Software developer salary band growth and annual increases slowed down in 2024, as companies faced less competition when competing for talent.
While developers across the board will continue experiencing slower salary growth in 2025, roles in high demand such as senior developers and data-related roles will see improved salariesdue to their scarcity and high value to businesses.
This is one of the key findings of the Software Developer Salary Benchmarking Report compiled by tech talent marketplace OfferZen, which provides insights on the state of SA’s developer community.
The report is based on data from more than 3 400 developers who took the 2025 State of the Developer Nation Survey between 25 September and 8 November 2024.
In the report “salary” refers to the gross monthly salary (before tax) provided by the survey respondents.
The factors that shape a software developer’s salary are: the industry, perks and nature of work, location, industries, company sizes, languages, frameworks, and cloud platforms.
The data looks at salaries across each of these factors to demonstrate how they all influence the salary a company will offer to a prospective hire.
According to the findings, while hiring activity across SA’s software development field dropped in 2024 due to the economic downturn, 2025 is expected to see a shift – positively impacting salaries of senior roles, while those of junior roles will see slower growth.
Demand will be the strongest for senior developers, and people in data-related roles like data scientists, machine learning engineers, data engineers, it says.
OfferZen co-founder, Philip Joubert, tells ITWeb: “The balance of power in the tech job market shifted in favour of companies last year. They took back a lot of the control they gave up during the hottest-ever hiring market in 2021.
“The most obvious place we see this playing out is in salaries: salary band growth and annual increases slowed down, as companies faced less competition when competing for talent. This year, we expect to see developer hiring to improve on 2024’s numbers but will remain below 2022’s peak. It’s still going to be a tough market for juniors and entry-level developers. While they’ve managed to see salary growth after a 3.5% decline in 2024, there are fewer opportunities for developers with less than two years of experience.”
Software developers have been one of the most in-demand professions globally over the last decade.
Hiring among SA’s software developers dropped over the last 24 months, leading to developers across the board experiencing slower salary growth, fewer job opportunities, and increased competition for available positions, notes OfferZen.
Salary trends unpacked
Companies are under growing pressure to manage headcount and control expenses even as demand for developers remains steady.
However, this demand has dropped from its peak a few years ago. In 2025, tech hiring will likely be driven by strategic investment across industries, especially in areas related to automation, digitisation and artificial intelligence (AI), notes the report.
In 2024, the average salary of a junior developer (less than 2 years’ experience) declined by up to 3% year-on year, and in 2025 this is expected to show an increase of up to 6%.
Those with experience of between 2 to 4 years saw an average year-on year decline in salary of 0.5% in 2024 and in 2025 this is expected to increase by 4%.
Developers with up to 10 years of experience saw a 2% year-on year increase last year, and this is expected to increase to 6.5% this year.
“There will be a big pool of developers actively looking for jobs this year. As more new graduates enter the job market, there’ll be competition for the entry-level roles available. Data from our upcoming 2025 State of the Developer Nation Report shows the number of people looking to change roles in the next year increased from 33.3% to 38.6%. What we are seeing in the data is that companies are instead using performance bonuses to reward top performing team members.
The majority of developers said they received one in the previous 12 months, and nearly half of them exceeded R30 000 in value,” adds Joubert.
Cloud knowledge remains a popular skill for South African developers, with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure remaining the most popular. This is reflected in the report, with AWS developers having the highest average salaries among South African cloud platforms.
An AWS certified developer with between four and six years’ experience earned the highest salary in 2024 (R50 587) compared to an Azure certified developer (R48 240) and a Google Cloud certified one (R44 946).
In 2025, an AWS certified developer salary is forecast to increase to R52 605, while an Azure certified developer will earn an average of R48 404. A Google Cloud certified developer is expected to earn less this year, with an average salary of R41 556.
Factors influencing salaries
Each of SA’s tech hubs has its own compensation benchmarks. For example, Cape Town’s higher cost of living means that developers there will expect a higher base salary, making it more expensive to offer a standout salary in the city.
Company size also affects developer salaries. Larger enterprises, for example, have been the biggest drivers of developer demand over the past year. They often require specialised skills in areas like cloud computing, cyber security, and data analytics.
“The demand for these skills can drive up salaries as companies compete to hire developers with the necessary expertise,” the report reveals,
The industry in which the developer is hired will also impact their salary.
“Consulting, cloud, and fintech offer some of the highest-average salaries in the country. These sectors typically include enterprise companies like banks and large multinational firms, which typically pay higher salaries than smaller companies,” Joubert explains.
Programming languages are another key factor affecting salaries. Outside of niche languages, Python, TypeScript and Java have the highest average salaries for senior developers.
These languages are commonly used in enterprises which increases demand for experienced developers with these skillsets.
The gap between front-end and full stack salaries has narrowed even further, as specialist skills sets come at a premium, notes OfferZen.
Despite demand for full stack developers remaining strong, the increasing complexity and importance of frontend technologies have levelled the playing field. At the same time, backend developers remain the best-paid role for the majority of their careers,” according to the report.
Finding developers working with niche programming languages like Go, Kotlin or Ruby is difficult, and this is reflected in them earning higher salaries, notes the report.
“The same applies to frameworks. For example, Spring and Spring Boot have the highest average salaries among frameworks and lead to higher average salaries for Java developers across the majority of their careers,” states Joubert.
“Based on this, right now, we're seeing strong demand from enterprise companies for skills like Java. As larger companies typically pay more for than smaller ones, the salary benchmarks needs to reflect both the skill and company size.”
Share