Top programming languages in 2025

Oct 1, 2025 25 min read

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Key takeaways

Python leads, but not everywhere. It holds the crown for overall popularity and has boosted its TIOBE share thanks to its dominance in data science, AI/ML, automation, and education. However, it has lost ground in large-scale backend developments.
JavaScript remains web royalty. Despite newer tools and frameworks, 98.9% of the web still runs on JS, and that’s unlikely to change anytime soon.
Data-driven fields brought niche languages into the spotlight. Tools like R (for statistical modeling), Julia (for high-performance numerical computing), and Scala (for big data processing) have all seen increased adoption.
Performance-focused languages are gaining ground. Languages like Rust and Go are growing fast in real-world infrastructure, attracting companies building scalable cloud-native or systems-level tools.
No universal fit — ecosystems help it scale. Dart, Solidity, and GDScript thrive in their niches — cross-platform apps, smart contracts, games — with ecosystems like Flutter, Ethereum, and Godot fueling growth.

Programming languages evolve quickly. Not just in syntax, but in the role they play for businesses. Today, the choice of language influences far more than code readability. It affects hiring, scalability, performance, and even long-term costs. For example, while Python remains a favorite for rapid prototyping and AI research, many teams turn to Go or Rust when scalability and efficiency become critical.

What was once a purely technical decision has become a business-defining one. The right language can accelerate product growth and attract top talent; the wrong one can create bottlenecks that slow everything down.

That’s why we’ve compiled this programming languages ranking for 2025, to highlight what’s trending, unpack why they matter, where they’re headed, and how companies can use them strategically. Backed by insights from TIOBE, Stack Overflow, GitHub, and Innowise’s own research, this ranking offers a practical look at the languages shaping software development today and tomorrow.

Source: Stack Overflow developer survey 2024

Language use by context

Web
Mobile
AI & data science
Systems programming, embedded
Enterprise
Scripting & DevOps
Game
Blockchain

2025 programming languages ranking

1. Python

Python is a versatile and beginner-friendly programming language, backed by a vast ecosystem and a strong community of developers. You can think of Python as the Swiss Army knife of coding — clean, readable, and ready for multiple tasks: building web apps, crunching data, automating workflows, scripting APIs, and more. Python is a core skill for backend developers, data scientists, and AI engineers, as it powers more than 80% of today’s machine learning and AI projects.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

71,000+

Indeed

61,636

Glassdoor

206,866

Popularity trends & statistics

Python holds a 26.98% share on the TIOBE Index, the highest percentage ever recorded for any programming language in the index’s history, surpassing Java’s previous peak from 2001 (26.49%).
Python also surpassed JavaScript as the most used language on GitHub, with activity heavily influenced by contributions related to AI and data science.
Over 178,000 active packages are now hosted, growing at a compound annual rate of approximately 47% — a clear sign of Python’s thriving ecosystem.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	1	–	26.98%	+8.1%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	1	–	31.47%	+0.9%

Best for

Applications:

AI & machine learning
Data science & business intelligence
Web development & APIs
Automation & DevOps
Edge AI & robotics

Industries:

FinTech
Healthcare
EdTech
Retail
Gaming

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$123,174

Indeed

$127,000

Glassdoor

Python-built apps

Netflix
Pinterest
YouTube

Instagram
Reddit

2. JavaScript

JavaScript (JS) has long been at the heart of the web experience, serving as one of the core building blocks of modern websites. It enables real-time interactivity in all major browsers, powering dynamic style changes, live search suggestions, interactive charts, visualizations, and other advanced, user-centered features. Moreover, JS extends to server-side and full‑stack applications through environments like Node.js, and supports mobile-friendly frontends built with frameworks like React and Vue.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

28,000+

Indeed

22,673

Glassdoor

152,675

Popularity trends & statistics

JavaScript runs on 98.9% of all websites, making it virtually universal for client-side scripting.
13.4 million developers actively use JavaScript globally in 2025.
JS dominates package activity on GitHub — the most starred and forked language, with React.js and Node.js highly active ecosystems.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	6	–	3.36%	-0.43%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	4	-1	7.56%	-0.7%

Best for

Front-end web development
Back-end and full-stack apps with Node.js
Cross-platform mobile apps

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$108,987

Indeed

$116,900

Glassdoor

Apps built with JavaScript

Google Docs and Gmail
Medium
WhatsApp Web
Uber
Airbnb

3. TypeScript

TypeScript (TS) is a statically typed superset of JavaScript, built for large-scale apps, both browser and server, that need to stay easy to maintain as they grow. It adds optional type safety to JavaScript, helping developers catch errors early on and benefit from features like safe navigation and smart code suggestions in modern IDEs. For frontend and full-stack working on complex codebases that need to scale cleanly, TS is usually the go-to choice.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

