How Much Do iOS Developers Make in 2022?

With a market gap greater than the gross domestic products of more than 25 countries across the globe, Apple Inc is the world’s most valuable company with its value estimated to be more than the entire Russian stock exchange. A big chunk of this unbelievable and unprecedented success can be attributed to its development environment which is a dynamic ecosystem that is always evolving.

Apple's rampant expansion and evolution, combined with a developing desire for fresh content and subjects, has led to the birth of a new generation of iOS enthusiasts and rookie iOS developers aspiring to enter the iOS environment as more and more Apple products and services settle into the everyday lives of people causing an explosive rise in the popularity of iOS developers and engineering iOS developer jobs.

What Is an iOS Developer?

An iOS developer makes, tests, and further develops applications for Apple's iOS working framework that is in accordance with their organization's or alternately client's goals and assumptions. An iOS engineer should have an intensive understanding of iOS and how it communicates with different Apple gadgets like the iPhone, iPad, Apple Smart Wearables, etc. as well as the capacity to adjust their applications to their organization's or the clients' prerequisites.

An iOS engineer is liable for making, testing, and keeping up with iOS applications for Apple gadgets like iPhones and iPads. They also as often as possible help out different engineers, as well as application planners, beta analyzers, and other colleagues.

As an iOS developer is an expert who spends a significant amount of time planning and creating iOS applications for Apple gadgets, guaranteeing top-caliber performance and a smooth work process is their most important task to accomplish. Their obligations ordinarily incorporate working together with different engineers to plan and lay the bases and highlights of the applications, fostering a test framework to distinguish possible weaknesses, executing restorative measures, and performing standard upkeep checks to guarantee the applications' quality. They may likewise distribute the product on the App Store, fix any bugs, and direct continuous moves up to guarantee the most ideal presentation.

An iOS engineer's liabilities are also inclusive of observing system flaws and faults, brainstorming for efficient solutions, executing normal support checks, and evaluating client requests and suggestions to propose better solutions and prospects for improvement.

What Does an iOS Developer Do?

Following are the most common roles and responsibilities of an iOS developer:

• Making and planning complex applications for Apple's iOS platform on mobile devices.
• Planning, characterizing, and delivering new application highlights in a joint effort with cross-functional groups.
• To guarantee application quality and speed, convenience, and general dependability.
• Identifying possible problems, fixing bugs, and resolving application constraints are all tasks that must be completed.
• Sorting major and minor flaws in the application before its last delivery.
• Distributing apps on the iOS App Store.

Today, two major contenders monopolize the cell phone OS market: Google's Android and Apple's iOS. While Android is an open-source working framework, iOS apps are only accessible on Apple gadgets. Although Android has a larger market share, the iOS community has been drawing increasing numbers of users and developers in recent years. This suggests that Apple's App Store has a higher profit margin than Google's Play Store.

With a short introduction to iOS developers in hand, it's time to delve into understanding if iOS development is a promising career option or not. It is important to stay updated about the iOS developer salary ranges along with the recent iOS developer salaries. This article puts forward some figures and estimates that prove the potential of iOS development as a career. A glance at the average iOS developer salary ranges explains the buzz around iOS development and iOS developers.

Becoming an iOS Developer

Before picking and settling on a professional track, aspiring iOS programmers and iOS developers ought to analyze different factors. Pay and occupation advancement opportunities are two of the main variables to consider.

As per the App Annie 2017-2022 App Economy Forecast Report, the quantity of cell device installs is relied upon to arrive at six billion by 2022, addressing a 56 percent increment from 2017. Even more fascinating forecast is that the yearly customer expenditures on application stores will ascend to $157 billion, a 93 percent higher from 2017.

There is a multitude of factors that affect iOS developer salaries like the location or the country of employment, experience, company or employers, gender, skill set, etc.

Unfortunately, there can be a lot of disparity when it comes to developer salaries. For instance, developer salary by gender or developer salary by company can be highly incongruent even for same scale companies in a single region. But despite this imbalance, iOS developer salaries sit comfortably at the top of the list of different developer salaries i.e. they are in most cases better than other developer salaries like the salary of a web developer or a UI/UX developer.

