Gone are the days where a simple static webpage was all you needed to set up a web presence for your business. These days it’s all about dynamic single page applications (SPAs) that can provide a smooth desktop-like user experience.
Whether you clicked here because you needed help hiring a developer familiar with AngularJS, the MVC framework that initially kickstarted the proliferation of SPAs in 2009, or with its completely revamped successor which simply goes by Angular, the process of costing an Angular developer is basically the same.
From the level of experience to project scope, we’ll cover the cost factors you’ll want to consider when drafting a budget for hiring an Angular developer.
AngularJS VS. Angular
Before we start, there’s a very important flag to raise: If you’re building a new project with one of these platforms, you should probably start with Angular, which was previously known to everyone as Angular 2 until the Angular team clarified their versioning system. It was a major rewrite of the platform that is better suited towards the components-based, SSR (server-side rendering) friendly, future of front-end JavaScript frameworks.
That said, AngularJS was, and by some accounts may still be, the most popular front-end JavaScript framework (at least when viewed from projects currently using a given framework). It’s been around since 2009, and there is a huge open-source community to draw from as a resource. When the new Angular was released on September 15, 2016, AngularJS websites didn’t just stop working. The framework is still a viable solution for existing sites that draw from talent pools who are well versed in the AngularJS ecosystem. Google knows this and continues to update AngularJS to this day.
Bottom line: Pick the framework that best suits the unique needs and concerns for your web project.
The Secret to Finding an Awesome Angular Developer? A Solid, Detailed Brief
Before you can build a budget, it helps to have a firm grasp of your project requirements. Writing a detailed job post can help you do just that. An Angular developer is essentially a front-end developer who specializes in the Angular ecosystem, but there are a number of other technologies and skills under the front-end developer skill tree as a whole that you may need to consider when assessing the monetary value of a potential freelancer.
Writing a clear and detailed project description will allow developers to determine if their skills, experience, and interests are a good match for your project. Provide background information about you, your company, products and/or services, project scope and timeline, and any supporting documentation that helps illustrate what you’re trying to accomplish.
With a clearly defined project in hand, you’re ready to start that budget. Here are some important cost factors you may want to consider when determining the cost of your project.
Pricing Your Project
Rates charged by Angular developers on Upwork vary from $10 to $100 an hour, with the median rate falling somewhere between $10 to $30 and hour. Fixed price contract bids may vary widely based on the duration or scope of your project. Freelancers don’t always bill hourly, so some Angular developers will propose a fixed price for the work based on his or her understanding of the project requirements. Here are a few more considerations for your budget.
Expertise and Experience
Rates charged by Angular developers depend upon a number of factors, including location, years of experience, credentials like degrees, and the breadth of their portfolios. Beyond experience you should also look at the unique skillsets that can be found in a freelancer’s portfolio. Presence of certain front-end and back-end frameworks can tell you a lot about the types of projects they’ve worked on.
The following table breaks down the rates of the typical types of Angular developers you can find on Upwork. Keep in mind that the listed skills are just guidelines, and it is more important to judge a developer by their portfolio than the presence or absence of certain skills in their profile.
Typical Rates Charged by Angular Developers*
| Type of Angular
Developer |
Description | Average Hourly Rate |
| Basic Front-End | Front-end fundamentals (HTML, CSS, and JavaScript), familiarity with AngularJS/Angular, and libraries like jQuery. | $10-30 + |
| Intermediate-Advanced Front-End | Beyond fundamentals, also skilled in other front-end JavaScript frameworks like React, CSS preprocessors like LESS/SASS, and CSS frameworks like Foundation. | $35-100 + |
| Basic Back-End | Back-end fundamentals (RESTful API’s, Lambda functions, Node.js, Express). Databases like MySQL. | $25-50 + |
| Intermediate-Advanced Back-End | Beyond fundamentals, specialization in a back-end server environment like AWS (Amazon Web Services), back-end JavaScript frameworks like Meteor.js. | $50-100 + |
| Full Stack Developer | Mix of front-end and back-end technology expertise. Expertise working with MEAN (MongoDB, Express, Angular, Node.js). | $50-100 + |
*Reflects rates charged by freelancers on Upwork in North America with over 1,000 hours and a 90% success rate.
Scope of Work
If you’ve already taken the advice above and written your project description, you’re in luck: defining the overall scope of a project is the cornerstone of any budget. There’s a big difference in scope between hiring an AngularJS developer to perform routine maintenance on an existing app and hiring an Angular developer to build an enterprise-level SPA from the bottom up. If you’re new to web development, here’s a list of the types of deliverables you might list in your project description for a Angular developer:
- Translate wireframes and storyboards from the designer into front-end code
- Perform unit tests and analyze results
- Migrate an AngularJS (v1.x) application to Angular (v.5).
Your scope of work should also detail how you wish to break down the work that needs to be done, especially if you’re dealing with fixed price contracts and want to create a schedule for handling milestone payments. For example, building an ecommerce site might include front-end features like a shopping cart, product catalog, and product reviews which could each be turned into deliverables or broken down further into basic components that can be fed into your web development methodology of choice.
Milestone payments can be distributed as a percentage of your total budget for a project on a payment schedule, tied to specific deliverables tracked in a task board (Agile), or as simple as providing 50% up front and 50% when the work is delivered to your satisfaction on completion.
Tip: You can often manage a limited budget more effectively by considering an Agile development methodology. Start with a minimum viable project (MVP), the bare bones of the application you eventually wish to create, gather live feedback from the market, and let validated data guide the development of your project. This will help you avoid that dreaded pitfall of sinking cost into a product the market doesn’t want.
Build your Budget
With a detailed project brief in hand, a clear portfolio of your ideal Angular developer, and a solid scope of work, you have just about everything you need to estimate the cost of hiring a freelance Angular developer.