11,000+

Indeed

9,156

Glassdoor

13,091

Popularity trends & statistics

38.5% of developers reported using TypeScript.
TypeScript usage surged by 23% over the past 7 years, making it a dominant force in enterprise-scale JavaScript projects.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	35	+8	0.31%	+0.02%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	10	-2	2.76%	-0.2%

Best for

Large-scale front-end web development
Server-side development
Enterprise codebases

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$79k

Glassdoor

$129,350

ZipRecruiter

Real-world apps & platforms

Microsoft Teams
Airbnb (web platform)
Slack (desktop and web app)
Shopify (e-commerce storefronts and admin dashboards)
Stripe (online payments infrastructure)
Angular framework

4. Java

Java stands out for its maturity and its “write once, run anywhere” philosophy, which emphasizes platform independence. Its reputation for safe and scalable code comes from features like garbage collection, multithreading, exception handling, and strong memory management, making it adaptable to a wide range of use cases. Java shines when it comes to maintaining long-running, mission-critical applications, though it’s no longer the go-to for modern greenfield projects.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

36,000+

Indeed

28,550

Glassdoor

184,300

Popularity trends & statistics

99% of enterprises use Java in their software stack, and nearly 70% reported that at least half their applications run on Java or the JVM.
Among the top 1,000,000 sites that support a backend, 5.5% use Java, compared to Python at ~5.3%.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	4	–	8.76%	+0.17%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	2	–	15.22%	-0.2%

Best for

Applications:

Enterprise (CRM, ERP)
Android apps
Big data & real-time processing
IoT & embedded systems
Cloud-native applications
Gaming

Industries:

Financial
Trading
Banking

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$91,457

Indeed

$114k

Glassdoor

Real-world application

eBay
Amazon
Wikipedia
Spotify (Android)
Minecraft

5. Go (Golang)

Go, often called Golang, is a fast, compiled programming language originally built for system programming, now growing into wider use, especially in projects that demand scalability. It’s syntactically similar to C, but adds modern features like goroutines for lightweight multitasking and built-in garbage collection to help developers write clean, efficient code. Mastery of Go is increasingly seen as essential for backend and infrastructure engineers building modern, high-performance systems.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

1,000+

Indeed

1,188

Glassdoor

2,019

Popularity trends & statistics

Go usage has expanded in areas like infrastructure-as-code, API client development, and operations tooling, and is a top backend language used in many Apache Software Foundation projects.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	8	+1	2.04%	-0.14%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	13	-1	1.92%	-0.2%

Best for

Web platforms & APIs
Cloud-native platforms
Infrastructure & DevOps tools
High-performance IoT backends

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$122,028

Indeed

$135,130

Glassdoor

Real-world application

Docker
Kubernetes
Caddy
CockroachDB
Hugo

6. Rust

One of the most loved languages among developers, Rust is a community-driven systems language widely used for building high-performance, reliable software. It delivers C/C++-level control while avoiding many typical runtime headaches, enforcing thread-safety at compile time, reducing null-pointer and unchecked-error bugs, as well as unpredictable pauses. While Go and Rust both emphasize performance and memory safety, the latter takes it further with zero-cost abstractions, fine-grained control over memory and concurrency, and a mature tooling ecosystem. However, anyone drawn to Rust’s perks will first need to get comfortable with its strict compiler and steep learning curve.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

1,000+

Indeed

1,295

Glassdoor

440

Popularity trends & statistics

Rust was named the “most admired language” for nine consecutive years.
The language is gaining traction across critical systems, cloud-native, security, and embedded domains, supported by its reliability and performance advantages.
NIST considers RUST as a safer language.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	18	-4	1.01%	-0.17%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	9	+2	2.72%	+0.1%

Best for

System-level programming
Web backend development
Embedded systems & IoT
Cloud-native infrastructure tooling
Blockchain and Web3 platforms

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$145k

Glassdoor

Apps built with Rust

Windows (internals)
Android (internals)
Mozilla (performance-critical components)
Discord (performance-critical feature)
AWS (security & performance-critical components)

7. Swift

Today’s Apple ecosystem runs almost entirely on Swift. Its predecessor, Objective-C, now feels clunky in comparison — Swift is more concise, safer, and far easier to pick up. With features like optionals, type inference, and structured concurrency, Swift helps developers write clean, crash-resistant code. It keeps teams productive and codebases maintainable across iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS apps.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

