Overview of the most popular programming languages and those you need to master to meet the needs of recruiters in this field.
Are you passionate about web development, and are you looking to move into or retrain in this sector, which is recruiting talented people like you? We offer this analysis based on rankings of the most searched-for computer languages online (TIOBE index), those most used by the developer community (GitHub), and the most popular technologies in this sector (Stack Overflow).
Python named programming language of the year 2024, according to the TIOBE index
As every year, the TIOBE index awards its Programming Language of the Year award. Unsurprisingly, Python was awarded the distinction for 2024. The reason: it’s the language that has recorded the largest increase in ratings over a year.
Python gained 9.3% in 2024. It is far ahead of its competitors: Java +2.3%, JavaScript +1.4% and Go +1.2%. Python is now everywhere and is the undisputed default language in many areas. It could even become the highest-ranked language in the history of the TIOBE index, specifies the publisher TIOBE Software on its website.
Praised for its ease of learning, even for beginner developers, Python is a versatile computer language with a large community and reliability. Its many applications extend beyond web development, making it essential to master to open up great career opportunities later on.
Python is notably used for:
- AI and machine learning: creation of recommendation systems, image and text recognition,
- Data analysis and data science: processing large quantities of data, creating graphs to better visualize them,
- Video games: 2D game development, interactive animation design,
- And also: cybersecurity, IoT, robotics, complex calculations in physics…
We can only note the rise of this language, present in this “Hall of Fame” with no less than 5 distinctions to its name over the past 15 years (including the one in 2024). For the general director of TIOBE Software, which publishes the index of the same name, the only two serious drawbacks of Python are ” its lack of performance and the fact that most errors occur at runtime .”
As a reminder, the TIOBE index aims to assess the popularity of computer languages. The indicator is based on the analysis of queries concerning the 100 most searched programming languages online on the main search engines: Google, Bing, Baidu, Amazon, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc.
The TIOBE index can be used to check whether your programming skills are still relevant or to make a strategic decision about which programming language to adopt when starting to create a new software system, the official website states.
Behind Python, JavaScript remains a language widely used by developers
In its annual Octoverse report, published in October 2024, which highlights the main trends in web development, GitHub confirmed Python’s dominance as the most widely used computer language on its platform. But for GitHub, this represents a real shift after 10 years of dominance by another language: JavaScript.
This is the first large-scale change we’ve seen across both major languages since 2019, and it speaks to the rise of Python that has accompanied the rise of generative AI we’ve seen over the past two years, the Octoverse report highlights .
Fast and flexible, JavaScript is also an ideal language for beginner developers. Its advantage: it allows you to create dynamic and interactive sites, with actions performed directly in the browser (e.g., clicks or mouse movements), without requiring a page refresh. Its broad ecosystem of frameworks (React, Vue.js, Angular) also facilitates the creation of complex web applications.
It is found both on the back-end side, the “hidden” part (i.e., behind the scenes of a site or application) allowing data management and connection to servers, in addition to the front-end part, which is visible to users. This versatility (full stack) remains an essential asset for this language, because developers can thus choose a single language to design their site or application from A to Z. If Python surpasses JavaScript this year in terms of overall activity on all contributions made on its platform, GitHub would like to emphasize:
JavaScript still maintains a massive developer base as we see an increase in npm package consumption. The language is versatile and runs on both client- and server-side platforms, and easily adapts to different frameworks and standards, among other reasons for its popularity.
HTML/CSS, SQL and PostgreSQL, the other most popular technologies
According to Stack Overflow‘s 14th annual survey, JavaScript topped the list of most used programming, scripting, and markup languages for 62.3% of the 65,437 developers surveyed in 185 countries. It was ahead of HTML/CSS, which was in second place for 52.9% of respondents, and Python, which tied with SQL (3rd – 51%). The platform states: ” The most popular programming language has been JavaScript every year we conducted the survey, with the exception of 2013 and 2014, when SQL was the most popular language. ” SQL, which stands for Structured Query Language, is a language used more by developers to communicate with databases, and is the second most popular language for professional developers.
On the database side, Stack Overflow’s survey reveals that the most widely used environment in 2024 is PostgreSQL (48.7%), ahead of MySQL (40.3%) and SQLite (33.1%). The gap between the top two is wider for professional developers, who favored PostgreSQL (51.9%) over MySQL (39.4%), with a gap of 12.5% (compared to 8.4% for all respondents).
PostgreSQL made its developer survey debut in 2018, when 33% of developers reported using it over the most popular option that year: MySQL. Six years later, PostgreSQL is used by 49% of developers and is the most popular database for the second year in a row.
Other technologies and platforms most used by developers according to Stack Overflow’s survey include:
- Cloud platforms: Amazon Web Services (48%), ahead of Microsoft Azure (27.8%) and Google Cloud (25.1%),
- Web frameworks and technologies: Node.js (40.8%), ahead of React (39.5%) and jQuery (21.4%),
- Embedded systems and technologies: Raspberry Pi (38.6%), ahead of Arduino (29.9%) and GNU GCC (29.1%),
- Other frameworks and libraries: .NET (25.2%), ahead of NumPy (21.2%) and Pandas (20.7%),
- Development tools for compilation and testing: Docker (53.9%), ahead of npm (49.6%) and Pip (32.4%),
- Integrated development environments: Visual Studio Code (73.6%), ahead of Visual Studio (29.3%) and IntelliJ IDEA (26.8%).
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