Mobile devices are ubiquitous, and people increasingly rely on apps. Not only for entertainment but also work, transport, payments, even health. Companies follow this trend and frequently adopt a mobile-first approach. No wonder that there is a growing demand for developers who specialize in mobile apps. Although Android dominates the market, iOS is the second most popular mobile operating system, In some countries, such as the USA, Canada, and Australia, it is the most popular. Under such circumstances, it’s not surprising that the average iOS developer salary is higher than many other developer salaries, especially in the USA.
iOS developers are responsible for developing and maintaining applications for mobile devices powered by Apple’s iOS operating system. They do it using mostly 2 programming languages: Swift and Objective-C. Not only do they have to know the iOS operating system but also how it works on different Apple devices, such as the iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Apple Watch. Their average salary varies depending on the level of experience and location. We have compared the average salaries provided by top recruitment services: PayScale, Glassdoor, Indeed, and ZipRecruiter. iOS skills are in high demand but are not as common as Java or Python. It may be the reason why Indeed and ZipRecruiter don’t have enough data to provide information about salaries depending on the level, and they only share an average salary.
You can also find also have salary numbers for Android and Java among other languages.
In this post, we will be addressing the following topics:
- Average iOS developer salary
- An entry-level iOS developer salary
- A junior iOS developer salary
- A senior iOS developer salary
- An average iOS developer salary in NYC
- How an iOS developer salary varies depending on experience
- What factors (other than location and experience) can increase iOS developer pay
Average iOS developer salary in the United States
によると PayScale’s data, the average salary of American iOS developers stands at $91,749 per year.
The average salary presented by Glassdoor is visibly higher and stands at $97,236 per year.
Indeed shows the highest average salary, which is $115,846 per year based on their data.
によると ZipRecruiter, an average salary of iOS developer jobs stands at $114,614 per year, so in between the results coming from Indeed and Glassdoor.
Entry-level iOS developer salary
The salary of an entry-level iOS developer is visibly lower than more experienced mobile programmers, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. It’s interesting, though, that the difference between entry-level and junior or even mid-career developer is not huge.
によると ペイスケール, a salary of an entry-level iOS developer stands at $71,081.
によると Glassdoor, an average junior-level salary stands at $79,223.
Junior iOS developer salary
Many companies don’t distinguish between junior and entry-level employees; that’s why the average junior iOS developer salary is only slightly higher than the one of an entry-level one.
ペイスケール provides data only for entry-level, mid-career, experienced, and late-career iOS professionals. We may assume that a junior iOS salary is in between an entry-level shown above and a mid-career which stands at $108,474.
によると Glassdoor, a junior (1-3 years of experience) iOS developer earns $97,236 per year.
Senior iOS developer salary
ペイスケール shows that the average experienced senior iOS developer salary is $122,918.
Glassdoor’s data shows that the average senior IOS developer’s salary stands at $117,074 per year.
An iOS developer salary based on experience
As you can see below, salaries of iOS developers increase based on their years of experience, and it is not surprising that an entry-level iOS developer earns significantly less than an experienced one. What is interesting is that in many jobs, salaries are relatively stable after reaching a senior level, but the average salary of an iOS developer is continuously growing.
Below you can find average salaries in more detail, based on different career stages, not only regular entry-level/junior/senior levels.
According to PayScale:
- less than 5 years of experience (entry-level): an average total compensation of $71,000,
- with 5 to 10 years of experience (junior): $108,000,
- with 10 to 20 years of experience (mid-career to senior): $123,000,
- more than 20 years of experience (senior to late-career): $123,000.
According to Glassdoor,
- less than one year experience (entry-level): $81,284,
- with 1 to 3 years of experience (junior): $94,964,
- with 4 to 6 years of experience (mid-career): $115,023,
- with 7 to 9 years of experience (mid-career to senior): $116,869,
- with 10 to 14 years of experience (senior) $127,244,
- more than 15 years of experience (late-career): $140,712.
An iOS developer salary in NYC
Location plays a significant role in how much people earn, and it affects developers just like anybody else. The highest salaries are in San Francisco and the difference between the Bay area and a city with the second highest salaries, Seattle, is notable – 19%. At the same time, an average salary of iOS developers in New York stands at $85,913, only 3% above the national average.
To compare, let’s take a look at data presented by Glassdoor:
- Average salary: $106,557,
- New York: $116,024 (9% above the average),
- San Francisco: $137,618 (29% above the average),
- Seattle: $127,681 (20% above the average),
- Atlanta: $94,826 (11% below the average).
Other factors increasing pay
The level of experience and location are two crucial factors that affect salaries. The third one is the right skill set, which depends on the level of experience, but also on specific projects that developers have worked on. It is important to add that iOS developers are much more than app programmers and their skill sets require wireframing and prototyping, testing, submission to the App Store, knowledge about UX (User Experience), UI (User Interface) and soft skills like excellent communication.
Core skills:
- Swift and/or Objective-C programming languages,
- iOS SDK,
- Apple’s Interface Guidelines,
- Frameworks and APIs like Foundation, UIKit, and CocoaTouch,
- Apple’s Xcode IDE,
- Familiarity with iOS 10 and newer OS versions,
- OpenGL or Metal, iOS graphics APIs.
Useful additional skills:
- UI and UX design experience,
- Android Operating System Development,
- Spatial relationships between objects,
- Networking,
- Grand Central Dispatch.
Before you go
We also have other great resources devoted to a software developer salary, such as:
Complete front end developer salary data
