40 most popular programming languages 2023: When and how to use them

There are many - maybe too many - programming languages to choose from. One of the most effective ways to assess their popularity is by the number of search queries for each language, across the web. The TIOBE Index is the definitive list of programming languages, ranked in order of search volume popularity as an indication of prominence and public interest. This article lists the top 40 languages on that list, with a brief overview and their pros, cons, and hiring prospects.

In this post:

• Python
• C
• C++
• Java
• C#
• Visual Basic .NET
• JavaScript
• SQL
• Assembly language
• PHP
• R
• Go
• Classic Visual Basic
• MATLAB
• Swift
• Delphi/Object Pascal
• Ruby
• Perl
• Objective-C
• Rust
• Scratch
• SAS
• Kotlin
• Julia
• Lua
• Fortran
• COBOL
• Lisp
• (Visual) FoxPro
• Ada
• Dart
• Scala
• Prolog
• D
• PL/SQL
• Bash
• Powershell
• Haskell
• Logo
• Transact SQL
• How do I choose a programming language?
• What’s likely to be in-demand in the future?
• Which programming language should I learn?

Here’s our list of the top 40 most in-demand programming languages.

40 top TIOBE programming languages

1. Python

• Popularity: Very High
  • Salary expectations: Typically between USD$89,271 - $105,820 in the US
• Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate
• Use Cases: General Use and Specialty
  • Web Applications
  • Artificial Intelligence

Python is a relatively new programming language, first introduced in 1989, that has surged in popularity with the emergence of new fields of application. It is an interpreted language that supports automatic memory management and object-oriented programming. It heavily prioritizes developer experience.

Python is very popular for general-purpose programming, including web applications. It has recently become known for specialty use in machine learning applications.

Python jobs are very plentiful, so it’s easy to find a job using Python, and there’s still plenty of room for growth.

Pros

• Readability and flexibility make Python suitable for a huge range of applications.
• Dynamic typing and asynchronous code help to speed up the development process.
• Can be learned very quickly by newbie developers.

Cons

• Python’s performance isn’t as good as some of its peers
• Executes a single thread at a time because of Python’s GIL.
• No native compatibility with iOS or Android is a big disadvantage for mobile developers.

2. C

• Popularity: Medium
  • Salary expectations: Typically between USD$71,433 and $95,168
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General Use and Specialty
  • Embedded systems
  • Hardware drivers
  • Local Applications

First introduced in 1972, C is well-established and enduring. Until Java was introduced, C was the dominant high-level language. The first versions of Unix, written in Assembly language, were ported to C. It was then used in the development of other early operating systems, including IBM System/370.

C has a long history of development on older systems with slower processors and little memory. Programs written in C had to be very efficient, so C has a reputation for high performance in cases where speed matters.

C is still very popular due to its use in systems development, including operating systems, embedded devices, and as firmware. The C standard library has been ported to many platforms, so it is viable in many use cases. However, the low-level systems programming it is typically used for is a more specialized skill than general application programming. This explains why C tends to have relatively few job openings as compared to other languages in the top 10.

There is likely to be some overlap in the jobs market with C++ (see the C++ listing below.)

Pros

• C is the basis for many other popular languages, so knowledge of C will serve you well
• Highly portable, readable and maintainable
• Fairly easy to learn

Cons

• Usually limited to “bedrock” code, like systems coding
• No safety nets, for example exception handling, to catch any errors as they are coded

3. C++

• Popularity: High
  • Salary expectations: Typically between USD$70,077 and $82,457
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: General Use, Specialty
  • Local Applications
  • Web Services
  • Proprietary Services

C++ extends C with object-oriented features. The “double-plus” comes from the increment operator from C. C++ was developed to bring features from older languages to faster, more powerful platforms.

C++ occupies a similar area in the market to C, including systems programming and low-level hardware development. Over the years, the C++ standard libraries and specifications have been expanded considerably, leading to criticism that it has become overcomplicated and difficult to learn.

Pros

• Templating and inheritance make it easy to flexibly reuse design components
• A reputation for being very stable

Cons

• Often accused of being “bloated”
• C++’s complexity and abundance of features can compromise performance

4. Java

• Popularity: Very high
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$84,316 - $112,332/yr in the US
• Ease of Learning: Moderate to Difficult
• Use Cases: General Use and Specialty
  • Web applications
  • Mobile
  • Embedded systems

Java is the leading general-purpose application development language and framework. It was introduced in 1991 by Sun Microsystems as a high-level, compiled, memory-managed language.

