
UK excluding London median annual salary £49,500 £52,500 £51,500
% change year-on-year -5.71% +1.94% -1.90%

Software Developer
Job Vacancy Trend

Historical trend showing the proportion of permanent IT job postings featuring 'Software Developer' in the job title relative to all permanent IT jobs advertised.

Software Developer job vacancy trend in the UK

Software Developer
Salary Trend

Salary distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the UK.

Salary distribution trend for Software Developer job vacancies in the UK

Software Developer
Salary Histogram

Salary distribution for jobs citing Software Developer over the 6 months to 24 December 2025.

Salary histogram for Software Developer in the UK

Software Developer
Top 17 Job Locations

The table below looks at the demand and provides a guide to the median salaries quoted in IT jobs citing Software Developer within the UK over the 6 months to 24 December 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
Permanent
IT Job Ads
Median Salary
Past 6 Months
Median Salary
% Change
on Same Period
Last Year
Live
Jobs
England +21 645 £55,000 -8.33% 332
UK excluding London +20 583 £52,500 -4.55% 299
Work from Home +6 236 £61,250 +11.36% 146
South East -9 178 £60,000 - 82
North of England +46 163 £47,500 -5.00% 79
London +6 116 £76,000 -5.00% 75
North West +47 82 £51,250 +2.50% 44
South West +7 77 £52,500 -8.70% 37
Midlands +29 75 £50,000 -4.76% 42
Yorkshire +14 59 £30,500 -38.38% 26
West Midlands +47 44 £50,000 -4.76% 19
East of England +28 34 £45,000 -15.09% 45
Wales +12 31 £45,000 -4.88% 8
East Midlands -5 31 £49,500 -10.00% 23
North East +20 24 £36,500 -43.85% 10
Scotland -23 16 £30,500 -39.00% 8
Northern Ireland +5 11 £70,000 +3.70% 3

Software Developer Skill Set
Top 30 Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities

For the 6 months to 24 December 2025, Software Developer job roles required the following skills and capabilities in order of popularity. The figures indicate the absolute number of co-occurrences and as a proportion of all permanent job ads featuring Software Developer in the job title.

1 294 (40.22%) Azure
2 237 (32.42%) JavaScript
3 226 (30.92%) AWS
4 224 (30.64%) C#
5 223 (30.51%) .NET
6 190 (25.99%) Agile
7 184 (25.17%) Python
8 183 (25.03%) Microsoft
9 174 (23.80%) Mentoring
10 165 (22.57%) CSS
11 157 (21.48%) HTML
12 144 (19.70%) Git
13 132 (18.06%) GitHub
14 124 (16.96%) Software Engineering
15 110 (15.05%) Internet
15 110 (15.05%) SQL
16 107 (14.64%) Azure Certification
17 106 (14.50%) AWS Certification
17 106 (14.50%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
17 106 (14.50%) Cybersecurity
17 106 (14.50%) Microsoft Certification
18 100 (13.68%) Problem-Solving
18 100 (13.68%) SaaS
19 92 (12.59%) Full-Stack Development
19 92 (12.59%) SQL Server
20 87 (11.90%) CI/CD
21 85 (11.63%) TypeScript
22 72 (9.85%) Continuous Improvement
23 68 (9.30%) .NET Core
24 67 (9.17%) PHP

Software Developer Skill Set
Co-Occurring Skills & Capabilities by Category

The following tables expand on the one above by listing co-occurrences grouped by category. They cover the same employment type, locality and period, with up to 20 co-occurrences shown in each category:

