Developing an IoT App: Special Skills, IoT Developers Salary and Rates

Searching for a developer who can accomplish your IoT project may take some time. So be prepared and learn about the following before you start:

• IoT developer rates
• IoT developer salaries
• Key skills of IoT developers

Getting a handle on this information will help prepare you to analyze the Internet of Things developers market.

IoT Developer Rates and Salary – Overview

When looking for IoT developers, you’ll first need to determine your budget and examine the market. Using Payscale statistics and Clutch ratings you can learn about the IoT developer rates and salaries in various countries and find the best service providers.

“Rate” refers to how much money you’ll need to pay a developer per hour of time worked. Rates differ from company to company, depending on professional experience, the country where the developer operates, skill set, and more. If rate statistics are not available, you can consider average salaries as a means of comparison.

Let’s take a look at IoT developers’ rates and salaries in various places.

In the USA, the homeland of many tech giants, an average hourly rate for an Internet of Things developer is $45.

Note that this is a base sum; taking into account operating expenses, real rates will add up to 50% to that number. As a result, you will pay around $70 an hour for a developer from the USA.

Salaries may even differ from state to state within the United States.

The average yearly IoT developer salary in the USA is $100k. Again, remember that this is a base sum. The real salary plus expenses is around $150k.

Source: PayScale

On the other side of the planet, in India, developers earn 850k rupees a year, which is around US$12k. According to statistics provided by PayScale, rates in India start at about $6 per hour. The difference from the USA is huge, isn’t it?

Source: PayScale

According to Clutch, you can find top IoT developers in a range of countries, offering their services at widely varying prices.

Source: Clutch Leaders Matrix

For example, Very, from the USA, has hourly rates starting from $150. Another top IoT development company, HQSoftware, has rates that fit in a $25-$49 range. The reason for the difference is that the company is based in a small European country, Estonia, and can deliver high-quality products at much lower cost because of its location.

Want to build an IoT software solution?

HQSoftware IoT developers offer a solid technical background at rates that are modest thanks to the company’s location.

Aleksandra Golik
Head of Sales
at HQSoftware

Get a Free Quote

If you conduct deeper research you will discover that certain European countries such as Poland, Estonia, and others have the most budget-friendly rates, along with excellent service quality. Specialists in those countries can easily adapt communication to the customer’s time zone.

Key Skills of IoT Developers

In an incredibly competitive market of IoT development companies, the ones that stand out hire competent specialists with an innovation-first approach to their work.

IoT developers shine brightest here because they work with innovation all the time. They constantly need to enhance their skills and gain new ones to be able to create connected solutions and to compete in this global market.

One of the main variables that affect a developer’s salary and rates is skills. The more useful and rare skills a developer can offer, the higher the rates. Experience in applying those skills is also extremely important.

Vasil Tarasevich
CTO
at HQSoftware

At HQSoftware, we have created an IoT Competency Center that unites our best practitioners. They share their IoT knowledge, provide consulting to other developers, research trends in IoT development, and are in charge of developing innovative approaches to IoT development. We always hire the best team players to join HQSoftware, and the most skilled of them are invited to the Competency Center.

Here is a list of the most important skills for an IoT developer. This is a fundamental set of the most useful things to learn.

1. Networks, Information Security

IoT is a large network of connected devices that constantly generate, share, store, migrate, and process data. Managing such large-scale infrastructure is hard, so it is vulnerable to data violations, malware, and DDoS attacks. A trusted IoT developer must understand the problems and know how to secure IoT networks.

For a developer who works with networks, it is also important to learn network protocols and be able to interconnect devices that use different protocols.

Note that more and more people are using smart devices or implementing smart technologies in their homes. So securing their data must be a top priority for any developer. Since some IoT appliances are easily accessible, developers need to know how to deal with that.

2. Scaling Solutions

IoT networks are constantly expanding. So developers must be able to scale them to meet the requirements of a client. Whether that involves adding new devices or moving certain services to a cloud, a developer needs to be competent and prepared to accomplish whatever is needed..

An important note on that: If a solution is expected to handle huge numbers of users, developers need to set up an environment that can bear the traffic. Having the skills to do that effectively definitely pushes rates upward.

3. Hardware Prototyping

If your IoT development company is a one-stop-shop, it will also perform hardware development, which is inseparable from hardware prototyping.

A hardware device developer creates prototypes, debugs them, makes changes that address client requirements, and creates documentation that describes the details.

4. Embedded Development

Building hardware is only half the battle. A device without embedded software is just a stupid object. IoT developers make it smart with embedded software.

Embedded software allows the device to handle data and connect to other smart software components, control machines or devices. Embedded systems often have time and memory constraints, and experienced IoT developers should understand how to adapt to them.

5. Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data

Artificial Intelligence for IoT is a popular trend in the market. Machine Learning is an important tool that helps AI developers force machines to learn from large volumes of data or Big Data.

This data needs to be organized and stored in a secured cloud or local data storage. IoT developers work with the storage component, too.

IoT devices powered by AI can move mountains, and so must IoT developers. Specialists who can teach machines to process data and accomplish complex tasks automatically are much more expensive.

6. Mobile Application Development

Any IoT system needs an interface that users will interact with, be it an enterprise-level solution that automates manufacturing, or a simple, user-friendly smart thermostat. The handiest way to operate IoT systems is with a mobile application.

As you can see from this description, IoT developers are a lot like Swiss army knives — to stay competitive and be able to deliver the best products, it is important for them to attain a vast variety of technical skills, from building hardware to creating end-user applications.

Hiring IoT Developers: Summing Up

Internet of Things solutions incorporate the power of the Internet, hardware, and infrastructure. IoT devices make it easier for both enterprises and individuals to accomplish everyday tasks, be it managing multipurpose manufacturing or just delivering instructions to your smart home.

No matter what your project idea involves, it is better to hire IoT developers who are skilled, competent, and not excessively expensive. In this article, we have covered the most important parameters that affect the cost of the project: IoT developers’ salaries, rates, and skills.

If you’re looking for a competent IoT developers team, ask HQSoftware about creating a team for you. Its IoT developers offer a solid technical background at rates that are modest thanks to the company’s location.

If you’re looking for a competent IoT developers team, ask HQSoftware about creating a team for you. Its IoT developers offer a solid technical background at rates that are modest thanks to the company’s location.