Developer tools span editors, package managers, build systems, infrastructure tools, AI assistants, and team platforms. In Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey, respondents rated tools using separate desired and admired measures. The figures below preserve that distinction: desired indicates interest in using a tool, while admired indicates the share expressing a positive opinion of it.
Contents
- The leading developer tools
- Build, package, and infrastructure tools
- Editors and integrated development environments
- AI-powered search and developer tools
- Asynchronous collaboration tools
- What the percentages show
The leading developer tools
Docker is the standout in Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey category for other tools. It was desired by 49.5% of respondents and admired by 77.5%. That combination puts Docker at the top on both measures in this group. Its desired figure is also higher than every other tool reported in the category.
The next broadest interest levels belonged to npm, Kubernetes, Pip, and Vite. npm reached 31.2% desired and 59.8% admired. Kubernetes reached 25% desired and 72.4% admired, while Pip reached 21.3% desired and 62.2% admired. Vite was desired by 18.6% and admired by 76.6%.
These numbers show two different kinds of strength. Docker and npm had relatively high desired percentages, indicating broad interest in using them. Vite’s desired percentage was lower than those tools, but its admiration percentage was nearly as high as Docker’s. Kubernetes combined a substantial desired percentage with an admiration rate above 70%.
The following comparison keeps the two survey measures side by side. All figures are percentages of respondents in the relevant Stack Overflow 2024 Developer Survey category.
| Tool | Desired | Admired |
|---|---|---|
| Docker | 49.5% | 77.5% |
| npm | 31.2% | 59.8% |
| Kubernetes | 25% | 72.4% |
| Pip | 21.3% | 62.2% |
| Vite | 18.6% | 76.6% |
| Homebrew | 16.4% | 69.8% |
| Make | 13.8% | 60.2% |
| Terraform | 11.7% | 65.9% |
Homebrew was desired by 16.4% and admired by 69.8%. Make reached 13.8% desired and 60.2% admired. Terraform reached 11.7% desired and 65.9% admired. The pattern is consistent across these tools: admiration can remain high even when the desired percentage is considerably smaller.
Build, package, and infrastructure tools
The survey’s other-tools results include a long tail of package managers, build tools, deployment tools, and infrastructure products. NuGet and Visual Studio Solution each reached 11.5% desired. Their admiration figures were 67.6% for NuGet and 69.3% for Visual Studio Solution.
Yarn was desired by 9.9% and admired by 52.7%. Gradle reached 9.5% desired and 54.8% admired, while Maven reached 8.5% desired and 39% admired. Webpack was desired by 7.9% and admired by 59%.
pnpm had 8.3% desired and 68.1% admired. That admiration figure was higher than the corresponding figures for npm, Yarn, Gradle, Maven, and Webpack in the supplied survey results, even though its desired percentage was lower than npm’s. Ansible reached 7.7% desired and 70.2% admired. APT reached 7.2% desired and 61.4% admired.
Bun was desired by 7.2% and admired by 76.1%. MSBuild reached 6.7% desired and 73.7% admired. Podman reached 6% desired and 67.1% admired. Composer was desired by 5.7% and admired by 53.9%.
Several specialized tools had modest desired percentages but strong admiration results. Godot reached 5.6% desired and 72.8% admired. Unity 3D was desired by 5.3% and admired by 46%. Chocolatey reached 4.9% desired and 45.9% admired. Nix reached 4.3% desired and 72.4% admired, while Ninja reached 4.3% desired and 63.2% admired.
Google Test was desired by 3.3% and admired by 62.5%. Pulumi reached 1.2% desired and 58% admired. Dagger also reached 1.2% desired, with 30.9% admiration. Puppet was desired by 1% and admired by 35.6%. Chef recorded 0.8% desired and 28.1% admired.
The lower desired percentages do not make these tools irrelevant. They indicate narrower reported interest in this survey category. Their admiration results vary widely, from 28.1% for Chef to 72.8% for Godot, so popularity by desired percentage and positive sentiment by admired percentage are not interchangeable measurements.
Editors and integrated development environments
Integrated development environments and editors show a different distribution. Visual Studio Code was used and desired by 58.7% of respondents and admired by 77.2% in Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey category for integrated development environments. It therefore led the reported IDE and editor figures on the desired measure.
IntelliJ IDEA reached 20.3% desired and 68.4% admired. Visual Studio reached 19.2% desired and 61.3% admired. Vim was desired by 16.6% and admired by 69.2%, while Notepad++ reached 15.4% desired and 62.8% admired.
