School Research: Habits and Preferences of Julia Developers

Community
1

Hi everyone!

Currently I’m conducting a small scale research into the habits and preferences of developers that use the Julia language.

Specifically:

  • What online platform you go to for troubleshooting while coding in Julia.
  • What platforms and communities regarding Julia you are familiar with and use.
  • The type of content you like to consume regarding Julia.
  • What could compel you to adopt or purchase an extra tool/software to help you code in Julia.

I made a simple Google Form with 9 multiple choice questions and it would mean alot if I could get even a small amount of data to include in my paper! :smiley:

This is for a school assignment that might end up being used by a startup company in the Julia market.

Thanks in advance to anyone who is willing to spare a couple minutes,
-Réno

2

Welcome, Réno! This kind of survey is generally fine to share here, especially if it’s clearly for school research.

One suggestion: since you mention it “might end up being used by a startup company,” it would be good to clarify in the form or post who will have access to the responses, whether answers are anonymous, and how the data may be used. That tends to make people more comfortable participating. You may also get better responses if you leave the thread open for people who prefer to answer some of the questions directly here.

3

Thank you Brian,

You’re making valid points and I did take that into consideration. For anyone wondering, the answers will remain anonymous unless clear permission is asked in any follow up contact. For the processing of the answers and neatness of the researchpaper, it works better for all of the answers to be collected through a platform like Google Forms, but thank you for your insight.

I’m suprised with the amount of responses I’ve got. I was already told the Julia community is very friendly and helpful, nice to see that its true! :smiley:

4

I have processed the given answers and thus closed the form. My thanks to everyone who took the time to give their input! :folded_hands:

5

Thank you Réno!

It would be nice if you could post the results here. Specially for us that took part in the survey.

6

Sorry for the late reply Vitor, I’ll be happy to share the results with those who might find it interesting.

I realise this might not be the most pleasing way of looking at the answers, but due to the responses containing some of the respondants e-mail adresses, I’ve had to export them to a Google Sheets (Excel) document. This link opens a webversion, not a download.

7

Since the way I’ve integrated the results into my researchdocument wouldn’t be very practical for any of you to read (and since it’s in Dutch), I’ve had AI make a short summary of the results aswell:

Julia Developer Survey: Key Findings & Insights

Sample size: ~48 active Julia developers

Quick Summary

  • AI has overtaken Google: 48.8% of developers turn to LLMs/AI first when facing Julia code issues, followed by Julia Discourse (23.3%) and traditional search engines (18.6%).

  • Discourse is the community backbone: Discourse has near-universal reach (96% awareness, 90% active use), serving as the primary fallback whenever AI or docs fall short. Slack is a solid secondary hub (~48% active use).

  • Format preference: Written text dominates. Forum threads (77%) and blog posts (58%) heavily outperform video (31%) and podcasts (15%).

  • Commercial readiness: 57% have paid for developer tools or services (primarily AI subscriptions, IDEs, or company-sponsored licenses), while 43% rely strictly on open-source solutions.

  • Proof over hype: Conversion hinges on real-world case studies (58%), video demos showing the tool in action (42%), and free trials (29%). Social media metrics and ads have virtually zero influence.

4 Core Insights

  1. The Modern Julia Workflow is “AI-First, Discourse-Second”

    Developers leverage LLMs for instant troubleshooting and speed, but treat Julia Discourse as the ground truth for complex, niche, or ecosystem-specific problems.

  2. Zero Tolerance for Fluff & Marketing Speak

    The community values substance over vanity metrics. If you want to convince a Julia developer, show actual code, clear benchmarks, and working demos.

  3. High FOSS Loyalty, Practical Willingness to Pay

    While the open-source ethos is strong, developers will pay if a tool delivers unmistakable ROI, saves significant engineering hours, or provides unique domain functionality with no viable open-source substitute.

  4. Bite-Sized, Scannable Text Wins

    Content strategy should focus on targeted technical blog posts, ecosystem updates, and forum answers rather than high-production video or audio formats.

8

Where else did you ask for people to answer the survey? Because if you only asked here, then “universal reach” of Discourse is a very biased conclusion.

9

True, but like I said. Its an AI summary.
I’ve taken this into account in my own researchdocument.

Thanks for commenting on it tho!