How to hire dedicated .NET developers
The modern .NET framework is the go-to platform for building robust applications – web, mobile, and desktop. Enterprise-level performance and security, on-demand scalability, comprehensive tooling, great community – it’s the top technology to ensure long-term success.
Hiring dedicated .NET developers can make or break your next big project, so don’t rush making the decision.
With thousands of candidates, finding someone with the technical chops can feel like going through haystacks. Geographic location, time zone, rates, resources, and other critical factors – where do you begin?
No worries – in the following overview, we rounded up everything you need to know.
What’s dedicated .NET development?
Key skills for a .NET developer
Backend skills
.NET engineers are involved in creating and optimizing server-side logic, application infrastructure, and APIs. Backend proficiency is thereby utmost important to handle business logic, user requests, database nuances, and everyday data transactions.
In particular, backend skills should include:
| ASP.NET fundamentals | – Dependency injection – Middleware pipeline – Model binding and validation – Routing and endpoint routing |
| API design | – RESTful principles and conventions – Pagination, filtering, and sorting – API versioning – Data serialization (JSON, XML) |
| Error handling | – Exception handling – Custom responses – Logging errors (structured logs) – Exception policies (retry, fallback) |
| Caching strategies | – In-memory caching – Distributed caching – Expiration policies – Invalidation strategies |
| User authentication & authorization | – OAuth 2.0 – OpenID Connect – Two-factor authentication – Role-based authorization |
| User logging & monitoring | – Structured logging (Serilog, NLog) – Log levels (info, debug, error, critical) – Real-time monitoring (Prometheus, Grafana) – Distributed tracing (OpenTelemetry, Jaeger) |
Frontend skills
.NET engineers, in particular full-stack specialists, are involved in building and managing presentation layers. Frontend proficiency, while surely not the primary focus, is essential for delivering responsive applications.
In particular, frontend skills should include:
| Razor Pages & Views | – Layout pages – Partial views – Data passing – Layout customization |
| Blazor features | – Dependency injection within components – Event handling (@onclick, @onchange) – Cascading values and parameters – State management |
| JavaScript fundamentals | – ES6+ syntax – Async/await functions – Event delegation and bubbling – DOM manipulation |
| Data binding | – Model binding – Two-way binding – Client-side validation – Real-time updates |
| Frontend frameworks | – Component lifecycle – State management – Form handling and validation – Component communication (props, emitters) |
| Styling frameworks | – Grid systems – CSS classes – Theme variables – Component styling |
Cloud platforms
.NET applications are hosted on popular cloud platforms, in particular on the Microsoft Azure public platform. Cloud competence is important for availability and reliability, infrastructure, deployment, flexibility, scalability, and availability.
Microservices architecture
.NET applications are known for enabling microservices architecture – loosely coupled, autonomous services. Microservices expertise is mission-critical for assuring code maintainability and agility.
Data access
In the .NET environment, data access involves managing data transactions and handling database interaction. SQL queries, LINQ syntax, tracking vs. no-tracking queries, database-first vs. code-first approaches, and more – to navigate data access, you require in-depth expertise.
Database management
In the .NET framework, database management involves handling data collection, storage, retrieval, and more. SQL & NoSQL approach, connection strings, database migration, database normalization and denormalization – the list goes on and on.
Asynchronous programming and multithreading
Asynchronous programming and multithreading are mission-critical for efficient, non-blocking operations. These enable .NET applications to handle time-intense tasks – I/O-bound operations, CPU-bound processes, and others.
Dependency injection
Dependency injection is a design pattern focused around the creation of modular, decoupled components. That means code maintainability and testability, both critical in the .NET framework.
Key responsibilities of a .NET developer
Backend development
Backend development typically involves:
- Taking advantage of modern .NET frameworks to handle user authentication and authorization, logging, monitoring, and other server-side aspects
- API design and implementation to enable data exchange between server and client
- Data access, database management, and handling data persistence
- And following best practices to ensure data protection
Our projects, all covered from consulting to deployment, with some quite tricky backend challenges:
- A modernized RPA platform to minimize manual routines
- A smart logistics platform for high-density housing environments
Frontend development (if in full-stack roles)
Frontend development usually involves:
- Taking advantage of popular frontend frameworks, including Blazor, Angular, React, and Vue
- UI design and development to meet UX design and specifications
- Client-side logic, state management, and providing cross-browser compatibility
- And optimizing frontend performance
Our projects, all covered from A to Z, frontend including:
Thorough testing, quality assurance, and validation
Moving further, .NET developers typically ensure the application is functioning as requested, is free of bugs, and meets the established quality standards.
Key responsibilities:
- Unit testing to validate the outputs for individually examined functions & methods
- Integration testing to ensure expected interaction between modules
- System testing to validate the functionality
- Bug documentation, fix prioritization, and careful regression testing
Performance optimization
Another thing, .NET developers usually ensure the application runs efficiently, with minimal loading times, especially under high traffic.
Key responsibilities:
- Performance monitoring by utilizing profiling tools – for example, ANTS Profiler, Application Insights, and Visual Studio Profiler
- Asynchronous programming to minimize network latency
- Dealing with memory leaks, garbage collection, and insufficient server processing
- And handling load balancing, in particular for applications with large user bases
Product deployment and release
Product deployment and release involve moving the application to the production environment while ensuring its performance and stability.
