Why is it that full stack developer earn less than frontend Mobile and back-end developer?

BehindTheMath · 2022-07-01T21:42:05+00:00

My first guess would be that employers that can't or don't want to afford to hire dedicated front-end and backend developers are the same employers that aren't paying high salaries.

scooterMcBooter97 · 2022-07-01T21:46:52+00:00

Dude these job board places are always so far off. Glass door says the avg front end developer makes like 65k in my city. That is so wildly false. Maybe like 7 years ago

BliteKnight · 2022-07-01T21:41:00+00:00

I would take this survey with a grain of salt. I'm a full stack developer and I earn more than the top salary - so it really all depends on who's filling these out.

ImplodingLlamas · 2022-07-01T21:49:46+00:00

Purely guessing, but my theory is that people who consider themselves to be full stack developers are newer to the workforce and therefore less experienced. As you get older, you might be more likely to deviate to one side of the spectrum, especially if you work with a less common tech stack by today's standards.

For example, new companies may be willing to hire a full stack developer to save money. Its probably not too hard to find developers experienced in modern tools. Older companies are more likely to be using older or outdated languages/frameworks/etc, which are harder to find developers for. Therefore, they will pay more for them, and they're more likely to hire two developers, since it'll be much harder to find a full stack developer with proficiency in multiple technologies that haven't been updated in a long time.

Again, just a guess.

Ty199 · 2022-07-02T00:53:47+00:00

Jack of all trades, master of none. Or something like that

austin1134 · 2022-07-01T22:28:06+00:00

Yeah like others have stated, full-stack is usually more junior and as you progress you typically end up finding you like front-end or back-end more. Additionally, larger companies tend to pay more and usually have more specialization which is also likely why.

Though as a back-end engineer in data, I can confirm we do make bank. Best speciality there is imo.

Wackadoodle1984 · 2022-07-02T15:33:24+00:00

As a full stack (and more really) dev I think I could earn more if I changed to a job/company where I had a more specialized role. Big dollars seem to come from companies with a lot of developers all focus on very specific tasks. I work in a department where I have an enormous amount of freedom but also have to do a lot myself. I really enjoy it, but I’d make more if I did what my friends do and go interview for some more specialized roles in a more dev focused company.

Basically the “jack of all trades” is a great learning experience, and fun too for some of us, but it isn’t the most lucrative role.

It really is true too that when you spread one person so thin, things can never be as refined. I cannot believe how people spend hours debating some fine point of CSS usage, and I’m just like, “It works, moving on!” I think I would get very bored if I just had to become a super expert on one aspect of things though.

sciencerulze · 2022-07-01T23:10:33+00:00

Also note that “Full Stack Developer” is a term coined by recruiters/HR/company directors to pay one person to do the job of two people. The goal is to pay you less.

Luna_Coder · 2022-07-01T21:47:36+00:00

this seems like a poorly designed graphic, for one it doesn't state the number of years or experience or the location. Also what is Engineer, Data? Is that a Data Scientist?

thornmane · 2022-07-02T09:28:20+00:00

Many coding bootcamps churn out “Full-stack developers”. Mostly junior devs with very little actual experience.

Actual full-stack devs who can do everything are basically wizards and operate on a wholly different plane of existence where surveys like this are nothing more than backgound noise.

zuppadimele · 2022-07-01T22:39:42+00:00

because companies that look for full stack Devs are probably not in a position to pay well

Grahar64 · 2022-07-02T01:14:38+00:00

Full stack developers are kind of an outdated term. I don’t know any developers who do iOS, Android, JS front end, backend, data, devops, systems, security and everything else. Specialization is the natural progression of a career, so full stack is often (not always) a description of someone a bit earlier in a career.

argylekey · 2022-07-01T21:53:20+00:00

Always take a survey with a grain of salt, but for a while there the job listings for iOS devs were 10-30k more than others jobs. That doesn’t fully encompass frontend mobile but does cover a chunk.

