The Top 100+ Developer Tools 2020


Welcome to The 7th Annual StackShare Awards! 🎉 (Check out the 2019 awards if you missed them).

This year we analyzed over eight million data points shared by you- the StackShare community- to bring you these rankings 🔥

If this is your first time seeing the StackShare Awards, get comfy, you're gonna be here a while 😏

ICYMI: StackShare Enterprise - is now available for FREE in the GitHub Marketplace 😱

And now, what you've all been waiting for... here are the categories for the winners of the StackShare Top Tools Awards 2020:

As always, this is our biggest undertaking of every year- we comb through our enormous data set to find the good stuff- the best tools that you should know about, try out, or already be using. We aggregated usage from 300K+ tech stacks , over 3.2M follows , and millions more developer comments, reviews, and votes (more on methodology below) . Let’s dive in!

New Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Simple

We'd be lying if we said this one wasn't a surprise to us. The fact that everyone went into lockdown across the globe due to COVID-19, meant that remote work tools were hot in 2020 🔥 We saw a massive uptick in traffic to Stackups (comparisons) for Zoom, Google Meet, Discord, and tons of other tools that people were researching to make working from home easier. Yet amidst all of this, 2020 may actually go down as the year of the freelancer, thanks to Simple's creator Rasmus Myhrberg, a Swedish designer and founder.

Fortunately, software developers and engineers all over the world were able to not only keep working during the lockdown but many ended up working even more. With everyone working outside of the office, it probably shouldn't be a big surprise that a tool to make sure you keep track of your work time is number one. Simple is exactly what it sounds like: a dead simple way to track tasks and how long you're spending on them. Simple syncs in real-time across your devices: mobile, desktop, and tablet. Give it a try if you want to see what all the excitement is about. Head over to Simple's website to learn more.

» Follow Simple | » Learn more about Simple

#3: Playwright

Browser Testing

Node library to automate Chromium, Firefox and WebKit with a single API (By Microsoft)

» Playwright's profile | » Playwright's website

#4: Jami

Web and Video Conferencing

GNU end-to-end encrypted alternative to Zoom and Jitsi

» Jami's profile | » Jami's website

#5: Gappsy

No Code Platforms

No code mobile app builder like Bubble with faster drag/drop

» Gappsy's profile | » Gappsy's website

#6: Netflix Dispatch

Monitoring Aggregation

Open-source crisis management framework (By Netflix)

» Netflix Dispatch's profile | » Netflix Dispatch's website

#7: Chakra UI

UI Components

Modular and accessible UI components for React apps

» Chakra UI's profile | » Chakra UI's website

#8: Linear

Issue Tracking

Streamlined issue tracking for software teams

» Linear's profile | » Linear's website

#9: Lens

Container Tools

Open-source IDE to control your Kubernetes clusters

» Lens's profile | » Lens's website

#10: Power Virtual Agents

Chatbot Platforms & Tools

Easily build, manage, and deploy bots with a no-code interface

» Power Virtual Agents's profile | » Power Virtual Agents's website

#11: Amazon Honeycode

No Code Platforms

Build web and mobile apps without writing code

» Amazon Honeycode's profile | » Amazon Honeycode's website

#12: Gitpod

Cloud IDE

Always ready to code - spin up fresh, automated dev environments for each task, in the cloud, in seconds.

» Gitpod's profile | » Gitpod's website

#13: Twilio Video App

Web and Video Conferencing

Open source video conferencing apps for iOS, Android and web (By Twilio)

» Twilio Video App's profile | » Twilio Video App's website

#14: Supabase

Realtime Backend / API

The open source Firebase alternative

» Supabase's profile | » Supabase's website

#15: WSO2 Identity Server

User Management and Authentication

Open source identity and access management

» WSO2 Identity Server's profile | » WSO2 Identity Server's website

#16: Tables

Spreadsheets as a Backend

Tables helps teams easily track & automate tasks (by Google)

» Tables's profile | » Tables's website

#17: CapRover

Platform as a Service

Build your own PaaS in just a few minutes

» CapRover's profile | » CapRover's website

#18: Mediasoup

Web and Video Conferencing

Cutting Edge WebRTC Video Conferencing

» Mediasoup's profile | » Mediasoup's website

#19: OBS Studio

Video Streaming

Open-source software for video recording and live streaming

» OBS Studio's profile | » OBS Studio's website

#20: Ziflow

Visual Collaboration

Online Proofing Software for Agencies and Brands

» Ziflow's profile | » Ziflow's website

#21: Passwarden

Password Management

Secure storage for your passwords & personal information

» Passwarden's profile | » Passwarden's website

#22: ent

Microframeworks (Backend)

