Research / Where to work in Europe
Where to work in Europe, and what to optimize for
Pay, savings, livability, and competition are four different rankings. This analysis reads them together, by situation: no constraints, early career, family, remote, senior.
Switzerland pays the most (€161k average reported) and still ranks 10th on what engineers actually keep. Adjusted for cost of living, Lithuania leads at €40k a year. The strongest all-round market, blending savings, livability, and open roles, is Poland: a 51% saving rate with 763 curated roles open now. Where you are in your career changes the answer more than any ranking does.
Key findings
- Pay and keep are different rankings: Switzerland reports the highest pay (€161k average) yet ranks 10th on cost-adjusted savings, while Lithuania leads the keep table at €40k a year. #
- The strongest all-round market is Poland: rank 1 on the blended community board, a 51% reported saving rate, €39k cost-adjusted savings, and 763 curated roles open right now. #
- Engineers working fully remote report keeping €26k a year against €18k for everyone else, and rate their happiness higher too (7.8 vs 7.2). #
- Level beats geography: on the curated board, mid to senior moves modeled savings from €33k to €68k a year. No country move in this data is worth as much as one promotion. #
- Members' applications per open role vary 10.3x across the large markets: Switzerland indexes 597 against Ireland's 58, with the United Kingdom at 100. #
Methodology & what these numbers are
Three sources, never blended into one number: 1,463 self-reported engineer submissions (the live dataset behind /data, medians unless noted), 15,727 curated top-tier European openings with modeled comp and savings (the compensation report's population), and 3,342 Europe-friendly fully-remote roles.
The competition figures are a fourth source: what paying members actually apply to, divided by open roles. They are published only as an index (United Kingdom = 100) with minimum-sample floors, and absolute activity counts are withheld on purpose: the ratios carry the signal. It is a high-intent member panel, not the open market. Numbers refresh hourly. Updated August 2026.
Cite this data
Euro Top Tech, Where to Work in Europe as a Software Engineer (2026): pay, savings, livability, and application competition across European tech markets. https://www.eurotoptech.com/research/where-to-work-europe
The same countries, ranked by what you keep
Community self-reports by country: average pay, savings, and the saving rate, with savings also adjusted for cost of living (the column that flips the ranking). Overall rank is the blended financial-plus-livability board from the data explorer. Countries with 15 or more reports.
| Country | Reports | Pre-tax pay | Saved / yr | Save rate | Cost-adjusted | Overall rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lithuania | 25 | €103,456 | €41,735 | 56% | €40,365 | 7 |
| Poland | 99 | €103,071 | €39,452 | 51% | €39,268 | 1 |
| Romania | 39 | €90,020 | €32,636 | 51% | €36,897 | 8 |
| Serbia | 31 | €73,962 | €27,167 | 48% | €36,492 | 4 |
| Czechia | 22 | €86,900 | €31,955 | 47% | €34,002 | 3 |
| Finland | 20 | €137,633 | €39,800 | 48% | €31,576 | 11 |
| Belgium | 19 | €109,237 | €30,842 | 47% | €29,085 | 9 |
| Spain | 145 | €81,439 | €24,550 | 45% | €24,156 | 21 |
| Hungary | 82 | €46,250 | €12,793 | 41% | €22,529 | · |
| Switzerland | 92 | €160,859 | €50,081 | 42% | €22,326 | 2 |
| France | 50 | €93,198 | €25,820 | 42% | €21,729 | 18 |
| Ireland | 30 | €136,846 | €31,329 | 39% | €21,646 | 15 |
| Netherlands | 77 | €123,595 | €33,396 | 42% | €21,232 | 12 |
| United Kingdom | 78 | €140,764 | €35,868 | 41% | €20,600 | 13 |
| Denmark | 49 | €100,304 | €26,184 | 42% | €20,163 | 22 |
| Germany | 207 | €96,135 | €21,481 | 37% | €19,134 | 20 |
| Sweden | 24 | €79,412 | €17,847 | 34% | €18,603 | 14 |
| Austria | 26 | €69,595 | €18,710 | 41% | €17,940 | 17 |
| Italy | 124 | €57,395 | €14,878 | 38% | €16,775 | 23 |
| Portugal | 75 | €60,788 | €13,417 | 31% | €14,060 | 24 |
The conversion trap: Portugal is one of the most-reported countries here (75 reports) and converts pay into savings worst among the big markets: a 31% saving rate and €14,060 cost-adjusted. People move for the job market and pay for it in what they keep.
