March 2026: Freelance Engineer Monthly Average Unit Price Reaches 780,000 Yen. "Engineering Manager" Average Unit Price Rises for 4 Consecutive Months by Job Type.
En-Japan Inc. announced the results of its survey on freelance engineer compensation for March 2026, revealing a monthly average unit price of 780,000 yen across 451,097 projects. The average unit price for "Engineering Manager" increased for the fourth consecutive month, reaching 925,000 yen, while development language unit prices generally saw a slight decline.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: April 7, 2026 at 20:59
- 🔍 Collected: April 7, 2026 at 12:30
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 18, 2026 at 10:43 (262h 13m after Collected)
En-Japan Inc. (Headquarters: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo; Chairman and President: Michikatsu Ochi) operates "Freelance Start" (https://freelance-start.com/), a job search engine for freelance engineers. It aggregates and analyzes information from all job postings on the site. We are pleased to announce the compiled results for March 2026.
**Survey Results Summary**
* The monthly average unit price for freelance projects in March 2026 was 780,000 yen.
* As of the end of March 2026, the number of posted projects was 451,097. The highest unit price was 3.2 million yen.
* By job type, the average unit price for "Engineering Manager" increased for four consecutive months. By development language, unit prices generally showed a slight downward trend.
**Explanation**
We conducted a survey on the compensation market for freelance engineers in March 2026. The survey results showed that the monthly average unit price for freelance projects in March was 780,000 yen, and the number of posted projects as of the end of March 2026 was 451,097. The highest unit price by job type was 3.2 million yen for "VPoE".
By job type, the average unit price for "Engineering Manager" increased for four consecutive months, reaching 925,000 yen (+22,000 yen / 2.4% increase). It is presumed that the demand for individuals with high organizational management skills is increasing, as improving the performance of development organizations and retaining engineers are emphasized.
By development language, there was a general downward trend in unit prices, and similar movements were observed even in high-unit-price languages such as "Go language" and "Rust". This may be due to a temporary shift in the supply-demand balance, as projects conclude at the end of the fiscal year and the number of engineers looking for projects temporarily increases.
Regarding the trend of on-site and remote projects, the posting ratio for remote projects was 34.9%, and the difference in compensation between on-site and remote projects was "3,000 yen (on-site: 778,000 yen, remote: 781,000 yen)", with remote projects having a higher result.
We will continue to analyze compensation market information as a support site for freelance engineers to acquire projects.
(Toshiyuki Aiba, Business Manager, "Freelance Start")
**Detailed Survey Results**
**Monthly Average Unit Price by Job Type (Top 15)**
Looking at the monthly average unit price by job type (top 15), "Engineering Manager" in 4th place saw its average unit price increase for four consecutive months, reaching 925,000 yen (+22,000 yen / 2.4% increase). With the promotion of DX, the demand for individuals who can build "strong development organizations" is increasing, and since such highly skilled individuals are rare in the market, it is believed that companies' strategic investments are driving up unit prices.
Overall, it can be seen that the demand for job types responsible for upstream processes of a business and job types with high specialization is high and stable.
For the February 2026 report, please refer to here.
**Monthly Average Unit Price by Development Language (Top 15)**
Looking at the monthly average unit price by development language (top 15), a general decline in unit prices was observed. While "Rust," which was ranked 1st last month, saw its ranking change, "Go language," "Ruby," and "TypeScript" each moved up in rank. Even amidst fluctuations in unit prices across the freelance market, these languages are widely adopted in core system development areas such as web applications and infrastructure development, indicating strong underlying demand (Go language: -17,000 yen / 1.9% decrease, Ruby: -17,000 yen / 1.9% decrease, TypeScript: -44,000 yen / 5.0% decrease).
**Monthly Average Unit Price by Framework (Top 15)**
Looking at the monthly average unit price by framework (top 15), a general decline in unit prices was observed. Among them, "Ruby on Rails" rose to 1st place, likely due to strong demand supporting rapid development in startups and other companies, which helped to suppress the range of unit price fluctuations even amidst changes in the overall freelance market (-18,000 yen / 2.0% decrease).
**Freelance Engineer Job Search Engine 'Freelance Start' https://freelance-start.com/**
**Press Release Download**
d725-1183-184463d3bb49365e3250ea88279e7806.pdf
**Survey Results Summary**
* The monthly average unit price for freelance projects in March 2026 was 780,000 yen.
* As of the end of March 2026, the number of posted projects was 451,097. The highest unit price was 3.2 million yen.
* By job type, the average unit price for "Engineering Manager" increased for four consecutive months. By development language, unit prices generally showed a slight downward trend.
**Explanation**
We conducted a survey on the compensation market for freelance engineers in March 2026. The survey results showed that the monthly average unit price for freelance projects in March was 780,000 yen, and the number of posted projects as of the end of March 2026 was 451,097. The highest unit price by job type was 3.2 million yen for "VPoE".
By job type, the average unit price for "Engineering Manager" increased for four consecutive months, reaching 925,000 yen (+22,000 yen / 2.4% increase). It is presumed that the demand for individuals with high organizational management skills is increasing, as improving the performance of development organizations and retaining engineers are emphasized.
By development language, there was a general downward trend in unit prices, and similar movements were observed even in high-unit-price languages such as "Go language" and "Rust". This may be due to a temporary shift in the supply-demand balance, as projects conclude at the end of the fiscal year and the number of engineers looking for projects temporarily increases.
Regarding the trend of on-site and remote projects, the posting ratio for remote projects was 34.9%, and the difference in compensation between on-site and remote projects was "3,000 yen (on-site: 778,000 yen, remote: 781,000 yen)", with remote projects having a higher result.
We will continue to analyze compensation market information as a support site for freelance engineers to acquire projects.
(Toshiyuki Aiba, Business Manager, "Freelance Start")
**Detailed Survey Results**
**Monthly Average Unit Price by Job Type (Top 15)**
Looking at the monthly average unit price by job type (top 15), "Engineering Manager" in 4th place saw its average unit price increase for four consecutive months, reaching 925,000 yen (+22,000 yen / 2.4% increase). With the promotion of DX, the demand for individuals who can build "strong development organizations" is increasing, and since such highly skilled individuals are rare in the market, it is believed that companies' strategic investments are driving up unit prices.
Overall, it can be seen that the demand for job types responsible for upstream processes of a business and job types with high specialization is high and stable.
For the February 2026 report, please refer to here.
**Monthly Average Unit Price by Development Language (Top 15)**
Looking at the monthly average unit price by development language (top 15), a general decline in unit prices was observed. While "Rust," which was ranked 1st last month, saw its ranking change, "Go language," "Ruby," and "TypeScript" each moved up in rank. Even amidst fluctuations in unit prices across the freelance market, these languages are widely adopted in core system development areas such as web applications and infrastructure development, indicating strong underlying demand (Go language: -17,000 yen / 1.9% decrease, Ruby: -17,000 yen / 1.9% decrease, TypeScript: -44,000 yen / 5.0% decrease).
**Monthly Average Unit Price by Framework (Top 15)**
Looking at the monthly average unit price by framework (top 15), a general decline in unit prices was observed. Among them, "Ruby on Rails" rose to 1st place, likely due to strong demand supporting rapid development in startups and other companies, which helped to suppress the range of unit price fluctuations even amidst changes in the overall freelance market (-18,000 yen / 2.0% decrease).
**Freelance Engineer Job Search Engine 'Freelance Start' https://freelance-start.com/**
**Press Release Download**
d725-1183-184463d3bb49365e3250ea88279e7806.pdf