With a rapid advance of the mobile app ecosystem, that features growing adoption of the Large Language Models, Internet of Things, Blockchain, as well as AR (think Apple’s Visual Pro headset) and VR (think Meta’s Metaverse), more and more people decide to join a multi-million army of mobile app developers.
Thanks to the Apple’s skyrocketing financial success with the mobile tech, the iOS developer salary has a special appeal to software developers who wants to be on the bleeding edge of mobile and be paid one of the top salaries in the software industry.
On the other hand, Android, having the widest adoption worldwide, especially in Latin America and Europe, also secures an Android developer salary that is on par with the iOS app developer counterpart. We should also mention that both platforms, along with application development industry in general, provide app developers with flexibility of working remotely, ability to relocate anytime they need and, given stable high demand, future financial security.
In 2024, the total number of mobile app developers has reached 30 million. Quoting Marc Andreessen “Software eats the world”, meaning software – and especially mobile – permeates every business vertical on the planet and, as a consequence, we witness skyrocketing of a mobile app developer profession’s popularity.
With this number of people being a part of the mobile app ecosystem, a question like what is an average Android and iOS developer salary becomes paramount for anybody who considers if she or he should choose a career of a mobile app developer.
In this guide, we answer this question, providing you statistics about iOS and Android developer salary and how they compare.
Mobile App Developer Salary Key Data Points:
- Worldwide mobile app revenue in 2023 – $150 billion
- Revenue generated with games – $95 billion
- Revenue generated with non-games – $55 billion
- Large studios generate 65% of revenue, mid-size – 25, indie developers – 10%
- US mobile app developer average salary (depending on years of experience) ranges from $80k to $150k / year
- US top iOS salary city – Cupertino ($153k for iOS and $148k for Android)
These are just a few key data points for you to get a quick peek into what is an average mobile developer’s salary, let’s dig deeper.
We’ve divided this research into four major sections, covering the overall health of the app development market plus specific app salary data points for Android and iOS developers in various geographic markets.
Featured App Developers
Before will get into how much money app developers are making, we’re going to set the stage by looking at how much revenue the app industry churns out year over year.
App Revenue
Let’s start with a broad picture of how much mobile app revenue developers generated in recent years with in-app purchases, in-app advertising and from app copy sales on the app stores combined. In the absence of precise aggregated numbers from app development companies combined, we will compare data from two leading app industry analytical company – Sensor Tower.
The recent data from Sensor Tower reveals that from 2021 to 2023 app revenues grew significantly on both App Store and Google Play. The major takeaway is that, when it comes to revenue, the Apple’s App Store is still way ahead of Google’s Google Play market. The Google Play store grew roughly $8 billion , from $47 billion in 2021 to $55 billion in 2023, for the same period, the App Store grew $10 billion, from $85 billion in 2021 to $95 billion in 2023.
Worldwide Mobile App Revenue in 2021-2023 ($ billions)
Sources: Sensor Tower
The data from multiple sources, including Statista, SensorTower, NewZoo, Apple and Google, provides the other breakdown – Gaming versus Non-Gaming for both the App Store and Google Play. Unlike in previous years, when the App Store financially dominated across all app categories, including games, in 2023 the picture was different. The App Store still ruled the non-gaming sector, with $50 billion versus $25 billion for Google Play but for games it was vice versa – the App Store generated only $30 billion, while the Google Play produced $45 in revenue. In total, the App Store still generates more than twice as much as Google Play, $95 billion vs. $55 billion for the Google Play counterpart.
App Development Companies Buyers guide
Download our App Development Companies Buyers guide to get a full list of the best service providers on the market to choose from. You will also learn about types of app developers, different app development platforms, app developer locations, app development costs, how to select the right one for your business, as well as the questions to ask any of those companies you will be evaluating.
Worldwide Gaming vs. Non-Gaming revenue ($ billions)
Source: SensorTower, Statista, NewZoo, Apple Inc, Google Inc.
The mobile app industry has grown to a highly competitive and challenging one, where the level of app developers’ revenue significantly varies. To see how much, let’s take a look at the following graph that presents data for app developers’ revenue for independent developers, medium and large-size studios. The most obvious trend we can see on the graph is that the bulk, 60-70% to be precise, of app development revenue was generated by large studios, with revenue more than $100,000 / month. The 20-30% of the revenue split belongs to medium size companies that generate between $10,000 and $100,000 a month. Indie developers community is the distant third contributor, with only 5-10% of the monthly mobile app revenue pie.
Monthly mobile app developers revenue percentage split, by company size (%)
Source: SensorTower, Statista, Newzoo, developer surveys
The next benchmark to consider is the annual app developer salary in different countries. Le’s see how much money mobile app developers make in North America, Europe and Asia . The United States dominates with respect to how much on average developers can earn a year – roughly $120,000, Switzerland holds the second position with $115,000, Australia and Canada come next with $88,000 and at the very end of this scale is India with $15,000 (yes, Indian app development market still provides the cheapest workforce).