1,000+

Indeed

1,209

Glassdoor

2,428

Popularity trends & statistics

4.7% of developers have used Swift extensively over the past year — placing it around the lower-middle tier among popular languages — behind Kotlin (9.4%), Go (13.5%), and Rust (12.6%), indicating limited adoption outside the Apple ecosystem.
Swift dropped out of the Top 20 in TIOBE, signaling declining popularity, largely due to its platform-specific focus.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	21	–	0.85%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	11	-2	2.19%	-0.5%

Best for

iOS
iPadOS
tvOS
macOS apps

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$117,180

Indeed

$118,100

Payscale

Real-world application

Nearly all iOS & macOS apps

8. Kotlin

Think of Kotlin as Java’s younger cousin — modern, tidy, and surprisingly flexible, designed to be compatible with Java’s libraries and frameworks, and running on the Java Virtual Machine. Before 2019, it was yet another general-purpose language, until Google tipped the scales by declaring it the preferred language for Android development. Since then, it’s gone mobile-first, with less boilerplate, more safety, and a much smoother ride.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

1,000+

Indeed

1,513

Glassdoor

3,039

Popularity trends & statistics

Kotlin’s decline aligns with broader market consolidation and increased competition from cross-platform technologies like Flutter and Kotlin Multiplatform.
About 9.4% of developers reported using Kotlin extensively over the past year—positioning it behind Java (30.3%), Go (13.5%), Rust (12.6%), TypeScript (38.5%), and Python (51%).

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	20	-2	0.9%	-0.15%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	14	-1	1.59%	-0.3%

Best for

Android development
Backend and web services
Cross-platform & multiplatform

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$133,390

(for Android developers)

Indeed

$117k

(for Kotlin developers)

Glassdoor

Apps built with

Trello (Android app migration to Kotlin started in 2018; now Kotlin-dominant)
Duolingo (migrated to Kotlin for maintainability and multi-feature support)
Google (core Android apps like Google Maps, Gmail, and Google Home use Kotlin codebases)
Evernote (adopted Kotlin to improve app responsiveness and reduce Java boilerplate)
Pinterest (rewrote parts of its Android app in Kotlin for better safety and code clarity)

9. C++

C++ is C’s high-powered evolution — just as close to the metal, but equipped with modern features for object-oriented, generic, and even functional programming. It has long been an engine room for embedded development, running under the hood of most performance-critical and safety-critical systems. And while safer, easier-to-maintain contenders like Rust are starting to step on its toes, C++, with its flexibility, massive ecosystem, and tight memory control, remains the industry standard in automotive, aerospace, medtech systems, game engines, and more.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

11,000+

Indeed

8,909

Glassdoor

97,039

Popularity trends & statistics

As of 2024, C++ has been used by 23.9% of developers.
While Rust is gaining attention for its memory safety features, there’s little evidence of significant migration from C or C++ to Rust, as per the latest developer surveys.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	2	–	9.8%	-0.53%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	4	+1	7.5%	+0.8%

Best for

Embedded systems & IoT firmware
Game development
Systems components & OS internals
Computer graphics & visualization
Financial trading systems

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$130,517

Indeed

$129,571

DevJobsScanner

Real-world application

Unreal Engine
Google Chrome (Blink rendering engine and V8 JavaScript engine)
Adobe Photoshop (core image rendering)
Automotive ECUs, like BMW, Ford, Tesla (engine, brake, infotainment systems)
Aerospace, telecom, automotive firmware
MySQL

10. Ruby

Under the motto “Optimized for developer joy”, Ruby quickly gained a loyal following thanks to its elegant, expressive syntax and strong object-oriented roots. Much time has passed since Ruby’s Rails-fueled explosion in the early 2000s, which shook up rapid prototyping. Today, it’s a mature and stable choice, still powering over 600,000 live websites and loved for keeping development smooth.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

3,000+

Indeed

1,281

Glassdoor

5,267

Popularity trends & statistics

Ruby on Rails (RoR), the prominent web framework built with Ruby, powers about 6.3% of all websites.
Ruby developer questions are trending downward, indicating reduced ecosystem activity.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	23	–	0.76%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	17	–	0.95%	–

Best for

Web development (e-commerce, SaaS, CMS)
Backend APIs & microservices
Prototyping and MVP engines

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$120,423

Indeed

$122,575

DevJobsScanner

Apps built with

Basecam
GitHub (initially)
Shopify (scaling via Ruby on Rails)
Airbnb (backend logic in early years)
Twitch
SoundCloud (has Rails-powered services)

