State of Web Development 2010 Results

Looking for just the results to each of the questions in this year’s State of Web Development survey You’ve come to the right place.
Or, if you’re looking for the full details, head over to our in-​​depth report.

Table of Contents

State of Web Design overview

Part 1: Respondents

Question 1: In which country do you live?

CountryCount
Argentina4
Australia318
Austria6
Azerbaijan1
Belarus2
Belgium30
Bosnia and Herzgovena1
Brasil7
Bulgaria2
Canada91
China3
Columbia1
Costa Rica1
Croatia5
Czech Republic4
Denmark2
El Salvador1
UK77
Estonia2
Finland5
France21
Germany14
Greece11
Hong Kong2
Hungary3
Iceland1
India8
Indonesia2
Ireland3
Israel3
Italy9
Japan6
Latvia1
Lebanon2
Luxembourg3
Malaysia1
Mexico1
Myanmar1
Netherlands15
New Zealand20
Nigeria1
Norway9
Pakistan1
Peru1
Philipines7
Poland7
Portugal17
Romania6
Russia6
Saudi Arabia2
Serbia3
Singapore4
Slovakia2
Slovenia5
South Africa4
South Korea1
Spain12
Sweden14
Switzerland5
Taiwan2
Thailand1
Tunisia1
Turkey4
USA542
Ukraine1
Venezuela3

Question 2: How would you describe yourself?

DescriptionCount
Designer518
Developer790
Other199

Question 3: What size organization do you work for?

2010
SectorCount%
Student443.14%
Hobbyist241.71%
Freelancer29921.33%
Small Organization (up to 10)29821.26%
Medium Organization (up to 50)25818.4%
Large Organization (up to 500)23716.9%
Huge Organization (more than 500)22816.26%
Other70.5%
2008
SectorCount%
Student685.51%
Hobbyist211.70%
Freelancer22518.23%
Small Company (up to 10)23519.04%
Medium Company (up to 50)24419.77%
Large Company (up to 500)18414.91%
Huge Company (more than 500)23118.72%
Other181.46%

Question 4: Which sector do you work in?

2010
SectorCount%
Web Focussed Agency51236.52
Digital Design Agency1268.99%
Construction & Property60.43%
Consumer Goods130.93%
Banking & Finance342.43%
Health211.5%
Industrials00%
Leisure80.57%
Media805.71%
Natural Resources10.07%
Retail181.28%
Technology16711.91%
Telecoms181.28%
Transport60.43%
Utilities10.07%
Engineering110.78%
Local Government171.21%
State/​Regional Government292.07%
National Government322.28%
Charity/​Not for Profit523.71%
Education1087.7%
Other1329.42%
2008
SectorCount%
Design Agency31925.85%
Banking & Finance332.67%
Construction & Property20.16%
Consumer Goods110.89%
Engineering161.30%
Health221.78%
Industrials20.16%
Leisure90.73%
Media12910.45%
Natural Resources20.16%
Retail141.13%
Technology23118.72%
Telecoms151.22%
Transport60.49%
Utilities30.24%
Local Government161.30%
State/​Regional Government292.35%
National Government302.43%
Charity/​Not for Profit423.40%
Education12510.13%
Other16913.70%

Part 2: OS and Browsers

Question 5: Which OS do you primarily use for day to day work?

2010
OSCount%
Windows XP34324.47%
Windows Vista876.21%
Windows 714510.34%
Mac OS X 10.4201.43%
Mac OS X 10.518413.12%
Mac OS X 10.650736.16%
Linux594.21%
Unix00%
Other40.29%
2008
OS (2008)Count%
Windows XP46537.68%
Windows Vista1139.16%
Mac OS X 10.4655.27%
Mac OS X 10.551241.49%
Linux564.54%
Unix10.08%
Other70.57%

Question 6: Which browser do you primarily use for day to day browsing?

2010
Browser (2010)Count%
IE600%
IE7110.78%
IE8130.93%
Firefox 3.522916.33%
Firefox 3.653037.8%
Safari 320.14%
Safari 428420.26%
Google Chrome24117.19%
Opera241.71%
Other100.71%
2008
Browser(2008)Count%
IE6151.22%
IE7403.24%
IE830.24%
Firefox 2443.57%
Firefox 374160.05%
Safari 210.08%
Safari 325820.91%
Google Chrome524.21%
Opera383.08%
Other272.19%

Question 7: What features are important in your decision?

