Everything You Need to Know before Hiring a Golang Developer in 2024

YouTeam has created a comprehensive guide covering popular hiring platforms, average salaries of Go developers throughout the world, and different engagement types. You will have everything you need before hiring a Golang developer by the end of this long read.

Are Golang developers in demand?

The programming language Go has become a trump card for developers who have also gained experience with others, such as Java, Ruby, Python, or Javascript. According to a Stack Overflow 2022 Developer Survey, Go, often referred to as Golang, although niche, is the fourth most popular programming language.

Hiring developers with knowledge of both popular and niche technologies is becoming increasingly difficult as the demand for software engineers is high. According to ZDNet, developers who work with niche programming languages, such as Rust, Go, and Scala, are likely to take home higher average salaries than their more common counterparts, mainly because they are in short supply.

What makes Golang stand out from other languages?

Designed at Google in 2007, Golang is an open-source programming language that combines the performance and security benefits of a compiled language like C++ with the speed of a dynamic language like Python. Go was designed to run on multiple cores, and due to its concurrency feature, it can handle multiple requests simultaneously by giving high performance. Google is interested in its servers running as quickly as possible, so it created Go to fulfill that need. The faster the code can execute—the faster internet TCP or UDP over IP requests can be received, processed, and returned to the client—and that makes Go highly performant and scalable.

In addition, the Golang programming language has an excellent standard library, making it possible to create web apps without a framework. Its standard library also comes in handy for DevOps engineers. It includes functionality like file processing, HTTP web services, JSON processing, native support for concurrency and parallelism, and built-in testing modules.

Moreover, Golang has gained significant popularity in the realm of blockchain development. Its simplicity, efficiency, and strong support for concurrency make it an ideal language for building blockchain applications. Many blockchain projects and platforms, such as Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric, use Golang. They implement it in developing smart contracts, decentralized applications (DApps), and blockchain infrastructure. Golang’s robustness and speed make it well-suited for handling the complex computational requirements and cryptographic operations involved in blockchain systems.

Go programming was notably used for Uber’s microservice, which implements dynamic pricing in neighborhoods where many people request rides at the same time and shows users which products are available at a given location.

Although Go’s data science community is still relatively small, it is already being used for machine learning, data processing, and real-time data analysis. The language has also been used by Google’s Core Data Solutions team to write web indexing services and keep search results up-to-date and comprehensive.

How much does it cost to hire a Golang developer?

We’ve compiled information on the average salaries of Go developers on Glassdoor. Please note that the platform took into account the earnings of developers with different amounts of expertise, which means that the actual salaries may differ from case to case. In addition, the salary of a backend developer who does not speak English and works on a local project will be considerably different from that of a programmer who works for an outsourcing company.

Nevertheless, this study shows how incomes vary across countries, which is caused, at the very least, by the cost of living and taxation levels.

What is the average salary of Golang developer according to Glassdoor?

These numbers represent the median incomes as reported by Glassdoor’s proprietary Total Pay Estimate model based on salaries collected from the platform users. Wages in India, the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the United Kingdom consist of a base salary and additional pay, which may include cash bonuses, commission, tips, and profit sharing.

The highest-paid Go developers, according to Glassdoor, are in North America and Western Europe. Conversely, the least expensive engineers are from India.

Many companies based in countries like the US or Western Europe prefer to hire remotely through innovative models like staff augmentation. Thus, if you want to hire a professional Go developer but face the problem of a tech talent shortage, then hiring contractors from other countries may be the answer. Besides, this solution is also cost-effective because you will not have to spend money on office rentals, equipment, and bonuses—you pay only for the services. Now that we have explored the average salaries of Go-developers worldwide let’s find out how you can utilize this information before hiring a developer.

What are the average hourly rates of Golang developers according to YouTeam?

We have compiled the average hourly rates for mid-level and senior software engineers who listed Golang as a core technology in their profiles.

Hiring Golang developers: Geographical options

If you want to hire a Go developer, there are three options based on geography. You can hire an engineer locally, hire a nearshore talent, or trust an offshore developer (or development team).

Hiring local talent

When hiring local talent, developers usually work with a team in the same office. Even if they work remotely or in a hybrid work model—they’re still in the same time zone, which means team members can quickly call or meet to discuss project details.

For this method, traditional hiring will work—begin by browsing online job boards such as Angel.co or Glassdoor.com. You can also hire developers by hosting or attending local events such as hackathons and tech conferences. There have been a limited number of these in-person events lately, as many have moved online. Finally, you can request an in-house backend or full-stack developer from headhunting companies or look at your local market by utilizing your HR services.

Hiring nearshore and offshore developers

Nearshore and offshore outsourcing open up access to a larger pool of developers, which will help avoid a talent shortage.

The hiring process in these two cases is quite similar. The first thing you should seek is individuals and agencies with good ratings. B2B platforms like Clutch and GoodFirms provide ratings to reference before hiring Go development companies or engineers. Companies may also choose to hire web developers through regional events (tech conferences and hackathons) for nearshore talent.

Hiring Golang developers: Four hiring models

You can use different hiring models: in-house hiring, staff augmentation, freelance, and outsourcing software development.

In-House Hiring

If you decide to hire an in-house developer, you must pay a monthly salary plus benefits (financial and non-financial). In-house developers are the most engaged—they go into the details of the product and come up with the best solutions because they are committed to developing the product and the company. Therefore, in-house hiring is the best solution at the core development stage.

