C# / .NET vs Java

Put two roles head to head — any role, in any location or worldwide-remote.

Side A

Side B

C# / .NET pays about 4% more at the median.

Side-by-side distribution

C# / .NET Java
$132.9k
$127.7k
$71.3k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $209.5k

C# / .NET

$132,885

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -19%
$164,100 $132,885
$114.8k 25th
$132.9k Median
$146.8k 75th
$95k
$177.2k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $80.9k – $280.8k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
18.5%
Live roles
438
Browse roles Set alert

Java

$127,674

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -30.3%
$183,201 $127,674
$103.1k 25th
$127.7k Median
$173.4k 75th
$80.8k
$200k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5k – $416k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
20.2%
Live roles
1,396
Browse roles Set alert

Highest-paying jobs

Veeam Software

C# Developer

Veeam Software · Remote, United States

$168,480 – $280,800 Databento

Software Engineer (C++/C#)

Databento · Remote / Boston / Salt Lake City /…

$150,000 – $250,000 28Stone

Senior C# Full Stack Developer

28Stone · Greenwich, Connecticut, United Sta…

$166,400 – $249,600 Ripple

Staff Software Engineer, Liquidity Management (C#/.NET)

Ripple · New York, NY, United States

$196,000 – $245,000 Travelers

Senior Software Engineer (Technical Lead) BSI - (Claude, GitHub, Python, NET/C#, Angular, AWS)

Travelers · CT - Hartford

$139,400 – $230,000 Weekday AI

Senior Software Engineer, Full Stack (Python, Java, Rust, C#, C++)

Weekday AI · United States

$187,200 – $228,800 micro1

Backend C#/.NET Developer

micro1 · Remote — 58 countries

$124,800 – $228,800 GEICO

Senior Software Engineer - (C#/Microservices/Azure)

GEICO · Seattle, WA

$105,000 – $215,000 Accenture Federal Services

Senior .NET Azure AI Developer - Baltimore, MD

Accenture Federal Services · Baltimore, MD

$100,200 – $203,400 Esri

Sr. Software Developer - C#/WPF for UI/UX Development

Esri · Redlands, CA

$123,136 – $202,488

Highest-paying jobs

G2i Inc.

Java of Senior Software Engineer, AI Training

G2i Inc. · Worldwide

$208,000 – $416,000
BW

Senior Java Data Platform Engineer - Clearance Required

BTI360 Website · Herndon, VA

$146,000 – $319,300 CLEAR - Corporate

Senior Software Engineer, Java

CLEAR - Corporate · New York, New York, United States

$225,000 – $300,000 CLEAR - Corporate

Senior Software Engineer, Java

CLEAR - Corporate · Austin, Texas, United States

$210,000 – $280,000 Leidos

Java Developer (SME)

Leidos · Bethesda, MD

$154,050 – $278,475 Leidos

ETL Java Developer (SME)

Leidos · Bethesda, MD

$154,050 – $278,475 Early Warning Services

Upcoming Opportunity – Principal Engineer – Java/AWS

Early Warning Services · San Francisco

$207,000 – $276,000 Early Warning Services

Distinguished Engineer - Java / AWS - Zelle

Early Warning Services · Scottsdale

$206,000 – $275,000
DR

Senior Software Engineer, Treasury and Reference Data (Java/Ruby/Python)

DRW · Chicago

$200,000 – $275,000 Captivation Software

Software Engineer 1 - Java/Confluence/Jira/AWS/Maven/MapReduce

Captivation Software · Annapolis Junction, MD

$130,000 – $270,000

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
CACI $116,650 6
Synechron $98,750 4
CoStar Group $155,500 3
InfoTrack US $142,500 3
GDIT $130,770 3
Accenture Federal Services $119,400 3
Virtu Financial $165,000 2
Weekday AI $163,800 2

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Elastic $104,155 30
Captivation Software $200,000 27
Leidos $151,475 12
Referral Board $117,865 11
Bank of America $141,400 10
GDIT $185,000 9
State Street $119,750 8
Accenture $101,920 7

C# / .NET salary by location

Location Median Roles
New York $150,000 12
Boston $135,200 3
Toronto $93,000 5

Java salary by location

Location Median Roles
San Francisco $200,000 5
New York $162,250 26
Denver $151,450 4
Chicago $146,100 10
Atlanta $134,000 4
Boston $123,750 5
Toronto $81,797 17

C# / .NET vs Java: which pays more?

The median for C# / .NET is $132,885 per year (typically $114,750–$146,813), versus $127,674 for Java ($103,110–$173,425). That puts C# / .NET about 4% ahead at the median.

Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so C# / .NET and Java are compared on equal terms regardless of the currency each role was originally posted in. Only roles that publish a salary range feed the medians; numbers refresh every few hours as new roles post and older ones close, so this comparison reflects the market right now rather than a fixed survey. Use it as a directional benchmark when weighing one path against the other.

See full salary data

C# / .NET salary Java salary

More comparisons

C# / .NET vs Python C# / .NET vs TypeScript C# / .NET vs Kotlin C# / .NET vs Scala

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