2010
Featurenot importantimportantvery important
Built in Developer Tools30.16%23.62%42.73%
Plug in Developer Tools30.4%14.3%51.84%
Performance10.06%12.08%74.41%
stability9.98%11.71%74.84%
Standards Support9.01%6.1%81.41%
CSS3 Support15.4%19.61%61.51%
HTML5 Support17.45%23.24%55.83%
User Experience Design14.59%20.61%61.32%
Familiarity18.57%20.3%57.67%

Mobile Browser Summary

2010
Browser (2010)Count%
Mobile Safari41329%
Android523.8%
Pre3.2%
Blackberry151.1%
Opera mini362.6%
Opera mobile201.43%
Nokia11.8%
2008
Browser (2008)Count%
Mobile Safari20016%
Blackberry9.75%
Opera mini423.4%
Opera mobile201.6%
Nokia201.6%

Question 8: Which browsers do you test your web sites with?

2010
BrowserCount%
IE5181.28%
IE683759.7%
IE7115882.6%
IE8117183.52%
Firefox 215711.2%
Firefox 352237.23%
Firefox 3.585961.27%
Firefox 3.697369.4%
Safari 2362.57%
Safari 335825.53%
Safari 4112480.17%
Mobile Safari53338.02%
Google Chrome107876.89%
Opera66047.08%
Opera Mobile805.71%
2008
BrowserCount%
IE5534.29%
IE696878.44%
IE7110489.47%
IE836429.50%
Firefox 260448.95%
Firefox 3113591.98%
Opera61649.92%
Opera Mobile614.94%
Safari 223719.21%
Safari 399280.39%
Mobile Safari25920.99%
Google Chrome48839.55%

Part 3: Markup

Question 9: Which type of markup do you use?

2010
MarkupCount%
Exclusively HTML1389.84%
Exclusively XHTML47633.95%
Mostly HTML, sometimes XHTML23016.41%
Mostly XHTML, sometimes HTML45132.17%
XML50.36%
Other191.36%
2008
MarkupCount%
Exclusively HTML735.92%
Exclusively XHTML52342.38%
Mostly HTML, sometimes XHTML19615.88%
Mostly XHTML, sometimes HTML36729.74%
XML90.73%
Other100.81%

Question 10: How often do you validate your markup?

2010
FrequencyCount%
Always45732.6%
Frequently46733.31%
Sometimes32423.11%
Never634.49%
2008
FrequencyCount%
Always45436.79%
Frequently40132.50%
Sometimes27822.53%
Never413.32%

Question 11: Which doctype do you typically declare for your pages?

2010
DoctypeCount%
none251.78%
HTML 4.01 strict1178.35%
HTML 4.01 transitional16211.55%
HTML 4.01 frameset10.07%
XHTML 1.01 strict35325.18%
XHTML 1.01 transitional39628.25%
XHTML 1.01 frameset50.36%
XHTML 1.1563.99%
HTML 517712.62%
Other110.78%
2008
DoctypeCount%
none211.70%
HTML 4.01 strict1068.59%
HTML 4.01 transitional14211.51%
HTML 4.01 frameset30.24%
XHTML 1.01 strict38431.12%
XHTML 1.01 transitional42534.44%
XHTML 1.01 frameset10.08%
XHTML 1.1534.29%
HTML 5161.30%
Other100.81%

Question 12: Do you use tables for layout?

2010
AnswerCount%
Never, on pain of death84460.2%
Yes, often they’re much easier for layout than CSS362.57%
Only if I really really have to43531.03%
2008
AnswerCount%
No104684.76%
Yes12710.29%
No answer161.30%

Question 13: If you use any of the following HTML tags or properties, please mark them

2010
FeatureCount%
None48134.31%
font715.06%
b21315.19%
i17112.2%
border16511.77%
width28820.54%
u563.99%
height24517.48%
cellspacing25918.47%
cellpadding21915.62%
center1127.99%
2008
FeatureCount%
None37830.63%
font705.67%
b21817.67%
i18715.15%
border14611.83%
width28423.01%
u796.40%
height23819.29%
cellspacing24319.69%
cellpadding20916.94%
center1229.89%

Question 14: Do you use microformats in your markup?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes48434.52%
No60242.94%
What are microformats?22415.98%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes42934.76%
No51241.49%
What are microformats?23118.72%

Question 15: Do you use RDFa in your markup?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes795.63%
No80257.2%
What’s RDFa?43230.81%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes423.40%
No58647.49%
What’s RDFa?54444.08%

Question 16: Do you use HTML5 markup (for example section, header, nav elements)

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes1037.35%
Sometimes29420.97%
Never91465.19%

Question 17: If so, what features of HTML5 do you use?