Java’s syntax is similar to C/C++, with curly braces for closures and semicolons to end statements. Automatic memory management is one of the features that made Java so popular after its initial release. Before Java was introduced, languages that required manual memory management, such as C and C++, were dominant. Manual memory allocation is tedious and error-prone, so Java was hailed as a major step forward for application developers.

The promise of Java, beyond memory management, was its cross-platform capability. This was marketed as “write once, run anywhere.” The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) runs Java bytecode, which is compiled from the Java language. JVMs are available for most major operating systems, including Linux, Mac, and Windows. It doesn’t always work perfectly, but when it does, a program written in Java can run on any platform with a compatible JVM.

Java is used for business, web, and mobile applications and is the native language for Google’s Android OS. Java also powers millions of set-top boxes and embedded devices. Java development skills are highly sought after.

If you’re considering a career in software development, you should strongly consider learning Java.

Pros

• Write Once, Run Anywhere: One version of Java code will run on any machine.
• Backwards compatibility: the newest versions of Java are still (mostly) compatible with even the oldest, making migrations painless.
• Because Java has been so big for so long, there’s a huge ecosystem of frameworks, libraries, and community support.

Cons

• The backwards compatibility principle is sometimes taken too far, extending the life of outdated and flawed features that should be retired.
• Greedy with memory and is a relatively verbose language, especially compared to the modern syntax of competitors like Python.

5. C#

• Popularity: High
  • Salary expectations: typically falls between USD$97,446 and $120,439
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General Use
  • Web Applications
  • Local Applications
  • Services/Microservices

C# was developed and introduced by Microsoft in 2000, along with the overall .NET framework. Syntactically, C# is very similar to Java and C/C++. It is a compiled, object-oriented language that compiles to .NET Intermediate Language. Originally, C# was used for Microsoft-focused development of Windows Forms and web development with ASP.NET. The .NET ecosystem has evolved recently with the introduction of the .NET Standard and .NET Core. These new frameworks and standards are cross-platform, running on Windows, Linux, and Mac.

C# is popular for local and web application programming, often (but not necessarily) in systems developed primarily based on Microsoft technology. Microsoft’s Xamarin framework allows developers to write Android and iOS applications in C#. It is suitable for systems programming in some cases, and has libraries available for embedded systems.

Pros

• Simple syntax makes C# more readable than predecessors
• Combined with .NET, powerful cross-platform flexibility
• Maintained by Microsoft, with strong documentation, updates, and community support

Cons

• Dependent on .NET for cross-platform and performance capabilities
• Slow and steep learning curve

6. Visual Basic .NET

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$84,000 on average
• Ease of Learning: Easy
• Use Cases: General Use
  • Web Applications
  • Local Applications

Visual Basic.NET (VB.NET) is Microsoft’s implementation of the Visual Basic language that compiles to .NET Intermediate Language. This allows developers to write .NET applications using Visual Basic and is a favorite for beginners. Applications written in VB.NET are just as capable as any. However, VB.NET was never very popular for business applications, with serious application developers preferring C, C++, and C#. Most applications written in VB.NET tend to be older and written for specific purposes, and are likely to be considered to be “legacy” applications destined for decommission or redevelopment.

Pros

• Beginner-friendly
• Ideal for spinning up a quick prototype

Cons

• Bloated syntax
• Code written in VB .NET tends to have poor performance

7. JavaScript

• Popularity: Very High
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$97,858 and $120,182
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General Use
  • Local Applications
  • Web Applications

JavaScript is a high-level, dynamically typed, interpreted language. It uses Java-like syntax, hence the name JavaScript. JavaScript was first introduced in the early days of the public Internet, 1995. JavaScript is used to write code that runs in web browsers, on the client side. If you’ve been using the Web long enough to remember the introduction of Google Maps, you witnessed some of the first magic: the “infinite scrolling” in Maps is done using JavaScript.

Since its first introduction, JavaScript support has been added to all major web browsers. JavaScript frameworks including React, Angular, and Vue offer a Model-View-Controller application development paradigm, running entirely in the browser. JavaScript now supports the visual, browser-run elements of most modern web applications, which is why most Real User Monitoring tools cater for JavaScript.

JavaScript can also be combined with HTML to make cross-platform mobile applications. NodeJS is a web server that runs JavaScript on the server side. NodeJS applications are written entirely in JavaScript.

