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VS Code is everywhere, but Helix has an 88.5% keep-using score among its own users, against 55.7% for VS Code. Only 1.4% of surveyed developers used Helix.
5 underrated developer tools whose own users rate them highly, from the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026 (the "admired" score: the share of a tool's past-year users who want to keep using it).
- Helix, a modal editor that renames every match at once: 88.5% (VS Code 55.7%); 182 respondents reported using Helix
- Bruno, an API client whose requests live in Git as plain files: 78.3% (Postman 38.5%); 60 respondents reported using Bruno
- OpenTofu, the open-source Terraform alternative (plan before deploying): 61.1% (Terraform 45.7%); 388 respondents
- Hetzner, low-cost cloud servers (its smallest Regular Performance server, CPX02, is listed at €6.49 a month excl. VAT, 30 Oct 2026): 63.6% (AWS 45.8%); 849 respondents
- Valkey, the Redis-compatible open-source fork: 56.2% (Redis 51.0%); 603 respondents
The catch: these are ratings from each tool's own users, not head-to-head tests, so they don't prove one tool is better. They do make five alternatives worth exploring.
Sources:
- Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2026, technology data (admired and used): https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/technology/data
Dev IDEs: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/technology/data/da-dev-envs
Code testing tools: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/technology/data/da-code-test
Cloud development: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/technology/data/da-platform
Databases: https://survey.stackoverflow.co/2026/technology/data/da-database
- Hetzner Cloud prices: https://www.hetzner.com/cloud/regular-performance/ (30 Oct 2026)
Screen recordings are real sessions recorded on 27 and 30 Oct 2026: Helix (select all, split on "user", change: every match renamed at once), Bruno 4.3.0 (a request to GitHub's API) and its request file in git diff and a commit, OpenTofu (tofu plan with the AWS provider: an instance resized from t3.micro to t3.large), hetzner.com's cloud plans, Valkey 9.1.3 (valkey-cli answering Redis commands).
Product names and logos belong to their owners and are shown for commentary. Logos via Simple Icons (CC0) and valkey.io. Type: Geist and Geist Mono (Vercel, SIL Open Font License) and Instrument Serif (SIL Open Font License). Animated with Remotion.
Music: Hypnothis by Kevin MacLeod, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hypnothis_(ISRC_USUAN1100634).mp3)
Follow @PranavInnovates: dev tools, ranked on real data.
What the video says
VS Code is everywhere. But Helix has an eighty-eight point five percent keep-using score among its own users. Watch this rename! Bruno stores API requests right in Git. OpenTofu plans infrastructure changes. And this next one might save you money. Hetzner lists cloud servers from six euros forty-nine a month. Valkey? It understands Redis commands. Here's the catch: these are ratings from each tool's own users, not head-to-head tests. Five alternatives worth exploring. which one would you actually try?