What does a developer really cost per month in 2026?

A gross salary is not an employer cost and an hourly rate is not a monthly price. We calculate three models with the official 2026 figures and show where the difference is large and where it almost disappears.

The question what a developer costs is almost always answered with a salary. That makes sense, because a salary is the only number published in job ads and salary overviews. It is also the number that says the least about what your organisation actually spends per month on a developer, and it is definitely not the number you can compare with an external monthly price.

So this article does something else. For three models we calculate what a month of development capacity costs: a developer in Dutch employment, a Dutch freelancer and a dedicated developer through tre plus. We use the official 2026 premium percentages, the statutory premium ceiling and published market rates. Every assumption is stated, so you can redo the calculation or adjust it to your own situation.

Salary, employer cost and client price are three different things

Most cost comparisons go wrong at the same point: they place numbers side by side that do not measure the same cost layer. A gross salary only measures what an employee receives on the payslip. Direct employer cost adds holiday allowance and the statutory employer premiums. The client price of an external party is one layer higher again, because it already contains those first two layers plus recruitment, employment and local support.

So anyone putting a Dutch gross salary of 6,000 euro next to an external monthly price of 5,495 euro is not comparing two prices but two different kinds of number. In this article we consistently compare the same thing: the amount you spend per month to have a comparable developer available.

The reference scenarios for employment

We use three reference scenarios: 4,500 euro gross per month for a medior, 6,000 euro for a senior and 6,500 euro for a tech lead. These are explicitly scenarios, not market averages. Salaries differ per region, sector, collective agreement, specialism and company size, and an average across all seniority levels says little about a specific role.

For context: Indeed reports an average base salary of 4,359 euro per month for the role of software developer in the Netherlands, based on 1,300 reported salaries and updated on 29 June 2026. Intermediair puts the developer role at 4,855 euro on average, with a lower bound of 4,140 euro and an upper bound of 5,569 euro, updated on 19 August 2026. For lead roles, Indeed reports an average base salary of 5,536 euro per month for a lead developer, based on 191 reported salaries and updated on 11 May 2026.

Our medior scenario of 4,500 euro therefore sits around the published averages. Our tech lead scenario of 6,500 euro is deliberately above the observed average for lead developers, because we do not want to risk understating the Dutch cost. If your salary level is lower, the difference with an external monthly price becomes smaller.

The 2026 employer premiums

For employer charges we use the percentages set for 2026. Our reference scenario is a small employer with a permanent contract: the low AWf premium of 2.74 percent, the low Aof premium of 6.27 percent, the childcare surcharge of 0.50 percent, the average Whk rate of 1.52 percent and the employer levy Zvw of 6.10 percent. Together that is 17.13 percent.

This is not a universal Dutch employer percentage, and it should not be used as one. A temporary contract carries the high AWf premium of 7.74 percent, a large employer carries the high Aof premium of 7.63 percent, and the Whk rate differs per employer based on disability inflow. If you work with different percentages, replace them in the formula below.

The statutory ceiling matters too. Employee insurance premiums and the Zvw levy are calculated on the premium wage up to a maximum of 79,409 euro per year, or 6,617.41 euro per month. Above that amount the premiums stop growing. Applying a flat percentage without the ceiling to a high salary structurally overstates the cost, and that is exactly the mistake many nearshore comparisons make in their own favour.

The formula

We calculate per month, in four steps. The gross salary is increased by 8 percent holiday allowance. From that amount we take the part up to the premium ceiling as the premium base. On that base we calculate 17.13 percent in premiums. Gross salary plus holiday allowance plus premiums is the direct employer cost for that month.

For a senior in our scenario that works out as follows: 6,000 euro gross plus 480 euro holiday allowance is 6,480 euro. That amount stays under the ceiling, so premiums are 17.13 percent of 6,480 euro, or 1,110 euro. Direct employer cost therefore comes to 7,590 euro per month.

What we deliberately leave out

The comparison is intentionally conservative. The calculation contains no pension premiums, no recruitment cost, no thirteenth month, no lease car, no laptop or equipment, no workplace, no HR time, no management time and no bonuses.

We leave out pension because Dutch pension schemes differ too much to attach a defensible universal percentage to them. The offset, the split between employer and employee and the scheme itself depend on the collective agreement or the company scheme. If you do pay pension premiums as an employer, your real cost is higher than the amounts in this article.

We leave out recruitment because many companies hire themselves, because external recruitment fees vary widely, and because it is not a recurring statutory employer charge. The same applies to equipment, workplace and overhead: real, but too company specific to present as a general figure. Everything we leave out would make the difference with an external monthly price bigger, not smaller. That is a deliberate choice.

The freelance model

For freelance capacity we use the Knab Zzp Uurtarievenboekje 2026. It puts the average hourly rate of software developers at 94 euro per hour excluding VAT, at an average of 33 billable hours per week.

We convert those 33 hours per week into a month transparently: 33 times 52 weeks divided by 12 months is 143 billable hours per month. At 94 euro per hour that comes to roughly 13,442 euro per month excluding VAT. We deliberately do not use a lower rate or a higher number of hours, because both would push the outcome in our direction.

As a cross-check we look at ZZPdock, where the median ICT hourly rate sits around 103 euro per hour. At 143 hours that is 14,729 euro per month. The direction is therefore consistent: freelance capacity is the most expensive model per month in this comparison.

