2025 Stack Overflow Survey: Hottest Languages, Databases & AI Tools Revealed
The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey of over 90,000 participants highlights JavaScript's continued dominance, PostgreSQL overtaking MySQL as the top database, Zig as the highest‑earning language, and widespread AI tool adoption, while revealing mixed trust levels and expectations of workflow changes within a year.
Stack Overflow’s 2025 Developer Survey gathered over 90,000 developers and reports on their profiles, technology usage, AI adoption, and career outlook.
Key findings (quick list):
Most popular programming language: JavaScript (11th year); Python overtook SQL for third place; Go and Rust usage rose.
Highest‑earning language: Zig (median salary $103,611).
Most popular database: PostgreSQL (49.09% of professionals), followed by MySQL and SQLite.
Most popular web framework/technology: Node.js.
Top IDE: Visual Studio Code.
Top AI search tool: ChatGPT (used by 83% of respondents).
Top AI development tool: GitHub Copilot (55% usage).
Trust in AI tools: only <3% highly trust accuracy, ~39% somewhat trust, 30% distrust.
Future expectations: majority believe AI will change development workflows within a year.
Database details
Among professional developers, 49.09% use PostgreSQL, a 2.61‑point increase from last year; MySQL holds 40.59%, SQLite 30.17%, DynamoDB 10.31% (overtaking Oracle at ninth), and Oracle 10.06% (tenth). For learners, MySQL is most used (45.71%), followed by MongoDB (28.15%) and SQLite (26.93%).
Programming language details
JavaScript remains the dominant language for the 11th consecutive year. Python has moved ahead of SQL to become the third most popular language. Bash/Shell, C, Ruby, Perl and Erlang all climbed one rank, while Go and Rust also saw usage gains.
Highest‑earning language
Zig developers earn a median annual salary of $103,611 (≈ ¥740,000). Zig is designed for stability, maintainability, and performance, aiming to replace C in systems programming.
AI search and development tools
ChatGPT is the leading AI search tool, used by 83% of respondents, followed by Bing AI (20%), WolframAlpha (13%) and Google Bard (10%). GitHub Copilot leads AI development assistance at 55% usage, with Tabnine (13%) and AWS CodeWhisperer (5%) trailing.
Trust in AI tools
Less than 3% of users have high confidence in AI accuracy, while about 6% have very low confidence. Approximately 39% express moderate trust, and 30% report no trust.
Expectations for the future
Both seasoned developers and those learning to code expect that AI tools will noticeably alter development workflows within the next year.
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