--- title: Programming Language Migration 2025: Why Developers Switch description: JetBrains' 2025 State of Developer Ecosystem survey examined actual language migration (not just intentions) among 8,837 respondents. Project requirements... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/programming-language-migration-2025-why-developers-switch-9ranoqgdj twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Programming Language Migration 2025: Why Developers Switch | daily.dev og:description: JetBrains' 2025 State of Developer Ecosystem survey examined actual language migration (not just intentions) among 8,837 respondents. Project requirements... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/programming-language-migration-2025-why-developers-switch-9ranoqgdj og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/9RAnOQgdj.png og:image:alt: Programming Language Migration 2025: Why Developers Switch og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Programming Language Migration 2025: Why Developers Switch **[JetBrains](https://daily.dev/sources/jetbrains)** · 11 min read · 2 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary JetBrains' 2025 State of Developer Ecosystem survey examined actual language migration (not just intentions) among 8,837 respondents. Project requirements remain the top reason developers switch languages, but Kotlin is an outlier: people move to it for a better development experience rather than necessity. C shows surprisingly high churn (about half of last year's C developers moved on), Java developers mostly move to Python and TypeScript rather than Kotlin, and JavaScript sees constant churn in both directions driven by job market opportunities, with HTML/CSS developers feeding into JavaScript and then TypeScript in a skill conveyor belt. Python acts as the biggest catch-all destination language overall. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do developers switch away from Java to another language? Java developers who switch their main language most commonly move to Python and TypeScript rather than Kotlin, according to 2025 State of Developer Ecosystem survey data tracking actual year-over-year language changes. Despite Kotlin being JetBrains' own language and closely tied to Java, the inflow from Java into Kotlin is weaker than expected, and some developers even switch back to Java. _Comparing Java, Kotlin, and Python career paths gets easier with migration trends surfaced on daily.dev._ ### Why do developers switch to Kotlin instead of staying with Java? Developers move to Kotlin primarily because it offers a better development experience and more modern language features, not because a project forces them to. This makes Kotlin an outlier among languages in the 2025 survey data, where most switching (to languages like C# and C++) is driven by project requirements rather than developer preference. _Weighing a Kotlin migration against Java's ecosystem is simpler when trend data lives on daily.dev._ ### Which programming language has the highest developer churn rate? C shows the lowest retention among main languages: roughly half of developers who listed C as their main language a year earlier had switched to something else, most commonly Java or C++. Half of those leaving C cited wanting to learn a new language as their reason, a notably higher share than switchers from other languages, who mostly cite project requirements. _Tracking which languages retain developers helps teams planning a stack change explore options on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [The State of Kotlin in 2026 Report](https://daily.dev/posts/the-state-of-kotlin-in-2026-report-tn0marjvo) · JetBrains · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Helping Decision‑Makers Say Yes to Kotlin](https://daily.dev/posts/helping-decision-makers-say-yes-to-kotlin-vztbbazoy) · JetBrains · 5 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#python](https://daily.dev/tags/python), [#typescript](https://daily.dev/tags/typescript), [#kotlin](https://daily.dev/tags/kotlin) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/programming-language-migration-2025-why-developers-switch-9ranoqgdj) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Programming Language Migration 2025: Why Developers Switch","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-language-migration-2025-why-developers-switch-9ranoqgdj","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/programming-language-migration-2025-why-developers-switch-9ranoqgdj"},"datePublished":"2026-08-12T17:22:36.817Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:20:19.869Z","description":"JetBrains' 2025 State of Developer Ecosystem survey examined actual language migration (not just intentions) among 8,837 respondents. 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