Data Analyst vs Web Developer Salary
Data Analysts earn approximately 4.8% more than Web Developers nationally — $84,000 vs $80,000.
These two pay almost the same nationally — within 5% of each other — so the choice comes down to working conditions rather than money.
Pay range, not just the median
The medians hide most of what matters. Data Analyst pay runs from roughly $50,000 at the low end to $155,000 at the high end; Web Developer runs $47,000 to $147,000. Position within the range is driven by what you specialize in and who you work for, not by the title on the offer.
Where each field is heading
The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects Data Analyst employment to grow 23% over the decade to 2034 — growing much faster than average — against growth of 8% for Web Developer.
Growth rate is not the same thing as opportunity. Data Analyst roles see roughly 19,800 openings a year and Web Developer roles about 17,900, counting replacements for people who retire or leave. Data Analyst has the larger raw number, which is usually what you feel when actually job hunting — a small field growing fast can still be harder to break into than a large flat one.
What the work is actually like
Data Analyst: Office or remote, building reports/dashboards from company data. Web Developer: Office or remote, building and maintaining websites/web apps.
Moving between the two
Both sit in Tech, so the surrounding context transfers even where the day-to-day does not: similar employers, similar hiring cycles, overlapping professional networks. Common entry point for career-switchers from finance, operations, or marketing because SQL and Excel are learnable in a few months and many roles don't require a CS background. One of the easiest technical fields to switch into from a non-technical background because a shippable portfolio can substitute for credentials.
If you are entering rather than switching: Data Analyst — Bachelor's in any quantitative-adjacent field (business, econ, stats) plus a portfolio of dashboards/SQL projects; the 2021 SOC revision folds data analysts into the same Data Scientists code as more advanced ML roles, so BLS wage/openings figures here are shared with data scientists and likely overstate the analyst-only entry pay. Web Developer — Associate degree, bootcamp, or self-taught with a live portfolio site are all common; formal bachelor's is typical but not gatekept as strictly as software engineering.
Pay ranges, education requirements, and employment projections come from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook and Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics. See our methodology for how these are compiled and updated.
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