Key responsibilities:
- Script creation and planning for rollback
- Process automation to minimize manual intervention and eliminate potential errors
- Settings configuration, including services, database management, and security
- Process monitoring to address identified issues and maintain desired productivity
Ongoing maintenance and support
Further maintenance and support involve keeping the application always up-to-date and resolving any issues.
Key responsibilities:
- Regular updates and patches, in particular to avoid security vulnerabilities
- Code documentation to facilitate knowledge transfer and onboarding
- Bug fixing when required
- Code refactoring to improve its maintainability and adaptivity
Hiring dedicated .NET developer: a guide to recruiting
Preliminary screening
Start with preliminary screening!
Just think of recruiting as weeding out the “could-be” candidates from qualified, “definitely-are” candidates! Look carefully through resumes, check their technical knowledge and experience, and scroll through portfolios to get a better overall picture.
Technical interviews
Next step – technical interviews, where candidates can put their skills to the practical test.
Ask candidates about their domain expertise with the .NET framework, .NET Core, and other relevant nuances. Give them coding challenges and don’t shy away from questions that’ll test their problem-solving.
Align visions
Make sure you involve your potential team lead when discussing the cooperation and defining business goals. Team structure, resource allocation, role definition, task prioritization, project goals, technical compatibility – you have a lot to discuss.
Final decision
Now it’s decision time – just bring all smaller pieces together and trust your instincts (and notes of course). Choose the one candidate (or team) that ticks all of your boxes.
Where do you hire a dedicated .NET developer?
Freelance marketplaces
Freelance marketplace are your “matchmaking” websites for finding software developers and other IT talent. Business leaders swipe right on candidates with expertise they require – whether coding killer applications, smoothly debugging the darkest database corners, or designing a website that dazzles.
And the best part about those – you don’t really have to commit to serious, meet-your-parents relationships. It’s project-by-project and perfect for companies that need quick assistance.
Professional agencies
Professional agencies, on the other hand, are like talent scouts on steroids that happily do the heavy lifting. Tediously digging through profiles, vetting candidates, screening, interviewing, and negotiating about salary – the experts handle everything for you.
Imagine having professional seekers entirely dedicated to finding that unicorn software developer for you! Sounds exciting, doesn’t it?
What is the budget for dedicated .NET developers?
Let’s dive into what on average .NET developers can make in the United States:
| Per year | Per month | Per hour | |
| Indeed | $125,623 | $8,894 | $69.97 |
| ZipRecruiter | $111,761 | $9,313 | $54 |
| Talent.com | $109,865 | $9,155 | $52.82 |
And what .NET developers in the United States can make in accordance to experience:
| Junior developer | Middle developer | Senior developer | |
| Indeed | $77,947 | $123,481 | $195,616 |
| ZipRecruiter | $92,000 | $109,063 | $125,500 |
| Talent.com | $92,556 | $107,448 | $136,500 |
But what about rates across regions?
| Average salary per year | |
| North America | $55,000 – $100,000 |
| South America | $15,750 – $27,750 |
| Western Europe | $44,500 – $88,500 |
| Eastern Europe | $21,000 – $49,500 |
| Asia | $37,000 – $65,000 |
| Africa | $15,000 – $27,000 |
And skills, do they matter too?
| Average salary per year | |
| ASP.NET MVC | $85,000 – $150,000 |
| VB.NET | $85,000 – $140,00 |
| Xamarin | $85,000 – $145,000 |
| jQuery | $75,000 – $130,000 |
| C# | $80,000 – $135,000 |
| PHP | $70,000 – $125,000 |
| JavaScript | $80,000 – $140,000 |
| HTML/CSS | $70,000 – $120,000 |
| SQL | $80,000 – $130,000 |
| Bootstrap | $75,000 – $130,000 |
How we can help
Whether building from scratch, strategically modernizing existing applications, or scaling for future-proofing – Abto Software has the required expertise.
Preliminary discovery and planning, coding, testing, deployment, release, we guide you through every stage. You can leave your technical challenges to us – we ensure your application is meeting desired requirements, thereby freeing you up to focus on changing business needs.
Our services:
- .NET development
- ASP.NET development
- Web app development
- Mobile app development
- Cloud services
- Full-cycle, custom software development
Our expertise:
FAQ
- You rely on mission-critical .NET applications and require more resources to maintain old functionality and integrate new features
- The existing .NET applications now require regular fixes, which affects overall productivity
- You employ mission-critical applications built upon .NET frameworks (VB.NET, ASP.NET Web Forms) and need an update or migration to newer .NET/ASP.NET Core
- Your team is struggling to keep up with the volume of requests
And many other reasons.
The cost of hiring a dedicated DotNET developer varies drastically in accordance to many different factors. These include geographic location, domain-specific expertise, project size and complexity, business objectives, and more.
- Let us know about your idea in detail
- Choose the cooperation option you prefer:
- Either custom software development
- Or dedicated .NET team
- Get a free estimate from our company’s management based on the details you provide
- Get started and watch your idea become reality!
- 17 years in the .NET game
- 72 engineers with proven .NET expertise
- 200+ successful .NET projects
- Up to 2 weeks to take over a new project