This guide is for technology leads, managing directors and founders of Spanish companies who are considering software development in Vietnam and want to know what it really costs. By the end you will know what salaries are paid there in 2025-2026, which social security contributions are added in each country and how to compare the total cost with that of a team in Spain without stopping at the hourly rate.
What goes into the cost of a software team
When people talk about the cost of developing in Vietnam, they almost always quote salaries. Salary is the largest item, but not the only one. To make an honest comparison with Spain, split the cost into five blocks:
- Gross salary of each profile, depending on role and experience.
- Employer social security contributions, which work differently in Vietnam and Spain.
- Overheads: office, equipment, licences, accounting, payroll and, if you hire directly, the local company itself.
- Management: who sets priorities, reviews the work and answers questions. If someone at your company in Spain does this, their time costs money too.
- Risks: staff turnover, the learning curve, rework caused by poorly explained requirements and dependence on a few people.
The first two blocks can be calculated from public data. The other three depend on the model you choose and how you organise the work.
Developer salaries in Vietnam in 2025-2026
There are no official salary statistics by technology profile in Vietnam. The most widely used benchmark in the industry is the annual survey by ITviec, a tech job portal. The 2025-2026 edition was carried out over two periods in 2025, with 1,839 responses from professionals, students, HR managers and executives. It publishes monthly medians in Vietnamese dong (VND) and does not state whether the figures are gross or net, so treat them as an order of magnitude.
To convert to euros we use around 30,000 VND per euro, rounding the exchange rate published by Vietcombank in September 2026, which moved roughly between 29,000 and 31,000 VND depending on the day and the type of transaction.
| Profile | Under 1 year | 1-2 years | 3-4 years | 5-8 years | Over 8 years |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Back-end | 12.4M VND (≈ €410) | 25.35M (≈ €845) | 30.1M (≈ €1,000) | 39.9M (≈ €1,330) | 54.9M (≈ €1,830) |
| Full-stack | 10.1M (≈ €340) | 20.35M (≈ €680) | 34.5M (≈ €1,150) | 41.8M (≈ €1,390) | 44.8M (≈ €1,490) |
| Mobile | 14.15M (≈ €470) | 28.8M (≈ €960) | 29.05M (≈ €970) | 37.35M (≈ €1,245) | 45.7M (≈ €1,520) |
| QA / tester | 14.15M (≈ €470) | 14.2M (≈ €470) | 20.7M (≈ €690) | 25.3M (≈ €845) | 36.5M (≈ €1,220) |
| Tech lead | n/a | 45.3M (≈ €1,510) | 53.85M (≈ €1,795) | n/a | 68.45M (≈ €2,280) |
Monthly medians according to ITviec 2025-2026. Euro conversion is approximate.
A few practical takeaways from this table:
- Experience matters a great deal. A back-end developer with more than 8 years' experience earns over four times as much as a new starter. When comparing quotes, check what seniority each one includes.
- Leadership profiles cost considerably more. An experienced tech lead approaches 70 million VND a month, and the median for a CTO or technical director exceeds 100 million.
- These are medians, not prices. For highly sought-after profiles or those with fluent English, the real range can be considerably higher. Use them to spot offers that are out of line with the market, not to set salaries.
As a reference for the legal floor, Decree 293/2025/NĐ-CP sets a monthly minimum wage, from 1 January 2026, of 5,310,000 VND in Region I, the highest band, and 3,700,000 VND in Region IV. A developer earns far more than this, but the regional minimum wage is used in other employment calculations, such as some contribution caps.
Social security contributions: Vietnam vs Spain
Vietnam
For Vietnamese nationals, in 2026 the employer contributes 21.5% of the contribution salary, according to the breakdown published by LuatVietnam:
- 14% retirement and survivors' benefits.
- 3% sickness and maternity.
- 0.5% occupational accidents and diseases.
- 3% health insurance.
- 1% unemployment insurance.
The employee contributes a further 10.5%, deducted from their salary. One detail changes the numbers considerably for senior profiles: the base for social and health insurance is capped at 20 times the reference salary, which is 46.8 million VND a month in 2026. If a tech lead earns 68 million, the employer contributes on 46.8 million, not on the full salary.
Different rules apply to foreign employees, and other charges may apply depending on the case. Check with your employment adviser.
Spain
Under the General Scheme, Spanish Social Security sets the following employer rates for 2026 on a permanent contract:
- 23.60% common contingencies.
- 5.50% unemployment.
- 0.20% FOGASA (Wage Guarantee Fund).
- 0.60% vocational training.
- 0.75% for the Intergenerational Equity Mechanism (MEI), out of a total of 0.9%.
In total, slightly over 30.6%, plus the occupational accident rate, which depends on the activity. The maximum contribution base in 2026 is €5,101.20 a month.
| Vietnam (2026) | Spain (2026) | |
|---|---|---|
| Approximate employer contribution | 21.5% | ≈ 30.6% + occupational accidents |
| Base cap | 46.8M VND/month (≈ €1,560) | €5,101.20/month |
| Effect on senior profiles | The cap is reached early and lowers the effective rate | The cap only affects high salaries |
An indicative calculation: Vietnam vs Spain
With this data you can make a first estimate. The example is illustrative and compares different sources, so use it to understand the order of magnitude, not as a budget.
