Java vs Node.js

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

Side A

Side B

Node.js pays about 7% more at the median.

Side-by-side distribution

Java Node.js
$133.6k
$142.4k
$45.7k box = 25th–75th · whiskers = 10th–90th $361.8k

Java

$133,632

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -27.1%
$183,201 $133,632
$102.4k 25th
$133.6k Median
$200k 75th
$74.5k
$200k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $5k – $300k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
16.2%
Live roles
728
Browse roles Set alert

Node.js Node.js

$142,360

median · per year, annualized USD

Median over time ▼ -23%
$185,000 $142,360
$90k 25th
$142.4k Median
$191.2k 75th
$67.5k
$340k
Box 25th–75th · whiskers 10th–90th Full range $20.8k – $658.8k · outliers off-axis
Disclosing
10%
Live roles
160
Browse roles Set alert

Highest-paying jobs

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
DR

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

DRW · Chicago

$200,000 – $275,000 Captivation Software

Software Engineer 2 (Hybrid) - JavaScript/React/Angular/Java/Linux

Captivation Software · Annapolis Junction, MD - Hybrid

$130,000 – $270,000 Captivation Software

Front-End Developer (Mid/Senior) - Java/Quarkus/HTML/CSS/JavaScript/Oracle/AWS

Captivation Software · Annapolis Junction, MD

$130,000 – $270,000 Captivation Software

Software Engineer 3 - Linux/Java/Jax-RS/REST/JSON/XML/Maven/Eclipse/Gitlab

Captivation Software · Annapolis Junction, MD

$130,000 – $270,000 Captivation Software

Software Engineer - Java/OOP/Linux/Git/Maven/REST

Captivation Software · Atlanta, GA

$130,000 – $270,000 Captivation Software

Front-End Developer (Mid/Senior) - Java/Quarkus/HTML/CSS/JavaScript/Oracle/AWS

Captivation Software · Annapolis Junction, MD

$130,000 – $270,000 Captivation Software

Platform Engineer (Hybrid) - Python/Java/AWS/Linux

Captivation Software · Columbia, MD - Hybrid

$130,000 – $270,000 Captivation Software

Senior DevOps Engineer - AWS/Java/Linux/Ansible/Git/Python

Captivation Software · Hanover, 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 Sentry

Senior Software Engineer (Node), JavaScript SDK

Sentry · San Francisco, California

$155,000 – $400,000 Sentry

Senior Software Engineer (Node), JavaScript SDK

Sentry · Toronto, Ontario, Canada

CA$162,000 – CA$420,000 n8n

Sr AI Engineer | Remote - Europe | TS/Vue/NodeJS

n8n · Berlin Office

€102,200 – €189,900 Edlink

Senior Software Engineer, Backend (TypeScript / Node.js APIs)

Edlink · Austin

$170,000 – $200,000 n8n

Sr Growth Engineer (Fullstack TS/Vue/NodeJS)

n8n · Berlin Office

€72,800 – €171,700 n8n

Senior Product Engineer (TS/NodeJS/Vue)

n8n · Berlin Office

€72,800 – €171,700 Mat3ra

☄️ Lead Software Engineer (Node.js) ☄️

Mat3ra · Walnut Creek, California, United S…

$120,000 – $180,000 Silver.dev

Canals - Senior Backend Engineer (Typescript, Node)

Silver.dev · Argentina

$120,000 – $150,000

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
Captivation Software $200,000 23
Elastic $119,499 19
Referral Board $119,439 11
TB TD Bank $81,797 9
SentinelOne $165,000 4
CLEAR - Corporate $245,000 3
Accenture Federal Services $138,100 3
AD Adyen $211,500 2

Top companies hiring

Company Median Roles
n8n $142,360 3
Anthropic $476,296 2
Sentry $243,615 2
Silver.dev $105,000 2
Salonkee $89,973 2
Edlink $185,000 1
Mat3ra $150,000 1
Reedsy $114,321 1

Java salary by location

Location Median Roles
Chicago $211,500 4
Atlanta $200,000 3
Toronto $101,060 12

Node.js salary by location

Location Median Roles
London $169,636 3
Berlin $142,360 3

Java vs Node.js: which pays more?

The median for Java is $133,632 per year (typically $102,368–$200,000), versus $142,360 for Node.js ($89,973–$191,182). That puts Node.js about 7% 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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