Software developer salaries in Bulgaria

A senior software engineer in Bulgaria earns a median of about $60,883 a year (54,394 EUR). Here's pay by level and stack, contractor rates, and how Bulgaria's hours line up with UK and US teams.

Senior salary: $60,883; median per year
Senior contractor: $35–$46; per hour
Overlap London: 6.5h; UTC+02:00
Overlap New York: 1.5h; English: high

Salary by level

Level	EUR	USD	GBP
Junior (0–2 yrs)	15,491	$17,339	£13,653
Mid (3–5 yrs)	45,129	$50,513	£39,774
Senior (6+ yrs)	54,394	$60,883	£47,939

Annual medians. USD at the 2026-10-14 rate.

Senior salary by stack

Specialism	USD / year	Contractor / hr
Frontend	$52,359	$30–$40
Backend	$66,971	$39–$51
Mobile	$58,448	$34–$44
DevOps & Cloud	$73,060	$42–$55
Data & AI	$74,886	$43–$57

Country median adjusted by global specialism premiums (Stack Overflow 2025).

The Bulgaria developer market

About 362,099 developers on GitHub (2026).
English proficiency: high (EF EPI rank 18).
Bulgaria adopted the euro on 1 Jan 2026 at 1.95583 BGN/EUR. Personal income tax remains a 10% flat rate.
Registered freelancers get a 25% statutory expense allowance, about 7.5% effective income tax, plus capped social contributions. The self-insured maximum base is EUR 2,300/month from 1 Aug 2026.
Sofia is the dominant hub. Index.dev lists PHP, Java, Python and QA/test automation as top skills.

Hiring from Bulgaria?

Vetted engineers at about $30/hr all-in.

Contracts, payroll and compliance handled. A senior in-house hire costs about £48/hr loaded in the UK and $82/hr in the US.

FAQ

How much does a senior software developer earn in Bulgaria?+

The median senior software engineer salary in Bulgaria is about 54,394 EUR a year (about $60,883), against about $50,513 for mid-level and $17,339 for junior developers. Senior remote contractors typically charge $35–$46 an hour.

What is the time difference between Bulgaria and the UK or US?+

Bulgaria runs on UTC+02:00 in winter. A 09:00–17:30 working day there overlaps 6.5h with London and 1.5h with New York.

How much does it cost to hire a developer from Bulgaria through OctogleHire?+

OctogleHire publishes one client rate: about $19/hr for a mid-level engineer and $30/hr for a senior, including vetting, contracts and payroll, with no placement fee. A comparable senior in-house hire costs about £48/hr loaded in the UK and $82/hr in the US.

Sources · Q4 2026

Method notes: Levels.fyi still shows BGN figures, converted to EUR at the fixed 1.95583 rate. Junior uses Sofia because no national entry-level page was found; its sample is small (n=22) and it looks low next to mid. Mid is the all-levels median used as a proxy. The senior page dates from Jan 2026. Contractor ranges are Lemon.io middle-50% bands (medians: mid $25, senior $40; 257 contracts). Salary basis: Levels.fyi in BGN: Sofia entry-level BGN 30,297 (22 submissions, 9/29/2026), Bulgaria all levels BGN 88,264 (197 submissions, 10/3/2026), Bulgaria senior BGN 106,385 (1/5/2026). Converted at the fixed euro conversion rate of 1.95583 BGN/EUR..