PyCharm had 13.9% desired and the highest admiration figure among the listed IDEs and editors at 82.7%. Android Studio reached 11.3% desired and 63.8% admired. Jupyter Notebook/JupyterLab was desired by 10.7% and admired by 49.8%. Xcode reached 9.7% desired and 63.3% admired.
The remaining reported editors had lower desired percentages. Sublime Text was desired by 6.8% and admired by 49.5%. WebStorm reached 6.5% desired and 65% admired. VSCodium was desired by 5.5% and admired by 73.4%. DataGrip reached 4.3% desired and 73% admired, while Emacs was desired by 3.8% and admired by 69.3%.
| IDE or editor | Desired | Admired |
|---|---|---|
| Visual Studio Code | 58.7% | 77.2% |
| IntelliJ IDEA | 20.3% | 68.4% |
| Visual Studio | 19.2% | 61.3% |
| Vim | 16.6% | 69.2% |
| Notepad++ | 15.4% | 62.8% |
| PyCharm | 13.9% | 82.7% |
| Android Studio | 11.3% | 63.8% |
| Jupyter Notebook/JupyterLab | 10.7% | 49.8% |
The contrast between Visual Studio Code and PyCharm is especially clear in the reported measures. Visual Studio Code had the higher desired percentage, 58.7% compared with 13.9%, while PyCharm had the higher admiration percentage, 82.7% compared with 77.2%. The survey therefore presents reach and admiration as separate dimensions rather than a single ranking.
AI-powered search and developer tools
ChatGPT led the AI-powered search and developer tools category, with 63.6% desired and 74.4% admired. GitHub Copilot followed at 41.4% desired and 72.1% admired. Google Gemini reached 21.1% desired and 62.1% admired.
Visual Studio IntelliCode was desired by 12.2% and admired by 73%. Claude reached 9.3% desired and 52.1% admired. The desired percentages decline substantially from ChatGPT to GitHub Copilot, then to Google Gemini, Visual Studio IntelliCode, and Claude in the listed results.
| AI search or developer tool | Desired | Admired |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT | 63.6% | 74.4% |
| GitHub Copilot | 41.4% | 72.1% |
| Google Gemini | 21.1% | 62.1% |
| Visual Studio IntelliCode | 12.2% | 73% |
| Claude | 9.3% | 52.1% |
Visual Studio IntelliCode illustrates the separation between the two measures: its 73% admiration figure was close to the figures for ChatGPT and GitHub Copilot, despite a much lower desired percentage of 12.2%. Claude’s 52.1% admiration figure was the lowest among these five listed AI products, while its desired percentage was also the lowest.
These are Stack Overflow 2024 Developer Survey results for the named AI search and developer tools category. They describe the survey’s measurement period and respondent results; they do not establish current market share, revenue, performance, or a forecast.
Asynchronous collaboration tools
Slack was desired by 34.5% and admired by 69.2% among asynchronous tools in Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey. Jira was desired by 31.6% and admired by 55.4%.
The two reported tools had similar desired percentages, with Slack’s figure 2.9 percentage points higher than Jira’s. Their admiration figures were farther apart: Slack’s 69.2% was higher than Jira’s 55.4%. This gives Slack the stronger result on both listed measures, although the category figures should be read as survey percentages rather than a complete measure of every collaboration platform.
What the percentages show
Across the reported categories, the desired measure is highest for Visual Studio Code at 58.7% among IDEs and editors, ChatGPT at 63.6% among AI-powered search and developer tools, and Docker at 49.5% among the other tools category. These values come from different survey categories, so they should not be treated as a single unified ranking.
Admiration is often high for tools with lower desired percentages. PyCharm reached 82.7% admired with 13.9% desired. Vite reached 76.6% admired with 18.6% desired. Bun reached 76.1% admired with 7.2% desired, and Nix reached 72.4% admired with 4.3% desired. These examples show why both measures are useful when reading developer tools statistics.
The results also distinguish broad interest from positive sentiment. Docker’s 49.5% desired and 77.5% admired figures indicate both broad reported interest and strong admiration in its category. Maven’s 8.5% desired and 39% admired figures indicate a much smaller and less positive result in the same category. For editors, Visual Studio Code’s 58.7% desired figure shows broad reach, while PyCharm’s 82.7% admiration figure shows the strongest positive sentiment among the listed IDEs and editors.
Finally, the figures are survey measurements from Stack Overflow’s 2024 Developer Survey, organized by tool category. They are not forecasts and do not independently verify older or later measurements. Keeping the survey year, category, geography as represented by the survey sample, and desired-versus-admired definitions visible is essential when comparing developer tools statistics.