Given all these use cases and support, JavaScript is both popular and in high demand. It’s not very difficult to learn, though there are advanced programming techniques that take time to master. If you’re more comfortable with object-oriented languages, consider looking into TypeScript. TypeScript “overlays” object-oriented features and syntax, and transpiles to native JavaScript.

Pros

• Easy to learn and in wide demand
• Immense versatility (as evidenced by being so widespread)
• Rapid development and debugging

Cons

• JavaScript isn’t “strict” and won’t enforce good habits, leading to bad code from inexperienced developers
• Running client-side opens landmines in browser interpretation and security vulnerabilities

8. SQL

• Popularity: Very High
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$81,506 and $101,426
• Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Database Queries

SQL stands for Structured Query Language. SQL is used to query and modify data in a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS.) Vendor-specific implementations, such as PL/SQL (Oracle) and T-SQL (Microsoft) offer product-specific features.

SQL isn’t a general-purpose language that can be used to write applications. However, it is at least a useful, if not required skill of most developers. The term “full-stack developer” refers to a developer with a well-rounded skill set that includes all aspects of an application. This almost always includes accessing and saving data to a database. SQL is not hard to learn initially, though there are advanced use cases in Big Data and data analysis that require significant experience.

SQL is very popular with both developers and Database Administrators, so jobs that require SQL skills are plentiful. However, it is not a complete standalone skill set. SQL experience is a big plus on a resume, but it’s really only one of the skills required for any given job.

Pros

• Concise syntax and range of functions
• Invaluable for enterprise systems
• A valuable supplementary skill

Cons

• Reliant on a database engine to run
• Limited scope and capabilities

9. Assembly language

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$70,000 - $98,000
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Systems Programming
  • Hardware / Firmware development

“Assembly language” is a generic term for low-level code that closely represents the native machine instructions for a given microprocessor. Most of the languages on this list are “high-level” languages that are closer, syntactically, to English. High-level language code must be compiled down to an intermediate bytecode, or directly to machine instructions. Assembly code is assembled, (hence the name) not compiled.

The intent of a line of code written in C or Ruby is relatively easy to understand, just by reading it. Assembly, by contrast, is very difficult to understand without a careful reading of the entire program. Each operation, including math operations and moving data in and out of registers, is a complete statement. This means that it takes a lot more assembly code than C code to do the same amount of work.

Assembly code is most useful when performance is the most important goal. It is used for very low-level systems programming, or in some cases may be combined with application code for a performance boost. Jobs that require knowledge of assembly will include systems programming and hardware development, but it’s not a common core requirement.

Pros

• Minimal execution time and memory use
• Helps the developer to better understand machine-level computer architecture

Cons

• Very difficult to read and write
• A good supplementary skill, but not a first language

10. PHP

• Popularity: High
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$77,239 - $102, 413 in the USA
• Ease of Learning: Easy
• Use Cases: General Use
  • Web Applications

PHP originally stood for “Personal Home Page” as part of its first name, PHP/FI (Forms Interpreter.) The official acronym is now PHP: Hypertext Processor. Its primary role is as a web application server-side scripting system. It was originally developed to extend a CGI program to support HTML forms and database access. The code of a PHP program is mixed in with the HTML, making it similar to Microsoft’s classic (pre-.NET) Active Server Pages. The interpreter reads the HTML and code, and executes the code portions of the page.

PHP is popular because it’s easy to learn. It is also the basis of popular web-based applications such as WordPress and Joomla. However, PHP also has a mixed reputation relating to software quality. Early versions lacked security controls and features that made it difficult to develop highly-secure applications. Recent developments in PHP frameworks and libraries have made improvements in security.

There are plenty of PHP jobs available for content-focused web applications like WordPress, and proprietary systems developed in PHP.

Pros

• A powerful backend language
• Stable and maintainable
• Excellent community support and mature ecosystem

Cons

• Better suited for web applications than desktop
• Some criticisms that PHP lacks security

11. R

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$74,619 - $95,401
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Statistical Computation and Analysis

The programming language R is primarily used by statisticians and researchers to perform statistical analysis of datasets. Demographers, insurance actuaries, and other jobs focused on statistics use R. Because of these practical fields of application, its code mass is considerable. As with MATLAB, most of the knowledge needed to work with R relates to statistics. R programmers combine statistics knowledge with the essentials of programming and software development.

Not many programmers are proficient in R, and the number of jobs also isn’t huge due to the specialized nature of the work. However, R knowledge can be a big advantage for data analysts doing statistical work. If that work sounds like something you want to look into, you should strongly consider adding R to your toolbox.

