📈Chartpack: Web Technologies used in product development, Q4 2023
A closer look at the programming languages, frameworks, databases and more that run the web
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Hi product people 👋,
Attempting to stay on top of the latest web technologies that teams around the world are using is exhausting. For product teams in large organisations, by the time you’ve made the decision to switch from one technology to the next, the technology you’ve switched to has already been ditched in favour of something else. This is often one of the biggest advantages startups have; nimble and unburdened with tech debt, they can decide to adopt the latest technologies and create products that are sometimes faster or easier to use than incumbents.
But chasing trends doesn’t always pay off. For every React there are a bunch of other JavaScript libraries and frameworks that don’t quite make it (Angular, Backbone, Moo tools, for example). And deciding to go all in and adopt a new technology can pose serious strategic risks for companies if that new framework or technology falls out of favour.
With that said, this 📈Chartpack is designed to help you to stay up to date with the shape of the web in 2023 so that you can make strategic technical decisions armed with the data you need. Coming up:
Programming languages: what is powering the web today?
Emerging new technologies and frameworks to be aware of
Browser and content management systems; how are users accessing the web and what options are there for content management?
Tools you can use for keeping on top of technical trends and understanding what tech stacks your competitors are deploying
Programming languages
In order to understand which programming languages are the most popular, we’re going to look at two separate data sources: one which examines the number of websites that use a particular programming language and one which measures the number of professional engineers who say they use a programming language.Â
If we look at the number of websites on the web and the programming languages they use, there is one which completely dominates:Â
PHP is by far the most widely used backend programming language on the web. And there’s a reason for this which is essential to understand. WordPress is the CMS which powers over 40% of the web and is used by major organisations including the New York Times, BBC, Spotify, Reuters and more. WordPress is built in PHP and this is one of the reasons PHP scores so highly.
Looking at the trend line over time, PHP has dominated for the last 10 years and, whilst not growing, it has maintained its lead as the web’s most prominent programming language.
This doesn’t mean though, that products are necessarily built using PHP. The web is made up of content sites as well as products, so it’s worth making a distinction between the two.
When we look instead at the number of professional engineers who use a particular programming language, a different picture emerges: