Quick answer:Web development degrees usually cover front-end languages, back-end frameworks, databases and interface design at associate or bachelor’s level. Web developers earn a median $92,650 and the adjacent interface design occupation earns $104,000, with both projected to grow modestly through 2034 (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). Coursework, the two career tracks, and pay are covered below.
What the Coursework Usually Covers
Front-end languages - HTML, CSS and JavaScript taken past tutorial depth, plus at least one component framework
Back-end development - server-side languages, APIs, authentication, and the request lifecycle end to end
Databases and content systems - relational design, SQL, and the content management platforms most working sites actually run on
Interface and interaction design - layout, typography, responsive behaviour, and accessibility standards
Deployment and performance - hosting, build pipelines, caching, and why a site that was fast in development is not fast in production
Client and project practice - requirements gathering, scope, version control and a portfolio capstone
Accessibility is worth asking about by name. It has moved from a nice-to-have to a procurement requirement in public sector and enterprise work, and programs vary widely in how seriously they teach it.
Where This Sits Next to the Other Computing Degrees
CIP 11.0801 is the web and multimedia program code, and 308 institutions award it at associate or bachelor’s level (IPEDS Completions, 2024). That is a distinct code from the applied programming codes behind software development and from the human-computer interaction codes behind UX design.
The distinction is not academic hair-splitting, because the three lead to measurably different pay. A reader searching for web development training wants the platform: browsers, content systems, the front-end stack, and a site they can point at. A reader searching for software development wants general-purpose programming, and the federal median for that occupation is higher. A reader searching for UX design wants research and interface decision-making rather than implementation.
Separating the pages means the school list below shows institutions that actually award the web code, instead of a list assembled from whichever computing department happened to rank well.
Before you request information anywhere, ask what you will have built by the end and whether accessibility is taught as its own subject. With that filter set, compare online web development programs enrolling now:
Colleges Offering This Degree
Every school listed is verified in federal IPEDS data both to award this degree and to offer programs that can be completed entirely by distance education at this level. Whether this exact degree is delivered fully online varies by school, so confirm the format before you apply.
How we rank schools – graduation rate, graduate earnings, cost and retention.
Advertising plays no part.
This page lists 10 schools, closest group first, then ordered by
BOC Score with the highest at the top.
10 of them carry a score.
LOCAL RANK
Location / proximity to this page
Defines the local group
Graduation rate how often students finish
30%
Median earnings, 10 years after entry whether it paid off
25%
Average net price what students actually pay after aid; lower ranks higher
20%
Retention rate how many come back for year two
15%
Fully online availability whether you can study while working
10%
Scores come from IPEDS (2024) and the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard.
Earnings are for all graduates of a school, not one program, so treat them as a signal
about the institution rather than about this subject.
Sponsored listings are paid placements and are labelled as such; they are separate from
this ranking and never change it. Read the full methodology.
People who want visible finished work. Web development produces something you can show a stranger on a phone. For anyone coming from trade work, where the output is also concrete, that feedback loop tends to feel right in a way that abstract programming sometimes does not.
Small business owners and self-employed tradespeople. A meaningful share of web work is contract and freelance, and the same people who can run a small trade business can run a small web business. The billing model is familiar.
Anyone who wants an associate degree as a real stopping point. This credential is commonly awarded at associate level, which makes a staged entry possible.
Credit transfer is decided by the receiving institution and genuinely varies, so request a written transfer evaluation before you enroll.
The Honest Read on Growth
Both occupations behind this degree are growing, and neither is growing fast.
Web developers are projected to change by 7.5 percent from 2024 to 2034, from employment of 86,000 to 92,500, generating about 5,400 openings a year. Web and digital interface designers are projected to change by 7.0 percent, from 128,900 to 137,900, generating about 9,100 openings a year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Two things are worth reading out of those numbers. The first is that the openings figures are small in absolute terms: about 5,400 and about 9,100 a year, an order of magnitude below what general software development generates. This is not a field with a wide front door.
The second is that the designer category is both larger and better paid, at employment of 113,330 and a median of $104,000 against 70,190 and $92,650 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). Where the work has been going is toward people who own the interface and the product decisions, not toward people who only implement someone else’s markup. Site builders and content platforms have absorbed a large share of straightforward implementation work, much as managed services did in other parts of computing.
