Best Web Development & Programming Blogs for 2017

Reading blogs is a great way to see how other developers use different frameworks and tools. It’s also one of the best ways to keep up to date with new technologies and trends.

There are a ton of great developer blogs out there, so we’ve curated a list of our team's favorites along with top choices from some members of our community of expert developers. The blogs below are listed in alphabetical order.

②ality – JavaScript and more

• URL: http://www.2ality.com
• Focus: JavaScript, ECMAScript

The 2ality blog, written by Dr. Axel Rauschmayer, is a blog focusing on JavaScript, web development, and mobile computing. This blog has been around since 2005 and still posts fairly frequently to this day.

Addy Osmani’s Medium

• URL: https://medium.com/@addyosmani
• Focus: React, front-end

Addy writes about React, DevTools, and UI components, to name a few things. His recent series of posts on “progressive web apps with React.js” has gotten quite a bit of love from the open source community. If you’re a React dev, they’re definitely worth a read!

Brendan Eich

• URL: https://brendaneich.com
• Focus: JavaScript

Who better to learn JavaScript from than the inventor of JS himself? Brendan’s blog hasn’t been updated in a while, but his archives have posts dating back to 2004. It’s pretty interesting to read about the evolution of JS and web development!

Code Cartoons

• URL: https://code-cartoons.com
• Focus: Redux, Flux, Relay

Lin Clark writes and illustrates great cartoons to help explain programming concepts. One of our mentors Marcos says that “it’s great when learning new technologies.” This blog is one of the more innovative approaches to writing about coding that we’ve seen! Lin is also currently working on a new book: A Cartoon Guide to React.js.

Dan Abramov’s Medium

• URL: https://medium.com/@dan_abramov
• Focus: React, Redux

As you may know, Dan Abramov created Redux and is now a member of the React core team at Facebook. He writes mostly about - you guessed it - Redux and React.

David Walsh Blog

• URL: https://davidwalsh.name
• Focus: Front-end, back-end, JavaScript

David writes about JavaScript, Node.js, HTML5, CSS, and a host of other web technologies. His posts are often trying to solve a common problem or figure out the best solution for a certain function.

Derick Bailey’s Blog

• URL: https://derickbailey.com
• Focus: JavaScript, back-end

Derek is an entrepreneur, software developer, and blogger from Texas. His blog posts are great for back-end developers who focus on JavaScript and Node.js. He also created podcasts and email courses.

The JavaScript Playground

• URL: http://javascriptplayground.com
• Focus: JavaScript

Maintained by Jack Franklin, the JavaScript Playground has JavaScript tutorials, covering technologies such as BackboneJS, FirefoxOS, NodeJS, and jQuery. This blog covers a lot of different technologies, so it’s especially great for full-stack developers.

John Papa’s Blog

• URL: https://johnpapa.net
• Focus: Angular, JavaScript

John Papa is a PluralSight author and active conference speaker. He blogs most often about Angular and JavaScript.

RisingStack Engineering Blog

• URL: https://blog.risingstack.com
• Focus: Back-end, Node.js, JavaScript, DevOps

This blog includes great articles on Node.js, JavaScript, and DevOps. It’s definitely a must-follow if you’re a back-end developer!

Smashing Magazine

• URL: https://www.smashingmagazine.com
• Focus: Front-end, JavaScript

Smashing Magazine is a great resource for web developers and designers. Blog posts are published under one of six major categories: coding, design, mobile, graphics, UX design, and WordPress. Smashing Magazine also publishes e-books and organizes web design conferences.

Todd Motto’s Blog

• URL: https://toddmotto.com
• Focus: AngularJS, JavaScript

Todd is a Developer Advocate at Telerik, a Google Developer Expert, and conference speaker. He writes most often about Angular and JavaScript.

Bonus

Finally, even though this is a list of web developer blogs, we wanted to include two of our all-time favorite blogs. These blogs are more light-hearted and deal with coding more generally.

Coding Horror

• URL: http://www.codinghorror.com
• Focus: General, coding humor

If you don’t already follow this blog, you really should. In the words of one of our mentors Yuriy, “there's no actual code, but Jeff's posts, who created StackOverflow, helped me develop a proper mindset over many years.”

The Daily WTF

• URL: http://thedailywtf.com
• Focus: General, coding humor

As stated on its website, The Daily WTF is a “how-not-to guide for developing software.” They regularly post stories about dreadful (and often funny) code. It makes for a great light-hearted read!

Suggest a blog!

Your favorite blog isn’t on this list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments or through email!

This post was written by Joyce, a Community Manager at Codementor.