The Pragmatic Engineer 2025 survey
I always appreciate articles like the annual survey from The Pragmatic Engineer. They provide a great overview of what is currently being used across the industry. It is a good way to get ideas about what other people are using and to discover tools you might not have heard of. After reading this year’s edition, I have definitely found one or two new tools that I am going to try out.
You can read the full, detailed survey here: The Pragmatic Engineer 2025 Survey.
Below are a few of my key takeaways.
The rise of AI and ‘vibe coding’ tools
It is no surprise that AI tools are prominent, but the speed of change is remarkable. While GitHub Copilot remains extremely popular, the survey shows that newer tools like Cursor are gaining ground very quickly. It is also interesting to see Claude closing the gap with ChatGPT.
The article also mentions several “vibe coding” tools, such as Vercel v0 and Bolt.new. These seem to be aimed at less technical audiences who want to create prototypes or mockups quickly. It confirms that there is a growing market for tools that assist non-developers in bringing ideas to life, which I guess makes a lot of sense.
A surprise in the IDE landscape
I was genuinely surprised to see how popular JetBrains’ suite of IDEs is. I had the impression they were a much smaller player in the market, but the survey data shows they are a strong competitor to Microsoft’s offerings like VS Code.
The most-loved and most-hated tools
One of the most hated tools is JIRA, by a large margin. The main complaints are that it is slow, complex, and cumbersome. On the other hand, tools like Linear, VS Code, and the JetBrains IDEs receive a lot of positive mentions. It seems that developers value speed and simplicity above all else.
Overall, the survey is a valuable snapshot of the current state of developer tooling. It is a great resource for anyone looking to understand current trends or discover new tools to improve their workflow.