There is a nuance the amount does not show. A freelancer and an employee are structurally different models. A freelancer does not invoice holidays, is usually attached to your codebase for a shorter period and often works for several clients. A higher monthly amount can be perfectly defensible when you need specialist knowledge quickly for a defined period.

The tre plus model

Our 2026 from-prices for a full-time dedicated developer are 2,495 euro for a junior, 3,795 euro for a medior, 5,495 euro for a senior, 6,795 euro for an expert and 7,795 euro for a tech lead per month. These are from-prices, not a fixed price list: the final price depends on profile, experience, technology and scarcity.

That monthly price includes recruitment by tre plus, local employment, payroll administration, the workplace in our Pristina office and local support. Any one-time costs belong to the specific engagement and are agreed separately in advance. That is why we do not call the monthly price all-in.

The difference per level

Now that the three models measure the same layer, we can calculate the difference. In our medior scenario a direct employer cost of 5,693 euro sits against a from-price of 3,795 euro, a difference of 33.3 percent. In the senior scenario 7,590 euro sits against 5,495 euro, a difference of 27.6 percent.

In our tech lead reference scenario the difference in direct monthly cost is only 4.4 percent: 8,154 euro against 7,795 euro. That is the premium ceiling at work. Above 6,617.41 euro per month the employer premiums no longer grow with the salary, while our from-price does rise per level.

We publish that number on purpose. It shows the comparison is not a marketing instrument, and it makes clear that the difference genuinely plays out differently per level. One important caveat belongs with it: this compares direct employer cost. Pension, recruitment, workplace, equipment and overhead are not included, while for your own employee those costs sit with your organisation and in our monthly price they are already covered. Include those layers and the difference grows at every level.

What each monthly amount does and does not cover

Because the three models do not cover the same layers, this comparison needs an explicit overview. Do not force equivalence where it does not exist: with a freelancer you do not know what sits inside the rate, with your own employee recruitment and workplace sit with you, and with us those items sit inside the monthly price.

Two cost levels: direct and representative

The comparison above measures only the direct employer cost: salary, holiday allowance and the statutory premiums. That is the strictest layer and the only one you can build entirely from official figures. In practice most Dutch employers pay more, mainly pension and recruitment. So we calculate those two separately, visibly and labelled, instead of hiding them in one unexplained total.

For pension we use a representative scenario: an employer contribution of 15.2 percent on pensionable salary above a franchise of 19,172 euro per year. That is a representative scenario, not a statutory or universal rate for the Dutch software industry. If you run your own scheme or a mandatory sector scheme, use your own percentage and franchise.

For recruitment we use an explicit external recruitment assumption. For this comparison we calculate 20 percent of the annual gross salary including holiday allowance, spread over 24 months. Specialist IT recruitment can be higher. For a medior that comes to 486 euro per month, for a senior to 648 euro per month. If you hire fully in-house that amount disappears, but you pay your own sourcing time instead. In our monthly price recruitment is already included.

For a senior that puts the representative employer cost at 8,980 euro per month, against 7,590 euro of direct cost. For a medior it moves from 5,693 to 6,675 euro and for a tech lead from 8,154 to 9,680 euro. Both levels are defensible; what matters is knowing which one you are comparing.

When nearshore is not the cheapest route

There are situations where this calculation does not work in our favour. For lead and architecture roles the difference in direct cost is small, as our tech lead scenario shows. At salary levels below our reference scenarios the difference shrinks as well. And for a short, highly specialist assignment of a few months, a freelancer can be the logical choice despite the higher monthly amount, simply because you do not need that knowledge structurally.

Nearshore mainly becomes interesting when you need structural build capacity, struggle to hire locally and want to keep control of your own product team. How long those roles actually stay open we measured ourselves. In our measurement of 957 open developer roles, 63% of the 110 vacancies with a traceable publication date had been open for more than 60 days, with a median of 80 days.

What this means for our own claim

Until recently our site said that nearshore often gives 30 to 50 percent lower cost than comparable Dutch development capacity. We changed that wording, because this calculation does not support it in that form.

What the reference calculation does support: 35 to 45 percent lower employer cost for medior and senior developers, measured against our representative employer scenario. That range depends on the cost layer you compare. Against the direct employer cost the difference is 33.3 percent for medior and 27.6 percent for senior; against the representative employer scenario it is 43.1 and 38.8 percent. Against a Dutch freelance rate the difference is larger. For a tech lead the difference in direct cost is small, 4.4 percent, and we do not present that as a commercial conclusion. That is the wording we use from now on, and this article is the calculation behind it.

Redo it yourself

To apply this to your own situation, use your own gross salary, your own premium percentages and your own choice on pension and overhead. The homepage has a calculator that uses the same methodology: 8 percent holiday allowance, 17.13 percent premiums on the premium wage and the ceiling of 6,617.41 euro per month.

If you want to see how the model works in practice, read how Developer as a Service is set up, or our explanation of nearshore developers. For teams that need more than one role, Team as a Service is the full team variant. For the broader background on salary and cost layers, what a software developer costs in the Netherlands is still online.

The core

A developer costs your organisation more than the salary and less than most cost comparisons suggest. As soon as you consistently compare the same layer, a real but bounded difference remains: clear for medior and senior, large against freelance rates, small for lead roles. That is less spectacular than a fixed savings percentage, but it can be checked.