The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey asked participants to identify dev tools they use (“Desired”) and want to use again (“Admired”). Dividing these scores calculates a “underrated score” which reveals which tools may be hidden gems.
I've compiled a list using this method, filtering for tools admired by >60%, and used by <20% of developers, then sorted by “underrated”.
In 2025 there were a total of 12 tools with an admired score >70%. In 2024 there were 41. Are we admiring our tools less? Or did we stop caring because AI is touching the tools instead of us?
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The 2025 Stack Overflow Developer Survey asked participants to identify dev tools they use (“Desired”) and want to use again (“Admired”). Dividing these scores calculates a “underrated score” which reveals which tools may be hidden gems.
I've compiled a list using this method, filtering for tools admired by >60%, and used by <20% of developers, then sorted by “underrated”.
The previous 2024 list is available here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41090759
In 2025 there were a total of 12 tools with an admired score >70%. In 2024 there were 41. Are we admiring our tools less? Or did we stop caring because AI is touching the tools instead of us?