Pros

• Powerful specialized tool for academia and industry

Cons

• Limited applications

12. Go

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: approximately USD$102,329 on average
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General
  • Web Applications
  • Local Applications

Go (also known as Golang) is a relatively new kid on the block. It was introduced by two Google engineers in 2009. Go syntax borrows heavily from C and Java. The design goals for Go included cross-platform compatibility, simplicity, and support for modern processors.

Go is relatively easy to learn. It has some of the complexities of C/C++ (such as pointers) but its syntax and conventions are simpler. There’s a rapidly growing following in engineering and DevOps circles, and Go is a popular language in growing fields like machine learning. And because knowledge of Go is comparatively rare, roles that require proficiency in Go can be more lucrative.

Pros

• Growing in popularity driven by Google’s endorsement
• Fast and powerful
• Experienced programmers can learn relatively quickly

Cons

• Not yet as firmly established as its peers

13. Visual Basic

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$62,403 and $78,169
• Ease of Learning: Easy
• Use Cases: General
  • Local Applications

Visual Basic (VB) was introduced by Microsoft as a variant of the BASIC programming language. It is an event-driven language and Integrated Development Environment, primarily used to develop Windows applications. VB was designed to be easy to learn and to rapidly produce usable software. Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) is embedded in older versions of Microsoft Office applications, such as Access. VBA was used to provide programmatic manipulation of Office documents. Access databases used VBA to compose mini-applications.

Microsoft deprecated Visual Basic 6.0, the last version of Visual Basic, in 2008. While much code remains in the wild, it is no longer supported and jobs that require Visual Basic are dwindling. It is likely that any remaining jobs are focused on maintenance and/or porting to a modern platform.

Pros

• A good tool for beginners
• Extremely accessible and simple

Cons

• No longer relevant
• Microsoft-specific

14. MATLAB

• Popularity: Medium
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$83,000 on average
• Ease of Learning: Moderate to Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Mathematical Research

MATLAB is not a programming language per se. Strictly speaking, it’s an application used to calculate and model complex mathematical computations. It is used primarily in research settings, at universities and labs. MATLAB can handle complex matrix manipulations, and supports extensions to use complex mathematical notation. Functions written in C, C#, and FORTRAN can be called from MATLAB.

The knowledge needed to use MATLAB is more related to mathematical concepts and skills than knowledge of programming. If you’re already an advanced math student, for example working on a PhD in mathematics, MATLAB is relatively easy to learn. MATLAB is a valuable skill for those seeking a job in engineering or mathematics.

Pros

• Ideal for visualizing and manipulating technical data
• Many libraries and functions to sort common use cases

Cons

• Narrow specialty applications
• Requires mathematical background

15. Swift

• Popularity: Medium
  • Salary expectations: Typically between USD$74,406 - $99,129
• Ease of Learning: Moderate to Difficult
• Use Cases: Apple Mobile and Desktop applications
  • MacBook
  • iPhone
  • iPad

Apple introduced Swift in 2014 as a modern alternative to Objective-C. Its goals were to be easier to debug than Objective-C. Swift syntax is easier to read, and requires less code to do the same amount of work. However, poor version compatibility introduced with new versions may have stunted its adoption.

Despite a complicated history, there are a fair number of jobs available for Swift, and it is likely that it’s here to stay. As mentioned in the Objective-C listing below, if you want to develop for the Apple ecosystem, hedge your bets and learn both.

Pros

• Popularity is stabilizing after a rocky beginning
• Less verbose and more readable, fostering better developer experience

Cons

• Lingering backwards compatibility issues

16. Delphi/Object Pascal

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD $80,000 - $150,000
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General
  • Local ppplications (mobile and desktop)
  • Web applications (frontend: transpilation to JS, backend: REST middlewares)

Delphi is a programming language and Integrated Developer Environment (IDE) for the Object Pascal language. Modern Object Pascal is an object-oriented, multi-paradigm derivative of procedurally oriented Pascal. Pascal was originally intended as a teaching tool, appeared in 1970.

This remains on the TIOBE list despite its age because there’s a lot of software out there written in Object Pascal with Delphi. New code is still being written in the language to this day. If you want to write software as a profession, Delphi and the Modern Object Pascal language is worth considering adding to your toolbelt.

Pros

• Concepts like OOP and structuring maintainable code are transferable to other languages
• Supports multi platform development for mobile, desktop and the web.
• Efficient turnaround from idea to product.
• Modern, fast compilers.

