5 Software Development Blogs You Should Check
It’s no news that technology is moving at its fastest pace since forever. It can be hard or even overwhelming to keep up with every new thing that’s being released every minute. Or, to find useful resources, examples of best practices, different perspectives, experiences, and so on. So, one of the must-things you should do is follow industry blogs that stay on top of the game. Although, as we’re living in an era of content overload, finding them can be a complicated or time-consuming task.
After surfing the internet in search of the best software development blogs out there, I took all the data gathered and shared the top ones here. As each has something that makes it unique, they are not shared in a particular order. They’re all worth checking out. Whether it’s the type of structure used in articles, the way they approach topics, or the topics themselves, all differ in a particular way. And, besides the 5 blogs, you’ll also find a few honorable mentions at the end.
As a junior developer, this platform might help you get ahead in the game. freeCodeCamp is a non-profit organization that aims to help anyone join the programming side. As a software developer, the founder’s purpose is to help students (or beginners) increase their coding and web development skills.
So, as their drive is to help beginners grow, you’ll see that their articles, the structure, the phrases, the examples, and everything else match their mission.
To quote from their website: “Over 14 years, we’ve published 2118 articles, written by 673 hard-working authors. Still counting.”. Besides publishing daily articles on HTML, CSS, or JavaScript-related topics, they also have a newsletter available. So, if their writing style resonates with you, subscribing to their newsletter will help you stay on track with their new blog posts. They also have a podcast where they discuss the topics they write about which is worth checking out if you’re more of an audio content kind of person. Besides providing content in every format, they also host web design conferences in Europe and North America (known as the Smashing Conference)
As they’re committed to helping the web developers and designers' community grow their skills, their content focuses on sharing professional and helpful resources.
This website has been up and running since 1998! A List Apart started as a mailing list back in 1997, and they quickly saw the opportunity to convert it into a blogging platform. You’ll find here a wide range of web development topics, focusing on subjects relevant to hard and soft skills. They cover everything from the meaning of web content, to design, development, web standards, or best practices from the field. What’s great about this platform is that it is always open for new writers, developers, strategists, designers, and other specialists to share their knowledge on their blog. So, if you have a topic related to web development in mind and are interested in shaping your writing skills, put these guys on your list.
To make a quick recap: the main focus is on web development and subtopics related to this field. It’s not a platform that focuses on technical aspects only.
The name fits their purpose 100%, as GeeksforGeeks aims to be “A computer science portal for geeks”. In the search of a geek’s perfect definition, we found Marissa Mayer’s one, the former CEO of Yahoo!. “Geeks are people who love something so much that all the details matter”. So, for them to thrive, they have to be surrounded by others that share their passion and interest. And that’s where GeeksforGeeks comes to save the day. The five main geeks of the team are tech and computer science enthusiasts that want to provide “well written, well thought, and well-explained solutions.” through their content.
You will notice they tackle a variety of topics, from useful resources, best practices, or tips and tricks on programming languages, to interview preparation materials and guides for jobs in the field.
The founders created this community back in 2005, as they saw a need for a technical blogging community. That’s why CodeBetter’s purpose is to introduce developers to better practices, novel tools, and helpful methodologies and techniques that improve your game as a developer. They focus on relevant, technical topics, as they want to provide content that is useful to your improvement. As the writers talk from their personal experiences and knowledge, you can rest assured it’s a developer behind the keyboard who experienced the same struggles or had the same curiosities as you.
You will mainly find content on .Net, SQL Server, Sharepoint, BizTalk, and server platforms. As their purpose is to help you increase your hard skills, the articles rarely cover soft kinds of subjects.
Honorable Mentions
After checking lots of blogs, adding only 5 of them to this list was a hard task. So, you can find 5 more blogs below. They were too good not to be mentioned.
Jeff Atwood has been sharing his journey of growth as a writer and software developer since 2004 here. If you’re looking to read something entertaining after a day of hard work, this one’s for you. The blog is easy to read, funny, and filled with interesting insights shared in an amusing style.
The creator of Trello, a project management software, and former Program Manager for the Microsoft Excel team, Joel Spolsky started blogging back in 2000. He mainly writes about the business and the management of software.
As Mozilla’s former senior web engineer, David Walsh has been sharing lots of useful content on CSS, JQuery, JavaScript, PHP, MySQL, and many others. You can also follow him on Twitter for short-form, insightful content.
WebFX’s blog shares helpful resources, guidance, or even news, for web engineers and planners. Besides insightful articles on HTML, CSS, JavaScript, you’ll also find great direction on UI and UX outline.
This one takes a different approach to blogging. Rather than showing the best practices in the field, the guys behind the project prefer to share “How-Not-To” guides from the software development world. You can find bad code examples or interviews that went wrong. It’s also a great one to check after a hard day at work.
I know there are lots of blogging platforms out there. And, most probably, I didn’t manage to cover all of them in my search. That’s why I count on you to help me out! Share your favorite software development blog or let me know if your favorite is on the list.
