If you’ve ever considered a career in computer programming, you may have heard that the most highly paid programmers are those who specialize in certain languages. But which ones? And why?
The truth is, there’s no one single best programming language to learn—it depends on what kind of work you’re hoping to do and how far along your career path you are. But here are 9 of the highest paying programming languages that can help give you an idea of where to start:
Related post – 10 Most Popular Open-Source Programming languages
9 highest paying programming languages
Python
Python is a high-level programming language that encourages code readability and has minimal syntactic sugar. Python was designed with the idea that code should be easy to read and understand, even without comments. Python looks more like pseudocode than traditional programming languages, but it’s still very powerful and has a wide variety of applications in both data science as well as web development (Django) and desktop programs (Tkinter).
Python is easy to learn, but also powerful enough to be used by experienced programmers in their projects. It’s often recommended as an introductory language because of its simplicity—especially compared with other popular languages like C++ or Java—but it can also serve as an excellent choice for experienced programmers who want something more readable than C++ or JavaScript
Swift
Swift is a general-purpose programming language built with the core principles of safety and reliability in mind. It’s used to develop iOS and macOS apps, but it can also be used for creating command-line tools and web applications. As a multi-paradigm language (i.e., one that supports different programming paradigms), Swift is flexible enough to be used for developing mobile applications, websites, desktop applications, embedded software and much more.
In addition to its use as an iOS development language by Apple Inc., Swift has been adopted as an alternative to Objective-C by numerous organizations including Facebook Inc., IBM Corp., LinkedIn Corp., Slack Technologies Inc., Snap Inc.
Java
Java is a general-purpose programming language that is concurrent, class-based and object-oriented. It is designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible so that it can be applied wherever the needs of modern programming arise. This makes Java suitable for each of the following:
- Applications development on embedded devices such as mobile phones or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants).
- Enterprise server-side applications for web service backends or distributed computing clusters.
- Client desktop applications such as word processors and spreadsheets, interactive web pages and more recently even 3D games and animations.
Ruby
Ruby is a general-purpose object-oriented programming language. Designed by Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto in the mid-1990s, Ruby is known for its high level of developer productivity, as well as its rich set of features such as first-class functions, closures and meta-programming facilities. Ruby has also been used to develop websites, software frameworks and applications that make use of rapid development methods such as Agile or RUP. It runs on many operating systems like Microsoft Windows, Unix/Linux/Mac OS X/FreeBSD etc., which makes it popular among developers who focus on cross-platform compatibility above all else.
In addition to being a general purpose programming language Ruby can also be used in web development because it was designed with an emphasis on simplicity and productivity with minimal boilerplate code (the non-essential parts a programmer needs to write).
C#
C# is a high-level programming language developed by Microsoft. It is a simple, modern, general-purpose, object-oriented programming language. C# was designed to be simple for beginners to learn and use but powerful enough for experienced programmers to use.
C# has been adopted by many of the world’s largest corporations and most respected companies in the world as their primary programming language including Amazon; Bank of America; Boeing; Chrysler; Credit Suisse; eBay; General Electric (GE); Google; Hartford Financial Services Group Inc.; Intel Corporation (Intel); Marriott International Inc.; McDonald’s Corporation (McDonald’s); Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.; NASA Goddard Space Flight Center via ESRI ArcGIS software development kit (SDK), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration National Weather Service Advanced Weather Interactive Processing System (AWIPS) Project No. NOOA/NWS AWT-IH20 Program Office Research Application Software Development Team – NOAA/NESDIS OAR/CEDS Branch Washington DC 20233 USA
C++
C++ is a general-purpose programming language, supporting procedural programming and structured programming. It is a statically typed, free-form, multi-paradigm and cross-platform language. C++ can be used to create desktop applications, mobile apps and web services.
C++ was created by Bjarne Stroustrup in 1983 at AT&T Bell Laboratories. It was designed as an extension to C language (ISO/IEC 9899:1999) that adds object-oriented features like classes or interfaces without losing the speed of execution of compiled code.
Go
Go is a general-purpose language developed by Google. It was designed with performance and concurrency in mind, which makes it very good for writing server applications. Go is statically typed, compiled and garbage-collected.
PHP
PHP is a server-side scripting language that can be used to generate web pages. It is also an excellent language for developing web applications.
PHP’s ease of use and widespread adoption make it an ideal language for beginners, but it also has powerful libraries for more advanced tasks such as database access, encryption, and compression.
Kotlin
Kotlin is a statically typed programming language that runs on the JVM (Java Virtual Machine). Kotlin was created by JetBrains, the same company that created IntelliJ IDEA and Android Studio.
Kotlin is designed to be concise and expressive while being 100% interoperable with Java code. It also features type inference, null safety, functional constructs like higher-order functions (functions that take other functions as arguments), extension functions (extending existing classes), sealed classes and lambdas.
Seeking a high-paying job? Try one of these languages.
If you’re seeking a high-paying job in the field of programming, here are the best options.
- Python
- C++
- Java/C# (JavaScript)
- Ruby on Rails