When Should You Hire a Developer in-house?

If you’re thinking about hiring in-house developers, then chances are you’ve got a lot of questions on your mind. After all, you might think that hiring in-house gives you more control over what your developers work on, but you might be concerned about the cost of hiring and getting the most value for your money. 

At NerdCloud, our team specializes in checking out these kinds of assumptions so you can make the best decision for you and your company. Today, we’re taking a look at the job market for developers, and whether hiring a developer is right for you. 

First of all, let’s take a look at the average net salary of a senior developer listed on Glassdoor. 

                       monthly, EUR               year, EUR

Finland           4,548.00                      56,799.00

Sweden          5,096.00                      61,152.00

Norway          6,266.94                       75,203.30

Denmark        6,644.82                       79,737.84

Germany        5,833.33                       70,000.00

UK                  5,260.89                       63,130.68

US                  7,735.74                        92,828.86

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So, the first thing you need to know is that this is only the developer’s salary, and it doesn’t cover any additional costs associated with their employment, like:

• Hiring costs (such as using a recruitment agency and paying for job listings)
• Taxes and insurance
• Employee equipment and software licenses
• Office rent
• Management costs

These can cost anywhere from 40% - 60% of that employee’s salary, so now, your expected costs look like this.

                           monthly, EUR                      year, EUR

Finland                7,573.20                              90,878.40

Sweden              8,153.60                               97,843.20

Norway              10,027.11                               120,325.28

Denmark            10,631.71                              127,580.54

Germany            9,333.33                              112,000.00

UK                      8,417.42                                101,009.09

US                      12,377.18                               148,526.18

Let’s assume that your new developer will be working 210 days a year (accounting for weekends, vacations, and sick days) for 7.5 hours a day. So, their hourly rate looks like this:

                              per hour, EUR

Finland                  57.70

Sweden                62.12

Norway                 76.40

Denmark               81.00

Germany               71.11

UK                         64.13

US                         94.30

However, developers aren’t productive 100% of the time. 

First of all, whenever you hire a new employee, they need time to get up to speed. For the first two or three months, they’re going to spend most of their time learning about their role experience, your existing projects, and getting to know their colleagues. In some cases, it might take up to six months for your new developer to be fully productive. 

Even if your new developer can hit the ground running, they still need to spend time learning how each of your projects works by studying the existing code and documentation. 

Plus, no employee is going to be working 100% of the time. They need to take breaks throughout the day and attend meetings, and they’ll also spend time talking to colleagues. 

In the best-case scenario, your new developer will be productive about 80% of the time, so their hourly rate looks more like this:

                            per hour

Finland                72.13

Sweden               77.65

Norway               95.50

Denmark             101.25

Germany             88.89

UK                       80.17

US                       117.88

So, is hiring a developer worth it?

It really depends on if your business generates enough work to keep a developer busy, and with minimal downtime while they wait for new work. If that’s the case, then hiring an in-house senior developer is well worth the cost. 

However, if you’re only running one project, or you don’t have enough regular work to justify hiring a developer, then it’s more efficient for your company wallet to work with a team extension service like NerdCloud. 

With software development services starting from 59 EUR per hour, just look at how much you can save on the cost of an in-house developer:

                             saving %

Finland                22%

Sweden               32%

Norway                62%

Denmark              72%

Germany              51%

UK                        36%

US                        100%

At NerdCloud, we only charge for the development time you use. So, no more paying for coffee breaks, lunch hours, or water-cooler conversations - you’re billed only for the amount of time our developers spend coding. Every part of your project, from the code to the documentation our developers generate, will be handed over regularly too, so you’re never left wondering about the state of your project. 

If you’re worried about not having enough work to justify the cost of a developer - don’t be. When you work with us, we’re happy for you to stop and resume your development as you need. Whether your UX design isn’t going as expected, or you need to rethink your project entirely, just say the word. Because we only charge when our developers work on your project, there’s no need for you to find busy work to justify the cost of paying for a developer.

So, instead of wasting money hiring a developer who you’ll only need for a short while, give us a call. Our developers have an average of 8+ years of experience in working with companies just like yours, and our teams are well-versed in all the latest technologies, code languages, and best development practices. With full ownership and direction over your project, NerdCloud is the plug-and-play team extension you need to make your next project a success.