11. Dart

Dart is Google’s client-optimized language for building apps across mobile, web, desktop, and server. With its class-based, object-oriented structure and C-style syntax, it feels familiar to developers coming from JavaScript or TypeScript. Dart’s real breakout came with Flutter, Google’s UI toolkit for crafting sleek and user-centered cross-platform apps. Dart and Flutter now go hand-in-hand, especially for native Android development.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

300+

Indeed

252

Glassdoor

100+

Popularity trends & statistics

Dart is not among the most commonly used, but it has a loyal niche community. It’s loved by 63% of developers using it.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	28	+5	0.61%	+0.14%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	19	-1	0.89%	-0.1

Best for

Cross-platform mobile apps
Web applications
Desktop applications

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$121k

Glassdoor

$104,840

CloudDevs

Real-world application

Google Ads
eBay Motors
BMW in-car apps
Alibaba Xianyu
Reflectly

12. R

As data engineering takes off, it’s no surprise R is seeing renewed momentum too. You won’t find many apps built with R, but it’s widely used to run statistical analyses and create data visualizations — implementing regression models, classifications, clustering, and more. Its syntax might feel a bit quirky at first, but for statisticians and data scientists, it’s a trusted tool of the trade. While not as mainstream as Python, R holds steady demand in pharma, health, and research, thriving where datasets are dense and insights matter.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

5,000+

Indeed

839

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

The R package ecosystem continues to grow, with 18k+ of packages available on CRAN and Bioconductor, supporting a wide range of statistical and data analysis tasks.
Despite R’s strong roots in machine learning and data analysis, it has had to concede Python’s dominance in these areas due to the latter’s versatility and broader adoption.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	15	+4	1.25%	+0.42%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	6	–	4.88%	+0.3%

Best for

Data analysis & exploratory data science
Statistical modeling
Bioinformatics & clinical trials
Econometrics & social science
Machine learning
Data visualization

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$119k

Glassdoor

13. MATLAB

MATLAB (short for Matrix Laboratory) is the engineer’s sandbox built for crunching numbers, simulating systems, and visualizing results with math-like clarity. It’s a high-level language and computing environment that uses matrix-centered syntax, perfect for developing algorithms, building simulations, and modeling complex control systems. Its extensive set of built-in functions and toolboxes is fine-tuned to engineering workflows, covering areas like signal processing, control design, optimization, and machine learning.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

6,000+

Indeed

6,432

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

As for 2025, MTLAB stays primarily academic-focused, widely adopted for engineering and scientific purposes, with 92%of top 300 ranked universities equipped with MATLAB-based products.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	16	-4	1.11%	-0.23%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	15	-1	1.57%	+0.1%

Best for

Applications:

Control systems design
Mechanical systems simulation
Data analysis & visualization
Machine learning & AI

Industries:

Aerospace & defense
Automotive systems
Biomedical engineering
Finance
Academia and research labs

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$126k

Glassdoor

Real-world application

NASA’s X-57 Maxwell project (flight simulation, control system design)
Boeing and Airbus — simulation and design of control systems for aircraft autopilots.
Ford Motor Company — for simulating vehicle systems and evaluating the performance of electronic control systems.
Siemens Healthineers uses MATLAB to process and analyze medical imaging data for better diagnosis in fields like radiology and oncology.
J.P. Morgan uses MATLAB for financial modeling, portfolio analysis, and derivatives pricing in their risk management systems.

14. Scala

Yet another modern Java alternative? Sure, but Scala brings its own flair. It runs on the JVM, speaks fluent Java (libraries and frameworks), but swaps out the boilerplate for functional programming, concise syntax, and first-class pattern matching. Scala excels when wrangling big data or building systems that need to scale, especially with tools like Apache Spark, Akka, and the Play Framework in the stack.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

3,000+

Indeed

2,123

Glassdoor

3,209

Popularity trends

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	34	–	0.41%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	22	–	0.45%	-0.1%

Best for

Big data processing
Web development
Backend services & microservices.
Data engineering
Concurrency & distributed systems

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$173k

Glassdoor

Apps built with

Apache Spark
Apache Kafka
LinkedIn — utilizes Scala for backend services
X (formerly Twitter) — employs Scala for real-time data processing
Netflix — uses Scala for backend microservices