Cons

• Job market fluctuates and isn’t as robust as distant cousin C#.
• The IDE and compilers are proprietary, which open-source advocates don’t like.

17. Ruby{ruby}

• Popularity: High
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$71,811- $89,431
• Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate
• Use Cases: General
  • Web Applications
  • Scripting

Ruby is an interpreted, dynamically typed, object-oriented language first introduced in the mid-1990s. It was inspired by several other languages, including Lisp, Perl, and Ada. Ruby is very popular for web application development. The Ruby on Rails framework (now known simply as “Rails”) is a model-view-component server-side framework written in Ruby.

Ruby is fairly easy to learn. Its common use in web applications and steady growth makes job opportunities easy to find.

Pros

• Easy to learn
• Healthy job prospects
• A leader in the web dev world

Cons

• Not a high-performance language
• Difficulty of debugging

18. Perl

• Popularity: High
  • Salary expectations: typically approx. USD$77,714 on average
• Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate
• Use Cases: General
  • Local Applications
  • Web Applications

Perl was introduced in 1987 as a utilitarian scripting language, evolving from CGI scripting. Recent releases of Perl are quite different from early releases.

Perl is fairly easy to learn, but it has its detractors. The development of Perl was somewhat haphazard, leading to criticism that it is not well-organized. This has given Perl a reputation for being less than robust.

A lot of software has been written in Perl, and that continues to this day. Perl jobs are not hard to find. Having said that, it would be a stretch to say that Perl is a “modern” language. Perl may be a good language to learn early in a career as a way to get started, but it shouldn’t be the only one.

Pros

• Features like dynamic typing are designed to make development easier
• A practical and utilitarian language

Cons

• Use of special characters makes Perl an “ugly” language
• High CPU consumption

19. Objective-C

• Popularity: High
  • Salary expectations: typically approx. USD$104,000/yr in the USA
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Mobile Applications
  • Apple iOS devices: iPhone, iPad

Objective-C is a general purpose, compiled, object-oriented language. Its syntax is derived from Smalltalk. Until 2014, when Apple introduced Swift, it was the primary language used by Apple to develop applications for MacOS and iOS.

Objective-C is still relatively popular due to the large number of applications available that were written using it. Now that modern MacOS and iOS development is primarily in Swift, it’s likely that this popularity will eventually fall off as the number of supported applications tapers over time. Objective-C is not easy to learn. It uses syntax and language conventions that are not common to other languages, so experience with other languages does not apply well to Objective-C.

If you want to focus on software development for the Apple ecosystem, it’s a good idea to pick up both Objective-C and Swift. This will give you the ability to work on older applications written in Objective-C, and write new applications in Swift. Between the two, jobs are readily available.

Pros

• Still indispensable for iOS development

Cons

• Non-transferrable principles
• Will likely eventually be replaced
• Challenging to learn

20. Rust

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$140,000/yr on average
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty and General Use
  • Application/Software frameworks and components
  • Systems programming

Rust is a relatively new and powerful language that is popular for systems programming. Its design goals include safety, reliability, and speed. These features come at the cost of complexity and a high learning curve.

Rust is not a good first language, and is still a niche language. However, it’s become famous for having higher salaries associated with Rust than any other language, and the Rust community is vocal and passionate. Rust is great for a learning challenge, and there are jobs out there that use it, but if you’re just starting out, build your confidence in another language first.

Pros

• An extremely high-performance language
• Lucrative job market

Cons

• Difficult to learn
• Not as widespread as titans like Java or C#

21. Scratch

Popularity: Niche Salary expectations: n/a Ease of Learning: Easy Use Cases: Education

Scratch is a language designed to teach programming to beginners, developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at MIT. It’s designed to be simple and appealing, and allows users to create interactive stories, animations, games, and other interactive programs using a simple block-based visual interface. It’s free and open-source. Scratch is not suitable for professional use, and unless you want to teach programming, it has limited value. Jobs coding in Scratch are virtually non-existent, and its increased “popularity” is probably owing to growing interest in adding coding to early childhood curriculum.

Pros

• Simple, free, and accessible

Cons

• Not a professional programming language or career path

22. SAS

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$68,347 - $85,064
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: General
  • Local Applications

SAS originally stood for “Statistical Analysis System” and was first developed in 1966 on mainframe computers. As the name suggests, it was used for statistical data analysis.

SAS is less common now as modern statistical analysis tools have taken the lead, though there are still some jobs available and certain industries still favour SAS over alternatives like R.