Supply is concentrated: the four biggest markets hold most of the 15,727 curated roles. The full keep-versus-access view, including cities, lives in the compensation report.
Where everyone else is applying
Everything above describes supply and outcomes. This is demand: what members actually apply to, divided by open roles, indexed to the United Kingdom at 100. It is the only view that says where you are likely to get in, rather than where you would like to be. Only large markets above our sample floors are charted; absolute counts are withheld by design.
Competition index: applications per open role
Below the charting floor and directional only: Poland (about 84), France (about 77).
The mismatch to exploit: Ireland pairs 2,106 open roles with the lowest competition on the board (index 58), while Switzerland is the most contested at 597. Wanting Switzerland is not a strategy: everyone in the data wants it.
The remote board is the most crowded door: fully-remote roles draw 4.3x the applications per open role of the on-site board. Remote pays the best and is the hardest to win, so it rewards leverage, not shortcuts.
Demand share vs supply share, by level
| Level | Open roles | Supply share | Demand share | Ratio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entry | 797 | 5.1% | 10.4% | 2.04 |
| Mid | 5,714 | 36.5% | 39.6% | 1.09 |
| Senior | 8,392 | 53.6% | 39.2% | 0.73 |
| Staff | 578 | 3.7% | 10.2% | 2.77 |
| Principal | 181 | 1.2% | 0.6% | 0.51 |
Staff roles are the most over-subscribed rung (10.2% of applications on 3.7% of supply). The quietest is principal: if you are principal-level and applying to principal roles, you are in the least contested part of the market you will ever see.
The answer changes with who is asking
Every card gives the pick, the number behind it, and what it costs you. The tradeoff line matters more than the pick: no country in this data wins without giving something up.
Poland
Runner-up: Lithuania
Because: The only market near the top on all four axes at once: overall rank 1, a 51% saving rate, €39k cost-adjusted savings, and 763 open curated roles.
Costs you: A lower ceiling. The board's median modeled package there is €90k against €201k in the United Kingdom, so the top end is genuinely smaller even though the keep is higher.
Ireland or Netherlands
Entry roles are under 5% of the board: supply first
Because: Real entry supply and savings that work out: Ireland has 60 open entry roles with €25k reported kept; Netherlands has 52 with €17k.
Costs you: The deepest entry market, United Kingdom (246 roles), pays juniors well and takes it back in living costs: members there report just €9k kept. Treat it as a place to get the first title, not to accumulate.
Poland, decisively
Runner-up: Serbia
Because: Households of three or more in Poland report €35k kept a year against €24k for the next country, across 31 family reports, with happiness at 8.1.
Costs you: Switzerland is the anti-pattern: singles keep €40k, families on €135k pre-tax keep €20k. A family absorbs the entire premium.
Switzerland, then the UK
Only if you are single or senior
Because: The board's median modeled package in Switzerland is €305k, with a 90th percentile of €391k. The UK is the only large market with both a high ceiling (€201k) and deep supply (4,671 roles).
Costs you: A queue: Switzerland is the most contested market we track, indexing 597 applications per open role against the United Kingdom's 100, and conversion: cost-adjusted keep there is €22k a year.
Remote pay, Poland cost base
The single best cell in the data
Because: Fully-remote engineers based in Poland report €109k pre-tax and €45k kept a year, across 31 reports. Romania is the same play at €35k.
Costs you: The queue: remote roles draw 4.3x the applications per open role that the on-site board does, and price opacity: most remote listings publish no pay figure, so you negotiate blind.
Czechia or Switzerland
The satisfaction composite, not the pay table
Because: Czechia tops the satisfaction composite: happiness 8.3/10 with tax and infrastructure at 8.3/10; Switzerland follows at 7.8 and 8.5.