Vietnam. A back-end developer with 5 to 8 years' experience, median of 39.9 million VND a month. This is below the cap, so the employer contributes 21.5%: about 8.6 million more. Approximate monthly cost: 48.5 million VND, around €1,615. Per year, around €19,400 before overheads and management.
Spain. The INE does not publish salaries for programmer profiles, but it does publish them by sector. The average annual salary in information and communications was €42,741.94 in 2024, according to the Annual Wage Structure Survey published in May 2026. With an employer contribution of around 30.6%, the cost comes to roughly €55,800 a year, excluding the occupational accident rate.
In this example, the direct salary cost in Spain is almost three times that in Vietnam, although comparing specific profiles may give a different ratio. But that is not the figure you should take to your board. To reach the total cost, you need to add:
- Overheads in Vietnam: office, equipment, accounting, payroll and legal management. If you hire through a provider, these are included in their rate.
- Management time in Spain: hours from your product owner or CTO to define, review and accept the work.
- Ramp-up: weeks of onboarding during which the team is not yet fully productive.
- Turnover: every departure means recruiting, training and handing over knowledge.
- Travel and communication: visits at the start and at key milestones, tools and overlapping hours.
Once these items are added, the real saving varies widely depending on the project and the maturity of your organisation. For some teams it clearly pays off; for others, management eats up a good part of the difference.
Engagement models and what you pay in each
The cost also changes depending on how you work with Vietnam. These are the most common models:
| Model | What you pay | Advantage | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed-price project | A fee for a defined scope | Predictable cost | Every scope change is renegotiated |
| Dedicated team with a provider | A monthly rate per person | Day-to-day control without setting up a company | You depend on the provider's stability |
| Hiring through an employer of record (EOR) | Salary, contributions and a fee | You hire specific people without your own entity | Less control over the working environment |
| Your own company in Vietnam | Salaries, contributions and all overheads | Full control and ownership of the team | Fixed costs and incorporation procedures |
A provider's rates include salary, contributions, overheads, management and margin, so you cannot compare them directly with the salaries in the table above. If you are considering setting up your own company, our guide on how to set up a company in Vietnam as a foreigner explains the steps and timelines.
Hidden costs to plan for
Time zone and communication
Vietnam is on UTC+7 and does not observe daylight saving time. The difference with mainland Spain is 6 hours in winter and 5 in summer. That leaves a few hours of overlap in the Spanish morning. Well organised, it lets the team make progress while you are away; poorly organised, it leads to days lost waiting for answers.
Requirements and quality
A remote team needs clearer requirements than one sitting next to you. If your specifications are informal, rework can wipe out part of the saving. Set aside budget for automated testing, code review and someone responsible for quality.
Language
The team will normally work in English, and proficiency varies widely from person to person. Assess it in interviews just as you assess technical skills. If your documentation is only in Spanish, plan to translate it or to have someone act as a bridge.
Intellectual property and security
Make sure the contract assigns the rights to the code to your company and that access to repositories and data is controlled from your side. It is cheaper to agree this at the outset than to argue about it later.
How to compare offers step by step
- Define the scope and profiles. How many people, which roles and what seniority. Without this, any comparison is misleading.
- Ask for a breakdown. How much of the rate is salary, how much is overheads and how much is margin. Some providers will not share it, but the answer says a lot.
- Compare like-for-like experience. Use the ITviec table as a benchmark to spot rates that are too low for the seniority being promised.
- Work out your management time. Estimate how many hours a week your team in Spain will spend and add them to the cost.
- Run a limited trial. A pilot project of a few weeks gives you real data on speed and quality before you commit.
- Measure by delivery, not by the hour. Compare how much each finished, accepted feature costs, not the hourly rate.
If you would like to see how we approach organising a team in Vietnam, we explain it on our software development page.
Frequently asked questions
How much does a software developer earn in Vietnam in 2026?
According to the ITviec 2025-2026 survey, the monthly median for a back-end developer ranges from about 12 million VND in the first year to about 55 million with more than 8 years' experience. At the approximate September 2026 exchange rate, that is between roughly €410 and €1,830 a month. These are self-reported medians: the actual salary depends on the profile and the individual case.
How much does the employer pay in social security contributions in Vietnam?
For Vietnamese employees, the employer contributes 21.5% in 2026, with a base cap of 46.8 million VND a month for social and health insurance. In Spain, the employer contribution under the General Scheme exceeds 30%. For senior Vietnamese profiles, the cap makes the effective rate lower.
Is developing in Vietnam always cheaper?
The direct salary cost is clearly lower, but the total cost depends on management, the quality of the requirements and turnover. It usually pays off more on projects with continuity than on very short or poorly defined assignments. A pilot is the best way to check this in your case.
Do I need a company in Vietnam to have a team there?
No. You can work with a provider, with a dedicated team or through an employer of record. Your own company makes sense when the team is stable, of a certain size, and you want full control.
How Agilean can help
At Agilean we build software development teams in Vietnam for Spanish and European companies from Ho Chi Minh City. Our team works in Spanish and helps define profiles, estimate the total cost with up-to-date data and set up the way of working between the two countries. You can see how we work on our software development page.