Pros

• Still relevant in certain industries

Cons

• Diminishing relevance, has been superseded by newer alternatives

23. Kotlin

• Popularity: Low
  • Salary expectations: typically $82,000-$113,000/yr in the USA
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: Mobile Development
  • Android Applications

Kotlin runs on the Java VM and compiles to JavaScript. Its syntax is very similar to Java. Google supports Kotlin for Android OS development.

Kotlin has risen dramatically in popularity in the last 5 years, but it remains a niche language overall. It’s likely to remain a key player in the Android landscape, so if your interests lie there, Kotlin is a good option.

Pros

*A strong asset for Android developers

• A fast-growing language

Cons

• Still a niche language with limited demand

36. Julia

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$88,000 - $94,000 in the US
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Data Science

Julia is a relatively new language, introduced in 2012. Its syntax is a descendant of C. Julia was designed for data science and analytics applications.

Julia is another language that is closely associated with the work it is designed to support. If you are already in a data analytics job, there’s a good chance you have learned Julia.

Pros

• Simple syntax and rapid development
• Jobs can be well-paid owing to specialty language requirements

Cons

• Slow to compile
• Poor interoperability with other languages

25. Lua

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: Typically between USD$59,000 - $87,000
• Ease of Learning: Easy
• Use Cases: General Use
  • General Programming

Lua was developed in Brazil, during a time when trade policies made it prohibitively expensive to purchase licensed software from elsewhere in the world. It was designed to be portable and easy to learn for non-technical users. Lua has become popular among novice game developers as a scripting language.

Lua is a niche language with few jobs available. Learning Lua may make you a better, more well-rounded developer and help you get a foothold in the game dev world, but it isn’t likely to land you a job.

Pros

• Ease of learning suitable for beginners
• Portability

Cons

• Not in hot demand

26. Fortran

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: typically USD$$65k - $86k on average
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Mainframe Programming

FORTRAN was developed by IBM for scientific and research-focused programming. It was originally introduced in 1957, making it one of the oldest languages on this list.

While FORTRAN’s popularity has waned over the decades, it has remained in use in specialty fields like physics and astronomy and in supercomputing. It’s risen in the TIOBE index in recent years as the demand has increased for massive volumes of complex data processing.

Pros

• Uniquely powerful for scientific computing purposes

Cons

• Still an obscure language with very specific applications

27. COBOL

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: typically falls between USD$70,523 - $88,475
• Ease of Learning: Moderate to Difficult
• Use Cases:
  • Mainframe Application Development

COBOL is a very old language used primarily for mainframe development. It’s fairly difficult to learn in comparison to more modern languages.

Programmers that have been using COBOL for decades are enjoying high employability, due to the scarcity of COBOL programmers that are working and not retired. However, this is not a good reason to learn COBOL if you don’t already know it. Most COBOL code is being rewritten or replaced, so you’re better off investing in new skills for a new generation of languages and platforms.

Pros

• Still popular in government systems
• Relatively readable

Cons

• Becoming completely obsolete
• English-like syntax results in bloated and verbose reading

28. Lisp

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$94,000 on average
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Systems programming

LISP is only one year younger than FORTRAN, making it one of the “great grandaddy” languages of this list. LISP has inspired the design of many younger languages on this list, including JavaScript, Scala, Python, and many others.

LISP isn’t very easy to learn, and has a very verbose syntax (it’s great if you LOVE typing parentheses!). However, LISP is another niche language that’s enjoying a resurgence because of the explosion of ML and AI programming, and programmers with established experience in LISP are suddenly at a premium. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s a good idea to start learning it as a beginner now, but LISP is also valuable for teaching a deep understanding of the languages that came after it.

Pros

• Understanding of LISP helps speed up learning of its descendant languages

Cons

• The revival of LISP for AI applications doesn’t necessarily mean future growth

29. Visual FoxPro

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$58,000 - $79,000 in the USAe
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General

Visual FoxPro is a data-centric, object-oriented language and development environment created by Microsoft in 1992. It’s best suited for building database-driven applications, with support for SQL queries, data manipulation, and report generation.

The visual development environment makes it easier to design and build user interfaces and debug and test code.

Pros

• Easily and rapidly build Microsoft applications.

Cons

• No built-in support for web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Only compatible with Windows, so can’t be used for building cross-platform applications.
• No longer actively developed or supported by Microsoft.

30. Ada

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$89,000 on average
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General Use

Ada is a middle-aged language, first introduced in 1980. It’s most closely related to Pascal. Ada has many typical high-level language features, including static typing and object-orientation. It’s designed to encourage careful and secure programming, as evidence by its popular use in defense systems.

