English-speaking IT contracts in Germany: can you freelance without German?
Yes, but English-speaking contracts are a small minority. Of 44,305 analysed IT freelance listings in Germany, 6% say explicitly that German is not needed or name English as the only language – about 189 software and engineering contracts a month. 52% demand German, and 42% say nothing about languages. Below: which roles and cities are most open to English speakers, how remote these contracts are, and whether you can work from outside Germany.
What German IT freelance listings say about German
1.8% of the listings say German is not needed; 4.2% name English but no German requirement. Together they are the projects open to people who speak no German. The chart counts only what a listing states: a listing that says nothing may accept English too, but you cannot tell without asking.
Job ads look more open: an analysis by The Local and Hisignal found no German requirement in 19.8% of about 18,000 open tech jobs in Berlin (May 2026). Those are permanent positions from company career pages; the figures here are freelance contracts from German project boards and count only explicit statements. Among the freelance listings, 6% are open to English speakers – in Berlin 6.9%.
Where German is demanded, it is rarely basic German: 59% of these listings ask for fluent or native German.
English-speaking IT contracts by developer role
Among software and engineering projects, 5.7% need no German. The share differs by role: most open is Cloud Solution Architect (9.8%), least open Angular Developer (2.5%). Below each role: how many of its projects are open, of all its projects.
English-speaking IT contracts by city: Berlin, Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg and more
The city is the client's location as the listing names it. Among the largest project cities, Bremen (10%) has the highest share of projects without a German requirement and Bonn (1.6%) the lowest.
How remote are English-speaking contracts?
Of the projects without a German requirement, 31% are fully remote; of the projects demanding German, 26%; of those that name no language, 25%.
Can you work remotely from outside Germany?
A fully remote project is not automatically open to someone abroad. Of the projects that offer remote work, 89% do not say from where. 8.7% require you to work from Germany, 0.4% from Germany, Austria or Switzerland, 1.2% from Europe or the EU, and 0.4% explicitly allow work from anywhere.
Among the projects without a German requirement that offer remote work, 6.8% can explicitly be done from anywhere or from Europe:
English-speaking contracts month by month
The table shows, per month, the share of listings without a German requirement and the number of such software and engineering projects. From September 2026 to October 2026 the share changed by +0.7 percentage points.
| Month | no German required | of which software and engineering projects | Change (percentage points) |
|---|---|---|---|
| July 2026 | 5.8% | 197 | |
| August 2026 | 5.8% | 181 | 0.0 |
| September 2026 | 5.8% | 164 | 0.0 |
| October 2026 | 6.5% | 215 | +0.7 |
How to find English-speaking IT contractor and freelance work in Germany
- 42% of the listings say nothing about languages. If a project fits you and says nothing, ask: many teams work in English.
- If you live outside Germany, ask early from where the work may be done and whether the client or agency contracts with freelancers abroad – most remote listings do not say.
- On the projects page a search such as "english remote" narrows the list to listings that mention both.
Projectmatch matches new projects against your profile automatically and shows, per project, which of the required skills your profile covers. Try it now.
See also: How remote are IT freelance projects in Germany?, Most in-demand developer roles in IT freelance projects and IT contract length in Germany. For projects that require a clearance: Security clearance for IT contractors in Germany.
Method
An AI model reads each project description and records the German level and the place the remote work may be done from only when the description states them explicitly. A project counts as open to non-German speakers when the listing says German is not needed, or when it names English as a requirement and says nothing about German. Projects whose listing names no language are counted separately and not as open. The remote shares are those of the remote-work analysis.
The figures start in July 2026, since when every project has been read this way, and refer to the projects first listed in a month. Roles and cities with fewer than 200 projects are left out. The figures are updated every month and are licensed under CC BY 4.0: you may reuse them, also commercially, crediting "Projectmatch (projectmatch.io)" and, online, linking to this page.