Costs you: Sample depth varies by country; check the per-country counts on the data explorer before moving on one number.
Romania
Highest keep at a fixed level
Because: Held at the senior level, Romania leads the keep table: €40k reported saved on a €100k median package (25 reports).
Costs you: Market depth: Romania lists 379 curated roles, so one employer leaving moves your options materially.
Ireland, at principal level
Deep market, quiet queue
Because: Two under-contested things stack: Ireland is the least contested large market (index 58 vs the United Kingdom at 100, across 2,106 roles), and principal level draws 0.6% of applications against 1.2% of supply, a ratio of 0.51.
Costs you: Conversion: cost-adjusted keep in Ireland is €22k a year. This is a route to getting hired, not to keeping the most.
Target the anywhere bucket
1,021 roles with no country restriction
Because: Of 3,342 Europe-friendly remote roles, 1,021 name no country at all. Where countries are named, United Kingdom dominates with 761 mentions, 533 of them exclusive.
Costs you: Salary transparency and seniority fit: most of the remote board is tagged entry to mid, so the senior remote market is thinner than the on-site one.
What to prioritize, ranked by effect size
Ordered by how much each is worth in this data, not by how often it gets advised.
- Get to senior; everything else is smaller. Mid to senior moves modeled savings from €33k to €68k on the board and reported savings from €14k to €22k in the community. There are also more senior roles open than mid ones, so the market widens as you climb.
- Optimize the saving rate, not the salary. Across 572 rated reports, happiness correlates with the saving rate at 0.32, with absolute savings at 0.26, and with pre-tax pay at only 0.20. The share you keep predicts satisfaction better than the number you earn.
- Separate where you earn from where you spend. Fully-remote engineers report €26k kept against €18k for everyone else. Paired with a low-cost base it is the largest lever available without a promotion.
- Target employer tier before geography. Senior openings on the curated board advertise €165k against €88k reported across all employers, about 1.9x for the same title in the same countries. The company moves more money than the country.
- Apply where the queue is short, not where the brand is loud. Competition spans 10.3x across the large markets alone, from Switzerland at 597 to Ireland at 58. That spread is larger than most of the pay differences people move for.
- Check the city, not just the country. On the blended city board, Zurich ranks 1 and Krakow ranks 2, while Berlin, the deepest-sampled city, sits 19th. Country averages hide the spread that matters.
Where this could be wrong
Livability tops rest on thin samples. Some of the best satisfaction scores come from countries with fewer than ten ratings; the blended board shrinks thin samples toward the mean, but treat those rows as promising rather than proven, and check the counts on the data explorer.
The two pay ladders are different populations. Board figures are modeled offers at curated top-tier employers; community figures are self-reports across all employers, and the roughly 1.9x gap between them is a real selection effect. They are never blended into one number here.
The competition index is a member panel. It measures what paying members apply to: high-intent, not the open market. Countries below the sample floors are excluded or marked directional, and absolute counts stay unpublished because the ratios carry the signal.
Frequently asked
Where do software engineers save the most in Europe?
Adjusted for cost of living, engineers report keeping the most in Lithuania (€40k/yr), Poland (€39k/yr), Romania (€37k/yr). High-paying markets rank lower once living costs are divided out: the pay table and the keep table are different rankings.
Which European country is easiest to get hired in right now?
Among the large markets, Ireland currently draws the least competition on our boards: member applications per open role index at 58 against United Kingdom at 100, across 2,106 open curated roles. Switzerland is the most contested at 597.
What is the best European country for software engineers with families?
Poland: households of three or more there report €35k kept per year, against €24k in Serbia. Switzerland shows the opposite pattern: its premium goes to singles (€40k kept) while families keep €20k.
Is fully-remote work worth it for European engineers?
On savings, yes: fully-remote engineers report €26k kept per year against €18k for on-site, and higher happiness (7.79 vs 7.17). The catch is competition: remote roles draw roughly 4.3 times the applications per open role, so remote favors engineers who already have leverage.