Salaries · Software developer · Mexico · Updated November 2026
Software developer salary in Mexico
Foreign businesses that hire a software developer in Mexico directly pay $2,500–$6,667 a month full-time, in published job ads and salary guides. Local employers there pay $3.40–$6.68 an hour ($589–$1,158 a month full-time).
The numbers
| What you're looking at | Per hour | Per month, full-time | Based on |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hiring directly: full-time pay | $14.42–$38.46 | $2,500–$6,667 | 2 published figures |
| Local employers in Mexico | $3.40–$6.68 | $589–$1,158 | 3 published figures |
| For comparison: employees in the US | $50.58–$82.68 | $8,767–$14,331 | Wages only, before benefits and payroll taxes |
For this role, direct-hire pay in Mexico runs about 5.2× local pay, midpoint to midpoint. Budget from the direct-hire figures, not the local ones.
Mexico against other countries
Of the 10 countries with published direct-hire figures for this role, Mexico has the 7th lowest starting figure.
Every figure behind these numbers
Hiring directly (remote work for foreign businesses)
- range · full-time pay$2,500–$3,000/month Get on Board, live remote job ads (public jobs API + each ad page) (ads posted 2026-09-09 to 2026-09-09, live on 2026-10-28). Checked Oct 2026. Range of the gross monthly pay published in 1 live remote job ad(s) on Get on Board (a Latin American tech job board) by 1 employer(s) based outside Latin America (company country on the board: US 1), open to residents of Mexico (worldwide-remote ads or ads whose residence list includes Mexico or its region).
- range · full-time pay$43,000–$80,000/year Himalayas, live remote job ads (public search API) (ads posted 2026-10-06 to 2026-10-12, live on 2026-10-28). Checked Oct 2026. Range of the USD pay published in 2 live remote job ad(s) on Himalayas (remote-jobs board) by 2 direct employer(s) based outside Mexico, whose ads restrict applicants to a country list that includes Mexico. Used here: 1 of 2 ads (senior roles, part-time monthly pay and ads also open to high-income countries left out).
Local employers
- average · local employersMX$16,512/month Indeed Mexico, 'Desarrollador/a de software' salary page (updated Oct 19, 2026). Checked Oct 2026. Average base salary from 4.5k salaries published on Indeed for 'Desarrollador/a de software'. Indeed's typical range: MXN 10,302 to MXN 26,464 a month.
- average · local employersMX$21,614/month Computrabajo Mexico, 'Desarrollador/a de software' salary page (2026 page, last 12 months). Checked Oct 2026. Snippet: estimated $21,614 al mes for Desarrollador/a de software, range $3,800 to $65,000. Computrabajo estimate from company, user and employee sources over the last 12 months.
- medianMX$864,183/year Levels.fyi, Software Engineer salaries in Mexico (updated Oct 25, 2026). Checked Oct 2026. Median total compensation (base, stock and bonus) for Software Engineer, all levels, from 506 salaries reported to Levels.fyi. Page also shows 25th percentile MX$560K, 75th MX$1.22M, 90th MX$1.52M. Listed for reference, not used in the range: it is a median of total pay including stock grants and bonuses, mostly at large tech employers.
- average · local employersMX$11,000/month Data México (Secretaría de Economía), software developers and analysts occupation profile (2026 Q1). Checked Oct 2026. 'Salario promedio mensual' of $11k MX for everyone working in the occupation 'Desarrolladores y Analistas de Software y Multimedia' (390k people; 14.2% informal workers). Government labor data; the page rounds figures and warns salary breakdowns have low statistical precision.
Levels.fyi is yearly total compensation and doesn't separate local and foreign employers, so it runs far above the monthly job-board and government averages.
What an agency charges for this role
Published by Outsourcing Insider, a VA MASTERS company. The example below is VA MASTERS' own published rate card, shown because it's public; other agencies' prices vary. About us
| Agency | Per hour | Per month, 160 hours | What's included |
|---|---|---|---|
| VA MASTERS Parent company | $12.00–$25.00 | $1,920–$4,000 | Recruitment, contract and payments, time tracking, an account manager and replacement at no extra cost. No setup fee. Source: VA MASTERS pricing page, checked Oct 2026. |
Hiring a software developer
- Software developer job description
- Software developer interview questions and a paid test task
- Onboarding checklist for the first 90 days
- Hiring checklist, from defining the job to day one
Cost guides
FAQ
How much does a software developer cost in Mexico?
Hiring directly, foreign businesses pay $2,500–$6,667 a month full-time (Get on Board, Himalayas, checked Oct 2026). Local employers in Mexico pay $3.40–$6.68 an hour ($589–$1,158 a month full-time), which is local pay, not the rate for remote work for a foreign client.
What is the monthly salary of a software developer in Mexico?
Published full-time pay for remote work for foreign businesses is $2,500–$6,667 a month. Local employers pay $589–$1,158 a month. Both use 40 hours a week and are in USD.
Why is hiring directly different from local pay in Mexico?
They measure two different markets. Local pay is what employers in Mexico pay local staff. Direct-hire figures come from job ads, salary guides and surveys for remote work for foreign businesses. For this role the second runs about 5.2× the first, midpoint to midpoint, so local pay isn't a good guide to what a remote hire will cost.
How does Mexico compare with hiring a software developer in the US?
Employees' wages in the US run $50.58–$82.68 an hour for the middle 50% of workers, before benefits and payroll taxes. Hiring directly in Mexico, published figures come to $14.42–$38.46 an hour, with full-time pay converted to an hourly figure. That's pay only: you'd still do the recruiting, contract and payments yourself.
What does an agency charge for a software developer?
Agencies set their own prices, and many don't publish them. As one published example, VA MASTERS (the parent company of this site's publisher) lists $12.00–$25.00 an hour for its Tech / Development category, all-inclusive. Ask any agency what its rate covers: recruiting, replacement, payroll and fees.