Web Developer Salary 2026/27: Junior + Senior Take-Home
The ONS coding index puts a web developer in "Programmers and software development professionals" (SOC 2020 2134), whose full-time median was £56,914 in ASHE 2025. The group is wide: £32,835 at the 10th percentile, £42,289 at the lower quartile, £75,794 at the upper quartile and £102,860 at the 90th.
Typical pay & take-home
- Median gross
- £56,914
- Typical range
- £32,835–£102,860
- Take-home at median
- £43,568 England, no pension applied — use the salary calculator for your scheme.
At the median for this profession, you earn about 46% above the UK full-time median (£39,039), placing you in the top 23% of UK earners.
What influences web developer pay
The spread inside the unit group is far wider than the gap between job titles. From the 10th percentile to the 90th is a factor of three, which covers the whole range from an entry-level developer to a principal engineer without leaving the same ONS occupation.
The median of £56,914 sits above the £50,270 higher-rate threshold, so a typical developer pays 40% Income Tax on the top slice of their salary at a 42% marginal rate once the 2% National Insurance band is included.
Contracting through a limited company is common in this field, and the tax position changed in April 2026: dividend rates rose to 10.75% at the ordinary rate and 35.75% at the upper rate, which narrows the gap against employment without closing it. Whether IR35 applies to the engagement matters more than the day rate.
Career progression
- Bottom decile of the group: £32,835.
- Lower quartile: £42,289.
- Median: £56,914.
- Upper quartile: £75,794.
- Top decile: £102,860.
Frequently asked questions
- What is take-home for a web developer?
- On the £56,914 median, with no pension contribution, take-home is about £43,568 a year or £3,631 a month after £10,198 Income Tax and £3,149 National Insurance. At the £102,860 top decile it is about £69,644, where the personal allowance has begun to taper.
- Why does ONS group web developers with software developers?
- The SOC 2020 coding index maps "Developer, web" and "Developer, website" to 2134, Programmers and software development professionals, rather than to 2141, Web design professionals. Design and development were split by what the job does, not by whether the output is a website, so a developer building one is a programmer for classification purposes.