Which Programming Languages Do Developers Trust Most? Insights from Tidelift’s Survey

Tidelift examined how developers employ open‑source technologies in their work, gathering responses from more than 6,000 professionals to identify the most relied‑upon programming languages.

The top three languages are JavaScript (78% of respondents), Python (52%), and Java (41%), matching the RedMonk ranking; PHP and .Net follow in fourth and fifth place.

In the Tidelift list, Go appears at seventh place, Ruby at ninth, while Rust and Swift rank higher than in RedMonk; TypeScript and Kotlin are not included.

Large development teams (over 1,000 engineers) heavily favor Java, with more than 66% of such teams using it, giving Java an edge over Python in enterprise settings. Although Python is popular among students and hobbyists, over 61% of large organizations have staff using Python.

On average, sizable software teams employ more than 3.5 different programming languages.

Usage percentages show that over 57% of teams use JavaScript, while Java is used by 54% of teams, making it indispensable for large‑scale enterprise applications. C# and Ruby have risen to 50% and 41% respectively. Python’s importance shifted: although it remains the second most depended‑on language overall, its share of applications dropped to 43%, placing it sixth in usage.

The Tidelift ranking provides two key metrics—most depended‑on language and the percentage of applications built with each language—offering developers valuable data for making informed technology choices.