← The Signal 500

The 40 best engineering and design blogs, ranked

Building software, hardware and everything else.

40
sources
12
Signal 100
9.6
avg ad restraint

Scored 9 August 2026 by FeedsBar. A browser opens every source and counts what it finds — ad entities, layout shift, reading width — and a vision model looks at the page it renders. Whether something deserves your attention is not arithmetic. That part is ours.

Editorial ×2 · Ad restraint ×1.5 · Reach ×1.5 · Signal-to-noise, access, cadence, design, independence ×1.

Top 12 in Makers

  1. Julia Evans homepage
    #1

    Julia Evans

    Debugging, systems, and famed zines made joyfully approachable

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  2. Irrational Exuberance (Will Larson) homepage
    #2

    Irrational Exuberance (Will Larson)

    Sharp engineering-leadership and management writing from a CTO.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    9/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  3. fasterthanli.me (Amos) homepage
    #3

    fasterthanli.me (Amos)

    Amos Wenger's meticulous long-form Rust and systems tutorials.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    10/10
  4. Armin Ronacher (lucumr) homepage
    #4

    Armin Ronacher (lucumr)

    Flask creator's thoughtful essays on programming and tooling.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  5. Codrops homepage
    #5

    Codrops

    Cutting-edge web animation tutorials and jaw-dropping creative-coding demos.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  6. Joel on Software homepage
    #6

    Joel on Software

    100

    Legendary software essays, brilliant but essentially dormant now.

    Ad restraint
    9/10
    Design
    9/10
    Editorial
    10/10
  7. ACM Queue homepage
    #7

    ACM Queue

    Practitioner-grade computing essays from ACM professionals.

    Ad restraint
    9/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  8. Adrian Roselli homepage
    #8

    Adrian Roselli

    Rigorous accessibility, HTML, and inclusive design guidance.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  9. Ahmad Shadeed homepage
    #9

    Ahmad Shadeed

    Meticulous CSS deep dives and interface debugging

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  10. Bartosz Ciechanowski homepage
    #10

    Bartosz Ciechanowski

    Astonishing interactive explainers of how physical systems work.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    9/10
    Editorial
    10/10
  11. Nikita Prokopov (tonsky) homepage
    #11

    Nikita Prokopov (tonsky)

    Opinionated takes on UI, fonts, and software quality

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    9/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  12. The Pragmatic Engineer homepage
    #12

    The Pragmatic Engineer

    Gergely Orosz on big tech, careers, and engineering practice

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    9/10
    Editorial
    10/10

The rest of Makers

  1. #13antirezRedis creator on systems programming and craft83/100
  2. #14Hillel WayneFormal methods, correctness, and the sociology of software engineering.83/100
  3. #15Josh ComeauDelightful, deeply illustrated CSS and React tutorials83/100
  4. #16brandur.orgBrandur Leach on databases, Go, and durable software systems.82.5/100
  5. #17Martin FowlerRefactoring, architecture, and design from the source82.5/100
  6. #18Dan LuuDeep, data-driven essays on hardware, reliability, and industry82/100
  7. #19Jake ArchibaldDeep, playful deep-dives into web platform internals.82/100
  8. #20Lea VerouCSS standards insider on color, APIs, and design81.5/100
  9. #21overreacted (Dan Abramov)React core contributor's deep dives on JavaScript and UI.81.5/100
  10. #22Rust BlogOfficial releases and roadmap from the Rust project81.5/100
  11. #23Fred Hebert (ferd.ca)Erlang, resilience engineering, and operating complex systems81/100
  12. #24Eli BenderskyDetailed technical writing on compilers, Go, and low-level programming.80.5/100
  13. #25HTMHellManuel Matuzovic on semantic HTML and accessibility80/100
  14. #26Brendan Gregg's BlogThe definitive voice on systems performance and observability.79.5/100
  15. #27Cloudflare BlogNetworking, security, and edge infrastructure at scale79.5/100
  16. #28Nielsen Norman GroupEvidence-based UX research and usability guidelines79.5/100
  17. #29PiccalilliAndy Bell's modern, resilient CSS and layout craft79.5/100
  18. #30LukeW (Luke Wroblewski)Product design and mobile-first UX from a veteran.79/100
  19. #31Addy OsmaniGoogle engineer on web performance and frontend craft.78.5/100
  20. #32Manuel MatuzovićAccessibility, CSS architecture, and HTML best practices.78.5/100
  21. #33GitHub BlogProduct, engineering, and open-source news from GitHub78/100
  22. #34Stripe BlogPayments infrastructure, APIs, and engineering from Stripe78/100
  23. #35web.dev BlogGoogle's guidance on modern web capabilities and performance.77/100
  24. #36Coding HorrorJeff Atwood's long-running essays on programming and developer craft.76.5/100
  25. #37Engineering at MetaMeta's infrastructure, AI, and systems engineering deep dives.76/100
  26. #38nerdy.dev (Adam Argyle)Chrome CSS advocate exploring cutting-edge browser layout features.75.5/100
  27. #39Modern CSS (Stephanie Eckles)Modern CSS solutions to common front-end styling problems.74.5/100
  28. #40Kilian ValkhofFront-end, CSS, and browser-tooling writing from Polypane's maker.74/100

All 40, across your desktop.

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