Find a dev jobHire developers

Bonus report: What’s the secret to successfully hiring developers? Our 2023 Netherlands Developer Hiring Report is now live.

Read it here.
2023

Netherlands Report: State of the Software Developer Nation

With support from:

In this report

Tech trends in the Netherlands

Despite a cooling global economy and its impact on the tech industry, the Netherlands has largely avoided the mass layoffs we've seen in the United States.

Demographics

Introduction

It’s hard to overstate how tough the past 12 months have been. Difficulties in fund-raising and mass layoffs have rocked tech markets, especially the US. At the same time, Europe has been far from immune. The war in Ukraine, rising inflation and interest rates, and the energy crisis are shaping a challenging macroeconomic climate.

Amid so much uncertainty, the ability to see the signal in the noise has become more important than ever. The data shows that there are reasons for cautious optimism for the Dutch tech industry:

Tech companies with solid business models still continue to grow and developers have plenty of exciting opportunities to explore.

I hope our data will help you navigate these uncertain times with more confidence.

Philip Joubert
OfferZen Co-founder and CEO
Philip Joubert
OfferZen Co-founder and CEO

Software engineering skills

JavaScript dominates as the Netherlands' most-used language, while Python is the most-wanted.

Software engineering skills

Despite the buzz, developers in the Netherlands have limited experience with AI

AI is 2023's most promising industry

Most exciting industries according to software engineers

The release of OpenAI's ChatGPT and GPT-4 have generated significant attention and showcased major advances in Artificial Intelligence in 2023. AI has captured developers' hearts and left all other industries far behind. It's fair to assume that all industries on this list will in some shape or form be affected and influenced by the developments in the AI space over the year ahead. Cloud businesses like Amazon, Microsoft, and Google have already invested heavily and put the potential of AI front and centre of their sales pitches.

Share this insight:

Developers are exploring AI in their personal time

Did you build or use any of the following in the past year?
Netherlands
Rest of Europe

Despite AI's run-away popularity among developers, the majority has not yet built or worked with any AI APIs, machine learning models, or code-writing assistants. Previously, the cost of accessing these APIs and a lack of AI-specific knowledge were barriers to entry for many developers. However, that's set to change following the release of Open AI's ChatGPT and trial versions of Open AI tools like Codex and GPT-4. These tools give developers a chance to explore the possibilities of AI.

Of those developers that have used AI, the majority has done so in their personal capacity rather than at work. This commitment to levelling up in their craft and staying on the cutting edge of their field is quite common among developers. In our 2021 report, we found that the majority of developers code as a hobby, beyond their 9-5.


Share this insight:

Are you looking for a dev job in an industry that excites you?

Sign up to OfferZen where over 2000 legit companies reach out to you with upfront role and salary info.

Find your next dev job
Find your next dev job
Software engineering skills

JavaScript dominates the local software landscape

JavaScript reigns, but developers are keen on Go and Rust

Software engineers' most-used and most-wanted programming languages
Most used
Most wanted

JavaScript and its superset, TypeScript, are the most-used programming languages in the Netherlands' tech landscape, followed by Java in third place. Despite this, the most-wanted language list is topped by Python followed by TypeScript and Google-developed Go. Rust takes fourth place in the ranking with 19.2% of developers wanting to working with it next.

While TypeScript leads the way for frontend and full stack developers, Go is top amongst those working on the backend. Google-developed Go narrowly beats Java as backend developers' most wanted language in 2023, with another developer favourite Rust in third place.

Backend developers aren't the only ones keen on Go and Rust: 15.6% and 12.5% of frontend developers want to work with the popular backend languages, respectively.

Share this insight:

Angular is the most wanted framework in 2023

Software engineers' most wanted frameworks

TypeScript's high ranking as the second most-used language also translates into framework popularity. Angular is the most wanted framework amongst Netherlands-based software developers in 2023.

JavaScript's dominance at the top of the pile can also be seen here with Next.js, React, Angular, and Node.js claiming four of the top five spots.


Share this insight:

More backend developers are working with frontend frameworks as part of their roles

Software engineers' most used frameworks by role

While Angular might be the most wanted framework in 2023, React has cemented its place as a core skill for software engineers in the Netherlands. Not only is it the most used framework overall, it's also the most widely used by frontend and full stack developers. Node.js follows in second place.

The data also suggests that the boundaries between the frontend and backend are starting to blur: 14.3% of backend developers work with the frontend framework Vue.js regularly, while another 10% list Angular as their most-used framework.

Share this insight:

32.6% of developers are looking for work in the next year. Are you?

Find a dev job

Not job seeking at the moment? Join the OfferZen community

Create articles with our editorial team

Write your own article on your learnings or projects with the help of our Source editorial team.

Demographics

The data in this report does not claim to be representative of the entire developer population in the Netherlands. Any time the term, 'software engineer, ‘developer’ or 'software developer' is used, it refers to the group of developers who took our #DevNationSurvey between 23 February and 12 April 2023.

In cases where no data slicing occurs, all 255 valid responses were included. In order to shed light on survey participant characteristics, we’ve included the demographic breakdown of all 255 valid responses below.

City

Origin

Gender

Coding experience

Age

Role

Industry

Organisation size

Methodology

OfferZen conducted a survey to find out more about skills, work experience and job search behaviour of developers. A total of 267 people took the online survey between 23 February and 12 April 2023. Of these responses, 255 were counted as valid because they were from developers, or developers who manage other developers, and are currently living in the Netherlands.

We hosted the survey itself on Typeform and recruited respondents via emails sent to more than 40 000 software makers in the OfferZen community and social media posts to the public. Data was anonymised in accordance with GDPR guidelines and is housed separate to any and all of OfferZen’s platform data. Percentages may not always add to 100% due to rounding.

Salary data used in this report was provided by TalentUp. It is collected from 100+ global job domains and consolidated into a single dataset. Duplicate data points have been removed and validated across data sources.

About OfferZen

OfferZen is a developer job marketplace by developers for developers. Our platform matches job-seeking developers with exciting opportunities at companies, but this effort actually encompasses a much wider mission: To help developers and their teams thrive in the tech ecosystem.

Over the last six years, this has manifested in a multitude of ways from our core business of helping developers find awesome new jobs, to hosting local maker evenings and tech events, or helping developers share their experiences on our blog. We want to help build an inclusive, transparent, and thriving tech ecosystem.

Hire dev talentFind a dev job

Want more insights like this?

Subscribe to OfferZen’s newsletter to get tech insights straight to your inbox!

OfferZen Podcast|
OfferZen Blog

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.