← The Signal 500

The 35 best engineering and design blogs, ranked

Building software, hardware and everything else.

35
sources
12
Signal 100
9.6
avg ad restraint

Scored 24 September 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

    Debugging, systems, and famed zines made joyfully approachable

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    6/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  2. Irrational Exuberance (Will Larson) homepage

    Sharp engineering-leadership and management writing from a CTO.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  3. Nikita Prokopov (tonsky) homepage

    Opinionated takes on UI, fonts, and software quality

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  4. Hillel Wayne homepage

    Formal methods, correctness, and the sociology of software engineering.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  5. Josh Comeau homepage

    Delightful, deeply illustrated CSS and React tutorials

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    7/10
    Editorial
    10/10
  6. Ahmad Shadeed homepage

    Meticulous CSS deep dives and interface debugging

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    6/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  7. brandur.org homepage

    Brandur Leach on databases, Go, and durable software systems.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    8/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  8. Armin Ronacher (lucumr) homepage

    Flask creator's thoughtful essays on programming and tooling.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    5/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  9. Jake Archibald homepage

    Deep, playful deep-dives into web platform internals.

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

    Rigorous accessibility, HTML, and inclusive design guidance.

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    5/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  11. Lea Verou homepage

    CSS standards insider on color, APIs, and design

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    7/10
    Editorial
    9/10
  12. Martin Fowler homepage

    Refactoring, architecture, and design from the source

    Ad restraint
    10/10
    Design
    7/10
    Editorial
    9/10

The rest of Makers

  1. #13overreacted (Dan Abramov)React core contributor's deep dives on JavaScript and UI.80.5/100
  2. #14The Pragmatic EngineerGergely Orosz on big tech, careers, and engineering practice80.5/100
  3. #15antirezRedis creator on systems programming and craft80/100
  4. #16Rust BlogOfficial releases and roadmap from the Rust project79.5/100
  5. #17Cloudflare BlogNetworking, security, and edge infrastructure at scale78.5/100
  6. #18Eli BenderskyDetailed technical writing on compilers, Go, and low-level programming.78.5/100
  7. #19PiccalilliAndy Bell's modern, resilient CSS and layout craft78.5/100
  8. #20Dan LuuDeep, data-driven essays on hardware, reliability, and industry78/100
  9. #21Smashing MagazineThe definitive front-end and design publication78/100
  10. #22Addy OsmaniGoogle engineer on web performance and frontend craft.77.5/100
  11. #23Manuel MatuzovićAccessibility, CSS architecture, and HTML best practices.77.5/100
  12. #24Nielsen Norman GroupEvidence-based UX research and usability guidelines77.5/100
  13. #25Fred Hebert (ferd.ca)Erlang, resilience engineering, and operating complex systems77/100
  14. #26LukeW (Luke Wroblewski)Product design and mobile-first UX from a veteran.77/100
  15. #27A List ApartStandards, craft, and thinking about web design76.5/100
  16. #28Coding HorrorJeff Atwood's long-running essays on programming and developer craft.76.5/100
  17. #29GitHub BlogProduct, engineering, and open-source news from GitHub76/100
  18. #30MIT News AIMIT's press coverage of its AI research.76/100
  19. #31Stripe BlogPayments infrastructure, APIs, and engineering from Stripe76/100
  20. #32Engineering at MetaMeta's infrastructure, AI, and systems engineering deep dives.75/100
  21. #33nerdy.dev (Adam Argyle)Chrome CSS advocate exploring cutting-edge browser layout features.73.5/100
  22. #34Scott HanselmanLong-running practical .NET and developer-productivity blog.72.5/100
  23. #35ThemeIsleWordPress theme vendor's SEO-driven tutorial blog.63/100

All 35, across your desktop.

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Methodology

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The best essays we read, and the sources we added. No pitch, no digest of our own news.

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