Respondents replied …

Question 18: Do you use WAI-​​ARIA (for example the role attribute) in your markup

2010
AnswerCount%
Always90.64%
sometimes1309.27%
never117083.45%

Question 19: Is so, what features of ARIA do you use?

role with 70% of those who responded always or somtimes was the only significant response.

Part 3: Presentation

Question 20: Which of the following best describes your web design philosophy

2010
AnswerCount%
Pages should look as near to identical as possible across browsers19714.05%
Consistency across browsers is important, but I use features supported in newer browsers provided they don’t cause problems for older browsers84860.49%
Pages might look substantially different in different browsers, but provided they look acceptable in all browsers, consistency is of no great concern22015.69%
2008
AnswerCount%
Pages should look as near to identical as possible across browsers30424.64%
Consistency across browsers is important, but I use features supported in newer browsers provided they don’t cause problems for older browsers70857.37%
Pages might look substantially different in different browsers, but provided they look acceptable in all browsers, consistency is of no great concern1179.48%

Question 21: Which of the following best describes your approach to developing for multiple browsers?

2010
AnswerCount%
I only develop for IE30.21%
I develop for IE first, and then make sure my pages work in other major browsers392.78%
I develop to W3C standards, and then work around IE107276.46%
I develop to W3C standards and expect browsers to support these15010.7%
2008
AnswerCount%
I only develop for IE30.24%
I develop for IE first, and then make sure my pages work in other major browsers625.02%
I develop to W3C standards, and then work around IE94676.66%
I develop to W3C standards and expect browsers to support these1169.40%

Question 22: Do you typically use quirks mode when designing sites?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes1007.13%
No102272.9%
What’s quirks mode?1369.7%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes1169.40%
No83567.67%
What’s quirks mode?16813.61%

Question 23: Which of the following do you use CSS for?

2010
AnswerCount%
Fonts and text style124688.87%
Page layout125289.3%
Print appearance96668.9%
2008
AnswerCount%
Controlling fonts and text style111290.11%
Controlling page layout111590.36%
Controlling print appearance85168.96%

Question 24: Which of these types of selector do you regularly use?

2010
AnswerCount%
HTML element selectors such as p {}119285.02%
Class selectors such as p.classname {}119485.16%
ID selectors such as p#idname {}114081.31%
Descendent selectors such as p a {}112580.24%
Child selectors such as p > a {}51636.8%
attribute selectors such as a[href]52637.52%
structural selectors such as p:last-child52537.45%
2008
AnswerCount%
HTML element selectors such as p {}102783.23%
Class selectors such as p.classname {}105785.66%
ID selectors such as p#idname {}99980.96%
Descendent selectors such as p a {}96177.88%
Child selectors such as p > a {}33727.31%

Question 25: Do you use any CSS3 or experimental CSS properties, such as CSS transitions, transforms, animations, shadows?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes63645.36%
No61643.94%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes27422.20%
No84368.31%

Question 26: If so which?

2010
AnswerCount
text-​​shadow166
box-​​shadow158
border-​​radius305
gradient24
multi-​​column4
rgba74
opacity37
transitions86
transforms50
animation13

Question 27: Do you use linked fonts with the @font-face statement?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes32022.82%
No93266.48%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes514.13%
No106085.90%

Question 28: Which type of fonts do you link to?

2010
TypeCount%
Truetype23716.9%
EOT19313.77%
WOFF997.06%
OpenType24817.69%
2008
TypeCount%
Truetype504.05%
EOT70.57%

Question 29: Do you use SVG?

