The State of Developer Ecosystem 2020

This report presents the combined results of the fourth annual Developer Ecosystem Survey conducted by JetBrains. Feedback from 19,696 developers whom we surveyed in the beginning of 2020 helped us identify the latest trends around tools, technologies, programming languages, and many other exciting facets of the development world.

The State of Developer Ecosystem 2020

Key Takeaways

Java

is the most popular primary programming language.

JavaScript

is the most used overall programming language.

Websites

are the most common type of application developers work on.

Web (Backend)

is the most popular platform.

Go, Kotlin, Python

are the top 3 languages developers are planning to adopt or migrate to.

Python

has overtaken Java in the list of languages used in the last 12 months. It is the most studied language. In the last 12 months 30% of respondents have started or continued to learn Python — even more than last year.

Programming languages

Used in the last 12 months
Planning to adopt or migrate
JavaScript
70% / 4%
HTML / CSS
61% / 1%
SQL
56% / 3%
Python
55% / 9%
Java
54% / 4%
Shell scripting languages
39% / 2%
TypeScript
28% / 8%
C++
27% / 4%
PHP
27% / 2%
C
23% / 2%
C#
22% / 4%
Go
19% / 13%
Kotlin
17% / 10%
Dart
9% / 5%
Swift
9% / 6%
Ruby
8% / 3%
Rust
7% / 8%
Matlab
5% / 1%
R
5% / 3%
Scala
5% / 3%
Visual Basic
5% / 1%
Assembly
4% / 1%
Groovy
4% / 1%
Objective-C
4% / 1%
Lua
3% / 1%
Haskell
2% / 2%
Perl
2% / 1%
Clojure / ClojureScript
1% / 1%
CoffeeScript
1% / 0%
Delphi
1% / 0%
Elixir
1% / 1%
F#
1% / 1%
Julia
1% / 1%
Other
1% / 3%

Do you plan to adopt or migrate to other languages in the next 12 months? If so, to which ones?

By primary languages

To
From
Value
-
JavaScriptJavaPythonSQLPHPC++C#TypeScriptGoKotlin
41%43%42%46%43%44%51%51%59%54%No, I'm not planning to adopt / migrate
16%15%17%15%14%12%10%15%0%12%Go
11%14%11%11%11%10%10%12%6%-Kotlin
11%11%-13%13%7%10%9%3%9%Python
9%7%10%6%6%12%8%12%17%8%Rust
13%7%8%8%11%6%8%-7%8%TypeScript
6%7%8%5%6%7%5%5%4%9%Swift
7%5%6%5%6%4%4%6%5%8%Dart
4%5%6%4%3%-5%2%2%2%C++
-5%6%4%2%6%4%0%1%3%JavaScript
4%0%5%4%6%6%4%2%4%0%Java
4%4%6%3%3%6%-2%2%2%C#
4%3%4%3%5%5%3%2%2%2%Ruby
3%3%5%3%2%5%2%2%2%1%R
3%3%4%-2%4%2%1%1%1%SQL
2%4%4%3%2%3%2%3%3%3%Scala
3%3%3%2%2%3%2%1%2%0%Shell scripting languages
15%17%20%16%13%22%17%12%14%13%Other
00.59
JavaScript
Java
Python
SQL
PHP
C++
C#
TypeScript
Go
Kotlin
To
From
Value
-
No, I'm not planning to adopt / migrateGoKotlinPythonRustTypeScriptSwiftDartC++JavaScriptJavaC#RubyRSQLScalaShell scripting languagesOther
00.59

What are your primary programming languages?

Up to 3 languages

39%37%31%22%17%15%13%13%12% 7% 7% 7%JavaScriptJavaPythonHTML / CSSSQLPHPC++C#TypeScriptGoKotlinShell scripting languages
All results

Typescript is growing steadily. It has progressed from being used by 12% and being the primary language for 1% in 2017, to 28% and 12%, respectively, in 2020.

On which operating systems are your development environments?

60%Windows
50%Linux
44%macOS
1%Other

For which platforms do you develop?

69%57%35%32%28% 9% 5% 2% 1% 1%Web (Back-end)Web (Front-end)DesktopMobileServer / InfrastructureIoT / EmbeddedI don't develop anythingWebAssemblyConsoles (Xbox / PlayStation / Nintendo etc.)Other

What types of software do you develop?

Including apps in any programming language, for either professional or personal purposes

54%36%30%23%23%19%17%16%12%11%10% 7% 6% 5% 3% 3% 5%WebsitesUtilities (small apps for small tasks)Database / Data StorageSystem SoftwareLibraries / FrameworksBusiness Intelligence / Data Science / Machine LearningIT InfrastructureProgramming ToolsEntertainmentFintechGamesHome AutomationSecurityHardwareBlockchainAugmented Reality / Virtual RealityOther

What types of software do you develop?