The practical implication for a student: take the design, accessibility and back-end coursework seriously, and do not let the program become a tour of front-end frameworks. The frameworks turn over every few years. The judgement does not.
Is It Worth It?
The case for is that this is real, durable, widely distributed work that can be done remotely, contracted independently, and entered at associate level. Every organization has a website and most of them are badly maintained.
The case against is ceiling. A median of $92,650 is a good wage and it sits below what general software development commands, and the growth is modest on both rows. If the goal is maximum earnings in computing, this is not the highest route. If the goal is a credential that can support independent work, it reads better.
Web developers earn a median $92,650 across employment of 70,190, with a projected change of 7.5 percent through 2034 (BLS OEWS, May 2025; BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34).
Web Development at a Glance
Metric
Detail
Source
Median annual wage
$92,650
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Mean annual wage
$98,770
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Wage range
$48,100 (10th pct) - $162,290 (90th pct)
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Median hourly wage
$44.54
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Employment
70,190 web developers
BLS OEWS, May 2025
Projected change (2024-34)
7.5%, about 5,400 openings per year
BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34
Typical credential
Associate or bachelor’s
Program catalogs
Institutions awarding
308
IPEDS Completions, 2024
SOC codes covered
15-1254 web developers; 15-1255 web and digital interface designers
BLS OEWS, May 2025
The Two Tracks Compared
Role
Median
25th percentile
75th percentile
Employment
Projected change
Web developers
$92,650
$64,230
$126,230
70,190
7.5%
Web and digital interface designers
$104,000
$73,290
$158,820
113,330
7.0%
All wage and employment figures BLS OEWS, May 2025; growth figures BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34.
The spread inside each row matters more than the gap between them. A web developer at the 10th percentile earns $48,100 and one at the 90th earns $162,290, which is a wider band than most occupations on this site. Web development pays according to what you can demonstrably do, more than according to how long you have been doing it, and the portfolio a program leaves you with is the mechanism.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much do web developers make?
The national median annual wage is $92,650 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The bottom 10 percent earn $48,100 or less and the top 10 percent earn $162,290 or more, across employment of 70,190. Web and digital interface designers, the adjacent occupation, earn a median $104,000.
Is web development still growing?
Web developer employment is projected to change by 7.5 percent from 2024 to 2034, with about 5,400 openings per year, and web and digital interface designers by 7.0 percent with about 9,100 openings per year (BLS Employment Projections, 2024-34). That is steady rather than spectacular, and slower than general software development.
How is a web development degree different from software development?
Web development sits under CIP 11.0801, awarded by 308 institutions at associate or bachelor's level (IPEDS Completions, 2024). Software development sits under the applied programming codes CIP 11.0201 and 11.0202. The web curriculum spends more credit hours on interface, content systems and browser platforms; the software curriculum spends more on general-purpose programming and systems design.
Do you need a degree to work as a web developer?
Web development is one of the more portfolio-driven fields in computing, and many practitioners entered without a degree. A degree from an institution holding recognized institutional accreditation is designed to give you the fundamentals in a structured order and a body of graded work. Whether that is worth the time depends on what you already have. Outcomes vary.
Which of the two occupations pays more?
Web and digital interface designers report a higher median at $104,000 against $92,650 for web developers, and a much higher top decile at $201,550 against $162,290 (BLS OEWS, May 2025). The designer category is also larger, at employment of 113,330 against 70,190.
Can you study web development online?
Yes, and unusually well. The subject is delivered on the same medium it is taught through, needs no laboratory, and every tool used is available on a normal computer. 308 institutions award this credential at associate or bachelor's level (IPEDS Completions, 2024).
Does this work as a route out of a trade?
It can. Web work rewards people who like a visible finished result, which is familiar territory from trade work, and the associate degree is a real checkpoint rather than a consolation prize. The honest caution is that the wage ceiling here sits below general software development. Individual outcomes may vary.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS), May 2025 - Web Developers (SOC 15-1254), Web and Digital Interface Designers (SOC 15-1255)
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections, 2024-34
U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS Completions, 2024 - CIP 11.0801
About this guide: Researched and written by the TradeCareerPath Editorial Team. Our editorial team researches and sources every trade school and career guide using federal labor and education data, including BLS OEWS and Employment Projections, DOL apprenticeship records, IPEDS, College Scorecard, and state licensing boards. We follow the editorial standards documented at /editorial-policy/.