15. C#

C# (that’s “C-sharp”) is Microsoft’s answer to modern, all-purpose development. While it shares some DNA with C in terms of syntax and structure, C# is built for application-level programming — fully object-oriented, feature-rich, and equipped with automatic memory management. It’s tightly woven into the .NET ecosystem, leaning on its runtime and libraries to build secure cross-platform apps. You can build just about anything with it, but it’s most at home in the Microsoft universe.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

21,000+

Indeed

17,261

Glassdoor

20,688

Popularity trends & statistics

C# shows a 28.8% usage rate among professional developers.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	5	–	4.87%	-1.85%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	5	-1	5.81%	-0.9%

Best for

Web development
Game development
Mobile app development
Desktop development
Enterprise software
Microservices & distributed systems

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$111,123

SalaryExpert

$122,533

Jobble

Real-world application

Microsoft Windows components
Spotify — the backend infrastructure uses C# and .NET for managing user data and providing real-time streaming services
Dropbox’s desktop application is built using C# and .NET for efficient synchronization and cloud storage management
Stack Overflow (built on)
Instagram: Parts of Instagram’s backend were written in C# (and later migrated), utilizing the .NET ecosystem for building scalable web applications
Slack: C# is used in some components of Slack’s infrastructure, particularly for handling integrations and processing messages between systems

16. Elixir

“Let it crash” isn’t negligence — it’s a design philosophy of this language. Elixir systems are built to recover gracefully, earning the language a solid reputation for building fault-tolerant applications. It runs on the Erlang virtual machine (BEAM), and can spawn hundreds of thousands of lightweight processes using minimal memory and CPU. Influenced by Ruby, it’s clean, elegant, and surprisingly beginner-friendly for such a robust language.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

100+

Indeed

Popularity trends & statistics

Elixir ranked as the second most in demand programming language to learn, just behind Rust, highlighting its appeal among developers looking to expand their skill sets.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	44	–	0.17%	–

Best for

Real-time web apps
Distributed systems & microservices
Real-time data processing
Messaging platforms and chatbots
Telecom
IoT

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$110k

Glassdoor

$120,233

Talent.com

Real-world application

Discord (powers real-time messaging infrastructure)
Pinterest (partially migrated)
Peach Finance (real-time data processing, automating services)
Moz (low-latency data processing)
Healthify (highly scalable backend)

17. Solidity

If Ethereum is the world computer, Solidity is its native tongue. This language was created for writing smart contracts that live forever on-chain, making it perfect for turning bold blockchain ideas into code. To power decentralized applications like NFTs and DAOs, it comes equipped with guardrails, tripwires, and a stack of cryptographic tools.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

75+

Indeed

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

As per Solidity developer survey, a significant portion of respondents are employed in the crypto industry (69.6%), with others working in technology (14.7%) and financial services (4.5%).

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	41	–	0.18%	–

Best for

Smart contracts on the Ethereum blockchain:

DeFi
NFTs
Smart contract automation
DAOs
Tokenization of assets

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$95k

Glassdoor

Apps built with

Uniswap
Aave
OpenLaw
VeChain
Decentraland

18. Ada

It can be said that Ada gained its “Top Secret” security clearance. Born in the early 1980s and raised by the U.S. Department of Defense, it was engineered for mission-critical systems that had to be free of errors or surprises. Everything in Ada is designed to leave nothing to chance: types are explicit, contracts are enforced, and the compiler is among the strictest and thorough in the programming world. Surprisingly, the language is now experiencing a second dawn thanks to its growing use in blockchain.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

700+

Indeed

372

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

There are roughly 1,000–1,500 public repositories tagged with Ada on GitHub, much fewer than mainstream languages but consistent with its niche status.
Recent years have seen renewed interest due to Ada’s role in the Cardano blockchain ecosystem, which has brought Ada into the spotlight within the crypto and smart contract community.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	9	+17	1.77%	+0.99%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	13	+2	1.65%	+0.7%

Best for

Safety-critical systems
Real-time and embedded systems
Defense and military software
Blockchain development
Financial systems

Real-world application

Airbus and Boeing flight control systems
Eurocontrol
Cardano blockchain

19. PHP

Before slick frameworks and frontend hype took over, PHP was already quietly running the internet, and it never really stopped. It remains a major server-side scripting language for building dynamic websites and web apps, handling form submission, session management, instant HTML generation, and more. Today, PHP is widely seen as the default language for web hosting and content management systems, though its capabilities extend well beyond the web.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

2,000

Indeed

1917

Glassdoor

14,460

Popularity trends & statistics

PHP is utilized by 73.7% of all websites in server-side programming. This includes major platforms like Facebook, Wikipedia, and WordPress.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	14	+1	1.28%	+0.14%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	7	–	3.55%	-0.8%

