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Freelance web developer vs software developer

The differences between freelance web developers and software developers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. It typically takes 2-4 years to become both a freelance web developer and a software developer. Additionally, a software developer has an average salary of $87,521, which is higher than the $37,880 average annual salary of a freelance web developer.

The top three skills for a freelance web developer include web design, wordpress and HTML. The most important skills for a software developer are java, python, and C++.

Freelance web developer vs software developer overview

Freelance Web DeveloperSoftware Developer
Yearly salary$37,880$87,521
Hourly rate$18.21$42.08
Growth rate13%21%
Number of jobs168,006294,329
Job satisfaction--
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Average age3739
Years of experience44

Freelance web developer vs software developer salary

Freelance web developers and software developers have different pay scales, as shown below.

Freelance Web DeveloperSoftware Developer
Average salary$37,880$87,521
Salary rangeBetween $17,000 And $79,000Between $67,000 And $113,000
Highest paying City-San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state-California
Best paying company-The Citadel
Best paying industry-Finance

Differences between freelance web developer and software developer education

There are a few differences between a freelance web developer and a software developer in terms of educational background:

Freelance Web DeveloperSoftware Developer
Most common degreeBachelor's Degree, 68%Bachelor's Degree, 72%
Most common majorComputer ScienceComputer Science
Most common collegeGeorgia Institute of TechnologyHarvard University

Freelance web developer vs software developer demographics

Here are the differences between freelance web developers' and software developers' demographics:

Freelance Web DeveloperSoftware Developer
Average age3739
Gender ratioMale, 77.6% Female, 22.4%Male, 79.3% Female, 20.7%
Race ratioBlack or African American, 7.0% Unknown, 6.7% Hispanic or Latino, 13.0% Asian, 13.3% White, 59.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4%Black or African American, 4.5% Unknown, 4.8% Hispanic or Latino, 8.2% Asian, 29.9% White, 52.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2%
LGBT Percentage9%8%

Differences between freelance web developer and software developer duties and responsibilities

Freelance web developer example responsibilities.

  • Develop a new platform to manage the storage boxes and inventory using Laravel and D3.js.
  • Ensure sound design and programming techniques are deployed using PHP, JavaScript, MySQL, CSS, XHTML.
  • Design and develop a new website for the department using HTML5, CSS3, PHP, and JavaScript.
  • Resolve issues on clients' websites that drastically affect their functionality and performance using PHP, JavaScript, and CSS customization.
  • Recommend moving from current HTML pages to static PHP pages with search engine friendly URLs and MySQL for data manipulation.
  • Use of AJAX to for connecting to API's and sending form submissions while notifying users of success without page reload.
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Software developer example responsibilities.

  • Restructure the project code in repository and use maven to manage project dependencies.
  • Used JIRA to manage and track the issues report by QA and prioritize and take action base on the severity.
  • Develop the front-end web page by using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, taking advantage of the frameworks Angular.JS.
  • Lead team and develop UNIX administrative and maintenance development tasks, supporting customer requirements.
  • Configure custom PL/SQL database to manage new database objects including triggers, user-define functions and store procedures.
  • Implement a centralize configuration system for managing application settings, consisting of a desktop application with a WCF backend.
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Freelance web developer vs software developer skills

Common freelance web developer skills
  • Web Design, 24%
  • WordPress, 8%
  • HTML, 7%
  • CSS, 7%
  • JavaScript, 6%
  • Html Css, 4%
Common software developer skills
  • Java, 11%
  • Python, 9%
  • C++, 7%
  • Software Development, 6%
  • JavaScript, 5%
  • Database, 5%

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