One thing we should remember that a salary figure alone doesn’t indicate how valuable this annual income is in a particular country, we also should factor in an average salary figure in those countries. With that in mind, $15,000 annual salary in India doesn’t look that low because the annual median per capita income in India is around ~$2,000.
Mobile App Developer average annual salary, by country ($k)
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale, Statista, Indeed
One of the crucial factors that influences mobile app developers’ salary is what app coding experience they have, it directly translates into how much money companies are willing to pay for their service. Let’s take a look at top software development markets such as the US, Australia, Canada, UK, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, France, Brazil, and India. With all this information we can approximate its trends on mobile app developers’ salaries in general.
Senior app developers, with up to 5 years of coding experience, can make about $150,000 in the US, around $140,000 in Switzerland, $110,000 in Australia, $105,000 in Canada, and even in India this experience translates for developers into $20,000 of revenue a year.
Mid-level developers, with 3 to 5 years of coding experience under their belt, can ask for $120,000 in the United States, around $110,000 in Switzerland, around $87,000 in Australia and Canada, and only $12,000 in India.
Junior developers, with less than 2 years of coding experience, can only expect to make $80,000 in the US, surprisingly more in Switzerland – $85,000, $65,000 in Australia and Canada, or as little as $7,000 in India but again – all salaries should be considered in the context of their respectful country’s economy.
Annual median app developer salary, by coding experience ($k)
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed, Hired, Statista
iOS vs. Android Developer Salary
Mobile app developers are being paid a different salary based on their location. Let’s take a look at the salary they get in a few cities in the US and analyze the impact of choosing a specific mobile platform on how much money they make. Among US cities, there is a significant number of mobile app developers located in the following six cities – San Francisco, Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago, New York, and Cupertino.
Cupertino is where iOS developers make the most – on average $153,000 a year, meanwhile Android app developers make less – $148,ooo a year. Even though, in other cities developers are paid less, the overall trend remains – app developers for both leading platforms are being paid almost the same salary. It’s yet another proof of an observation made by Benedict Evans, ex analytic of the Andreessen Horowitz VC firm back in 2016 – both iOS and Android mobile platforms won.
Annual iOS vs Android app developer salary, by the US city ($k)
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed
After comparing what major mobile app development platforms iOS and Android have to offer developers, let’s review them separately.
iOS Developer Salary
First up is the Apple’s mobile operating system, let’s analyze how much iOS developers make in different countries. It’s a small wonder that the US is the leader with iOS app developers making $135,000 a year on average.
Australian iOS coders take the second place with $100,000 a year, followed by Canadian and German app developers making $90,000 and $83,000 annually respectively. In the UK, iOS developers can secure $75,000 a year and in India iOS developer can expect to be paid only $25,000 a year.
iOS app developer salary, by country ($k)
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed
Turning to how app development experience influences iOS app developers’ annual salary. An Junior-level (0-2 years of experience) iOS developer may expect to be paid about $85,000 a year, having 3-5 years of experience adds $30,000 and raises the annual salary to $115,000. iOS development professionals of the senior level make $145,000 a year on average, which is followed by another $35,000 extra later on as they reach the lead / principal level and enjoy $180,000 a year.
The US iOS app developer annual salary, by experience ($k)
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed
Android Developer Salary
Moving from iOS to Android, yet again the US leads the pack with Android developers making $130,000 a year, Australia takes the second place with $95,000 and Canada closes the top three with $85,000 salary Canadian app developers make a year. In India, Android app developers make only $21,000 annually.
Android app developer salary, by location ($k)
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed
For Android app development we can see a similar pattern but with slightly different rates. It starts with $78,000 annual salary for the Junior Level skills, followed by $105,000 once you reach the Mid-level stage, at the Senior level, Android app developers make $135,000 a year and, once they’ve reached Lead / Principal level, they make $170,000 a year.
US Android App Developer Salary, by experience ($k)
Source: Glassdoor, Payscale, Indeed
Final Thoughts
As of H2 2024, based on their experience, the average annual salary of mobile app developers in the US ranges from $80,000 to $150,000.
Mobile app developers counterparts in other countries are being paid significantly different, ranging from $85,000 – $140,00 in Switzerland to $7,000 – $20,000 in India, both the local economy and the scale of the mobile app ecosystem influence the financial compensation mobile app developers get in these countries.
The mobile ecosystem has engulfed all developed and many developing countries are on the path to become fully mobile, latest cutting-edge technologies such as Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence allow to significantly increase the value of several billion mobile devices people own. Internet of Things ecosystem adoption is slower than people believed but it is growing too. All three vectors bring lots of new opportunities for mobile app developers, including generating greater income thanks to high demand for these above-mentioned tech.