By primary languages

Row
Column
Value
-
JavaScriptJavaPythonSQLPHPC++C#TypeScriptGoKotlin
76%52%51%62%81%34%55%72%55%44%Websites
39%36%42%37%39%39%45%40%40%44%Utilities (small apps for small tasks)
32%32%34%49%42%29%41%28%28%24%Database / Data Storage
24%26%23%29%24%25%31%25%30%23%System Software
22%23%22%24%21%29%27%31%35%33%Libraries / Frameworks
16%20%34%24%13%25%17%17%18%14%Business Intelligence / Data Science / Machine Learning
16%18%19%21%20%13%20%18%34%17%IT Infrastructure
15%16%18%15%15%22%16%19%22%20%Programming Tools
13%12%12%8%14%14%13%13%11%15%Entertainment
12%15%11%15%7%6%12%15%14%14%Fintech
8%9%10%5%8%19%20%7%10%9%Games
6%7%10%6%6%9%6%6%6%7%Home Automation
5%7%8%6%5%8%6%5%10%7%Security
3%5%7%3%3%13%6%3%4%4%Hardware
4%3%4%3%3%4%2%3%5%4%Blockchain
3%3%4%1%2%6%6%3%1%4%Augmented Reality / Virtual Reality
4%5%4%4%5%7%6%5%4%9%Other
00.81
JavaScript
Java
Python
SQL
PHP
C++
C#
TypeScript
Go
Kotlin
Row
Column
Value
-
WebsitesUtilities (small apps for small tasks)Database / Data StorageSystem SoftwareLibraries / FrameworksBusiness Intelligence / Data Science / Machine LearningIT InfrastructureProgramming ToolsEntertainmentFintechGamesHome AutomationSecurityHardwareBlockchainAugmented Reality / Virtual RealityOther
00.81

Which platforms do you target with your projects?

84%Windows
60%Linux
39%macOS
8%Other

This question was only shown to developers who develop for desktop platforms.

Do you contribute to open-source projects?

44%20%16%11% 4% 3% 2%No, but I would like toI have only contributed a few timesYes, from time to time (several times a year)Yes, regularly (at least once a month)No, and I would not like toI work full-time on open-source code and get paid for itI work full-time on open-source code but do not get paid for it

Mobile

Mobile questions were only shown to respondents who develop for mobile.

For which mobile operating systems do you develop?

45%Android and iOS
41%Android
11%iOS
2%Other

Native tools remain the most popular solution for mobile development. They are used by two thirds of mobile developers. Additionally, half of mobile developers use cross-platform technologies or frameworks. Among these frameworks, React Native is still the most popular and is used by 42% of mobile developers.

Which cross-platform mobile frameworks do you use?

42%39%18%18%14%11% 6% 5% 2%React NativeFlutterCordovaIonicXamarinUnityPhoneGapNativeScriptKotlin Multiplatform
All results

This question was only shown to developers who use cross-platform technologies or frameworks.

The popularity of Flutter has increased over the last year, as its share has grown by 9 percentage points. In the same period, the shares of Cordova, Ionic, and Xamarin declined by roughly 10 percentage points each.

Which of the following components do you use in the mobile app you are currently developing?

67%62%59%55%42%37%33%27%24% 8% 2% 2%Data StorageNetworkingMedia (Image, Video, Audio)State and Navigation ManagementData SynchronizationFile I/OSecurityPaymentsComputationsMLOtherNone

This question was only shown to respondents who are currently developing mobile apps.

Big Data

Questions in this section were shown to respondents who had checked “Data Analysis”, “Data Engineering”, or “Machine Learning”) in question “In which kinds of activities are you involved?” or “Data Analyst / Data Engineer / Data Scientist” in question “Which of the following best describes your job role regardless of the level of your position?”.

A lot of them, as you can get from their answers, don’t need any big data tool for their work.

Which Big Data analytics platforms do you use?

67%18%11% 6% 6% 4% 4% 1% 3%No specific platformGoogle CoLabGoogle AI PlatformDatabricksMicrosoft Azure HDInsightCloudera Data PlatformZeppelinQuboleOther

Most data analytics do not use any specific platform.

Which big data tools do you use?

24%18%14%10% 4% 4% 2% 2% 1%Apache SparkApache KafkaApache Hadoop/MapReduceApache HiveApache FlinkDaskApache PigApache BeamApache Tez
All results

What Spark version do you use?

51%34%14% 1% 4% 1% 3%2.42.32.0 - 2.21.xCustom distribution of sparkOtherNone

Where is most of your data hosted?

34%24%23%10% 5% 4%Internal serversLocallyAWSGoogle CloudAzureOther

Which statistics package(s) do you use to analyze and visualize data, if any?

50%18% 5% 5% 3% 2%12%32%Spreadsheet editor (Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice Calc, Google Sheets, etc.)TableauSASSPSSStatisticaStataOtherNone

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