An entity framework for Go

» ent's profile | » ent's website

#23: VSCodium

Text Editor

Free/Libre Open Source Software Binaries of VSCode

» VSCodium's profile | » VSCodium's website

#24: PostHog

Funnel Analysis Analytics

Open-source product analytics for developers

» PostHog's profile | » PostHog's website

#25: WorkOS

User Management and Authentication

APIs for enterprise features like SSO/SAML

» WorkOS's profile | » WorkOS's website

New Tool of the Year: Runner-Up (2020)


#26: BaseDash

Database Tools

Airtable for your product’s actual database

» BaseDash's profile | » BaseDash's website

#27: Trax

Machine Learning Tools

Your path to advanced deep learning (By Google Brain)

» Trax's profile | » Trax's website

#28: Microsoft Fast Design

Front-End Frameworks

The adaptive interface system for modern web experiences

» Microsoft Fast Design's profile | » Microsoft Fast Design's website

#29: OrbitDB

Databases

Peer-to-Peer Databases for the Decentralized Web

» OrbitDB's profile | » OrbitDB's website

#30: NoCodeAPI

No Code Platforms

Build third-party application APIs without backend

» NoCodeAPI's profile | » NoCodeAPI's website

#31: Kind

Container Tools

Run local Kubernetes clusters using Docker

» Kind's profile | » Kind's website

#32: Amazon Timestream

Databases

Fast, scalable, serverless time series database

» Amazon Timestream's profile | » Amazon Timestream's website

#33: Nhost

Realtime Backend / API

Open source Firebase alternative with GraphQL

» Nhost's profile | » Nhost's website

#34: Explore

Business Intelligence

Free chart maker & visual exploration for spreadsheet data

» Explore's profile | » Explore's website

#35: Jitsi Meet

Web and Video Conferencing

Secure, fully featured, and completely free video conferencing

» Jitsi Meet's profile | » Jitsi Meet's website

#36: IHP

Frameworks (Full Stack)

The Type-safe Web Framework for Builders

» IHP's profile | » IHP's website

#37: CTO.ai

Slack Tools

Build, share & run developer workflows in the CLI + Slack

» CTO.ai's profile | » CTO.ai's website

#38: Apache OpenMeetings

Web and Video Conferencing

Video chat, messaging, white board, doc editing and more

» Apache OpenMeetings's profile | » Apache OpenMeetings's website

#39: EasyOCR

Image Analysis API

Ready-to-use OCR with 40 languages

» EasyOCR's profile | » EasyOCR's website

#40: Redwood

Frameworks (Full Stack)

An integrated, full-stack, JavaScript web framework for the JAMstack

» Redwood's profile | » Redwood's website

#41: Localazy

Translation Service

Localize your digital product while you sleep

» Localazy's profile | » Localazy's website

#42: QuestDB

Databases

The fastest open source time series database

» QuestDB's profile | » QuestDB's website

#43: Roam Research

Knowledge Management

A note-taking tool for networked thought

» Roam Research's profile | » Roam Research's website

#44: Serverless-Dev-Tools

Serverless / Task Processing

Chrome Dev Tools but for Serverless

» Serverless-Dev-Tools's profile | » Serverless-Dev-Tools's website

#45: Appsmith

Low Code Platforms

Open source framework to build powerful custom internal apps

» Appsmith's profile | » Appsmith's website

#46: Monotp

User Management and Authentication

Never lose your OTP tokens again

» Monotp's profile | » Monotp's website

#47: Rudderstack

Analytics Integrator

The CDP for developers

» Rudderstack's profile | » Rudderstack's website

#48: Blook

Legal Services

Register your company In The U.S globally

» Blook's profile | » Blook's website

Analytics Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Google Analytics

General Analytics

Enterprise-class web analytics.

» Google Analytics's profile | » Google Analytics's website

#2: Mixpanel

General Analytics

Powerful, self-serve product analytics to help you convert, engage, and retain more users

» Mixpanel's profile | » Mixpanel's website

#3: Segment

Analytics Integrator

A single hub to collect, translate and send your data with the flip of a switch.