Best for

Content management systems (CMS)
E-commerce platforms
Web development
APIs & web services

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$104,420

Indeed

$108k

Glassdoor

Real-world application

WordPress
Wikipedia
Magento
Tumblr
Bitbucket

20. Objective-C

Before the introduction of Swift, Objective-C ran the show across iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS development. It’s an extension of C, enhanced with object-oriented features such as classes, methods, and inheritance. While Objective-C’s popularity has waned, it remains a crucial skill for developers involved in maintaining and updating legacy applications within the Apple ecosystem.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

600+

Indeed

504

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

Only 2% of developers reported using Objective-C, and none planned to adopt it in the future. This suggests a trend toward phasing out Objective-C in favor of more modern languages like Swift.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	32	–	0.42%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	9	+1	2.76%	+0.4%

Best for

iOS and macOS development
Maintaining legacy codebases

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$105,3k

Wellfound

Apps built with

Most of the original iOS apps were indeed built using Objective-C.

21. Perl

One of the few veterans still holding its place. Perl rose to prominence for its unmatched text processing capabilities and report generation. However, it quickly outgrew that niche, evolving into a general-purpose. Perl’s expressive syntax, powerful regular expressions, cross-platform portability, and “there’s more than one way to do it” philosophy made it a staple for rapid scripting and large-scale development alike. It may no longer be center stage, but it still holds its ground in legacy stacks and behind-the-scenes systems.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

2000+

Indeed

821

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

Interest in Perl has gradually declined over the years, but it remains stable with occasional spikes during tech conferences or new releases.
The number of new Perl repositories and contributions has been flat or slowly declining compared to booming languages like JavaScript, Python, or Go.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	11	+12	1.76%	+1.1%
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	29	–	0.1%	-0.05%

Best for

System administration & automation
Web development (legacy and CGI)
Text processing & report generation
Bioinformatics & scientific computing
Network programming & security

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$149k

Glassdoor

Apps built with

Slashdot
Bugzilla
RT (Request Tracker)
IMDb (early stages)
DuckDuckGo

22. SQL

SQL (structured query language) is the language that data speaks, and it’s been fluent since the 1970s. SQL lets developers create, shape, and interrogate relational databases with just a few declarative lines. It’s the tool behind everything from inserting customer records to pulling revenue reports, and it’s as at home in old-school enterprise servers as it is in today’s cloud-native stacks. Its simple, readable syntax made it the default dialect for anyone working with structured data across systems and teams.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

57k+

Indeed

48k+

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

SQL remains one of the most widely used languages globally due to the ubiquity of relational databases in business applications.
SQL is used by over 55% of professional developers, ranking consistently as one of the top languages.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	13	-3	1.29%	-0.65%

Best for

Data querying and reporting
Database management
Data insertion, updating, and deletion
Business intelligence and analytics
Back-end support

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$92,295

Indeed

$129k

Glassdoor

Real-world application

MySQL
PostgreSQL
Microsoft SQL Server
Oracle Database
SQLite

23. Julia

Julia was created to eliminate the trade-off between performance and ease of use that scientists and engineers often face with other languages. Designed for high-performance computing, data analysis, and numerical work, Julia feels like a dynamic language but performs like a compiled one. You get readable syntax, math-friendly semantics, and serious speed without having to rewrite your prototypes in C later. It was built to address the pain points of Python, R, and MATLAB in one go, offering a single language that scales from quick plots to parallelized simulations.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

20+

Glassdoor

30+

Popularity trends & statistics

Julia’s package ecosystem has seen significant expansion, with over 1,400 new packages registered in 2023 alone. This growth indicates a vibrant and active community contributing to its development.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	35	–	0.41%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	23	+1	0.32%	–

Best for

Scientific computing & simulations
Data science & machine learning
High-performance computing (HPC)
Optimization problems
Risk management & financial modeling

Real-world application

NASA uses Julia for astrophysical simulations and cosmological data analysis
JPMorgan uses Julia for predictive analytics and high-performance financial modeling in quantitative finance.
CERN employs Julia in complex simulations of particle physics experiments and in genomic data analysis

24. Lua

Lua is a lightweight scripting language built to live inside other software rather than run on its own. It’s dynamically typed, easy to embed, and famously small in footprint, making it a favorite for configuring behavior, scripting logic, and extending core applications without bloating them. Lua slots in where simplicity matters: game engines, embedded devices, and tools that need flexible user-side scripting.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

137

Glassdoor

Popularity trends

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	29	–	0.46%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	20	+1	0.89%	+0.1%

Best for

Game development
Embedded systems
Scripting & automation

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$124k

Glassdoor

Apps built with

World of Warcraft
Roblox
Angry Birds
Adobe Lightroom (Mobile)
Wireshark

25. GDScript

Built specifically for the Godot Engine, GDScript is a scripting language tailored for writing game logic quickly and intuitively. Unlike general-purpose languages, it’s designed to work directly with Godot’s node and signal system, reducing boilerplate and making common game patterns feel natural. GDScript’s Python-like syntax keeps things approachable, especially for newcomers, while its engine-first design means smoother workflows and fewer barriers between code and in-game behavior.

