Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2025: Takeaways for Founders

For founders, the 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey and GitHub's Octoverse 2025 point the same way: pick mainstream, well-documented tools (JavaScript or TypeScript, Python, PostgreSQL, Docker), assume your developers use AI but check its output, and hire for autonomy rather than office presence. The survey drew more than 49,000 responses from 177 countries and remains the latest full edition; Stack Overflow said on 30 September 2026 that the 2026 results would follow within days.

Here are the numbers that matter when you choose a stack or hire, and what to do with them.

1. Mainstream languages keep hiring simple

Among all respondents to the 2025 survey, the most used languages were JavaScript (66%), HTML/CSS (61.9%), SQL (58.6%), Python (57.9%) and TypeScript (43.6%). Python's adoption jumped 7 percentage points from 2024, which Stack Overflow attributes to its role in AI, data science and back-end work.

GitHub's data adds a twist. According to Octoverse 2025, TypeScript became the most used language on GitHub in August 2025, gaining about 1 million contributors (+66% year over year), with Python second at roughly 850,000 new contributors (+48%). GitHub calls it the most significant language shift in more than a decade.

What to do: unless you have a specific reason, build on TypeScript (front end and often back end) or Python (data and AI-heavy products), plus SQL. You will find developers, libraries and documentation easily, and AI tools have seen plenty of code in these languages.

2. Framework choice: popularity is one factor, not the only one

The most used web frameworks and technologies in 2025 were Node.js (48.7%), React (44.7%), Next.js (20.8%), Express (19.9%), ASP.NET Core (19.7%), Angular (18.2%), Vue.js (17.6%), FastAPI (14.8%), Django (12.6%) and Laravel (8.9%).

A smaller share does not make a framework a bad choice. Laravel, for example, has a smaller but established community and a very complete toolkit for business applications. What matters more is that your framework is actively maintained, that you can find two or three developers who know it well, and that it fits your product. Our comparison of Laravel vs Node.js for startups walks through the trade-offs.

3. PostgreSQL is the default database

PostgreSQL was used by 55.6% of respondents, ahead of MySQL (40.5%), SQLite (37.5%), Microsoft SQL Server (30.1%), Redis (28%) and MongoDB (24%). For most startup products with users, orders, subscriptions and permissions, a relational database is the safe starting point, and PostgreSQL is the one most developers already know.

4. Containers are standard, cloud choice is open

Docker was used by 71.1% of respondents, a 17-point jump from 2024; Stack Overflow describes it as having moved "from a popular tool to a near-universal one." For cloud platforms, AWS led with 43.3%, then Microsoft Azure (26.3%) and Google Cloud (24.6%).

What to do: ask for your app to run in a container from day one. It makes moving between hosts and onboarding new developers much easier. Any of the big three clouds is a defensible choice; we describe one setup in deploying Laravel on Google Cloud Run.

5. AI is everywhere, trust is not

In the AI section, 84% of respondents were using or planning to use AI tools, and 50.6% of professional developers used them daily. But 45.7% distrusted the accuracy of AI output, against 32.3% who trusted it, and 66% named "AI solutions that are almost right, but not quite" as their top frustration. 72.2% said vibe coding was not part of their professional work.

Agents are spreading fast. In its September 2026 look-back, Stack Overflow reports that AI agent usage rose from 31% in 2025 to 59% in an April 2026 pulse survey. Octoverse adds that nearly 80% of new developers on GitHub use Copilot within their first week.

What to do: expect any developer you hire to use AI, and ask how they verify its output. The evidence on AI coding assistant productivity and on AI-generated code security explains why review and tests matter more than the tool.

6. What developers want from a job

The work section shows where developers actually work: 32.4% fully remote, 17.2% hybrid leaning flexible, 19.9% hybrid leaning in-person, 17.9% in-person and 12.6% free to choose. Fully remote work has declined: the look-back puts it at 38.0% in 2024.

Only 24.5% of respondents said they were happy at work, 47.1% complacent and 28.4% not happy. The top factors for job satisfaction were autonomy and trust to manage their own tasks, competitive pay and benefits, and solving real-world problems. The share who see AI as a threat to their job rose from 12.1% in 2024 to 15.0% in 2025.

For US respondents, median salaries were $138,000 for full-stack developers, $175,000 for back-end developers and $145,000 for front-end developers.

What to do: a small company can rarely compete on US salaries, but it can offer autonomy, clear ownership and real problems. If you are comparing hiring in-house with other models, see the cost to hire a software developer and our guide to hiring developers in 2026.

7. The talent pool is increasingly global

Octoverse counts more than 180 million developers on GitHub, with more than 36 million joining in 2025, about one every second. India alone added more than 5 million. The supply of capable developers outside the US and Western Europe keeps growing, which is one reason founders look at nearshore development in Morocco and similar options.

A short stack checklist based on the survey

• Is each main technology used by a large share of developers, or at least actively maintained with a healthy community?
• Can you name three ways to find developers for it?
• Does it run in Docker and deploy to a mainstream cloud?
• Is your database relational unless you have a clear reason otherwise?
• Does your team have tests and code review in place before relying on AI-generated code?

Frequently asked questions

What was the most popular programming language in the 2025 Stack Overflow survey?

JavaScript, used by 66% of all respondents, followed by HTML/CSS, SQL and Python. On GitHub, TypeScript overtook all other languages by contributors in August 2025.

Which database should a startup use?

For most products, a relational database. PostgreSQL was the most used database in 2025 (55.6% of respondents), which also makes it easy to hire for.

How many developers use AI tools?

84% of 2025 respondents were using or planning to use AI tools, and about half of professional developers used them daily. Trust is lower: 45.7% distrusted the accuracy of AI output.

When are the 2026 Stack Overflow survey results released?

On 30 September 2026, Stack Overflow said the 2026 results would be published within days. Until then, the 2025 survey is the most recent full dataset.

Sources

1. 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Stack Overflow, 2025
2. 2025 Developer Survey: Technology, Stack Overflow, 2025
3. 2025 Developer Survey: AI, Stack Overflow, 2025
4. 2025 Developer Survey: Work, Stack Overflow, 2025
5. Getting ready for 2026 results: a look back on Developer Survey findings, Stack Overflow Blog, 2026-09
6. Octoverse: A new developer joins GitHub every second as AI leads TypeScript to #1, GitHub, 2025-10