» Segment's profile | » Segment's website

#4: Optimizely

A/B Testing Analytics

Experimentation platform for marketing, product, and engineering teams, with feature flags and personalization

» Optimizely's profile | » Optimizely's website

#5: Amplitude

Mobile Analytics

User analytics to fuel explosive user growth

» Amplitude's profile | » Amplitude's website

Application Hosting Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Amazon EC2

Cloud Hosting

Scalable, pay-as-you-go compute capacity in the cloud

» Amazon EC2's profile | » Amazon EC2's website

#2: Firebase

Realtime Backend / API

The Realtime App Platform

» Firebase's profile | » Firebase's website

#3: Heroku

Platform as a Service

Build, deliver, monitor and scale web apps and APIs with a trail blazing developer experience.

» Heroku's profile | » Heroku's website

#4: AWS Lambda

Serverless / Task Processing

Automatically run code in response to modifications to objects in Amazon S3 buckets, messages in Kinesis streams, or updates in DynamoDB

» AWS Lambda's profile | » AWS Lambda's website

#5: Microsoft Azure

Cloud Hosting

Integrated cloud services and infrastructure to support computing, database, analytics, mobile, and web scenarios.

» Microsoft Azure's profile | » Microsoft Azure's website

Web Server of the Year (2020)


#1: NGINX

Web Servers

A high performance free open source web server powering busiest sites on the Internet.

» NGINX's profile | » NGINX's website

#2: Apache HTTP Server

Web Servers

Open-source HTTP server for modern operating systems including UNIX and Windows

» Apache HTTP Server's profile | » Apache HTTP Server's website

#3: Apache Tomcat

Web Servers

An open source software implementation of the Java Servlet and JavaServer Pages technologies

» Apache Tomcat's profile | » Apache Tomcat's website

#4: Microsoft IIS

Web Servers

A web server for Microsoft Windows

» Microsoft IIS's profile | » Microsoft IIS's website

#5: Gunicorn

Web Servers

A Python WSGI HTTP Server for UNIX

» Gunicorn's profile | » Gunicorn's website

Application Utility of the Year (2020)


#1: Postman

API Tools

Only complete API development environment

» Postman's profile | » Postman's website

#2: Elasticsearch

Search as a Service

Open Source, Distributed, RESTful Search Engine

» Elasticsearch's profile | » Elasticsearch's website

#3: Google Maps

Mapping APIs

Build highly customisable maps with your own content and imagery

» Google Maps's profile | » Google Maps's website

#4: GitHub Pages

Static Web Hosting

Public webpages freely hosted and easily published.

» GitHub Pages's profile | » GitHub Pages's website

#5: Amazon Route 53

DNS Management

A highly available and scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service.

» Amazon Route 53's profile | » Amazon Route 53's website

Assets & Media Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Google Drive

File Storage

A safe place for all your files

» Google Drive's profile | » Google Drive's website

#2: CloudFlare

Content Delivery Network

The Web Performance & Security Company.

» CloudFlare's profile | » CloudFlare's website

#3: Dropbox

File Storage

Build the power of Dropbox into your apps

» Dropbox's profile | » Dropbox's website

#4: Amazon CloudFront

Content Delivery Network

Content delivery with low latency and high data transfer speeds

» Amazon CloudFront's profile | » Amazon CloudFront's website

#5: Fastly

Content Delivery Network

We're redefining content delivery.

» Fastly's profile | » Fastly's website

Back Office Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Gmail

Email Services

A free web-based e-mail service

» Gmail's profile | » Gmail's website

#2: Google Sheets

Spreadsheets Online

Create and edit spreadsheets online, for free

» Google Sheets's profile | » Google Sheets's website

#3: Microsoft Excel

Spreadsheets Online

A spreadsheet program included in the Microsoft Office suite of applications

» Microsoft Excel's profile | » Microsoft Excel's website

#4: Xero

Accounting

Beautiful accounting software - online, simple, smart & magical.

» Xero's profile | » Xero's website

#5: QuickBooks

Accounting

Track expenses, customise invoices, run reports and more, all from one place

» QuickBooks's profile | » QuickBooks's website

Build, Test, & Deploy Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: GitHub

Code Collaboration & Version Control

Powerful collaboration, review, and code management for open source and private development projects

» GitHub's profile | » GitHub's website

#2: Docker

Virtual Machine Platforms & Containers

Enterprise Container Platform for High-Velocity Innovation.

» Docker's profile | » Docker's website

#3: Visual Studio Code

Text Editor

Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft

» Visual Studio Code's profile | » Visual Studio Code's website

#4: npm

Front End Package Manager

The package manager for JavaScript.

