Technologies to watch out for during 2018.

Published in

CodersLink Agency

9 min readJan 10, 2018

First of all: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Thank you for following our blog and paying attention to our content. We aim to bring you more useful information for your life as an entrepreneur and your remote work.

We decided to give you a heads up on the technologies that will be dominating the market this 2018. Technologies that are taking over the market or show us where it’s going.

To create this article, we consulted Stack Overflow’s Survey Report for 2017, Github, and Indeed.

Why is this important?

You can profit from this in 3 major ways:

Make any one of these your new learning project.
Learn how to integrate any of them into your current frameworks.
Hone your skills in the fields you already dominate.

Knowing the trends in the market can guide your work to great places if you let it.

If you don’t see any of the technologies you use in these lists, don’t panic. Take that as a hint that you might be working within a niche and that can be profitable as well. Also, keep in mind that we will be talking about rising technologies, not settled ones. For example, JavaScript is not mentioned in any Top 5, but it is still the most used language for web development. We talk about trends and emerging technology that will be shaping the behavior of the market during this year.

Remember: “Pop culture, isn’t always the best culture”. On the flip side, knowing about it can tell you where you can benefit the most or have the biggest impact on your niche.

What will you find in this article?

Technologies are grouped into 4 big categories:

Programming languages
Frameworks, Libraries, and others
Database languages
Platforms

We mention only the top 5 technologies that are widely used by programmers in each category and that they actually prefer to use. Why? Because programmers make the trend by using the language. A programming language by itself doesn’t become a trend. Changes in the industry happen when millions of developers see a need and find one language that makes it easier to satisfy it.

For example, Python went from a “useful” language to the preferred one for Big Data or Artificial Intelligence. Making it a solid language when it comes to scientific development..

The way that technologies stay or go is defined by how solidly they can be used to make a broad technological trend, such as Artificial Intelligence, develop.

Now, without further due: Top technologies to pay attention to in 2018.

Top 5 Programming Languages for 2018

Rust is the big winner for 2018.

It was also top 10 last year and top 2 best-paid languages for 2017 with an average yearly salary of $ 65,714 USD. Regardless of how well paid it is, there aren’t many openings published online in big sites such as Indeed, because this language is mostly used by startups.

Consider that big companies are the main users of those employment websites, while start-ups tend to hire by reference, freelance platforms, or through fellow start-up talent agencies.

This language, sponsored by Mozilla Research, is becoming one the most loved ones by developers and the market. As they define themselves on their website: “Rust is a systems programming language that runs blazingly fast, prevents segfaults, and guarantees thread safety.”. Some of its featured characteristics are:

“Zero-cost abstractions
Move semantics
Guaranteed memory safety
Threads without data races
Trait-based generics
Pattern matching
Type inference
Minimal runtime
Efficient C bindings”

OpenDNS, a company which improves Domain Name System through features such as phishing protection or better content filtering when their DNS servers are used, incorporates Rust in one of its two components.

Also Quantum, Mozilla’s new project to “build the next-generation web engine for Firefox users”, is being developed with this language due to its guaranteed stability and optimization of resources.

Top 5 Frameworks, Libraries, or Other Technologies.

Everything related to JavaScript has been taking over the market for the last 6 years. In the top 2 of Frameworks, Libraries, or Other Technologies, we find React and Node.js. two JS libraries.

Although, JavaScript is not in the top paying technologies, offering on average $50,000 USD a year; This is one of the most demanded languages in employment platforms.

According to Stackify, only in Indeed, there are more than 24,248 openings requesting JavaScript. StackOverflow reports that, only on their website, since 2015 until now, demand for ReactJS went from 200 companies requesting knowledge of this library, to 500 companies (200% growth).

Due to its high demand and usage that stemmed from building small scripts to enhance websites to now building entire web applications, it has spawned different libraries and frameworks, so powerful that they are changing the way we interact with the world wide web.

As the most popular library, we have React It’s becoming the library of choice to create bold interfaces. With two behemoths of the internet — Facebook and Instagram — supporting it, it’s importance in the market is undeniable.

But it’s not only said support that makes it an important language, but the fact that developers are also loving it.

For those of you who might not be familiar with React, its main characteristic is the management of large amounts of information that changes over time without having to reload the interface. Sounds familiar?