Are iOS developers in Demand?

To answer in short, YES. And there are multiple reasons for the same. iOS programming is in high demand for a variety of reasons. To begin with, Apple has a limited market share compared to Android, hence Android devices are far more common than iOS devices. This implies that an iOS developer will have more opportunities to create apps that are used by a limited number of users. This gives the mobile developers the creative freedom to customize and tailor apps for sophisticated users and not create apps to be used by a bulk of people limiting the applications with generic functions. It is also more profitable to deploy an application on the iOS App store for a mobile engineer than on the Play store.

Second, Apple places considerable emphasis on user experience, as seen by the design of the iOS operating system (OS) and the applications accessible for download. As a result, iOS apps are frequently seen as more user-friendly and elegant than Android apps.

The market for iOS Developers has witnessed nothing but growth, with roughly 2 million apps in the App Store and tens of billions of installations.

Is iOS App Development a Good Career?

There are a few convincing motivations to seek iOS development as a way to make money. Regardless, iOS is one of the most well-known mobile platforms on the planet, and skilled iOS engineers have been highly sought after. One would have the potential chance to work on fascinating and new ventures for huge partnerships and associations as an iOS developer. Moreover, iOS development is a lucrative and rewarding domain, and creating new applications and features can be loads of fun for an iOS developer.

Secondly. the market for iOS-explicit applications isn't disappearing at any point in the near future. Furthermore, as the need for iOS Developers and mobile engineers develops, so does the salary; in huge urban areas, the iOS engineer salary is generally more than $100,000. This figure is bound to incline considerably higher in the event that the iOS developer has a higher aptitude or is a senior iOS engineer. The job title iOS developer oftentimes gives a lot of flexibility, including the freedom to travel, work abroad or from one’s residence, and even relocate to some town, city, or country.

But all of this isn't to say that the profession is without its difficulties; it's rigorous and necessitates an iOS developer to constantly learn to stay up with the ever-evolving universe of technology. However, if one has the temperament for seeking ways to grow and improve, it is not necessarily a disadvantage. However, there's no denying that working for iOS has a high learning gradient, and there might not be a limit to how much one can learn—there are always amazing technologies to master and new talents to gain.

How Much Do iOS Developers Get Paid?

Facts and figures are the best answer to this question. The below-mentioned section puts forward statistics like average iOS developer salary depending on experience, freelance iOS developer salaries, profiles, and so on extracted from the most reliable sources available online.

iOS Developer Salaries According to Recruitment Websites

PayScale, Glassdoor, and ZipRecruiter were used to find effective iOS developer salaries in the United States. These websites are like databases of information related to jobs, employers, companies, salaries, and so on. iOS developers from different parts of the globe, working for different employers reported their yearly salaries on these sites and the corresponding numbers are an average representation of those figures.

The following numbers are based on average iOS developer salaries, common iOS developer salaries, and wage profiles:

PayScale cites a yearly iOS Developer salary of $93,058 USD

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $61k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $93k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $136k
No of salary profiles: 1k+

Glassdoor cites a yearly iOS Developer salary of $109,506 USD

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $56k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $109k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $214k
No of salary profiles: 1.2k+

ZipRecruiter cites a yearly iOS Developer salary of $114,614 USD

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $40k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $114,600
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $172,000
No of salary profiles: 900+

Indeed cites a yearly iOS Developer salary of $114,859 USD

The average iOS developer salary: $114,600 and $5,500 cash bonus per year
No of salary profiles: 1,2k+

iOS Freelance Developer Salary Estimations

This section highlights monthly and annual income estimates for freelance iOS developers. A freelance iOS developer's hourly rate ranges from $81 to $100.

Assume the charge of $90 per hour as part of this (the mid-point of the freelance rate range).

Freelance iOS Developer salary for a month (approx.)