2010
AnswerCount%
No105775.39%
A little18012.84%
Extensively130.93%
2008
AnswerCount%
No92374.80%
A little17213.94%
Extensively151.22%

Question 30: Which, if any libraries do you use for cross browser SVG support?

2010
AnswerCount%
Raphael745.28%
SVG Web372.64%
Other503.57%

Question 31: Do you use the Canvas element?

2010
AnswerCount%
No104574.54%
A little19313.77%
Extensively201.43%
2008
AnswerCount%
No98980.15%
A little1119.00%
Extensively90.73%

Question 32: Do you optimize your sites for devices other than laptops/​PCs?

2010
AnswerCount%
No80357.28%
Yes45832.67%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes31025.12%
No81365.88%

Question 33: If “Yes”, what other devices do you optimize your websites for?

2010
DeviceCount%
iphone/​mobile safari23451%
blackberry235%
android4710%
opera mobile61.3%
Palm Pre41.3%
wii3.7%
2008

1.6%

DeviceCount%
iphone/​mobile safari13644%
blackberry134%
android31%
opera mobile5
wii51.6%

Question 34: If you optimize sites for different devices, what technique or techniques do you use?

2010
Client Side browser sniffing20414.55%
Server Side browser sniffing21315.19%
Media Queries19113.62%

Part 4: Scripting

Question 35: Do you use JavaScript in your development?

2010
AnswerCount%
No563.99%
For visual effects107776.82%
For form validation92666.05%
For complex application interaction68348.72%
For Ajax communication with the server81858.35%
2008
AnswerCount%
No655.27%
For visual effects90273.10%
For form validation75461.10%
For complex application interaction52042.14%
For Ajax communication with the server65953.40%

Question 36: Do you separate your JavaScript from your markup (“unobtrusive JavaScript”)?

2010
AnswerCount%
Always61443.79%
Usually52937.73%
No563.99%
2008
AnswerCount%
Always47738.65%
Usually51841.98%
No473.81%

Question 37: Do you strictly adhere to the W3C DOM, and avoid browser specific extensions?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes45432.38%
As much as possible66447.36%
No815.78%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes37530.39%
As much as possible61349.68%
No534.29%

Question 38: Which JavaScript libraries and frameworks do you use?

2010
FrameworkCount%
None553.92%
Backbase10.07%
Dojo412.92%
Ext392.78%
GWT130.93%
JQuery109177.82%
Mootools19613.98%
Prototype24917.76%
qooxdoo20.14%
script​.aculo​.us18713.34%
YUI16111.48%
Other433.07%
2008
FrameworkCount%
None1199.64%
Backbase20.16%
Dojo362.92%
Ext332.67%
GWT161.30%
JQuery77562.80%
Mootools23519.04%
Prototype28723.26%
qooxdoo10.08%
script​.aculo​.us22418.15%
YUI13310.78%
Other504.05%

Only one each for Cappucino and Sproutcore

Question 39: Do you use HTML5 APIs (geolocation, client side storage, webworkers etc)?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes1289.13%
No112179.96%

Question 40: If so, which APIs do you use

2010
APICount
geolocation57
client side storage40
web workers4
drag and drop3
file api2
websockets2

Part 5: Rich Media

Question 41: Do you incorporate media into your sites other than HTML, CSS, Javascript and images (for example, Audio, Video, Flash or Silverlight)?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes94667.48%
No31522.47%
2008
AnswerCount%
Yes77462.72%
No33927.47%

Question 42: Which kinds of content do you use?

2010
TypeCount%
Flash82959.13%
Silverlight513.64%
Quicktime23116.48%
Real100.71%
H.26418813.41%
Ogg Theora/​Vorbis443.14%
MP333023.54%
Windows Media664.71%
AVI533.78%
Embedded Vimeo Content37726.89%
Embedded YouTube Content59142.15%
Other463.28%
2008
AnswerCount%
Flash75761.35%
Silverlight262.11%
Quicktime24219.61%
Real252.03%
Others221.78%

Question 43: What do you use this kind of content for?

2010
TypeCount%
Audio55439.51%
Video90064.19%
Embedded games and other interactive applications24817.69%
Whole sites594.21%
2008
AnswerCount%
Audio48339.14%
Video72959.08%
Embedded games and other interactive applications27222.04%
Whole sites836.73%

Question 44: How do you include this kind of content in your sites?

