Introduction
Senior React Developer salaries are hard to pin down, and depending on which platform you look at will produce different results. To better understand the why behind senior ReactJS developer salaries, we must first understand the industry, company stage, size, and resources available to those businesses to hire.
Regardless, we can still get a general sense of the salary amount for senior React developers.
Senior React developer salaries
Again, the salaries across platforms aren’t uniform. A quick search on ZipRecruiter, Glassdoor, and Levels will produce similar but different results.
The average senior ReactJS developer salary in the United States across all industries is between $110k/yr and $150k/yr. Top performers earn upwards of $169k/yr to $176k/yr, while below-average earners make around $82k/yr to $100k/yr.
According to Glassdoor and ZipRecruiter, senior ReactJS developers can be as low as $87k and upwards of 178k in the United States. Keep in mind that these sites take a very broad look at developer salaries across many industries.
Glassdoor estimates that the average salary for a senior React developer with 7-9 years of experience is $116k in the United States. That average raises to $127k for senior ReactJS developers with 10-14 years of experience.
ZipRecuiter doesn’t make any distinction between years of experience and instead puts the average at $134k and shows the percentage distribution of salaries between $88k and $176k. Their data states that over 14% of senior React.js developers are making salaries in one of three different tiers, specifically the $104-112k, $128k-$135k, and $136k-$143k ranges.
Sites like Levels focus specifically on the tech industry and Silicon Valley-caliber positions where salaries become even more granular. This is due to the leveling systems that big tech companies use to distinguish seniority.
You’ll often see prefixes such as L4 or L5 to determine the “level” of a developer. Salary bands and percentile distributions increase with each level.
According to Levels, the median salary is $169k, with the 25th percentile making around $112k. The 75th% and 90th% make around $230k and $305k respectively. Keep in mind these are extremely competitive roles at the best tech companies.
Why are salaries so different (and high) across tech?
The broad salary variance is directly related to the location and cost of living where these positions are available. Resources also play a part as well-funded companies will pay more to attract the best talent. We saw plenty of this during the “talent wars” where companies such as Netflix paid top dollar to hire the best developers the United States had to offer. In fact, sites like Levels exist purely because of big-tech companies paying top dollar for top talent.
As a result of the “talent wars”, smaller companies weren’t able to hire senior talent as fast. Senior developers were especially challenging to find as they aren’t usually in the job market. Getting a solid senior developer took substantial recruiting efforts and a high offer.
Senior ReactJS developer salary vs other technologies
VueJS: $91k ($73k-$116k) High: $143k | Low: $59k (Glassdoor)
Angular: $104k ($85k-$131k) High: $159k | Low: $70k (Glassdoor)
React: $116k ($97k-$142k) High: $169k | Low: $82k (Glassdoor)
Is the cost of a senior ReactJS developer worth it?
If you are looking to build a new web or mobile application or get more done on a currently existing product with a small team, then the answer is yes. Senior developers unlock your roadmap by orders of magnitude compared to junior and mid-level developers.
Hiring senior ReactJS developers can be either seen as a profit center (investment) or a cost center (expense). To a finance executive, all of this is considered OpEx and it’s no secret that engineering departments are the most expensive to run.
We expect that the costs of building great software are made whole through solid product market fit, and great marketing/sales strategies to capture value. So it’s extremely important that you build a team with senior talent that moves the product roadmap forward in collaboration with other teams, and build software that feels as good as it looks.
You need to hire senior React developers that understand the big picture of building products and, apply their craft and experience effectively in a remote team environment, and value communication to make magic happen.
Unfortunately, high-caliber developers aren’t easy to find and even harder to identify. The costs of making a wrong hire are extremely high.If you’re looking for senior ReactJS developers that can help you get more done and make a real impact in your business, try working with one of our Trio senior React developers.
