The full stack developer pay arc is changing quickly throughout the UK, reflecting both a deeper change in the way technology teams are constituted and valued as well as economic demand. Full stack developers, who were once thought of as the silent multitaskers of software, are now taking on more visible and lucrative roles, especially as corporate tech budgets soar and startups grow.
The average salary for full stack developers in the UK as of 2025 is £60,000. That number, though, only scratches the surface of the greater array of options. Salary ranges for new hires are usually between £40,000 and £45,000. Professionals with at least five years of experience, on the other hand, frequently receive offers over £80,000, particularly if they specialize in scalable backend architectures or frameworks like React or Node.js.
Salaries are significantly higher in places like London, where they average about £65,078. On the other hand, average salaries in tech hubs like Bristol, Manchester, and Cambridge range from £50,000 to £55,000. Even though these regional salaries are marginally less, they frequently come with a noticeably higher standard of living and drastically lower living expenses. This balance is especially helpful for a lot of developers.
| Category | Details |
|---|---|
| Average UK Salary (2025) | £60,000 |
| Entry-Level Range | £40,000 – £45,000 |
| Experienced Developers | £70,000 – £85,000+ |
| Highest Paying City | London (£65,078 average) |
| Mid-Range Cities | Cambridge, Manchester, Bristol (£50,000–£55,000) |
| Salary Ceiling at Celebrity-Led Firms | £75,000 – £90,000 (e.g., Guild Esports, ITV) |
| Fast-Rising Tech Hubs | Edinburgh, Cardiff (up to £52,000) |
| Junior Salary Floor (Non-Major Cities) | £25,000 – £30,000 (still seen in rural and regional roles) |
| Notable Roles in Media/AI | Senior Developers at ITV: £78,000 – £92,000 |
| Reference Source | DevITJobs.uk |
Surprisingly, geography continues to be a major factor in tech pay. London’s allure, particularly in fintech, AI, and cybersecurity, is driving up salaries despite growing remote flexibility. Burnout rates and rising housing costs are also driving people to move to regional tech hubs, where employers provide competitive salaries and more environmentally friendly lifestyles.
Celebrity-led tech companies have started luring top talent with incredibly attractive benefits packages during the last two years. Consider Guild Esports, which has hired full stack developers making between £75,000 and £90,000 and is partially supported by David Beckham. A wider cultural shift in the way development talent is valued is also evident in the fact that creative ventures backed by individuals such as Idris Elba and Dua Lipa are now actively hiring full stack engineers to build out scalable, AI-powered platforms.
Full stack developers are now creating digital products from start to finish by embracing DevOps duties and incorporating machine learning tools. With many developers managing UX logic, data security, cloud deployments, and prompt engineering within the same sprint cycle, this cross-functional expertise is now especially valued.
Compensation for full stack roles has increased to an average of £52,000 in cities like Edinburgh and Cardiff, where government-backed startup incubators are thriving. This is a significantly better amount than pre-pandemic benchmarks. For many, this means not only a pay increase but also a redefining of career opportunities in areas that big tech previously ignored.
This shift is personified by Emma Olsson, a 28-year-old engineer from Sweden who works in Manchester. She started out as a psychology student, switched to software engineering, and is currently in charge of an AI chatbot project for mental health. Her pay as of right now is £83,000. Her trajectory—hybrid professionals with nontraditional backgrounds commanding top-tier pay through adaptability and interdisciplinary fluency—is becoming more and more typical.
The trend is not limited to startups. Full stack developers are being offered between £78,000 and £92,000 by well-known media companies like ITV, especially for positions involving the integration of immersive content delivery and AI-generated video. These numbers reveal a new reality: employers are taking notice of the full stack role’s increasing sophistication.
Businesses in forward-thinking cities like Leeds and Birmingham are also promoting greater transparency by disclosing more transparent wage bands. Birmingham’s average salary has increased from £42,000 to about £46,000 since open-pay policies were implemented. This change is significantly enabling younger professionals to bargain more assertively.
However, there are still challenges for developers in their early careers. Some junior programmers share starting salaries as low as £25,000 on forums like Reddit’s r/cscareerquestionsEU, especially in smaller towns. But rather than being the norm, this is increasingly becoming the exception. Initial offers for most new developers now start around £40,000, and by their second or third year, many have doubled their pay.
Although full stack developers are in a unique position, the pay gap between generalists and specialists is expected to grow in the future. They are very adaptable hires because they can move between stack layers and integrate cloud infrastructure or AI tools. A developer who is proficient in both frontend UX and backend LLM integrations frequently receives offers exceeding £90,000.
