Overview
I used the Forem API (https://dev.to/api/tags?per_page=20) to fetch the top 20 tags on the DEV Community platform and analyzed their post counts. Using Python and matplotlib, I generated a horizontal bar chart to visualize the popularity of each tag.
The Chart
Top 5 Tags Summary
Here are the top 5 most popular tags on DEV Community:
| Rank | Tag | Post Count |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | #webdev | 336,071 |
| 2 | #programming | 233,811 |
| 3 | #javascript | 233,128 |
| 4 | #ai | 188,561 |
| 5 | #beginners | 169,620 |
Key Insights
- #webdev dominates with over 336K posts, nearly 100K more than the runner-up, reflecting the strong web development focus of the DEV community.
- #programming and #javascript are neck-and-neck at ~233K posts each, showing that general programming content and JavaScript remain the backbone of developer discussions.
- #ai has surged to 4th place with 188K posts, highlighting the massive growth of AI-related content in the developer ecosystem.
- #beginners rounds out the top 5 with nearly 170K posts, demonstrating DEV's welcoming nature for newcomers to the field.
How It Was Built
The analysis was built using a simple Python script:
import json
import urllib.request
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
# Fetch tags from the Forem API
url = "https://dev.to/api/tags?per_page=20"
req = urllib.request.Request(url, headers={"User-Agent": "Mozilla/5.0"})
with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=30) as resp:
api_tags = json.loads(resp.read().decode())
# Generate horizontal bar chart
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(12, 8))
bars = ax.barh(names, counts, color=colors)
ax.set_xlabel('Number of Posts')
ax.set_title('DEV Community — Top 20 Tag Popularity')
plt.savefig('dev_tag_popularity.png', dpi=150, bbox_inches='tight')
The chart was saved as dev_tag_popularity.png and uploaded via DEV's editor image upload feature.
Data collected on April 15, 2026 using the DEV/Forem public API.
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