2010
MethodCount%
Primarily or always the object element65446.65%
Primarily or always the embed element45132.17%
HTML5 audio/​video element (with fallbacks where necessary)1268.99%

Part 6: The Server side

Question 45: What type of hardware do your sites run on?

2010
AnswerCount%
Dedicated servers managed by you or your company44631.81%
Dedicated co-​​located servers21715.48%
Shared servers45232.24%
Don’t know755.35%
Other483.42%
2008
AnswerCount%
Dedicated servers managed by you or your company43335.09%
Dedicated co-​​located servers18915.32%
Shared servers36829.82%
Don’t know625.02%
Other403.24%

Question 46: What server software is used to serve your sites?

2010
AnswerCount%
Apache97969.83%
IIS29020.68%
GWS70.5%
lighthttpd483.42%
Nginx543.5%
Other1037.35%
Don’t know1138.06%
2008
AnswerCount%
Apache84968.80%
IIS28022.69%
GWS50.41%
lighthttpd685.51%
Don’t know1159.32%
Other816.56%

Question 47: Which operating system(s) do your servers run?

2010
AnswerCount%
Linux88162.84%
Unix19613.98%
Windows35225.11%
Mac OS X614.35%
Don’t know1198.49%
Other261.85%
2008
AnswerCount%
Linux72558.75%
Unix20616.69%
Windows34327.80%
Mac OS X695.59%
Don’t know1139.16%
Other262.11%

Question 48: What database systems do you use?

2010
AnswerCount%
none402.85%
MySQL98770.4%
Microsoft SQL Server28420.26%
Oracle956.78%
PostgreSQL14410.27%
Other886.28%
2008
AnswerCount%
none423.40%
MySQL86970.42%
Microsoft SQL Server27121.96%
Oracle1139.16%
PostgreSQL12810.37%
Other806.48%

Other databases mentioned CouchDB 9, Mongo 9, Cassandra 3.

Question 49: On the server which programming languages do you use?

2010
AnswerCount%
ASP986.99%
ASP​.NET22616.12%
ColdFusion684.85%
Java15811.27%
JavaScript (q47a5)976.92%
Perl1027.28%
PHP87562.41%
Python15711.2%
Ruby22415.98%
None443.14%
2008
AnswerCount%
ASP14411.67%
ASP​.NET20816.86%
ColdFusion887.13%
Java15212.32%
JavaScript68055.11%
Perl1038.35%
PHP77863.05%
Python18715.15%
Ruby17814.42%
None433.48%
Other433.48%

Question 50: Which back-​​end frameworks do you use for development?

2010
FrameworkCount%
None43330.88%
CakePHP563.99%
CherryPy40.29%
Django936.63%
Ext GWT20.14%
Ruby on Rails20214.41%
Struts271.93%
Zend framework886.28%
node.js171.21%
Developed internally24217.26%
Other25618.26%

Others mentioned included code igniter 82, sinatra 17, symfony 15.

2008
AnswerCount%
None36729.74%
CakePHP756.08%
CherryPy30.24%
Django13310.78%
Ext GWT40.32%
Ruby on Rails16413.29%
Struts231.86%
Zend framework796.40%
Developed internally24119.53%
Other19916.13%

Part 7: The Cloud

Question 51: Do you rely on “Cloud Computing” resources?

2010
AnswerCount%
Yes (49c1)31222.25%
No (49c2)92265.76%

Question 52: If so, what do you use the cloud for?

2010
AnswerCount%
Infrastructure as a service (e.g. Amazon EC2)14410.27%
Platform as a service (E.g. Google App Engine)1037.35%
Online storage (e.g. Amazon S3)23316.62%

Question 53: If so, what do you use the cloud for?

2010
AnswerCount%
Infrastructure as a service (e.g. Amazon EC2)14410.27%
Platform as a service (E.g. Google App Engine)1037.35%
Online storage (e.g. Amazon S3)23316.62%

Question 54: What cloud services do you use?

2010
AnswerCount%
Amazon EC2946.7%
Amazon S319013.55%
Google App Engine805.71%
Windows Azure70.5%
Joyent80.57%
Bungee10.07%
Other755.35%
Great Weekly Reading
Follow Us

Hot Videos
Cool Tutorials
-->