Cloudflare reports that Go is now the most widely used programming language for API clients, overtaking Node.js. In addition, AWS appears to be the most popular public cloud for websites in the top 5,000 domains.
The Cloudflare report provides insight into the use of the company’s services. Cloudflare is known for its networking services, including a global content delivery network (CDN). Although the report shows interesting trends, DevClass argues that the information should be interpreted with caution.
According to Cloudflare, more than half of the Internet traffic they handle is API-related. Their analysis shows that Go is now the most popular language for developing API clients, with an 11.8% share, followed by Node.js (10%) and Python (9.6%).
Go particularly suited for API clients
Go, developed by Google, is a compiled language with static typing, strong concurrency support, memory safety, and a simple programming style thanks to garbage collection. This makes it particularly suitable for API clients.
In 2023, Node.js was still on top with 14.6%, while Go had 8.4% and Java was in third place with 7%. The strong growth of Go and Python (which stood at 6.8% last year) is striking.
Technologies in the top 5000 domains
Another part of the report examines the technologies used by the top 5000 domains, ranked by traffic to the Cloudflare DNS resolver and analyzed by their URL scanner.
A key finding is the dominance of AWS, which is used by 62.3% of these domains. Microsoft Azure only ranks fourth at 4.8%, behind WP Engine (8.5%) and Vercel (6.1%).
In addition, the report shows which frameworks and libraries are popular with these domains. PHP is the most widely used programming language (48.1%), likely influenced by the wide adoption of WordPress. Node.js (27.9%) and Java (16.8%) are other commonly used languages.
The use of JavaScript frameworks shows React as the leader with 36.6%, followed by Vue.js (19.7%) and Next.js (12.6%). Among Web frameworks, however, Next.js tops the list with 32.8%, followed by Express (23%) and Nuxt.js (19%).
PHP isn’t often used
Interestingly, despite its dominance as a programming language, PHP barely appears in the list of Web frameworks. The highest PHP-based framework is Yii, with only 3.1%.
Cloudflare does not explicitly state how it defines JavaScript frameworks, except that the categories are based on a modified version of Wappalyzer. For example, Wappalyzer itself reports that Microsoft ASP.NET tops the list in 2024 with a 39.3% market share, followed by Next.js (19.5%) and Laravel (7.2%).
The differences between Cloudflare’s findings and other sources, such as Wappalyzer, suggest that the top 5,000 domains make different choices than most websites. DevClass argues that this highlights the importance of a critical eye when interpreting these figures.
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