The 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey asked participants to identify tools they used this year and those they plan to use next year. A tool is deemed “admired” if developers who used it this year intend to continue using it next year.
By dividing the `used %` by the `admired %`, we can calculate an “underrated score.” I've compiled a list using this method, filtering for tools admired by >70%, and used by <10% of developers. I think there may be some hidden gems here!
Nice, but it could have a brief description (two or three words) of what they are. How can I give a chance to "Phoenix" or "Ruff" if I don't even know how to search on google about them...
The survey didn’t explain what any of these are, so I didn’t want to make assumptions. Running the list through gpt-4o seems to have produced the correct annotations:
- Phoenix (84% admire, 2% use) – Web development framework for Elixir. <https://www.phoenixframework.org/>
- Ruff (84%, 3%) – Fast Python linter and code formatter. <https://github.com/charliermarsh/ruff>
- Elixir (77%, 2%) – Functional, concurrent language for scalable applications. <https://elixir-lang.org/>
- Bun (76%, 4%) – Fast JavaScript runtime and package manager. <https://bun.sh/>
- Hetzner (75%, 5%) – German web hosting and cloud service provider. <https://www.hetzner.com/>
- Roslyn (74%, 2%) – .NET compiler platform for code analysis. <https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn>
- Tauri (74%, 2%) – Lightweight framework for building desktop apps with web technologies. <https://tauri.app/>
- Godot (74%, 4%) – Open-source game engine for 2D and 3D games. <https://godotengine.org/>
- Zig (74%, 1%) – General-purpose programming language for better performance and safety. <https://ziglang.org/>
- Signal (74%, 11%) – Secure messaging app with end-to-end encryption. <https://signal.org/>
- Htmx (73%, 3%) – JavaScript library for dynamic HTML interactions. <https://htmx.org/>
- Nix (73%, 3%) – Package manager for reproducible builds. <https://nixos.org/>
- DataGrip (73%, 5%) – Database IDE by JetBrains for efficient SQL development. <https://www.jetbrains.com/datagrip/>
- Hugging Face (73%, 5%) – AI community and platform for machine learning models. <https://huggingface.co/>
- Pacman (73%, 5%) – Package manager for Arch Linux. <https://archlinux.org/pacman/>
- Rider (73%, 6%) – Cross-platform .NET IDE by JetBrains. <https://www.jetbrains.com/rider/>
- Svelte (73%, 7%) – JavaScript framework for building fast web applications. <https://svelte.dev/>
- Astro (72%, 3%) – Modern static site builder for fast websites. <https://astro.build/>
- Datomic (71%, 0.4%) – Distributed database designed for immutability. <https://www.datomic.com/>
- ZMK (71%, 1%) – Open-source firmware for Bluetooth-enabled mechanical keyboards. <https://zmkfirmware.dev/>
- Matrix (71%, 3%) – Open network for secure, decentralized communication. <https://matrix.org/>
- DuckDB (70%, 1%) – Fast, in-process SQL OLAP database management system. <https://duckdb.org/>
- Ktor (70%, 1%) – Framework for building asynchronous servers and clients in Kotlin. <https://ktor.io/>
- Linear (70%, 3%) – Project management software for modern teams. <https://linear.app/>
By dividing the `used %` by the `admired %`, we can calculate an “underrated score.” I've compiled a list using this method, filtering for tools admired by >70%, and used by <10% of developers. I think there may be some hidden gems here!