What it really costs to hire a developer in the UK
The salary is the obvious cost of hiring a developer, but it's rarely the biggest surprise on the invoice. Between recruitment fees, job-board spend, the hours your team pours into the process, and the risk of getting it wrong, the true cost of a single engineering hire in the UK is a lot more than the number in the offer letter.
Understanding where the money actually goes helps you decide which parts are worth paying for — and which are just friction you can cut.
The recruitment fee — usually the big one
If you use a traditional agency, the placement fee is typically 15–25% of first-year salary, which on a £70,000 developer role is £10,500–£17,500 for a single hire. That's often the single largest line item, and because it's a percentage it scales with salary even though the work of finding the person doesn't. (We break the numbers down in how much recruitment agencies charge.)
The alternative — hiring in-house — trades that fee for job-board subscriptions, an applicant-tracking tool, and your own recruiter's time. Cheaper per hire at volume, but a real fixed cost to stand up, and slower to get going if you're only hiring occasionally.
Your team's time
The least-visible cost is your engineers' and managers' hours. A typical process — writing the spec, screening CVs, phone screens, technical interviews, debriefs, scheduling — routinely burns 20–40 hours of senior people's time per hire, and often more when several candidates go deep. At a loaded senior-engineer cost, that's easily a few thousand pounds of attention pulled off the roadmap.
It's real money even though it never appears on an invoice. Anything that reduces wasted screening — a pre-vetted pool, better-matched candidates, fewer no-shows — pays for itself in engineering time alone.
Time-to-hire and the empty-seat cost
Every week a role stays open is a week of work not getting done: a slipping roadmap, an overloaded team, or contractors filling the gap at a premium. For a role that would deliver meaningful output, the opportunity cost of a seat empty for two or three months can quietly dwarf the recruitment fee itself.
This is why speed matters as much as price. A cheaper hire that takes four months isn't obviously better than a slightly pricier one that lands in three weeks — see how long it takes to hire a developer for where the time goes.
The cost of a bad hire
The most expensive outcome is the wrong hire. Between the salary paid during ramp-up, the re-hire cost, lost team productivity and the morale hit, studies routinely put the cost of a mis-hire at anywhere from a few months' to well over a year's salary. For a developer role that's a five-figure mistake at least.
That's why fit matters more than speed alone, and why a rebate or replacement guarantee is worth having in your terms — it caps the downside if a placement doesn't work out.
How to bring the total down
There are honest ways to reduce the total: free or low-cost sourcing channels, employee referrals, a pre-vetted candidate pool to cut screening time, and a success-only fee structure so you pay nothing when there's no hire. The aim is to cut the fixed and wasted costs without sacrificing fit.
Get Me A Techie is built around that: it's free to post roles and browse a pool of vetted, anonymous tech professionals, and there's a flat 10% of first-year salary only when you actually hire — roughly half a typical agency fee, and nothing if no hire happens. See pricing for the full breakdown; founding companies pay just 5% on their first hire (details).
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to hire a software developer in the UK?
Beyond salary, expect a recruitment fee of roughly 15–25% of first-year salary through an agency (£10k–£17k on a £70k role), plus your team's time and the cost of the seat staying empty. Flat-fee and free-to-post platforms cut the fee substantially.
Is it cheaper to hire developers in-house or through an agency?
In-house is usually cheaper per hire at volume but has real fixed costs (job boards, tooling, recruiter time) and is slower to start. For occasional hiring, a success-only flat-fee service often works out cheaper and faster than either.
What does a bad developer hire cost?
Estimates range from a few months' to more than a year's salary once you include ramp-up pay, re-hiring, lost productivity and team disruption — which is why fit and a rebate clause matter.
Tech recruitment without the noise
Free to join for techies and companies. Anonymous until it matters, and a flat 10% only when a hire actually happens.