Hiring Developers in India — Salary, Trial & Retention Guide
What senior engineers cost across cities, how to trial them fairly, and why they leave in 11 months.
1. Know the Market
Senior full-stack engineers (4–6 yrs) command ₹18–35 LPA in metros, ₹12–22 LPA in tier-2 cities — plus 3-month notice periods that kill momentum. Freelance equivalents run $25–$60/hr with zero notice friction.
Salary bands move quarterly. Any fixed budget older than 6 months is already wrong — re-benchmark before opening roles.
2. Trial Tasks That Work
Paid, 4–8 hour tasks on your actual stack: fix a real bug, build a small feature with tests. Unpaid take-homes filter out every employed senior you want.
Evaluate the PR, not just the output — review response quality predicts team fit better than code alone.
3. Retention Levers
Engineers leave for learning velocity and manager quality, rarely for 10% hikes. Code-review culture, conference budgets, and visible promotion paths retain better than bonuses.
If you cannot offer growth, offer flexibility: remote-first with purposeful off-sites beats forced office mandates for retention.
Frequently asked questions
Hire, freelance, or agency pod?
Hire for core IP you will evolve for years; freelance for spikes; pods when you need a whole team faster than hiring allows.
How do you trial engineers?
Paid real-world tasks plus PR review — the same process we use internally, available as an evaluation service.