StackOverflow alternatives for web developers
Tags: webdev, productivity
Published: 2023-09-27 08:00:26

Popular useful tools and platforms can cause **addiction** and become a **single point of failure** in our workflow when we rely too much on using them. I have been collecting [alternatives to **Google**](https://dev.to/ingosteinke/google-alternatives-5e7k) – as a search engine and as a provider of useful software like Google Maps, Docs, or the Chrome browser.

**GitHub** and **npm** are other services that developers tend to rely on too much, as we saw when [a developer broke the internet by unpublishing his package of 11 lines of code](https://dev.to/chaitanyasuvarna/how-a-developer-broke-the-internet-by-un-publishing-his-package-containing-11-lines-of-code-31ei) required by nearly every contemporary JavaScript project.

{% post https://dev.to/chaitanyasuvarna/how-a-developer-broke-the-internet-by-un-publishing-his-package-containing-11-lines-of-code-31ei %}

**StackOverflow** is another example of a go-to resource that has become too big to fail (although [it does](https://johnslegers.medium.com/the-decline-of-stack-overflow-7cb69faa575d) in a way, and it has become less popular due to junior devs getting good enough answers to their beginner questions from **chatGPT** and coding assistance technology like **copilot** or **tabnine**).

## Do you need StackOverflow alternatives?

It depends. Some people don't need it at all. Some prefer **other StackExchange sites** that are more specific to their work. As a web developer working with HTML, CSS, JavaScript and various frameworks and tools like React or WordPress, I am aware of [wordpress.stackexchange.com](https://wordpress.stackexchange.com) and there even is [webmasters.stackexchange.com](https://webmasters.stackexchange.com), but most of the relevant web Q&A happens at the main StackOverflow site. When I refer to "StackOverflow" or "SO", I am talking about StackExchange in general.

### Reasons not to rely on StackOverflow for your daily work:

- You don't want to rely on an external website.
- You want to **train your brain** instead of lazy copy + paste programming.
- StackOverflow might be blocked by **corporate security restrictions**.
- It contains **misleading or outdated advice** due to biased voting, moderation/reputation system and the fact that StackOverflow has been around for more than 10 years now.
- It's no open source community but a business with **economic interests**.
- **Gatekeepers, haters** or whatever they are: some people misuse their privileges – maybe in good intentions, maybe not – in a way that is [often perceived](https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/342779/what-about-the-community-is-toxic-to-new-users) as "**toxic**" today. That's been one of the most important points of criticism and ridicule for so many years it's not funny anymore.

![Collage of cartoons about StackOverflow: Look, it's a new question! mob flogging at the question with signs saying duplicate. Second: Interview situation: So, Bob, why should we hire you? - That's a stupid question. - Welcome aboard! Third: Hand of a drowning person: me asking a question on stack overflow. Mods giving the high five. Note: closed. Person drowns.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/o2djgq9xcfb6xpplz0bx.png)

### Reasons to use StackOverflow

- You can **ask questions**.
- You can get **good answers for free**.
- Many answers contain **code snippets ready to copy and paste**.
- There is a lot of **useful advice** when you can tell good from bad.
- The website has no popups or autoplay videos, and the ads are reputable and unobtrusive, at least compared to many other websites.
- StackOverflow questions and answers are **easy to find** as they rank very high **in search engine results**.

The last point is interesting as that's how I first  learned about StackOverflow as an alternative to [Experts Exchange](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experts_Exchange). Any new alternative would have to be either more popular, recommended, and linked, or more relevant to contemporary problems. It can't be cheaper, as StackOverflow is free of charge, while Experts Exchange required a fee to view an answer. 

> Stack Overflow founder Jeff Atwood cited Experts-Exchange's poor reputation and paywall as a motivation for creating Stack Overflow. [[1]](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Experts_Exchange)

## Read-only: research and learning

Most people use StackOverflow "in read-only mode" so let's focus on this aspect first. Looking for alternatives, what would be our requirements?

**We want useful, up-to-date information with ready-to-use code snippets that are easy to find using a search engine.**

### Short-term alternatives for web developers

All of this is true for many official documentation and high-quality tutorial sites. I don't know much about other fields of information technology, but as web developers, we have:

- [web.dev](https://web.dev), maintained by Google, including posts by Chrome developers and other experienced experts,
- [MDN](https://developer.mozilla.org/), the Mozilla developer network, features references, browser support stats and practical code examples
- [CSS-Tricks](https://css-tricks.com/) has a lot of high-quality content, but some outdated posts as time goes by, so have a look on the post date!
- [WordPress.org](https://wordpress.org/), reference, support, Q&A for WordPress specific topics, often also with code snippets
- [PHP.net](https://www.php.net) dto. for PHP-related stuff

What would a top JavaScript reference be? or does it depend too much on your requirements and environment? After all the old JS Q&A containing jQuery functions on StackOverflow, React could possibly become "the new jQuery" in the near future.

### Long-term alternatives

When we don't need quick solutions on the same day, we can take our time and work through tutorials that can be found on many **developers' blogs** or invest even more time and some money to enrol in a webinar like on [FrontendMasters.com](https://frontendmasters.com/).

### Printed books (or e-books)

We might even read a printed book and leverage its unique feature that we can take it to some place without internet and electricity, sit down on a beach, on a sofa or on a bus and just read the book page by page like we would do when reading a fictional thriller.

Look at the beautiful book compared to my small vintage ebook reader. The book cover would look much better in color and on a larger scale!

