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    Who are the most influential voices in Developer experience & DevRel?

    Updated October 22, 2026

    Key takeaway

    Copilot, Gemini and Google AI Mode answered. Gemini and Google AI Mode agree on a community of DevRel practitioners, Jono Bacon, Emily Freeman, Mary Thengvall, Angie Jones, Nader Dabit and Shawn Wang, and Jono Bacon leads three of their four answers. Copilot instead ranks YouTube educators such as Jeff Delaney and Brad Traversy and big company advocates such as Scott Hanselman and Cassidy Williams.

    Disagreement (2)

    Who counts as a DevRel voice

    Jono Bacon is the top voice

    Verdict

    Gemini and Google AI Mode back Jono Bacon, who leads three of their four answers, while Copilot does not name him and leads with Scott Hanselman or Jeff Delaney. The engines share few names beyond Sarah Drasner, Cassidy Williams and Scott Hanselman.

    What engines actually searched

    The sub-queries each engine actually searched before answering.

    Cited, but not mentioned

    9 sites cite this answer without naming anyone

    Full responses

    5 of 5 engines that answered. Full stored text as captured, with dashes shown as hyphens. Nothing is summarised.

    ChatGPT311 characters · October 11, 2026
    1. Jono Bacon
    2. Kelsey Hightower
    3. Scott Hanselman
    4. Cassidy Williams
    5. Mary Thengvall
    6. Abi Noda
    7. Angie Jones
    8. Lee Robinson
    9. Jeff Barr
    10. Gergely Orosz citegist.com
    Gemini logo Gemini2,452 characters · October 10, 2026
    Google AI Mode618 characters · October 10, 2026
    1. Jono Bacon
    2. Angie Jones
    3. Emily Freeman
    4. Mary Thengvall
    5. Chloe Condon
    6. Nader Dabit
    7. Shawn Swyx Wang
    8. Tessa Kriesel
    9. Matthew Revell
    10. Wesley Faulkner The Top 100 Influencers in #DevRel - eCairn

    If you'd like, I can provide:

    • A summary of the key contributions or books/frameworks associated with each person.
    • Specific platforms or channels where they share most of their DevRel insights.

    Let me know how you would like to proceed!

    Perplexity170 characters · October 22, 2026
    1. Mary Thengvall
    2. Cassidy Williams
    3. Scott Hanselman
    4. Jono Bacon
    5. Lee Robinson
    6. Kelsey Hightower
    7. Kent C. Dodds
    8. Scott Tolinski
    9. Wes Bos
    10. Sarah Drasner
    Copilot logo Copilot4,100 characters · October 10, 2026

    Top 10 most influential voices in Developer Experience & DevRel (ranked):

    1. Jeff Delaney (Fireship)

    2. Brad Traversy (Traversy Media)

    3. Cassidy Williams (GitHub)

    4. Scott Hanselman (Microsoft)

    5. Sarah Drasner (Google)

    6. Kyle Cook (Web Dev Simplified)

    7. Mosh Hamedani (Programming with Mosh)

    8. Daniel Shiffman (Coding Train)

    9. Alex Xu (ByteByteGo)

    10. Theo Browne (t3.gg)

    Why these 10 rank at the top

    Key Takeaway

    This ranking blends platform reach (YouTube, conferences, blogs) with institutional influence (roles at GitHub, Microsoft, Google). The top five (Delaney, Traversy, Williams, Hanselman, Drasner) dominate both audience size and strategic impact in shaping developer experience and DevRel practices worldwide.

    Would you like me to also highlight emerging voices (next-gen DevRel leaders who may break into the top 10 soon), or keep the focus strictly on established figures?