» npm's profile | » npm's website

#5: Jenkins

Continuous Integration

An extendable open source continuous integration server

» Jenkins's profile | » Jenkins's website

Collaboration Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Slack

Group Chat & Notifications

Bring all your communication together in one place

» Slack's profile | » Slack's website

#2: Jira

Issue Tracking

The #1 software development tool used by agile teams to plan, track, and release great software.

» Jira's profile | » Jira's website

#3: Trello

Project Management

Your entire project, in a single glance

» Trello's profile | » Trello's website

#4: Confluence

Project Management

One place to share, find, and collaborate on information

» Confluence's profile | » Confluence's website

#5: G Suite

Productivity Suite

Collaboration and productivity apps for Business

» G Suite's profile | » G Suite's website

Communications Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Twilio

Voice and SMS

Bring voice and messaging to your web and mobile applications.

» Twilio's profile | » Twilio's website

#2: Amazon SES

Transactional Email

Bulk and transactional email-sending service.

» Amazon SES's profile | » Amazon SES's website

#3: Twilio SendGrid

Transactional Email

Email Delivery. Simplified.

» Twilio SendGrid's profile | » Twilio SendGrid's website

#4: Mailgun

Transactional Email

The Email Service for Developers.

» Mailgun's profile | » Mailgun's website

#5: Mandrill

Transactional Email

Send transactional, triggered, and personalized email, then track results.

» Mandrill's profile | » Mandrill's website

Data Store/Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: MySQL

Databases

The world's most popular open source database

» MySQL's profile | » MySQL's website

#2: MongoDB

Databases

The database for giant ideas

» MongoDB's profile | » MongoDB's website

#3: PostgreSQL

Databases

A powerful, open source object-relational database system

» PostgreSQL's profile | » PostgreSQL's website

#4: Redis

In-Memory Databases

Open source (BSD licensed), in-memory data structure store

» Redis's profile | » Redis's website

#5: Amazon S3

Cloud Storage

Store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web

» Amazon S3's profile | » Amazon S3's website

Design Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: InVision

Interactive Mockups

Prototyping & Collaboration For Design Teams

» InVision's profile | » InVision's website

#2: Figma

Graphic Design

The collaborative interface design tool.

» Figma's profile | » Figma's website

#3: Adobe Photoshop

Graphic Design

The industry standard in design, photography, video editing & more

» Adobe Photoshop's profile | » Adobe Photoshop's website

#4: Adobe XD

Graphic Design

UX/UI design and collaboration tool

» Adobe XD's profile | » Adobe XD's website

#5: Sketch

Graphic Design

Professional Digital Design for Mac

» Sketch's profile | » Sketch's website

Language of the Year (2020)


#1: JavaScript

Languages

Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions

» JavaScript's profile | » JavaScript's website

#2: Python

Languages

A clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.

» Python's profile | » Python's website

#3: Node.js

Frameworks (Full Stack)

A platform built on Chrome's JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications

» Node.js's profile | » Node.js's website

#4: TypeScript

Languages

A superset of JavaScript that compiles to clean JavaScript output

» TypeScript's profile | » TypeScript's website

#5: Java

Languages

A concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible

» Java's profile | » Java's website

Front-end Framework of the Year (2020)


#1: React

Javascript UI Libraries

A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

» React's profile | » React's website

#2: Vue.js

Javascript MVC Frameworks

A progressive framework for building user interfaces

» Vue.js's profile | » Vue.js's website

#3: jQuery

Javascript UI Libraries

The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

» jQuery's profile | » jQuery's website

#4: Redux

State Management Library

Predictable state container for JavaScript apps

» Redux's profile | » Redux's website

#5: jQuery UI

Javascript UI Libraries

Curated set of user interface interactions, effects, widgets, and themes built on top of the jQuery JavaScript Library

» jQuery UI's profile | » jQuery UI's website

Backend/Full Stack Framework of the Year (2020)


#1: Django

Frameworks (Full Stack)

The Web framework for perfectionists with deadlines

» Django's profile | » Django's website

#2: Spring Boot

Frameworks (Full Stack)

Create Spring-powered, production-grade applications and services with absolute minimum fuss

» Spring Boot's profile | » Spring Boot's website

#3: Laravel

Frameworks (Full Stack)

A PHP Framework For Web Artisans

» Laravel's profile | » Laravel's website

#4: Rails

Frameworks (Full Stack)

Web development that doesn't hurt

» Rails's profile | » Rails's website

#5: Symfony

Frameworks (Full Stack)

A PHP full-stack web framework

» Symfony's profile | » Symfony's website

Mobile Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: React Native

Cross-Platform Mobile Development

A framework for building native apps with React

» React Native's profile | » React Native's website

#2: Android SDK

Frameworks (Full Stack)

An SDK that provides you the API libraries and developer tools necessary to build, test, and debug apps for Android.