Ada is a niche language with a few jobs available. Most of that work is likely to be maintenance and porting to newer platforms.

Pros

• Simple syntax
• Relatively easy to learn
• Reliable and secure

Cons

• Not widely used outside of certain niche sectors
• Being replaced by Rust

31. Dart

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: approx USD$83,000/yr on average
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: General
  • Web Applications
  • Mobile Applications

Dart was introduced in 2011 by engineers at Google. It is a statically-typed, compiled, object-oriented language with a syntax similar to C. Dart transpiles to JavaScript.

Dart is still young and finding a foothold, but Flutter, a popular Dart framework, has helped boost demand and is especially popular for mobile development.

Pros

• A high-performance language
• Developer-friendly syntax
• Efficient cross-platform development with Flutter

Cons

• A new language with limited community support and demand

32. Scala

• Popularity: Moderate - High
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$75,046 - $118,352
• Ease of Learning: Moderate to Difficult
• Use Cases: General Use
  • Software Frameworks
  • Web Applications

Scala was designed to fill gaps in Java, such as functional programming features. It has gained traction in the development of software libraries and applications.

Scala has been criticized for its steep learning curve. However, many of the principles learned in Scala apply neatly to other languages, including functional programming. There are plenty of Scala jobs available. It may not make a good starter language, but if you have some experience it’s worth looking into.

Pros

• Safe multi-threaded development
• Flexible and reliable

Cons

• Slow to compile
• Difficult and slow to get started with

33. Prolog

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: typically between USD$84,000 - $114,000/yr in the USA
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty
  • Artificial Intelligence

Prolog is a declarative language based on fairly advanced mathematical and logical theories. It is used for complex systems and can process sophisticated outputs in just a few lines of code.

However, to get there you have to learn Prolog’s syntax, which can be very difficult. Unless you happen to be in a field that uses Prolog, or want to get into AI or logic programming, it’s probably safe to skip it.

Pros

• Can do much more with fewer lines of code
• Well suited for complex database queries

Cons

• A steep and high learning curve
• Limited to specialized applications

34. D Lang

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: D is currently too obscure to produce much reliable salary data
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: Specialty

D is a general-purpose programming language intended to combine the performance of compiled languages with the ease and flexibility of interpreted languages. It’s statically typed and supports both imperative and object-oriented programming.

D’s expressive and readable syntax, garbage collection, and strong static type system all contribute to a high standard of developer experience. It has good support for concurrent and parallel programming, which makes it popular for building high-performance applications. However, D’s ecosystem lacks maturity and there’s been major inconsistency in standard libraries and poor packages. Overall, D is a solid language but growth prospects are uncertain.

Pros

• Suited to building high-performance applications
• Static typing will catch errors at compile time to improve reliability.

Cons

• Still fairly obscure
• Can be challenging to learn

35. PL/SQL

• Popularity: Low to Medium
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$89,000/yr on average
• Ease of Learning: Moderate
• Use Cases: Database Queries
  • Oracle Databases

PL/SQL is the vendor-specific implementation of the SQL language. The syntax and features of PL/SQL align with features of Oracle databases. All dialects of SQL are moderately difficult to learn. Simple data querying and updating is fairly easy to learn. Joins, aggregation, and advanced concepts such as cursors require more understanding of database theory.

Oracle is a dominant database vendor, so PL/SQL jobs aren’t hard to find. If you are an Oracle Database Administrator, PL/SQL is a must-learn. Full-stack developers that work at the data “layer” should consider learning PL/SQL and other dialects.

Pros

• Backed and maintained by heavyweight Oracle
• A powerful tool for application development

Cons

• High memory consumption
• Niche uses

36. Bash

• Popularity: Low (see details)
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$67,000 on average
• Ease of Learning: Easy to Moderate
• Use Cases:
  • Linux scripting and automation

Bash is a command processor, where scripts are used to automate tasks on Unix and Linux platforms. The syntax is fairly simple and easy to pick up.

Bash skills are required primarily for Unix/Linux administration, and in roles that need to write scripts for those platforms. Developers can use Bash to help automate software delivery pipelines. Bash is an important skill to develop for those use cases and others, but it’s not truly a full programming language alone.

