The numbers
Salary is the 75th percentile for software developers in the May 2025 BLS wage survey, our proxy for a senior engineer, taken at the midpoint of the metro areas in that survey. Your own figure goes in the calculator.
| Item | Amount | Period |
|---|---|---|
| Senior salary (BLS 75th percentile) | $165,000 | per year |
| Employer costs (+28%: payroll taxes, benefits, retirement) | $46,200 | per year |
| Loaded cost | $211,200 | per year |
| Loaded cost per month | $17,600 | per month |
| Recruiter fee (20% of salary) | $33,000 | one time |
| First-year total, one senior hire | $244,200 |
The cost you don't see: time
Recruiters report about 49 days from opening a senior role to an accepted offer, plus about two weeks of notice. That is roughly two months of roadmap waiting, and your team's interview hours on top.
Compared with TopDevCrew
At our flat price of $6,900 per developer per month, 12 months cost $82,800. Against the first-year in-house total of $244,200, that is $161,400 less (66%). The rate is the same whatever the stack, so only the size of the team moves it.
When an in-house hire still makes sense
- Core roles you'll need for three years or more
- Work that has to happen on site
- Roles that require US citizenship or a clearance
Weighing the two side by side? The in-house versus TopDevCrew comparison sets the numbers against the trade-offs, and the stack pages show what we test before a profile reaches you.
Sources: BLS Occupational Employment and Wages, May 2025; BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (1.28 load for professional roles); time to hire is a recruiter-reported average for senior engineers in 2026.
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