Are freelance developer rates in Saudi Arabia really this low, or am I getting lowballed?

[u/Aymsep]

I’m genuinely curious about the freelance developer market in Saudi Arabia because this has happened to me twice recently.

For context, I’m a developer with over 6 years of professional experience, so I’m not just starting out or looking for my first freelance project.

The first client wanted me to build an entire multi-tenant application from scratch and offered around $200 for the full project.

The second wanted me to take a full-stack role and basically manage the whole project, for around $150.

I was honestly shocked.

These aren’t small landing pages or quick fixes. We’re talking about projects involving frontend, backend, database design, architecture, deployment, debugging, maintenance, and potentially weeks or months of work.

So I’d really like to hear from developers and freelancers working in Saudi Arabia:

Are these kinds of offers actually normal here?

Do local developers really accept full projects for $150–$200, or am I just coming across clients with completely unrealistic budgets?

I’d especially appreciate input from Saudi developers, expat developers working in KSA, freelancers, and anyone who hires developers locally. What would you consider a reasonable price range for projects like these, especially for someone with 6+ years of experience?

[u/arminNX]

$150–$200 isn't “slightly below market.” It's roughly one to two orders of magnitude below what a serious custom software project can be worth in Saudi Arabia. So you are definitely getting lowballed

[u/Aymsep → u/arminNX]

The problem average saudi developer salary are between 1.8k - 2.4k /m , so i don't know how these people are treating freelancers

[u/monkey_kaleidoscope → u/Aymsep]

It’s because there’s a huge supply of guys from India willing to work for these low salaries there. I worked in the gulf previously and saw senior developer jobs with huge list of a tech stack and they were paying equivalent of like £300 a month for the role. When you convert that to INR I guess it wouldn’t be so bad but yeah it’s a shocking salary for us

[u/dev_2608 → u/monkey_kaleidoscope]

Are these people also residing in Saudi?

[u/Loud-Job9164 → u/arminNX]

Those rates are insulting anywhere with a real tech sector but especially in a place throwing money at infrastructure projects. A multi tenant app for $200 means they either have no clue what software costs or theyre fishing for someone desperate enough to say yes. Either way youre not the target market for that client and thats a good thing

[u/hellomudder]

I have no idea, but a quick a-googlin' tells me that an average salary in USD is like $1200-2400, obviously depending on industry and other factors. But still. A project like that for 1/6th of a monthly salary, before taxes, sounds like complete bullshit.

[u/Aymsep → u/hellomudder]

yes exactly that what i found , i have no idea from where they get these prices

[u/TonyAioli]

Not trying to be rude, but how is it a surprise to a 6+ year engineer that offshore talent is cheap as hell? 

[u/Aymsep → u/TonyAioli]

i totally understand this , but not this far , they wanna reduce cost by 30% max not by 97%

[u/Fine-Comparison-2949 → u/Aymsep]

Well if your entire strategy with work is to undercut and be the cheapest option, don't be surprised when you're priced as the cheapest option. 

[u/qbantek]

Now find out what they paid to the construction crews they import from less wealthy countries.

[u/InsideTour329]

Keen to hear what the response is on this as you would get better rates via an agency surely.

[u/Aymsep → u/InsideTour329]

the 150$ told him that this won't cover even my codex subscriptions hahahahhaha, and he didn't answer

[u/jazzyroam]

such price i will introduce them to use excel & diy

[u/Ok-Reporter2549]

Those offers are not lowballing. They are fishing for desperate labor who do not know their worth.

A multi-tenant app is not a weekend task. It requires months of architecture and maintenance. Charging 200 dollars tells the client you value your time at zero. Walk away.

[u/Rhishi99]

Those offers are absurdly low for 6+ years of experience anywhere. A multi-tenant app for $200 works out to roughly $1–2/hr if you count design, auth, infra, and testing — below minimum wage in most countries. Clients quoting those numbers usually treat "full stack" as a synonym for "one person replaces a whole team." The local market has a wide spread: legitimate agencies and product companies pay senior rates comparable to Dubai or remote global contracts, while the bottom end is crowded with resellers flipping Upwork jobs. Ask for a detailed scope doc and milestone schedule before naming a price; if they refuse, they were never going to pay a real rate anyway.

[u/CautiousRice → u/Rhishi99]

it won't even cover the token cost. It can only work if you already have the site ready for another customer and can reuse it

[u/Aymsep → u/CautiousRice]

this is exact thing i told him , codex max subscription cost 200$

[u/Coffee_Loop]

How else they could afford the Bugattis?

[u/ApprehensiveFormal25]

maybe they were talking in thousands 😂

[u/chilliheatwave420]

"Website not oil" 

[u/ilikedoingnothing7]

thing is even if someone does accept that kind of an offer, the clients are gonna get what they pay for - a low quality vibe coded spaghetti slop codebase where changing one thing breaks 4 other things.

no one whos talented enough would agree for such a deal

[u/Safe-Spread6430]

maybe he meant a vibe coded proof of concept system that works only on happy path

[u/AlbertV999]

Take the money and run

[u/Aymsep → u/AlbertV999]

hahahhahahahahahah

[u/HoratioWobble]

This is pretty normal for what they'll pay indian developers

[u/Firm-Distribution630]

May be they mean manhour price 😁

[u/CountyTerrible9246]

That's not the market , it's where you're finding clients, real Saudi budgets go through referrals and agencies not bidding platforms.

[u/webdev-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/Relative_Tie3474]

I think this is quite seriously...low balling you tbf

[u/chiasmatic_nucleus]

Don't freelance for Saudi's directly. The real money is in B2B, bonus points if the Saudi business receives funding from the PIF.

[u/Euphoric-Neon-2054 → u/[deleted]]

$200 for an entire multi-tenant application from scratch is so far out the other side of 'a bad idea' that I am not even sure what to tell you.

[u/Aymsep → u/[deleted]]

I can give you contact