Some companies that are already using React to enhance their interphases are Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, AirBnB, Amazon Video, among many others.

Top 5 Database Languages

Redis takes the first place as the preferred database to use. It’s also the most popular NoSQL database with many programmers. Salaries range from $ 75,000 USD to $ 126,000 USD a year, depending on how you compliment it and your level of expertise. After executing a search in Indeed, we found 2,218 job openings requesting Redis expertise.

When it comes to its presence in the market, these are some of the most popular examples that use Redis to access data:

Twitter
GitHub
Weibo
Pinterest
Snapchat
Craigslist
Digg
StackOverflow
Flickr

Its popularity is mainly based on its high-level data structures, making this a lightweight and fast solution for databases that need to micromanage large amounts of data as swiftly as possible.

SQL databases are all through the top 10, with PostgreSQL and SQL Server being the most loved ones. SQL databases are still extremely popular and they are far from being discarded. However, Redis is growing fast in usage, demand, and salary. Its presence in such important platforms solidifies its position as a favorite and a language to try to incorporate into our own mental library.

Top 5 Platforms

We can see a trend with technologies related to big data peeking out on the Top 5.

Developers still highly prefer Linux as the platform to code in. As Deekshith Marla, from Invenzone, amazingly breaks it down in this post, Linux is a favorite because:

It’s FREE

Constantly updates, without compromising performance or adaptability.
Being platform independent, it can run in almost any hardware or be modified by a third-party to do so.
Interoperability that allows it to work well with Windows or Mac.
The vast community behind it makes it easy to find an answer to any problem, faster than with other platforms.

These are just some of the main reasons why developers are driven to Linux.

Raspberry Pi continues to grow in the market and it looks like it’ll stay. Originally conceived to facilitate the approach of children to computers, now it has turned into a platform that allows developers to create devices for different use, from surveillance to finance, without having to invest in expensive pieces of hardware.

It’s still mainly used to help children have access to a computer and learn to code at early stages in an easy manner. Being so easy to adapt and modify, inexpensive if compared to its counterparts, and easy to distribute, makes it an amazing piece of hardware and software that is democratizing access to technology around the world.

It is important to mention Swift, iOS’ developing language, it is becoming one of the most loved ones since it ensures performance and safety. With only 4,932 job offers in Indeed, it is still not in big demand in the market, but the median salary is $80,574 USD a year. If you have a startup that caters to iOS, Swift is becoming the way to go, setting the trend for iOS development.

JavaScript still dominates with current trends. Regardless of how much Rust is loved and will become important, JavaScript is important now and a language to keep at hand. New libraries and frameworks reduce the complexity of the code and allow a more optimal performance that enhances our web browsing experience in general. React is making us forget about the “refresh” button and bringing us all the information we need.

With databases, SQL still remains as the most used around the world, NoSQL databases are finding an important niche in the market. Where Redis or Cassandra are offering alternative ways to deal with huge amounts of data without compromising speed or security. Maybe they are not as easy to master as SQL but they make life easier for people in Big Data, and scientific research, They will stay and continue to grow as preferred databases.

Linux has been king from its early stages. The compatibility of the platform makes it a neutral playground for developers that can part from there to work on others platforms such as Windows or Mac. Although Raspberry Pi is taking an important place in the market, Linux and Raspberry Pi cater to different purposes.

Final note

As we begin 2018 it serves us to analyze where trends are moving in our field and how we can take advantage of it. Hopefully, with this knowledge, you can arm yourself so you can make informed decisions about which path to take to further your development career.

If you are a manager you can take this information and start preparing your operations to, possibly, match with the trends in place. You don’t want to be the next “I don’t invest in digital photography” Kodak kind of company. This is a great heads-up on the type of skills you might be managing soon.

Alternatively, if you are on the developing/programming side, r adapting to the frameworks or libraries we mentioned will invariably open interesting doors for you. It’s not necessary that you learn anything new urgently, but at least know which technologies you might be working with side by side. If you are just trying to see what type of language you should choose to start with, there are the recommendations based on numbers. Whichever you choose, start only with one.

Also, keep an eye on Artificial Intelligence and Single Page Applications on JavaScript.

Whatever you decide, we’d like to wish you an amazing new year!