Pros

• Very efficient within its specific purposes
• A powerful automation tool

Cons

• Only a component skill used to supplement knowledge of fully-fledged programming languages

37. Powershell

• Popularity: Medium
  • Salary expectations: typically falls between USD$68,355 - $101,697/yr
• Ease of Learning: Moderate - Difficult
• Use Cases: Windows
  • Scripting

PowerShell is a command-line shell and scripting language developed by Microsoft in 2006 based on Microsoft’s popular .NET framework. It’s designed for automating and managing tasks in Windows environments, although it can also be used on other platforms like Linux and macOS.

Powershell’s built-in cmdlets (command-line tools) provide access to a wide range of functions like file and folder management and system administration. It features support for object-oriented programming, event-driven programming, and a powerful scripting language.

PowerShell can be challenging to start out with for users who aren’t familiar with command-line interfaces or scripting languages.

Pros

• Included with all recent versions of Windows and is widely used in Windows development
• Has seen a heathy surge in popularity since becoming open source a few years ago

Cons

• In terms of performance, PowerShell isn’t your best option

37. Haskell

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: typically fall between USD$68,172 - $98,607 in the USA
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: General/Specialty

Haskell is one of the older purely functional, high-level languages, dating back to 1990. Functional languages focus on expressing intent through mathematical statements, rather than imperative subroutines that “act” on data. Many other functional languages derive from Haskell.

Haskell is somewhat difficult to learn, however, it is a good opportunity to learn functional programming. If you learn Haskell, you’ll learn this method of writing software, which is transferable to other languages and contexts. You’ll also be valuable to a niche market of jobs that need this specialized method of software development.

Pros

• Teaches valuable functional development skills
• Extremely maintainable
• Fast development

Cons

• Hard to learn
• Still fairly obscure and growth has been flat

39. Logo

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: n/a
• Ease of Learning: Easy
• Use Cases: Education

Logo is a high-level programming language that was designed in the 1960s as a tool for teaching programming to kids. It uses turtle graphics, where a “turtle” moves around the screen while the user commands it draw lines and shapes.

Because it’s designed for kids, it’s visual-based and easy to learn and use, and more engaging and interactive for learners than conventional languages. With Logo being geared towards educational use, and especially towards young users, applications are extremely limited outside of this.

Pros

• Simple and accessible for learners

Cons

• Not a professional programming language or career

40. Transact-SQL

• Popularity: Niche
  • Salary expectations: approx. USD$72,000/yr in the USA
• Ease of Learning: Difficult
• Use Cases: General/Specialty
  • Microsoft database management

Transact-SQL (T-SQL) is a proprietary programming language developed by Microsoft for managing and querying data in Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database. It is an extension of the ANSI SQL standard and is used to create and modify database objects, insert and update data, and query and analyze data.

It integrates with other Microsoft technologies like Visual Studio and .NET, making it easier to build applications that interact with a SQL Server database. It may have a steep learning curve for users who are not familiar with SQL or database concepts.

Pros

• Works seamlessly with the rest of the Microsoft development suite

Cons

• Only supported by Microsoft SQL Server and Azure SQL Database

How to choose a programming language

Programming languages are tools that express intent in a structured way. Software developers choose a language the way a construction worker selects a tool; by picking the best one for the job.

The languages on this list all have a variety of attributes:

• Procedural
• Object-Oriented
• Imperative
• Declarative
• Functional

… and many more

These attributes, combined with the requirements of a development task, make some languages better than others for your context. Understanding the differences between these attributes, combined with experience, helps developers choose the right tool for the job they’re doing and their personal career objectives.

What’s likely to be most in-demand in the future?

The appetite for front-end developers continues to grow, with JavaScript holding strong as one of the most valuable skills for job seekers.

Many of the languages that have recently entered or climbed the TIOBE list are associated with data science and machine learning, as these industries have grown drastically. It’s likely that other emerging technologies and fields will fuel demand for these and other purpose-built, niche languages.

Some predict that ultimately functional languages like Scala and Haskell will inevitably win out in the long run because of their structured nature, making for more scalable, reliable code.

Choosing the right language combines concerns about the knowledge and experience of a development team, the maturity of the language and its supporting libraries, and more.

So, which programming language should you choose to learn?

Now we’ve shown you some of the most popular programming languages, it’s time to choose which is the best for your project and individual goals. If you’re a total beginner, it’s a good idea to choose something from the top 5 or so, with huge community support, heaps of learning resources, and versatile areas of application. If you’re more experienced or working in a specialty area like data science, you can be more discerning. If you’re seeking higher salaries, check out a language with niche demand as you may be paid a premium.

Happy coding!