On the other hand, this method is more expensive because employers are expected to pay for health insurance and make retirement contributions. Also, the hiring process may take much more time because of the additional onboarding requirements for in-house employees.

Staff Augmentation

Staff augmentation is a solution for companies that want to rapidly scale their development process by hiring Go developers dedicated to a project only. You will manage full-time employed programmers at software development agencies directly and may communicate directly with each of them.

Staff augmentation is as safe as in-house hiring but much faster. For instance, by choosing YouTeam online platform, you will be dealing with a trusted network of developers from Eastern Europe and Latin America available for immediate hire. It takes around 48 hours to get a shortlist of Go engineers that meet your requirements.

Like an in-house option, team augmentation demands attention from managers during the onboarding process. You will need to align the workflow and establish communication between in-house and remote teams.

Senior Golang Developer Rates on YouTeam

Outsourcing

If your company chooses to hire via outsourcing services, the process is pretty simple. First, contact a development shop with expertise in Go and agree on the project requirements. Then, an outsourced development team will work on your project remotely.

Tech companies use this type of business practice to focus on the core aspects of the business, assigning app development to outside organizations managed by the CTO or product owner of the in-house team. However, outsourcing limits communication between the company and external providers and may impose security risks, as sensitive data is available to multiple parties.

Freelancing

Hiring freelancers is suitable for short-time projects, small tasks, and companies with limited budgets. If your company chooses to hire a freelance Go developer via platforms like Upwork, you have to pay the hourly rate plus the platform’s commission. Hourly rates for freelancers can be higher because the freelancers also pay a commission.

Even though freelancers are the fastest engagement type, this hiring model comes at significant risk of project delays and cancellations. In contrast to dedicated development teams and contractors, freelancers are responsible for several jobs, and the quality of their output could be subpar to that of the client’s specifications. You don’t have the same control over a freelancer as you do with an employee.

Where to find and hire Go developers?

Depending on the hiring model, we suggest a list of groups, job boards, directories, and communities for Go developers. These links will guide you to where to post Golang developer jobs, find contractors, or visit communities to connect directly with the most active users.

Staff augmentation

• Hire Go developers at YouTeam

Outsourcing

• Go development companies at Clutch
• Golang development companies at GoodFirms

Freelancing

• Post a job on Upwork
• Find remote Golang engineers at Hubstaff Talent

In-house Development: Job-boards

• Glassdoor for employers
• Indeed for employers

Communities and groups

• Go official Twitter account
• Go at GitHub
• Gophers Slack community (gopher is an iconic mascot of the Go project)
• Local meetup groups for Go developers

Comparing Golang developers: The US vs. Europe vs. Asia

American developers are often hired by product companies for the long-term, often with an opportunity for additional training.

Developers with experience in software development companies (of which there are more in Europe and Asia) usually know 1-2 focus languages in which they have deep expertise and years of experience. That’s why contractors from these parts of the world are so valuable — such specialists can bring the most value to a project.

Americans will be the best at soft skills when developers from Europe are more focused on hard skills, and in Asia, this difference will be even more remarkable. This disparity is related to cultural differences and different types of companies and roles. When you are a contractor, first and foremost, you are expected to produce results.

In general, the average income of a country has nothing to do with the qualifications of its workforce. For example, Ukraine—home to 300,000 high-quality tech specialists—has a reputation as a trustworthy IT outsourcing destination due to a cultural fit with the EU and US customers, as we all share the same values.

Look at the spreadsheet to see a comparison of developers from the US, Ukraine, and India in terms of time zone convenience and English language skills:

What questions should you ask when interviewing Go developers?

Make sure that you have a standardized interviewing process to evaluate the candidates better. Prepare a list of the most important questions you want to cover and draft possible answers. No matter which engagement type you choose, there are two main categories of questions you should ask in real-time before hiring a Go engineer:

 Hard skills: Depending on the tasks required, you should center around the following areas of expertise:

• Knowledge of common Goroutine and channel patterns
• Experience with Go frameworks and tools, including:
  • Go’s templating language
  • Code generation tools, such as Stringer
  • Dependency management tools such as Godep, Sltr
• Familiarity with code versioning tools such as Git, SVN, and Mercurial
• Ability to write clean and effective Godoc comments
• Experience with Golang logging and monitoring tools

You can find more examples of questions for hard-skills interviews with Go developers (with answers) here.

Soft skills: After examining an interviewee’s skills, you should alter the discussion to verify their cultural fit and background. In this way, you can prove that the candidate is a great team player that will match your company’s values. 

YouTeam collected ideas for questions for a soft-skills interview with remote developers — check them here.

Reasons to hire Golang developers on YouTeam

For one thing, we are cool. If you want to hire a top Go developer via staff augmentation, YouTeam is the most advanced and flexible platform. And here’s why:

• We have pre-interviewed middle and senior Golang developers in our pool to make sure that they are the best fit to meet customers’ requirements.
• It takes 48 hours from contacting YouTeam to receiving a verified list of candidates.
• YouTeam automates contract signing and billing between customers and software development vendors. No commitments before this point.
• A dedicated Customer Success Manager will assist you in communicating with engineers on your project and answer any legal or financial questions you may have.

If you have any questions or ideas, or if you would like to learn more about staff augmentation, don’t hesitate to contact YouTeam.