Java vs Node.js

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

Side A

Side B

Java pays about 9% more at the median.

Side-by-side distribution

Java Node.js
$127.7k
$117.5k
$57.2k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $217.6k

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
20.1%
Live roles
1,401
Browse roles Set alert

Node.js Node.js

$117,500

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -36.5%
$185,000 $117,500
$90k 25th
$117.5k Median
$167.8k 75th
$68.2k
$206.5k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $7.7k – $658.8k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
10%
Live roles
241
Browse roles Set alert

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

ETL Java Developer (SME)

Leidos · Bethesda, MD

$154,050 – $278,475 Leidos

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
DR

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

DRW · Chicago

$200,000 – $275,000 Early Warning Services

Distinguished Engineer - Java / AWS - Zelle

Early Warning Services · Scottsdale

$206,000 – $275,000 Captivation Software

Software Engineer 2 (Hybrid) - AWS/Hadoop/Accumulo/Terraform/Python/Java

Captivation Software · Annapolis Junction, MD

$130,000 – $270,000

Highest-paying jobs

Anthropic

Staff Software Engineer, Node Infra

Anthropic · London, UK

£325,000 – £485,000 Anthropic

Staff+ Software Engineer, Node Infra

Anthropic · San Francisco, CA | New York City,…

$320,000 – $485,000 GitLab

Staff Fullstack Engineer, Data Products (Golang / Node)

GitLab · Remote, Canada +1

$152,800 – $259,200 Filevine

Senior Software Development Engineer - Node

Filevine · United States

$160,000 – $230,000 SentinelOne

Staff Backend Engineer - Prompt Security (Node.js / TypeScript)

SentinelOne · United States - Remote

$156,000 – $215,000 Codurance

Contract Senior Typescript Engineer (Node.js, AWS Serverless)

Codurance · London, England, United Kingdom

£156,000 – £156,000 Booz Allen Hamilton

Node.js Developer SME

Booz Allen Hamilton · Chantilly, VA

$86,800 – $198,000 Mat3ra

☄️ Lead Software Engineer (Node.js) ☄️

Mat3ra · Walnut Creek, California, United S…

$120,000 – $180,000 Western Governors University

Software Engineer II Full Stack (Java/Node.js/Angular)

Western Governors University · Salt Lake City, UT

$118,900 – $178,500 n8n

Senior Product Engineer (TS/NodeJS/Vue)

n8n · Berlin Office

€72,800 – €144,400

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

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Anthropic $476,296 2
Copeland $140,000 2
Synechron $115,000 2
Booz Allen Hamilton $111,450 2
Salonkee $89,973 2
Codurance $206,653 1
GitLab $206,000 1
Filevine $195,000 1

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

Node.js salary by location

Location Median Roles
London $206,653 3

Java vs Node.js: which pays more?

The median for Java is $127,674 per year (typically $103,110–$173,425), versus $117,500 for Node.js ($89,973–$167,750). That puts Java about 9% ahead at the median.

Both figures are computed live from active listings on JobsRadar and normalized to annualized USD, so Java and Node.js 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

Java salary Node.js salary

More comparisons

Java vs Python Java vs JavaScript Java vs TypeScript Java vs Kotlin Java vs Scala Java vs C / C++

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