Application Platforms
1 6 (0.82%) Apache
2 4 (0.55%) Camunda
3 3 (0.41%) CMS
3 3 (0.41%) Confluence
3 3 (0.41%) IIS
3 3 (0.41%) nginx
3 3 (0.41%) SharePoint
4 2 (0.27%) ArcGIS
4 2 (0.27%) Drupal
4 2 (0.27%) EPiServer
4 2 (0.27%) HCL Notes
4 2 (0.27%) Oracle SOA Suite
4 2 (0.27%) Umbraco
Applications
1 2 (0.27%) Microsoft Excel
1 2 (0.27%) Photoshop
2 1 (0.14%) Microsoft Office
Business Applications
1 7 (0.96%) NetSuite
2 2 (0.27%) Oracle BPM
3 1 (0.14%) ION Anvil
Cloud Services
1 294 (40.22%) Azure
2 226 (30.92%) AWS
3 132 (18.06%) GitHub
4 100 (13.68%) SaaS
5 44 (6.02%) GCP
6 35 (4.79%) Serverless
7 22 (3.01%) Azure DevOps
8 18 (2.46%) AWS Lambda
9 13 (1.78%) Amazon S3
10 10 (1.37%) Azure Service Bus
11 8 (1.09%) Amazon SQS
12 7 (0.96%) Power Platform
13 6 (0.82%) Amazon CloudWatch
13 6 (0.82%) Azure AKS
13 6 (0.82%) Entra ID
13 6 (0.82%) OpenShift
14 4 (0.55%) Azure App Service
14 4 (0.55%) Azure Event Grid
14 4 (0.55%) Azure Key Vault
14 4 (0.55%) Azure Logic Apps
Communications & Networking
1 110 (15.05%) Internet
2 2 (0.27%) Network Security
2 2 (0.27%) SSH
3 1 (0.14%) 3G
3 1 (0.14%) AMQP
3 1 (0.14%) Bluetooth
3 1 (0.14%) Broadband
3 1 (0.14%) GPRS
3 1 (0.14%) GSM
3 1 (0.14%) Modbus
3 1 (0.14%) MQTT
3 1 (0.14%) RS-232
3 1 (0.14%) RS-485
3 1 (0.14%) SSL
3 1 (0.14%) TCP/IP
3 1 (0.14%) UWB
Database & Business Intelligence
1 92 (12.59%) SQL Server
2 47 (6.43%) MySQL
3 29 (3.97%) PostgreSQL
4 13 (1.78%) MongoDB
4 13 (1.78%) Relational Database
5 12 (1.64%) NoSQL
6 7 (0.96%) Elasticsearch
7 6 (0.82%) DynamoDB
7 6 (0.82%) SQL Server Reporting Services
8 5 (0.68%) Power BI
8 5 (0.68%) SQL Server Integration Services
9 2 (0.27%) Azure SQL Database
9 2 (0.27%) GIS
9 2 (0.27%) MariaDB
9 2 (0.27%) Metadata
9 2 (0.27%) MS Access
9 2 (0.27%) Oracle Database
9 2 (0.27%) Redis
9 2 (0.27%) SQL Server Analysis Services
10 1 (0.14%) Big Data
Development Applications
1 144 (19.70%) Git
2 19 (2.60%) Jenkins
3 16 (2.19%) GitLab
4 13 (1.78%) Selenium
5 10 (1.37%) Visual Studio
6 9 (1.23%) Cypress.io
7 8 (1.09%) Cucumber
8 7 (0.96%) JIRA
8 7 (0.96%) JUnit
8 7 (0.96%) SonarQube
8 7 (0.96%) WebDriver
9 6 (0.82%) Bitbucket
10 5 (0.68%) Sonatype Nexus
11 2 (0.27%) Grunt
11 2 (0.27%) gulp
11 2 (0.27%) Postman
11 2 (0.27%) Subversion
11 2 (0.27%) TeamCity
11 2 (0.27%) webpack
12 1 (0.14%) Maven
General
1 106 (14.50%) Multimedia
2 97 (13.27%) Social Skills
3 88 (12.04%) Finance
4 22 (3.01%) Law
5 19 (2.60%) Public Sector
6 18 (2.46%) Analytical Skills
7 17 (2.33%) Tech for Good
8 16 (2.19%) Health Technology
8 16 (2.19%) Organisational Skills
9 15 (2.05%) Publishing
10 14 (1.92%) Legal
11 13 (1.78%) Marketing
12 11 (1.50%) Manufacturing
13 10 (1.37%) Retail
14 9 (1.23%) Inclusion and Diversity
15 8 (1.09%) Influencing Skills
16 4 (0.55%) Military
17 3 (0.41%) Aerospace
17 3 (0.41%) Automotive
17 3 (0.41%) Banking
Libraries, Frameworks & Software Standards
1 223 (30.51%) .NET
2 165 (22.57%) CSS
3 157 (21.48%) HTML
4 68 (9.30%) .NET Core
5 66 (9.03%) .NET Framework
5 66 (9.03%) RESTful
6 57 (7.80%) React
7 46 (6.29%) ASP.NET
8 30 (4.10%) Node.js
9 24 (3.28%) AngularJS
10 22 (3.01%) Vue