40 hours per week multiplied by four weeks is 160 hours.
160 hours multiplied by 90 is $14,400 per month

Freelance iOS Developer Salary for a year (approx.)

$14,400 divided by 12 months equals $172,800 every year

A freelance iOS developer based in San Francisco reported a yearly salary of $166,456 whereas a freelance iOS developer based in New York reported a yearly salary of $173,456 which simply indicates that the estimates are quite accurate.

iOS Developer Salary by Experience

The salary of iOS developers largely depends on their experience and the number of years of work. Not surprisingly, an entry-level iOS developer earns significantly less than an experienced one. It can be noted that the salary of a developer is relatively stable after reaching the senior level, but the average salary of an iOS developer is constantly growing.

Average iOS Developer Salaries according to PayScale:

• An entry-level iOS Developer: an average total compensation (includes tips, bonus, and overtime pay) of $71,081 based on 50 salaries
• A Junior iOS Developer with 1-4 year of experience: $87,165 based on 546 salaries
• A mid-career iOS Developer with 5-9 years of experience: $108,712 based on 255 salaries
• An experienced iOS Developer with 10-19 years of experience: $122,107 based on 61 salaries.

An Average Entry-level iOS developer:

PayScale

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $68k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $69k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $81k

Glassdoor

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $67k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $110k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $189k

ZipRecruiter

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $34k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $100k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $166k

A Senior iOS Developer/Senior iOS Engineer Salary:

PayScale

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $85k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $123k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $165k

Glassdoor

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $75k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $126k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $216k

ZipRecruiter

Lower bound of iOS developer salary: $74k
Mean of iOS developer salary: $133k
Upper bound of iOS developer salary: $178k

How to Become an iOS Developer

Learning Swift is the first item on the to-do list. This is Apple's primary programming language. Swift is only a few years old, so it takes full advantage of pretty much every state-of-the-art language feature available. On one hand, this means one can avoid all the dry old characteristics seen in seasoned languages like C or Java, however, it in all actuality does likewise mean that it has many further developed highlights that could knock one's socks off right away.

The second check post is SwiftUI which needs to be crossed to reach the final destination of becoming a skilled iOS developer. A very obvious misunderstanding that could arise is that SwiftUI is the substitute for Swift. SwiftUI is not a replacement, but simply a framework built on Swift and is used for the actual creation of the app. So Swift is the language and SwiftUI is the playground to use that language. To put this in a perspective using a simple analogy, while a chemist must know all the basics and fundamentals of chemistry and have all the background of the science in general, he/she must also know his/her way around the laboratory where all chemicals are actually made and dealt with to create different products and obtain desired results. Despite its infancy, the iOS ecosystem has welcomed it enthusiastically since it's so incredibly fun to use.

Now, Apple has an older framework for developing iOS apps called UIKit, and if you ask some people whether they think one should learn SwiftUI or UIKit first, you'll receive a variety of responses. According to a senior mobile engineer, SwiftUI is a better option to start with as it is very well integrated and easier to begin the learning process with.

The next step is to understand how the internet, networks, and data function. Most applications nowadays take data from the internet or interact with it in some way. Such dynamic data flows necessitate a thorough comprehension of networking ideas and basics by the iOS developer. Even an entry-level iOS developer should be able to make fundamental network queries, such as retrieving JSON from a server.

In today's data-driven and data-oriented world, most iOS applications store, handle, and process data in various ways. As a result, an iOS developer must be well-versed in database concepts and technologies. In its raw form, data acquired from a server or the internet cannot be utilized directly in apps. For data to be meaningful and valuable, it must usually be updated and processed. As a result, data skills are a valuable asset for iOS developers.

Version control is a crucial and helpful skill for any developer working on long-term (or even medium-term) projects, and it's especially critical when collaborating. Version control systems like Git help in code management and collaboration features that help in tracking and task management. Though Git and GitHub can seem too complicated in the beginning, it definitely gets better with frequent use and practice.

Thus, these basic skills help in laying a very strong foundation for the construction of the advanced skills required to become a master iOS developer.