How Much Does a Freelance Web Developer Earn in India in 2021?

As online presence becomes a necessity for both businesses and individuals, a web developer’s occupation is very promising. From small businesses to established companies, web developers’ role is essential for crafting websites that attract customers.

There are two routes that web developers can take — working full-time in a company or going freelance. With that in mind, you may wonder how much is a freelance web developer salary in India.

This article will give you the pay range you can expect to earn and the factors that can potentially affect it.

How much money do web developers make in India?

According to a Payscale salary estimates report, web developers that aren’t freelancers earn an average of ₹308,595 per year. However, that figure can’t be generalized as many factors affect web developers’ salaries in India.

• Freelance vs working in a company — being self-employed or working in tech companies can make a difference in web developer salaries.
• Skills — the mastery of skills in certain programming languages directly affects web developers’ salaries.
• Experience — senior web developers with years of experience will earn more than rookie developers, as they may have adequate knowledge on how to troubleshoot issues or develop websites with unique and custom requirements.
• Location — while this is becoming less and less of an influence on salaries, the price you can charge for a web development service varies depending on the geographic location.

Freelance vs working in a company

Working in a company can give you more assurance as you will receive a regular salary and more perks such as bonuses and commission fees.

However, each company offers a different average salary. For example, Accenture pays an average web developer salary of ₹476,000 per year, well over the national average. Conversely, Infotech only offers ₹292,000.

That being said, being a freelancer will not set you back financially. According to a LinkedIn report, the average earning for a freelance web developer job title in India is ₹37,500 per month or ₹450,000 per year.

Your earnings as a freelance web developer depend on how you can attract clients and handle the workload. The more web development assignments you can complete, the more earnings you get.

Being a freelance web developer means that you can offer your services to clients worldwide and work from home.

Clients from other countries may want to pay more than India’s national average.

For example, a client from the United States may be happy to pay $1,000 or ₹74,440 for a website, as it is already below average in the country. That figure is already higher than the national average earning you can get in a month.

Skills

There’s no doubt that skills dictate your payroll. In the field of web development, your competencies in programming languages can make a difference. For example, the average annual salary for a Java developer is ₹448,368, while PHP developers earn an average of ₹269,254.

Other technical expertise can have an impact as well, such as communication skills, which are essential for freelance developers.

You’ll need to communicate with people to build their interest in your services as well as to identify and solve their problems and needs for website development.

Experience

With more experience, you can create a website faster, solve more complicated issues, and meet more website requirements from your clients. All of them help you earn more money from web development.

On average, a web developer with under one year of experience will earn an annual salary of ₹234,959 when working in a tech company. At the other end, senior web developers with 10 to 19 years of experience may earn ₹1 million per year on average.

Location

Since the cost of living can be different from one region to another, location plays a role in web developers’ earnings, and in India, it’s no different.

Here is the average web developer salary in some Indian cities.

• Hyderabad — ₹389,408
• Bangalore — ₹386,317
• Mumbai — ₹343,050
• New Delhi — ₹336,868
• Pune — ₹305,963
• Chennai — ₹302,873
• Kolkata — ₹271,967

How to start a successful career as a web developer in India?

Before you dive deeper into freelance web development work, understand that there are different types of web developers that vary in the skills required:

• Front-end developers — they primarily focus on the graphical user interface of the website. They work mainly on the website elements that the visitors see and interact with.
• Back-end developers — mainly take care of the server-side code, which the visitors can’t see but has a significant impact on how the website works.
• Full-stack developers — work on both the front-end and the back-end side of the website.
• WordPress developers — specialized in developing WordPress websites.

1. Start creating websites and web apps

Begin with creating websites or web apps to learn and gain experience. It’s the best way to hone your skills.

At this stage, your main goal is to know how to set up websites and web apps properly. Sure, it’ll take an initial investment, such as a domain name and a hosting service, but it doesn’t need to be costly.

Hostinger is one of the most affordable and reliable hosting service providers you can use, and they even give you a free domain name for a year. I had used their shared hosting services myself when I wanted to test or learn web development.

Once you’ve created working websites and have gathered some valuable experience, start creating a portfolio website. It’s an excellent way to showcase your works to any potential clients.

It’s okay to fill your portfolio with smaller projects first. As you gather more projects and experience, you can update your portfolio to be more compelling.

2. Learn how to work with WordPress

WordPress is the most popular content management system (CMS). While it’s primarily known as a blogging platform, it powers 35% of the websites on the Internet due to its versatility and reliability.

It is great almost for every kind of website — personal blogs, portfolio, business websites. This is done by using an extensive library of WordPress plugins and themes.

Therefore, you can be sure that you’ll be asked to use this CMS quite often when you build websites for clients.

Many clients may ask for a simple website for their businesses that don’t require intricate elements, and you can build them quickly and easily using WordPress.

Knowing how to code will be a big plus. It doesn’t require intricate coding skills, as WordPress tweaking usually revolves around HTML, CSS, and PHP languages. However, it may allow you to modify WordPress sites further than relying on plugins and themes alone.