» Android SDK's profile | » Android SDK's website

#3: Swift

Languages

An innovative new programming language for Cocoa and Cocoa Touch.

» Swift's profile | » Swift's website

#4: Flutter

Cross-Platform Mobile Development

Cross-platform mobile framework from Google

» Flutter's profile | » Flutter's website

#5: Kotlin

Languages

Statically typed Programming Language targeting JVM and JavaScript

» Kotlin's profile | » Kotlin's website

Monitoring Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: Kibana

Monitoring Tools

Visualize your Elasticsearch data and navigate the Elastic Stack

» Kibana's profile | » Kibana's website

#2: Grafana

Monitoring Tools

Open source Graphite & InfluxDB Dashboard and Graph Editor

» Grafana's profile | » Grafana's website

#3: Logstash

Log Management

Collect, Parse, & Enrich Data

» Logstash's profile | » Logstash's website

#4: Amazon CloudWatch

Cloud Monitoring

Monitor AWS resources and custom metrics generated by your applications and services

» Amazon CloudWatch's profile | » Amazon CloudWatch's website

#5: Sentry

Exception Monitoring

See performance issues, fix errors faster, and optimize code health.

» Sentry's profile | » Sentry's website

Payments Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: PayPal

Payment Services

Send Money, Pay Online or Set Up a Merchant Account

» PayPal's profile | » PayPal's website

#2: Stripe

Payment Services

Payments for developers

» Stripe's profile | » Stripe's website

#3: Braintree

Payment Services

Accept payments in your app or website today

» Braintree's profile | » Braintree's website

#4: Blockchain

Bitcoin Services

An incredibly easy method for websites to send and receive bitcoin payments

» Blockchain 's profile | » Blockchain 's website

#5: Adyen

Payment Services

One integration allows businesses to accept 250 payment methods, from wherever people pay

» Adyen's profile | » Adyen's website

Support, Sales, and Marketing Tool of the Year (2020)


#1: WordPress

Self-Hosted Blogging / CMS

A semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability.

» WordPress's profile | » WordPress's website

#2: Mailchimp

Email Marketing

Easy email newsletters

» Mailchimp's profile | » Mailchimp's website

#3: Google AdSense

Advertising

A program that allows bloggers and website owners to make money by displaying Google ads

» Google AdSense's profile | » Google AdSense's website

#4: HubSpot

Marketing Automation

All the software you need to do inbound marketing.

» HubSpot's profile | » HubSpot's website

#5: Zendesk

Help Desk

The leading cloud-based customer service software solution.

» Zendesk's profile | » Zendesk's website

Top Community Members (2020)


As we say every year, these rankings are brought to you, by YOU. The StackShare community makes these awards possible by sharing not only what you're using, but more importantly, why you chose your stack. This year we launched our most exciting collaboration feature yet: Stack Advice , an easy way to get and give advice on specific tech stack decisions. Stack Advice is a new way for you to connect with a growing community of well over half a million developers to get help making important technology decisions.

So for this year's awards we wanted to recognize the community members that chose to give their fellow developers advice in their time of need, on all sorts of important tech stack decisions. In just 6 months, you and the rest of the community have participated in over 3,000 discussions via Stack Advice 🎉

While there are thousands of developers that contributed in a major way to all this awesome stack advising- the 15 below deserve special recognition for being willing to take so much time out of their days, just to help someone out.

Thank you to everyone who asked for advice and to everyone who chimed in with their recommendations! You can click each developer's link below to see all the Decisions and advice they shared!

Methodology:

For tool rankings, scores are calculated using a combination of # of stacks a tool was added to, number of votes for one-liners contributed by the community, # of follows, and profile views for the year. New Tool rankings were chosen from tools that were created and added to StackShare in 2020 with follows weighing more than other metrics since new tools don’t just enter stacks overnight.

As usual, we removed Git from the rankings in the DevOps rankings since many developers don't list it in their stack (and instead only list Git collaboration platforms like GitHub).

If you have any questions about the rankings, drop us a line at team@stackshare.io!