![Printed book and the smaller grayscale ebook reader plugged in to a power cable](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/af9wthq2bpc8spuq1f8l.png)

The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas (on the left) and The Opinionated Guide to React by Sara Vieira (on the right), see links below.

As you can guess from the picture, I don't own many printed non-fiction books anymore, but maybe I should. I'm already looking at computer screens all day. Printed books never need to recharge. I could also check out our local library to read more physical books again.

#### Reading recommendations

including some books that I have been reading or want to read in the future:

- a Linux bash book, 
- a book about [software design patterns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_design_pattern),
- some responsive HTML basics if you don't know already,
- something about JavaScript, depending on your personal level,
- something more specific like [Sara Vieira's Opinionated Guide to React](https://opinionatedreact.com/),
- more UX and a11y basics and updates,
- [Inclusive Design Patterns by Heydon Pickering](https://shop.smashingmagazine.com/products/inclusive-design-patterns)
- [Resilient Web Design by Jeremy Keith](https://resilientwebdesign.com/)
- [CSS Secrets by Lea Verou](https://lea.verou.me/tag/css-secrets/)
- [Debugging CSS by Ahmad Shadeed](https://debuggingcss.com/)
- [What I Wish I Knew Before I Learned To Code by Ali Spittel](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/50854865-what-i-wish-i-knew-before-i-learned-to-code)
- [De-Coding the Technical Interview Process by Emma Bostian](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53345580-de-coding-the-technical-interview-process)
- [Design for Real Life by Eric Meyer & Sara Wachter-Boettcher](https://abookapart.com/products/design-for-real-life)
- [Unmasking AI by Dr. Joy Buolamwini](https://www.unmasking.ai/)
- [The Intersectional Environmentalist by Leah Thomas](https://leahthomas.com/the-ie-book)

Further reading: more [books to read for open-minded web developers](https://www.open-mind-culture.org/en/1207/books-to-read-for-open-minded-web-developers/).

## Communication 

Now that we have researched some alternative resources for learning and research, what if you want to communicate with fellow developers outside of StackOverflow and "tech Twitter"?

[![StackOverflow screenshot: We need to improve our communication. The communication tag is merely described as Communication is the activity of conveying information. That's not even a programming concept.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/ji59ol9im92svd8i0clv.png)](https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/356641/we-need-to-improve-our-communication)

One alternative is right before our eyes ([DEV.to](https://dev.to/)), and there are a lot of specific **forums**, **GitHub issues**, public boards (or closed **slack chats**, which I don't find good alternative as the information is not shared publicly), and we could talk to **software authors** and **fellow users** and reach even those who don't want to bother with StackOverflow's peculiarities.

## Edge cases and other (mis)uses

Apart from research, learning, and communication, there are some more, probably less obvious, reasons for people to use StackOverflow:

### SEO, marketing and job search 

We can showcase our skills anywhere, like on your **own websites**, **contribute to open source** and engage in any of the aforementioned **communication channels**, including DEV.

I have got a few of my business contacts via StackOverflow. They could have found me on other websites as well, and I can say for sure that none of them cared about my SO **reputation** points. We might be proud of our achievements, but reputation is no accurate metric, and I would say that aiming for them is some kind of **superstition**.

{% post https://dev.to/devteam/got-coding-superstitions-8im %}

[![Image of a shower curtain that resembles GitHub's activity stats. So my grandma is quite active on GitHub. r/ProgrammerHumor](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/p10m5og3yvc9poi9qgv8.png)](https://www.reddit.com/r/ProgrammerHumor/comments/5lf9nk/so_my_grandma_is_quite_active_on_github/)

### Trendspotting

Neither [StackOverflow's tags](https://stackoverflow.com/tags) quantity nor their [yearly developer surveys](https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/) can provide meaningful insights about market share, and they can't provide meaningful advice about **what tech will be good for your specific situation**, for the same reason that SO doesn't like questions that are likely to attend "opinionated answers".

![Screenshot of a notice saying that a question has been closed as opinion-based. It is not currently accepting answers.](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/0cvy57zpnwh1z3bm3rhv.png)

If you care about tech trends, check the [State of JS](https://stateofjs.com/), [State of CSS](https://stateofcss.com/), and [State of HTML](https://stateofhtml.com/) (which also covers web components and DOM API) survey results. 

### Thinking

StackOverflow's greatest value isn't their collection of Q&A but elaborating on [how to ask a good question](https://stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-ask) and advocating the principle of a [minimal reproducible example](https://stackoverflow.com/help/minimal-reproducible-example).

I have been drafting new questions, trying to anticipate critical inquiries and narrowing down my problem to reproduce its essence in a minimal codepen. Most of the time, I didn't have to finish and publish my question as I had found a solution thanks to this approach.

Alternative: [CodePen](https://codepen.io/), [CodeSandbox](https://codesandbox.io). But in the end, we don't need StackOverflow or any alternative at all to use our brains and analyze the situation. (Further reading: [Beyond Googling the Error Message](https://dev.to/ingosteinke/beyond-googling-the-error-message-lfp)

{% post https://dev.to/ingosteinke/beyond-googling-the-error-message-lfp %}

## Conclusion

What is the best alternative to StackOverflow? One good advice that I learned on their site is that it doesn't make much sense to ask for "the best" out of context. "Best" might equal recommend or most popular, but popular recommendations might not work in a specific case.

It seems to be **easier to agree on the worst tech websites**: Those would state misleading claims using deceptive patterns and inaccessible code UI, show inappropriate ads that spread malware and sell paid subscriptions that add no extra value.

But **what's "the best" depends on our requirements**, and it can only help to define them before proceeding to find a quick solution for anything.