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15 Best Communities That Every Developer Should Join
“Tell me, and I forget, teach me, and I may remember, involve me, and I learn.” – Benjamin Franklin
Thanks to technology, finding like-minded people across the globe isn’t an issue anymore, especially when it’s crucial to engage with peers from your industry to stay at the top of your game.
And it’s even more so for developers to find similar tech-savvy people to collaborate with. Otherwise, the rapid changes in the industry can make you obsolete.
Communities can help you learn and share new information, work on exciting projects, and find solutions to pesky problems.
But which are the right ones for you? And how can they improve your career journey?
In this article, we’ll see 15 unique communities that you must check out for more opportunities to grow day by day.
Table of Contents
15 Developer Communities To Accelerate Your Growth
Google Developers
Google Developers is a community that brings people from diverse technological backgrounds and companies together to join forces. It has over 1,000 groups across 140 countries.
Why should you join it?
- It’s an inclusive platform for beginners and experienced developers alike to learn.
- It offers guidance on different skills and technologies.
- You can connect online and offline through meet-ups organized in various cities.
- There are workshops, training, and events planned for the members.
Meta for Developers
Developer Circles is a free platform where experienced developers can collaborate to boost their expertise in Meta products. It is active in over 130 countries at the moment.
Why should you join it?
- The topics in focus are open source technologies, machine learning, AI, and blockchain.
- It offers learning resources for all Meta products, whether Oculus or Facebook 360.
- You can even enroll yourself as a circle leader to support local developers. However, your application will be reviewed based on qualifications.
- It schedules regular hackathons, code labs, and webinars for the members to allow the easy flow of information.
Hacker Noon
HackerNoon is an online platform where tech professionals read, write, and publish their stories or opinions about a subject matter. It’s a free, international community formed of over 15,000 contributors and 3,000,000 active readers.
It’s an excellent place for all technology enthusiasts to share their knowledge and learn some.
Why should you join it?
- You can access any topical tech content free of cost and without annoying ads.
- It’s a trustworthy platform where you can voice your opinions and build a following.
- You can stay updated with the latest information and has something for everyone, irrespective of your technical expertise.
Stack Overflow
Quora for developers.
This platform is made for developers to ask questions and help with answers. It has over 100 million monthly users, and more than 21 million questions have been asked till now.
Why should you join it?
- It’s the most popular community used globally by companies to acquire talent.
- There are groups for each technology which you choose as per your interest.
- More than 50 million developers got their queries answered, so you can rely on the helpful community here for assistance.
Hashnode
Start a tech blog painlessly and in seconds.
Hashnode is an online platform with over 100,000 developers to share their thoughts in the form of blogs, questions, or stories. It provides free services like domain, security, and backups to developers so that they can focus on content without worrying about logistics.
Why should you join it?
- Hashnode provides you with features to create your fully-optimized blog without paywalls and ads.
- You own the full rights to your content and can download it anytime.
- It also shares analytics to view the performance of each blog among the community.
- You can invite your editorial team to fine-tune your content.
Women Who Code
Women Who Code is a nonprofit organization with over 290,000 members worldwide. Their main motive is to empower women in technology with enough resources and guidance so that they get a fair chance for top-management positions.
Why should you join it?
- You can access the resources like tutorials, articles, and videos to polish your skills.
- It organizes over 2,000 annual events to bring the community together and exchange ideas.
- It also offers scholarships worth 1,000,000 to its members based on merits.
- It keeps the members updated with recent job postings.
Free Code Camp
Bootcamp for developers.
Free Code Camp is a non-profit organization founded in 2014 to build interest in coding in people. It allows developers to work on problems and create their projects.
Why should you join it?
- It offers over 8000 tutorials on various technologies to learn from.
- It also provides free certifications in over 14 technologies like quality assurance, data analysis in Python, and machine learning.
- You can also interact with the other members to learn tips and tricks to excel at the technology.
DEV Community
DEV is a community that thrives on writing blogs concerning Javascript, Python, and CSS among many others.
It has over 8 million developers engaged to stay updated and grow their careers.
Why should you join it?
- Anyone from beginners to experts can join this platform and write their opinions.
- You own your content, and high-quality blogs can even rank on Google.
- Creators are really active on DEV and share tutorials, career advice, and news regularly.
- It’s more structured and a great place to boost your network.
ellow.io
It’s a forum for recruiters to hire skilled developers and developers to find their next dream team.
ellow.ai is a platform that vets the developers and recruiters signing up on it. Its purpose is to ensure that genuine parties connect with each other for any job listing.
Why should you join it?
- It is incubated in YC Startup School, Nasscom 10000 Startups, KSIDC Business Incubation, and Kerala Startup Mission.
- It offers invoicing, contracting, and time management features for freelancers and hirers.
- Its AI/ML-based screening system brings the right developers to match the recruiters.
- Analytics provides a deep understanding of resource management and productivity.
Reddit- WebDev
Reddit is the most popular online community for discussion of any topic worldwide. It’s also a favorite of developers for brainstorming solutions to the queries asked by the members, who are called Redditors.
r/webdev is an example of such a developer community that has over 1.2 million members. Developers ask questions, discuss answers, and share their opinions and information in this forum.
Why should you join it?
- It’s a free platform full of helpful and active members.
- There are community moderators who ensure that a healthy discussion occurs without violating any guidelines.
DevOps on Slack
DevOps is a one-stop forum for finding answers, news, jobs, and knowledge about any technology. They are also available on Slack with over 23k active users.
Why should you join it?
- It has numerous Slack channels that you can join. You can discuss cloud technology or share your workstation pictures through these various channels.
- It has dedicated channels for news, job, and events, making it easier for you to keep track of things.
iOS Developers
iOS developers is another community on Slack that focus on iOS technology. It has over 35k members dedicated to discussing and sharing their knowledge about iOS development.
Why should you join it?
- It’s an inclusive ecosystem to network and learn from people around the world.
- It’s a free source to understand the ins and outs of iOS and grow your career.
- Since it’s on slack, managing the communication and information is more effortless.
Designer Hangout
It is where the designers hang out.
Designer Hangout is an invite-only, professional design community that focuses on UX designers. It has over 18k members who are manually verified to allow entry.
Why should you join it?
- It’s free and allows easy access to job listings and the support of expert designers.
- You can meet the members and discuss the latest trends in the design industry.
- It also offers real-time chat and mentorship sessions for better guidance.
- Its members promote it as the most significant source of inspiration and honest feedback.
Software Development Mastery
Software Development Mastery is a Facebook group with over 57k members. Its main focus is on teaching people to excel at overall software development and management.
Why should you join it?
- It’s a great community for even beginners to get started with coding.
- Over the last three years, it has contributed to upskilling many of its members through practical solutions, articles, and open discussions.
WordPress Freelancers and Developers
WordPress Freelancers and Developers is a Facebook group created in 2017 and now constitutes 97.3k members worldwide.
Contrary to its name, the community is for every frontend, backend, and UI/UX developer.
Why should you join it?
- It’s an active group that responds within minutes of a query.
- You can ask people questions, seek advice, and see job listings.
- It’s a big community allowing an edge for networking.
What’s Next?
There are several online developer communities brimming with talented people across the globe. And all of these are a good option for you to learn and dive deeper into your industry.
But jumping into all the online communities at once can overwhelm you with the information. Start with the technology which interests you the most. Then, research which skills in that technology is preferred by the recruiters.
Start with ellow.io for this. Recruiters across the world are listing jobs for all technological backgrounds. You can join the global talent pool and meet vetted recruiters who share the same passion as you.
Suvankar Das