11 20 (2.74%) Entity Framework
11 20 (2.74%) HTML5
11 20 (2.74%) jQuery
12 19 (2.60%) REST
13 18 (2.46%) CSS3
14 17 (2.33%) Blazor
14 17 (2.33%) Laravel
15 15 (2.05%) WPF
16 14 (1.92%) Django
Miscellaneous
1 25 (3.42%) Greenfield Project
2 17 (2.33%) Legacy Systems
3 16 (2.19%) Self-Motivation
4 15 (2.05%) Cloud Native
5 11 (1.50%) Product Ownership
6 9 (1.23%) Marketing Technology
7 7 (0.96%) Distributed Systems
7 7 (0.96%) Team-Oriented Environment
8 6 (0.82%) Onboarding
9 5 (0.68%) Legacy Applications
10 4 (0.55%) Mobile App
11 3 (0.41%) Fixed Income
11 3 (0.41%) Foreign Exchange (FX)
11 3 (0.41%) Hedge funds
12 2 (0.27%) Client/Server
12 2 (0.27%) Credit Risk
12 2 (0.27%) Derivative
12 2 (0.27%) Enterprise Software
12 2 (0.27%) Graphic Design
12 2 (0.27%) Market Risk
Operating Systems
1 23 (3.15%) Windows
2 12 (1.64%) Linux
3 1 (0.14%) Embedded Linux
3 1 (0.14%) FreeRTOS
Processes & Methodologies
1 190 (25.99%) Agile
2 174 (23.80%) Mentoring
3 124 (16.96%) Software Engineering
4 106 (14.50%) Cybersecurity
5 100 (13.68%) Problem-Solving
6 92 (12.59%) Full-Stack Development
7 87 (11.90%) CI/CD
8 72 (9.85%) Continuous Improvement
9 61 (8.34%) AI
10 58 (7.93%) Computer Science
11 57 (7.80%) DevOps
11 57 (7.80%) Roadmaps
12 50 (6.84%) Clean Code
12 50 (6.84%) Microservices
13 45 (6.16%) Business Strategy
14 40 (5.47%) Code Quality
15 36 (4.92%) Containerisation
15 36 (4.92%) TDD
16 34 (4.65%) Collaborative Culture
17 33 (4.51%) Software Testing
Programming Languages
1 237 (32.42%) JavaScript
2 224 (30.64%) C#
3 184 (25.17%) Python
4 110 (15.05%) SQL
5 85 (11.63%) TypeScript
6 67 (9.17%) PHP
7 57 (7.80%) Java
8 49 (6.70%) C++
9 12 (1.64%) C
10 9 (1.23%) Delphi
11 6 (0.82%) Go
11 6 (0.82%) Scala
11 6 (0.82%) VB.NET
12 4 (0.55%) Kotlin
12 4 (0.55%) VB
12 4 (0.55%) VBA
12 4 (0.55%) XAML
13 3 (0.41%) PowerShell
13 3 (0.41%) T-SQL
14 2 (0.27%) F#
Qualifications
1 107 (14.64%) Azure Certification
2 106 (14.50%) AWS Certification
2 106 (14.50%) AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner
2 106 (14.50%) Microsoft Certification
3 49 (6.70%) Degree
4 33 (4.51%) Computer Science Degree
5 26 (3.56%) Security Cleared
6 16 (2.19%) SC Cleared
7 6 (0.82%) DV Cleared
8 3 (0.41%) BPSS Clearance
9 2 (0.27%) PhD
10 1 (0.14%) DBS Check
10 1 (0.14%) Master's Degree
10 1 (0.14%) MCP
Quality Assurance & Compliance
1 36 (4.92%) QA
2 18 (2.46%) Accessibility
3 4 (0.55%) WCAG
4 1 (0.14%) Data Quality
4 1 (0.14%) EU AI Act
4 1 (0.14%) HL7
4 1 (0.14%) MISRA
4 1 (0.14%) NIST
System Software
1 37 (5.06%) Docker
2 3 (0.41%) Firmware
3 2 (0.27%) Virtual Machines
4 1 (0.14%) Embedded Firmware
Systems Management
1 26 (3.56%) Kubernetes
2 10 (1.37%) Grafana
2 10 (1.37%) Terraform
3 2 (0.27%) Ansible
4 1 (0.14%) Kibana
4 1 (0.14%) logstash
Vendors
1 183 (25.03%) Microsoft
2 21 (2.87%) Oracle
3 7 (0.96%) Syncfusion
3 7 (0.96%) Telerik
4 3 (0.41%) Databricks
4 3 (0.41%) Zend
5 2 (0.27%) ESRI
5 2 (0.27%) HubSpot
5 2 (0.27%) Lotus
5 2 (0.27%) SAP
6 1 (0.14%) Adobe
6 1 (0.14%) Atlassian
6 1 (0.14%) Foundry
6 1 (0.14%) Google
6 1 (0.14%) IBM
6 1 (0.14%) ION Trading
6 1 (0.14%) IONA