Are you looking for specific and reliable developer tech news and insights, but don’t know how to skim through the internet’s information overload? This is all too common in 2023. There’s too much buzz: Twitter accounts (now X accounts) posting endless threads, online publications, cut-copy fanzines, television news, Instagram profiles, podcasts, streaming programmes, books, and our old friends who still haven’t disappeared  — they’re all selling us fool’s gold. Without the proper tools to filter all the information flow, we run the risk of becoming a “postmodern Frankenstein” — not exactly a neat entry for your developer resume.

In this context, curators — among which newsletters get the spotlight — are gaining more and more followers. This could be due to the specificity of their content, the trust in their authors required by the decision involved in subscribing, and the personalised delivery to a private email account. These features allow them to function as a vaccine against over-information and the risk of its paralysing effect in the age of alternative facts, pictures of the Pope drippin’ around, and even AI influencers. That’s why we also curated a list of the ten best YouTube channels for developers.

The best software engineer newsletters

These are the top 10 developer newsletters in 2023, covering various topics related to software engineering, from algorithms and data structures to UI design and indie hacking. This list’s uniqueness comes from including numerous indie developer newsletters. Read on:

1. The Polymathic Engineer by Fernando Franco

Fernando Franco is a Senior Software Engineer who writes a weekly newsletter called “The Polymathic Engineer”. It is a newsletter about algorithms, data structures, distributed systems, and software development. He holds a PhD in computer vision, image processing, and machine learning and currently works at Siemens Healthineers. Franco tells us in his blog that he is passionate about his job and likes to share his knowledge and learnings with other developers. He is an active member of tech communities on different social media platforms. 

2. The Jack Forge Collective by Jack Forge

The Jack Forge Collective is a  developer newsletter written by Jack Forge and dedicated to the tech industry and the builders within it. Some of its singularities include its focus on the people building the tech sector from within, its interviews with developers, founders, marketers, and content creators, and its aim to make an impact in tech. You can get to know him better on his X account.

3. 10k.isora.me by Alexander Isora

Alexander Isora is a developer and entrepreneur who writes a weekly newsletter called “10k.isora.me” for indie makers. The newsletter provides a weekly recap of SaaS/tech/dev/UI news, top Product Hunt products, Indie Hackers posts, Twitter threads, Hacker News, and Reddit debates. It is curated by Alexander Isora himself and is described as "the coolest newsletter for indie makers". To get to know him better, have a look at his X account and his blog.

4. TLDR

TLDR is a free daily newsletter that provides links and summaries of the most captivating stories in startups, tech, and programming. It is designed to help readers get smarter about technology in just 5 minutes a day. The newsletter has over 1,250,000 readers and is highly regarded for its concise and informative content. You can have a brief look at what they write on their Instagram profile.

5. Indie Watch

Indie Watch is a weekly hand-curated newsletter showcasing the best iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS apps from developers worldwide. The mission is to highlight the accomplishments and creativity of independent developers by providing a platform for them to share their ideas, their passion projects, and their stories. Are you in the watch?

6. The Pragmatic Engineer by Gergely Orosz

The Pragmatic Engineer newsletter by Gergely Orosz is unique in several ways. It is the #1 technology newsletter on Substack and has over 400,000 subscribers. The newsletter provides advice, observations, and inspiration across the software engineering industry and is especially relevant for engineering managers and senior engineers at big tech and startups. It has received positive reviews for its insightful and actionable content. What sets it apart from other newsletters is its focus on pragmatic advice and observations from Gergely’s experience as a senior engineer and engineering manager at companies such as Uber, Skype, and Microsoft. We've brought up Gergely plenty of times before, and he also shows up in our best X accounts for developers of 2023.

7. Musings of a Caring Techie by Irina Stanescu

Irina Stanescu is the author of a bi-weekly newsletter called Musings of a Caring Techie on Substack. She is a Staff Software Engineer turned hands-on leader and leadership coach, with experience at companies such as Google and Uber. Her newsletter is for leaders and individual contributors (ICs) and covers topics such as leadership, tech culture, and building a thriving career. It is especially interesting since it covers topics that are not easily covered by other newsletters, such as leadership, self-development, and mental health in tech. Indeed, it’s one of the few tech developer newsletters written from a woman’s perspective.

8. Pro Indie Dev

Pro Indie Dev is a free newsletter that shares insights on a variety of influential topics for indie game developers who want to make a living off their games. It is an independent, self-funded initiative to spread professional knowledge to indies across the globe. The people behind Pro Indie Dev participate in numerous initiatives to improve the condition of indie developers. They believe that knowledge that has the power to change lives should be accessible. What makes it different from other newsletters is its focus on keeping it real and highlighting the approaches and techniques used by real professionals to achieve real results. They also organise free, specialised lectures and hands-on lessons through their newsletter.

9. Indie Dev Monday

Indie Dev Monday is a bite-sized newsletter that spotlights indie developers every Monday. Each issue introduces one or two developers, their backgrounds, and their creations. What makes it different from other newsletters is its focus on showcasing and supporting indie developers who really make the App Store, Google Play, and the web what they are today. No, we’ll never forget the OG release of Flappy Bird.

10. Dev Digest

At WeAreDevelopers, we’re periodically sending out DevDigest, a free newsletter that provides weekly updates on everything you need to know from the developer world directly to your inbox. Read by almost a 100,000 fellow developers who’re either thriving or about to do so in the European tech market, DevDigest is designed for tech professionals who hate newsletters and aims to provide a hand-picked selection of industry news, articles, events, talks, and jobs, as well as fun stuff. It is a great time saver, as it saves you hours of doom-scrolling and allows you to read only about the industry updates that actually matter.

11. High Growth Engineer by Jordan Cutler

Jordan is a senior software engineer who shares career advice to other software engineers. The newsletter at its core is designed to help developers get promoted, be more liked at work and accomplish their career goals. The advice Jordan share is really actionable and spot on — you'll notice this as soon as you read any one of his length posts.

12. Developing Dev by Ryan Peterman

Developing Dev is a newsletter written for developers who don't have a dedicated mentor. Instead of receiving generic career advice like “do what you enjoy" or “always focus on learning," Ryan Peterman strives to cut through the fluff and tell early-mid developers exactly what they need to grow.

13. Coding Challenges by John Crickett

This is kind of a different genre of newsletter. Where others might impart advice or interpret information, Coding Challenges is about learning through building real world applications. Each newsletter is a tutorial based challenge building a different type of app. Some of the recent challenges include QR Code Generator, Lisp Interpreter, and Scheduling Automation App. This is a really cool way to level up your knowledge of programming outside the workplace.

14. EcZachly by Zach Wilson

EcZachly is a Data Engineering newsletter. At its core, the newsletter is about keeping up to date in the domain of data while are growing in your career. There's a lot more technical information shared here so don't expect generic advice, be prepared to learn. You're in good hands, though, Zach Wilson has led teams at Airbnb and Netflix.

15. Level up software engineering by Caleb Mellas

Level up software engineering is all about career and growth. There's a lot of useful advice around job search and working in startups. The articles/newsletters are rich with advice so go check them out and see it's for you. Readers who will get the most benefit are those who are junior to mid-level.

In conclusion…

Check through our list of If you already got your fix of tech folklore, you can always head to our job boards. Just as we curated this list, we’re constantly compiling the best jobs for developers. Good luck!