JavaScript DEVELOPER SURVEY RESULTS

The end of year is drawing close and the JavaScript Developer Survey has now ended. The survey received an unimagined amount of replies and we are excited to share the results with you! These are cherry-picked responses by Tooit for you, based in the recently published in Ponyfoo.com site.

The end of year is drawing close and the JavaScript Developer Survey has now concluded. The survey received an unimagined amount of replies and we are excited to share the results with you! We would like to thank Nicolás Bevacqua.

There were over 5000 responses, 5350 to be exact. Before that I want to thank everyone who chipped in. This is a great time to be a part of the JavaScript community, and we are truly excited for things to come!

Now, onto the survey results. We will remain impartial in delivering the results, so that you can come to your own unbiased conclusions.  

What type of JavaScript do you write?

A whooping 97.4% of respondents write JavaScript for a web browser, while 37% of them write mobile web applications. Over 3000 of them – with 56.6% – also write server-side JavaScript. Among those who took the poll, 5.5% use JavaScript in some sort of embedded environment, such as Tessel or a Raspberry Pi. A few participants replied they use JavaScript in some other places, notably in developing CLI and desktop applications. A few also mentioned Pebble and Apple TV. These fell in the Other category, with 2.2% of the votes.  

Which compile-to-JavaScript languages do you use, if any?

A whooping 85% replied that they compile ES6 into ES5. Meanwhile 15% still use CoffeeScript, 15.2% use TypeScript, and a measly 1.1% reported they use Dart. This was one of the questions I wish I’d approached more collaboratively, as it got 13.8% of “Other” responses. The vast majority of these answers were ClojureScript, elm, Flow, and JSX.    

What libraries do you use?

In retrospect, this was one of the questions which would’ve benefitted a lot from collaborative editing. jQuery is still going strong, with over 50% of votes casted its way. Lodash and underscore are used by a significant portion of the JavaScript population that participated in the voting, while the xhr micro library only clocked in 8% of the votes.  

What frameworks do you use?

Unsurprisingly, React and Angular are leading the pack. Backbone is still in a healthy position, with 22.8% of the votes.  

What are your preferred text editors?

Again, very divided because of the variety of options. Over half the respondents like Sublime Text, and over 30% like to use Atom, its open-source clone. Over 25% voted for WebStorm and also for vi/vim.  

What’s your preferred development OS?

Over 60% of voters use Mac, while Linux and Windows users are close to 20% each.