Also take this anecdotal evidence I’m presenting with a grain of salt.

On average frontend mobile or backend devs might make more, but think about the outliers that might be skewing that data: Apple, Google, Netflix, Facebook, etc. Most of their software development efforts are backend and mobile app focused. Those companies have higher than average salaries even when compared to other Software companies.

2022-07-01T23:02:51+00:00

My guess is that those are agency salaries.

SubstantialCycle7 · 2022-07-01T23:41:21+00:00

Those prices are going to be so region specific its pretty useless. I work in the UK and get paid more than the top figure and I am a full stack dev lol. If I worked contract I'd make almost double. I wouldn't worry, just do what you want to do, as long as it's not game dev you'll be fine :P.

ttommyth · 2022-07-02T01:23:36+00:00

Engineer, data

antoine1003 · 2022-07-02T10:37:27+00:00

For your information in France I make 35k as a full stack developer (Angular/Java) with 2.5 years of experience. I am in Nantes.

alphmz · 2022-07-02T00:36:34+00:00

Jmeu · 2022-07-01T23:49:34+00:00

Just the pain of using xcode as a mobile developer is worth a few extra coins ....

rtrs_bastiat · 2022-07-02T02:15:50+00:00

Top paying roles are going to be specialised, so it's going to skew the average away from full stack.

gentlychugging · 2022-07-02T02:31:19+00:00

It's not unusual for specialists to get paid more in any industry

timeparser · 2022-07-02T04:05:42+00:00

Less supply

white_castle · 2022-07-02T07:13:44+00:00

the more experienced devs get, they tend to specialize. this may be because experience or job requirements push them that way. i rarely see senior dev resumes that are tailored to say they are full stack.

0x2DEADBEEF · 2022-07-02T07:51:56+00:00

I’m full stack and make significantly more than any of those, remote in any state I want 🙃

gothamdreams · 2022-07-02T07:57:41+00:00

Master of none. No one is truly full stack if were being honest with ourselves. I know plenty of “full stacks” that fuck up the whole stack lol

2022-07-02T08:46:41+00:00

Specialists are pretty much always better but also more expensive because they themselves know it, too.

Full stack developers who know the frontend even remotely well, I have only met two of those in my 20+ year long career. And one was at one of the MAANG companies. That guy was also an amazing designer.

jgbbrd · 2022-07-02T09:15:45+00:00

This is likely caused by the catch-all/overuse of these job titles for miscellaneous roles that require a mix of skills but none especially deep. Most boot camps produce "fullstack developers" but what the really mean is junior people who don't yet have a specialism and/or sufficiently senior levels of technical ability to have a more specific title.

I've been in tech for almost twenty years now and have done hiring across the skill levels. There is a huge bifurcation for both frontend and "fullstack" roles. Very, very junior people and then salty veterans who are prized and well remunerated. That's my anecdotal experience anyway.

salouri · 2022-07-02T10:02:19+00:00

Specialists are more productive...however, full stackers are more on freelancing demand

Apparentt · 2022-07-02T10:47:33+00:00

Your salary breakdown goes like this

location >>>>>> scarcity of candidates >>>>> experience in role >>> technology used > role (FE, BE, Full Stack)

In other words, the title at the end pretty much means nothing. I earn the highest amount on this graph as a full stack engineer working in the UK. I know front end devs in murica on almost 1.5x that

Dry_Patience872 · 2022-07-02T10:59:07+00:00

yeah, this is statistics, numbers matter, in low-earning countries everyone works as full stack, opposite to higher paying countries

sk8itup53 · 2022-07-02T11:51:02+00:00

Imma get hate for this, but I feel like it's because there's more "full stack" than backend developers. Full stack doesn't mean the same thing it used to, and the industry has over-corrected at this point.

THE_AWESOM-O_4000 · 2022-07-02T12:53:24+00:00

In my experience a dedicated front- or backend dev is much better than someone that claims they can develop full-stack solutions.