Statistics

On platforms like GitHub, the number of repositories and projects using Godot Engine (and by extension GDScript) has been steadily increasing. Godot has shown strong growth in its developer community, and this trend likely reflects growing interest in GDScript as well.

Best for

Indie games development

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$116k

(for sysadmins)

BuiltIn

Apps built with

Dead cells
Kingdoms of the dump
UFO: the two Sides

26. F#

F# is a functional-first programming language developed by Microsoft and runs on the .NET platform. Although F# plays nicely with multiple programming paradigms, it’s particularly well-suited for tasks involving complex data manipulation, concurrency, and computation-heavy applications. It is known for its strong typing, immutability, and support for higher-order functions, and has a strong following in financial services, data science, and machine learning.

Popularity trends & statistics

F# has been rapidly losing ground in the TIOBE index — plunging from #22 in early 2024 (ahead of many functional languages like Haskell and Scala) to fall out of the top 50.
Despite its modest usage, F# boasts a high developer satisfaction rate, with approximately 57% of users expressing a strong preference for the language.

Best for

Financial services
Data science
Enterprise applications

Apps built with

Jet.com (business logic, pricing algorithms)
The Guardian (data processing pipelines)
Walmart (inventory management, pricing algorithms)

27. Shell scripting (Bash)

Shell scripting, often referred to as Bash scripting, is a powerful and flexible way to automate tasks in Unix-based systems like Linux and macOS. You can think of a Bash script as a recipe: it tells the system what to do and in what order — run programs, move files, set permissions, manage servers, and much more. Bash is a core skill for system administrators and DevOps engineers.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

8,000+

Indeed

7,797

Glassdoor

Popularity trends & statistics

Bash/shell scripting is used in 70%+ of automation and CI/CD workflows in practice, highlighting its relevance today.
~35% of professional developers use Bash weekly, making it one of the top scripting languages.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	43	–	0.18%	–

Best for

Automation & CRON jobs
DevOps & CI/CD pipelines
System monitoring & debugging
Package management

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$139k

(for DevOps engineers)

Glassdoor

$157k

(for sysadmins)

Glassdoor

Real-world use

Docker — ENTRYPOINT or CMD often defined in Bash
Kubernetes — Init containers and lifecycle hooks use Bash scripts
Git — Many Git utilities/extensions and hooks are written in Bash
Linux distros — Startup scripts, installer logic, and service managers use Bash
CI Tools (e.g., GitHub Actions, Jenkins) — Bash is the glue for chaining tasks and managing environments

28. PowerShell

PowerShell is Microsoft’s command-line tool turned automation powerhouse, built for scripting, system management, and keeping IT in check. Originally Windows-only, it’s now open-source and runs across macOS and Linux as well. It’s object-based, has a clean scripting syntax, letting sysadmins handle everything from file cleanup to complex network configs. PowerShell excels at automating repetitive tasks, whether used for managing a single machine or an entire enterprise.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

8,000+

Indeed

8,858

Glassdoor

16,952

Popularity trends & statistics

Microsoft Azure is a top cloud platform, and PowerShell is frequently used for Azure automation.
PowerShell modules for Azure have seen 40%+ growth in downloads year-over-year.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	45	–	0.16%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	16	–	1.03%	–

Best for

System administration & automation
Cloud & infrastructure management
Configuration management & deployment
Security & compliance

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$110k

(for sysadmins)

Glassdoor

$150k

(for Azure engineers)

Glassdoor

Real-world application

Azure PowerShell Modules — manage and automate Azure cloud resources
Exchange Management Shell — PowerShell environment for Exchange Server
Windows Admin Center — GUI management backed by PowerShell scripts
Desired State Configuration (DSC) — infrastructure as code for system state management
Microsoft 365 Management Shell — automate Microsoft 365 tenant operations

29. Vala

Vala is a high-level programming language designed to make native Linux development feel a little more modern without leaving the GObject-based C world behind. Developed by the GNOME project, it brings features like classes, interfaces, properties, and generics into a familiar C#-like syntax, while compiling directly to efficient C code. With Vala, developers get the structure and expressiveness of a modern language, while still producing fast, native binaries that fit right into the Linux desktop ecosystem.

