Find out what you told us in the 2020 Salesforce Developer Survey!

At Salesforce Developer Relations, our primary goal is to inspire Salesforce developers and help them be successful. For our mission to be impactful, we need to know what excites you and what help you expect, want, and need. That’s why, every year, we run a global survey or two to hear from our developers and understand the trends in our ecosystem. Six months ago, we ran a similar survey and came across all kinds of interesting insights. The survey, completed August 2020, had 1,400+ respondents and provided a deeper understanding of the channels we focus on, the content we share, and the resources we manage for the community. We figured, why keep it to ourselves? Let’s get to know one another!

Salesforce developers across the world!

More than half of the Salesforce developers worldwide are under the age of 35, possibly reflecting the increasing adoption of the Salesforce Platform among the newly emerging workforce. The top industries (apart from software, of course) for Salesforce developers are:

  • Financial services, banking, and insurance
  • Health, medical, biotechnology, and pharma
  • Business consulting and legal services

Graph showing the age distribution of Salesforce developers

Regionally, almost 30% of Salesforce developers work in North America and, along with Western Europe, this geography accounts for half of Salesforce developers worldwide. When it comes to learning, developers in Eastern Europe have a strong preference for community learning resources, but only those from Salesforce. Developers from South Asia and East Asia are more career-focused compared to their peers, engaging often with the majority of our resources, with a strong preference for instructor-led training and community, specifically the Trailblazer community.

Paths to Salesforce development

Most Salesforce developers heard about Salesforce from their employer, which reflects the high demand for Salesforce developers across workplaces. Many were also introduced to the ecosystem by someone close to them, such as friends or colleagues. We’ve always highlighted Salesforce as an accessible technology, one that doesn’t require a software background to get started. We see this in the data. Only 31.4% of Salesforce developers hold an undergraduate degree in computer science.

Graph showing where developers first heard about Salesforce

The majority of Salesforce developers spend their time building web apps, followed by developing extensions to third-party systems and back-end services. Salesforce developers are more than five times as likely to be involved in developing apps or extensions for third-party ecosystems than other software developers.

Graph showing a distribution of what Salesforce developers build

Which resources do Salesforce developers use?

The Salesforce Developer Documentation and the Salesforce Developers website engage developers most highly, a sure sign that you find these particularly useful. About half of all Salesforce developers listen to the Salesforce Devs Podcast, and 3 of every 4 developers use the Trailblazer Community.

One missed opportunity for some developers is our Sample Gallery. The sample apps compiled here are written by Salesforce advocates and product managers to demonstrate what you can build on the Salesforce Platform. Though these apps are not meant for production, you can can use them to learn a lot about what you can do in your projects at work. With only half of Salesforce developers using this valuable resource, make sure to check it out so you don’t miss out on the latest and greatest from the Salesforce Platform!

Unsurprisingly, Trailhead is the top learning resource, according to our survey. We see you earning those badges, Salesforce devs!

What do Salesforce developers want?

We got loads of helpful feedback as well, and we love to listen. When it comes to documentation, more than half of you use it daily, but many of you requested more use cases and examples. ‘Better search’ was another common ask across documentation and the developer forums.

One thing that all Salesforce developers want is more content! 46% of Salesforce developers visit developer.salesforce.com daily, and you’ve asked us to add more content and examples to the site. Trailhead is an even more popular destination with 75% of Salesforce developers using it, though we had many of you ask for less text and more videos and examples there. 44% of Salesforce developers have also started watching Trailhead Live, with many asking for recordings and sessions in more time zones. We’ve already begun uploading recordings on Trailhead Live and our YouTube channel, and we’re working on hosting content in more time zones.

word cloud of feedback from developers about our resources

Can you help us again? The next survey is now open.

Hopefully, you found all that we’ve covered here to be interesting, even if the results were not surprising (since they’re about you)! If you’d like to let us know what we got right or wrong, along with general comments on what we discussed here, please join the conversation using the hashtag #SFDevSurvey.

The latest edition of our Salesforce Developer Survey opened on January 27, 2021 to all developers in the Salesforce ecosystem. This time, we’re asking you to provide feedback on an expanded range of products and learning resources, as well as asking new questions to help us dive deeper into the suggestions you want us to make. Your feedback is vital – please take the survey now!

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