Equipment and tooling cost for QA

The equipment and tooling line is the annual cost of the hardware and software a QA engineer needs to work. It includes a laptop spread over 3 years, software licences and, depending on the role, a cloud browser grid or physical test devices and a device cloud (a service that rents remote access to real phones and tablets). Items are priced at list prices in USD and converted to local currency at the dataset exchange rate.

How the line is built

The overhead data lists each item with the roles and levels it applies to, an annual cost range and its sources. The formula adds every item that matches the role and level of the combination. Items are not tied to a country, because hardware and software are priced in USD on international list prices. The local figure on each breakdown page is the USD figure converted at the exchange rate date shown on the data page.

Worked example

Item types

The overhead data holds six items. Which of them apply depends on the role.

Laptop, every role. A business laptop at list price, spread over the formula default of 3 years. The p25, median and p75 values come from entry, mid-range and higher-specification models.

Test management licence, every role. A per-user annual licence for a tool that stores test cases, test runs and results.

Issue tracker licence, every role. A per-user annual licence at the entry paid tier for the tool where defects are logged and tracked.

Cloud browser and device grid, automation roles. For test automation engineers and SDETs (software development engineers in test), one parallel session per engineer on a service that runs automated tests on remote browsers and devices.

Cloud real-device access, mobile roles. For mobile QA engineers, a seat on a service that gives access to real phones and tablets in a remote lab. The p25 is a manual-testing seat; the median and p75 are an automation seat.

Physical test devices, mobile roles. One current iPhone and one current Android phone at list price, spread over 3 years.

Each item on a breakdown page cites its sources, with the date checked. Free and open-source tools carry no licence cost and are not listed. No vendor of tools or devices is named on this site as a recommendation.

Why the line is small in high-salary countries

Equipment is priced the same in every country, while salaries differ. As a share of the total, equipment weighs more where salaries are lower and less where they are higher. The amount in USD is the same for the same role and level.

What the line does not include

• office space, utilities and facilities;
• shared infrastructure such as continuous integration servers or test environments;
• company-wide software paid per employee by IT, such as email, chat and office suites;
• monitors, headsets and other accessories;
• home office allowances, which appear under voluntary benefits where a survey supports them.

Shared infrastructure serves the whole engineering team and is not attributed to one QA hire in the formula.

Equipment in other hiring models

A contractor provides their own equipment, so the contractor total has no equipment line. An employer of record total includes equipment as for an employee. A vendor rate for an outsourced team includes the vendor's equipment. See compare for the totals side by side.

Related pages

• Formula
• Methodology
• Data downloads
• Roles
• Fully loaded cost of a QA engineer