Popularity trends & statistics

There are 600 repositories tagged with the “vala” topic on GitHub, with about 100 of them primarily written in Vala (in comparison to 600k+ for JavaScript) — highlighting its niche and very limited usage. — GitHub

Best for

Linux desktop apps development
Embedded Linux software

Real-world application

GNOME builder
Geary
Noise music player

30. Haskell

Haskell is a purely functional programming language known for its strong static typing, lazy evaluation, and clean, expressive syntax. It encourages writing programs as a series of composable, side-effect-free functions, a style that’s made it a favorite in academia, research, and industries where correctness and mathematical clarity really matter. While it rarely grabs headlines, Haskell has quietly influenced a generation of modern languages and powers everything from financial systems to compilers.

Related job listings

U.S., July 2025

637

Popularity trends & statistics

Haskell is used by about 1-2% of surveyed developers worldwide, mostly among advanced and academic users.
It scores highly in “Most Loved” languages, often ranking in the top 10 for developer satisfaction.
GitHub hosts roughly 5,000-10,000 repositories primarily written in Haskell. While much smaller compared to mainstream languages, the community remains active and committed.

	Ranking		Share
	July 2025	1-year trend	July 2025	1-year trend
TIOBE Reflects a share of search engine visibility, including hits, mentions, and related content	31	–	0.43%	–
PYPL Reflects the share of Google searches for programming language tutorials	28	–	0.11%	–

Best for

Financial & banking software
Academic research & education
Compiler and language development
Formal verification & high-assurance systems
Web development & backend services

Annual salary benchmark

U.S., July 2025

$107k

Glassdoor

Real-world application

Facebook spam detection system
Pandoc
Xmonad

How to choose the best programming language for your business in 2025

Prioritize business goals

Every technology decision should start with a strategy. Ask: What are we trying to achieve? Languages like Go, Java, and C++ are designed with performance and concurrency in mind, making them a strong fit for enterprise-grade and high-scale systems. Meanwhile, Python, JavaScript, and Dart emphasize developer productivity and rapid iteration, making them popular for startups, MVPs, and cross-platform applications.

However, with the right architecture, all of these languages can power large-scale systems, but each comes with trade-offs. To make the right choice, weigh factors such as:

Expected system loads
Security requirements
Performance benchmarks
Speed-to-market demands

At Innowise, our IT consulting team maps these needs to the right tech stack so you don’t have to gamble on guesswork.

Align with your technology ecosystem

The ideal language should fit naturally into your existing stack, not feel like an add-on. A good fit minimizes integration risks and accelerates delivery. That’s why our assessments go deeper than syntax or speed. We evaluate:

Compatibility with your infrastructure
Strength of available testing frameworks
CI/CD support and DevOps integration
Tooling maturity and community/vendor backing

This ensures your developers can move faster and avoid unnecessary friction.

Consider developer availability and talent pools

A great language is useless without skilled people to build with it. Popular options like JavaScript, Python, and Java offer massive global communities, abundant libraries, and hiring flexibility. More niche languages may promise cutting-edge performance or security, but they often come with smaller talent pools and higher recruitment costs.

The good news: in many business cases, several languages can solve the same problem. What matters most is alignment with your business goals, team capacity, and infrastructure. That’s why Innowise evaluates every angle, be it technical, strategic, or operational, and recommends a language that’s best-suited to your reality.

Conclusion: staying ahead in a competitive market

In technology, standing still means falling behind. Some programming languages can rise and fall quickly as ecosystems evolve. And if your stack lags, your product can too. Staying competitive means keeping an eye on emerging languages that deliver speed, security, scalability, and staying power.

Think of your language choice like laying tracks for a train: the wrong rails may work for a short ride, but when it’s time to scale, derailment is costly. The smartest move isn’t chasing hype, but investing in tools that grow with your business long-term.

Bottom line: future-ready languages build future-ready companies. If you want to make confident decisions about your stack — not just for today, but for the next few years — Innowise is here to help. Let’s sharpen your tech stack and set you up for tomorrow.

Dmitry Nazarevich

CTO

Dmitry leads the tech strategy behind custom solutions that actually work for clients — now and as they grow. He bridges big-picture vision with hands-on execution, making sure every build is smart, scalable, and aligned with the business.

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