3. Web development programming languages

Learning multiple programming languages is also a great time investment. The more languages you master, the more kinds of websites you can make, which will directly affect your payroll.

Here are some best programming languages you should learn:

• JavaScript — a beginner-friendly language that’s essential for front-end web development, along with HTML and CSS. In 2019, JavaScript was the most popular programming language among web developers.
• PHP — a server-side scripting language that’s very helpful for back-end web development.
• Python — a programming language with easy-to-understand syntax, making it one of the most beginner-friendly languages. It also has a fast processing speed and various packages that allow you to run it for multiple tasks.
• Ruby — is a scripting language used for Ruby on Rails, a server-side web application framework.
• Go — an open-source programming language. It was designed at Google and includes similar functions as C and C++.
• Perl — the global top paying programming language, with an average salary of $76,000. It’s a part of the programming language family developed for over 30 years and used in text manipulation and system administration.

4. Start offering your work as a freelance web developer

Before you start marketing your service, there are a few details that you need to consider.

First, you have to decide whether you want to specialize in a niche. Picking a niche will allow you to focus on a specific area and enhance your web development skills. Also, it’s much easier to gain a reputation online that way.

For example, you can specialize in creating eCommerce websites. These days, eCommerce trends grow rapidly, and business owners are competing with one another to establish their online stores, which is an excellent opportunity to get more clients.

Another niche you can pick is WordPress web development. This will allow you to create various types of websites, even though you’ll focus on building them on the same WordPress platform. Plus, WordPress-specific hosting plans are optimized to run several WordPress sites, which makes the job a lot easier.

Also, you can choose to be either front-end or a back-end developer. However, this job title typically works with other developers in companies or website agencies.

After you pick your niche, find your unique selling proposition (USP). It tells your potential clients about what you do and why you’re the best at web development. For example, if you pick the eCommerce niche and excel on it, you may want to say, “I help business owners establish online stores in one day.”

Now you’ll have to optimize your portfolio according to your niche and USP. Choose the websites that are relevant to your niche and write a copy that properly showcases your USP.

After that, you can use several other platforms for marketing your services:

• Google Ads — advertise your services on Google search engine result pages or other AdSense partners. Your advertised services may come up when someone searches for freelance web developers in your local area.
• Facebook Ads — your web development work will be advertised to Facebook users based on their interests, location, and profile information.
• Freelance platforms — there are various freelance websites such as Fiverr and Upwork that allow freelancers and gig economy workers to post their work and promote themselves, including web developer jobs.

How much should you charge as a freelance web developer in India?

Before you start considering the price of your web development services, you need to understand the underlying reasons why you should price your service in a specific range.

Most websites can help the owners to earn more money. For this reason, they won’t mind paying a high price tag as long as the website will provide a tremendous monetary return.

Another tip is not to price your services too low just to attract clients. The chances are potential customers will perceive you as a beginner and lacking competence. Position yourself as an expert and charge a calculated and specific price for your services.

The average freelance web developer hourly rate is ₹412.34 per hour. Alternatively, you can charge your clients based on the project.

There are a few factors that may influence your project-based charge.

• Complexity — a website that needs complex customization or requires you to hire software engineers and a freelance web designer will be charged more. You can also build quickly using WordPress or reuse code from your past projects.
• Pages — the more web pages the clients ask for, the more web development work you need to do. Therefore, it’s logical to charge more.
• Types of websites and clients — eCommerce and business websites will make money, and you have the right to charge an extra for those kinds of projects. Conversely, you can charge less for non-profit organizations or students.

Bonus tips for aspiring web developers in India

You may face some challenges on your path towards a successful career as a freelance web developer. Here are some great tips for you to help you succeed.

• Find your passion — nothing motivates people more than what they’re most passionate about. It’s not only about the enthusiasm for web development but also about a certain niche you may pick for your web development career.
• Create a roadmap — make a timeline that guides you through the learning process and when to start taking the next step, such as creating a portfolio website and starting a marketing campaign.
• Take part in open-source projects — these are great opportunities for you to build your communication and networking skills in the web developers community.
• Be social — use Facebook Groups, Quora, or Stack Overflow. These are great platforms if you want to ask questions. Also, you can contribute yourself by answering questions for other web developers.
• Learn about the newest web development trends — adapt to the web development trends to keep yourself ahead of the competition among freelance web developers.
• Negotiate for a profit-sharing — if you develop a money-generating website for a client, you can negotiate for a profit-sharing agreement to get yourself an additional stream of income.
• Act — as a freelancer, you have to push yourself to act. No one will push you to your success other than yourself.

All in all

Becoming a freelance web developer can give you great earning potential. You need to sharpen your skills to stay ahead of the competition and get more clients.

Whether you just started learning or have been a developer for some time, keep practicing. Use an affordable hosting service to provide yourself a learning environment to try new concepts and build up your portfolio.

Last but not least, don’t wait to act. As a self-starter, you should begin working now and keep motivating yourself.

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