In last year’s Stack Overflow Developer Survey, Docker was the second most used tool, behind npm. In the 2023 survey, it was revealed that Docker has taken the number one slot. 

However, npm is still more likely to be used than Docker for those that are still learning to code, commonly with languages that are often used to learn to code, like JavaScript and Python.

In terms of tools developers want to use the same technology again next year, Docker had almost double the proportion of respondents than other options.   

RELATED CONTENT: Stack Overflow 2022 results

This year, markdown also broke into top three async tools, with 26% of developers using it, behind Jira (52%) and Confluence (34%). 

If you look solely at developers still learning to code, markdown is in the second slot, behind GitHub Discussions. Only 13% of those developers use Jira and only 5% use Confluence. 

Phoenix is still the most admired web framework. In 2022 it overcame Svelte to become most loved, and this year the survey also found that developers would choose to work with it over the three most common web frameworks: React, Node.js, and Next.js.

Rust was the most admired language overall, with 80% of developers wanting to use it again next year, compared to 87% in the 2022 survey. 

Learning to code from online resources increased from 70% to 80% this year. Technical documentation, Stack Overflow, and blogs were the three most popular online resources that people turn to. 

Sixty-three percent of respondents spend at least 30 minutes every day looking for answers online. This is more likely from individual contributors than people managers. 

The language that offers the highest pay is a new addition this year: Zig. These developers make a median salary of $103,611. Last year Clojure and Erlang were the highest paid technologies, but this year Clojure saw a 10% decrease in pay and dropped into the fifth slot. Erlang held onto its position at number 2, with a median salary this year of $99,492. 

Dart and SAS saw the highest increase in median pay and grew over 20% since last year. In 2023, Dart developers earned a median salary of $55,862 and SAS developers earned a median salary of $81,000. 

The cost of investing in skills has risen in 2023 with inflation, but the survey results indicate that this hasn’t really discouraged developers from taking the opportunity to uplevel.

Stack Overflow also found that 70% of respondents plan to use AI tools in their development process this year, and that 42% of ChatGPT users want to try Google Bard or Bing AI next year.