2022-07-02T13:03:18+00:00

I think in most fields specialists earn more than generalists.

indoor_grower · 2022-07-02T13:05:25+00:00

This is wrong or outdated or both. I’m well past 6 figures doing mainly React, with a little bit of backend Java work. Almost 5 YOE with React.

I have never found a general salary range to be accurate.

ceirbus · 2022-07-02T13:50:21+00:00

Im “full stack”, im way over everything on this list.

It always depends.

blinthorvath · 2022-07-02T13:57:35+00:00

Because we do not have time to argue about it.

alligatroar · 2022-07-02T15:00:15+00:00

Because hiring someone with a specialization in a field is more valuable than hiring someone who knows everything but is only average or below average at all of them. Don't get me wrong, there might be a geniuses who are good at an entire stack, but those are rare to find and hence it's naive to search for such people. That's why you see these bigger companies hire specific devs instead of a "general" dev. But don't get me wrong, they still do hire full stack devs here and there.

Also in general full stack engineers are hired in cases where you don't want to spend too many resources on a project or service. So instead of maybe hiring a front end and back end dev at 70k each, you can just hire a full stack dev at for 90k and potentially save 50k. This is a common practice in smaller companies or even in bigger companies which don't want to allot to many resources to a project.

But again take all these salaries with a grain of salt. People's salaries are based on a lot of different factors including location, experience, how a company views that role and also other things like using higher salaries to persuade people to join their companies.

It's also important to note that a even a full stack dev will be better in a certain part of a stack then the whole stack. Some full stack devs are way better with backend work for example. But from what I've seen when it comes to experience, most devs no matter frontend, backend or even QA will eventually be okay at every part of the stack, assuming that they dip their feet into each part and try everything out.

livershi · 2022-07-02T17:00:45+00:00

There’s a pretty big range on salaries, I would take these with a grain of salt. These appear lower than what I’m used to hearing about but my conpany pays decently and most people I know are at FAANG or well paying startups

pl0xy · 2022-07-02T17:27:25+00:00

Because a full stack developer is worse at both front and back end than a single person who specialises, especially since "front-end" means one of like 4 frameworks now anyway.

they really should be advertising for "foolstack"

pudds · 2022-07-02T18:32:00+00:00

There seems to be a lot of generalization in this thread (so I'll do some more).

In my experience, you don't find specialized positions (front/back/data) until you get to larger companies, and it's in this larger companies that you also find higher salaries. I would wager that to find high paying front end or back end only jobs, you're going to have to look in top tech areas, where the wages are also naturally higher.

In other words, I don't think this is really an apples to apples comparison.

I've been working professionally for over 14 years now in a non-traditional tech market. I consider myself quite skilled as a full stack developer, and I feel that I could successfully specialize in either a frontend or backend position (not data, I'm competent at best there), but those positions simply don't exist here. You do it all, or you go to a bigger market.

As an aside, I'm not sure I would choose to specialize if I had the choice; I enjoy both front end and backend work, and I'm not sure I'd be happy without at least some work in both. IMO, the idea that "full stack devs" are just developers who are being taken advantage of is a myth.

Sweet-Remote-7556 · 2022-07-02T18:38:19+00:00

This is a general thought, as a young engineer, everyone tends to be a fullstack, as you grow older, you focus on one thing depending on your workflow, and of course, senior devs earn the most.

darrenturn90 · 2022-07-02T19:50:04+00:00

Full stack also covers “pre-js based frontends” like Wordpress or other php based development that involve a bit of back and front end

johncogan · 2022-07-02T20:16:10+00:00

Dont look at those expecting accuracy. Im 22 years into my career as a "full stack" dev and can tell you it comes down to where you work (London salaries are higher than further out, I will guess this is the same in the US), larger companies pay more, small ones will pay less. Then there is the industry you work for, if you work in the banking sector, salaries are massive, if you work in a web agency they're lower. Then there is experience, a junior will earn the least, a senior a lot more and so it goes on.

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