2020 Stack Overflow Developer Survey: Database Popularity, Preferences, and Salary Insights

In February 2020, almost 65,000 developers participated in Stack Overflow's annual survey, providing insights into developers' views on databases.

From a database‑technology perspective, the results are consistent with the previous year: MySQL remains the top‑ranked and most loved database, followed by PostgreSQL and Microsoft SQL Server. Firebase’s popularity grew slightly, surpassing Elasticsearch.

Database Popularity Ranking

Among developers who use databases, 55.6% chose MySQL, keeping it at the top. PostgreSQL holds second place with 36.1% usage, while Oracle appears at eighth with 16.5%.

Developers' Most Loved and Most Feared Databases

Redis is the most loved database, followed by PostgreSQL and Elasticsearch. IBM DB2 is the most feared, with 76.7% of respondents marking it as such, and Oracle follows with 66.8% dislike.

MongoDB is the database most developers want to learn, with PostgreSQL and Elasticsearch ranking second and third respectively.

Only 11.6% of respondents identified as DBAs, placing this group seventh among all voters.

Most Popular Programming Languages

Rust tops the list of favorite development languages with 86.1% preference, while Python ranks third.

Salary and Career Directions

Engineering Managers earn the highest average annual salary at $92K, followed by Site Reliability Engineers at $80K and DevOps specialists. For DBAs, the fourth‑ranked role is Data Engineer with $65K, and Data Scientist/Machine Learning Specialist is also a notable transition path.

U.S. salaries are generally higher, as shown in the accompanying chart.

Data source: https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2020/