Hourly rates in IT projects: Comparison & Development 2021

Which roles earn the most on an IT project? We explore this question in our current analysis of hourly rates in IT projects. We also show how the hourly rates of solo digital experts and IT service providers have developed compared to the previous year.

Development 2020/21 positive

Those involved in a digitalisation project are mostly IT project managers, developers and occasionally other experts such as cloud, DevOps and test engineers. The figure compares the average hourly rates in IT projects and their development over the last year. The black line marks the value from the beginning of 2020. The change from the previous year is shown in brackets.

Average hourly rates in IT projects and their development in the last year

Basically, a positive trend can be observed despite Corona, because the gains in hourly rates outweigh the losses. The average hourly rate for all IT experts considered was €90.70/hour at the beginning of 2020. In the meantime, they have risen to 93.20 €/h. An increase of 3 % - with an inflation rate of just under 0.5 %.

Scrum Master at the top

It is striking that the best paid IT experts are mostly the organisers of an IT project. Scrum masters, IT project managers and product owners receive an average of over 100 €/h. These values have even increased by 2 to 5 €/h in the last year.

Behind them come the specialists: Cloud Engineer, Devops Engineer and Test Engineer. On average, these earn between 89 and 95 €/h, but in the case of the DevOps Engineer, they had to register declines. The change was not quite as strong for the Cloud Engineer (~ -1 €/h), mostly a specialisation in the field of DevOps. Domain experts thus form the midfield of the hourly rate comparison with a decent gap (~ 9 €/h) ahead of the developers.

Coders earn the least compared to their colleagues. Java developers often still perform best, receiving an average of €80 per hour, which is an increase over the previous year (~€2/h). They are followed by developers with other specialisations such as C#/.NET or Frontend.

Want more analysis?

Our analysis is based on data from almost 4,000 Lyncronize user profiles and publicly available information from digital experts. It is important to note that these are average hourly rates - so it is quite possible that some developers earn significantly more than Scrum Masters, for example.

You can access further analyses with a free account at Lyncronize. There we present data on the most popular skills, current hourly rates and the general development on the project market. Here you can also find out which skills can increase the individual hourly rate.

In the coming weeks, we will provide a deeper insight into developers' hourly rates and take a closer look at certain profiles with further blog articles. So feel free to check back!