Back in 2019, I shared the first community survey results for CIDER, the beloved Clojure interactive development environment for Emacs. Five years later, we’re back to take the pulse of the ecosystem and see how things have evolved. In this post, we’ll explore the results of the 2024 State of CIDER Survey, compare them to the 2019 edition, and reflect on the progress and the road ahead. Who Are CIDER Users Today? Experience With CIDER In 2019, most users had between 1-5 years of experience with CIDER. Fast forward to 2024, and we now see a significant portion with 5+ years under their belts — a great sign of CIDER’s stability and staying power. Newcomers are still joining, but the user base has clearly matured. I guess also has to do with the fact that Clojure is not growing as much as before and few new users are joining the Clojure community. For the record: 550 took part in CIDER’s survey in 2019 330 took part in 2024 I’ve observed drops in the rate of participation for State of Clojure surveys as well. Prior Emacs Usage The majority of respondents were Emacs users before trying CIDER in both surveys. A fun new entry in 2024: “It’s complicated” — we see you, Vim-converts and editor-hoppers! Tools, Setups, and Installs Emacs & CIDER Versions Users have generally moved in sync with CIDER and Emacs development. CIDER 1.16 is now the dominant version, and Emacs 29/30 are common. This reflects good community alignment with upstream tooling. Probably by the time I wrote this article most people are using CIDER 1.17 (and 1.18 is right around the corner). Those results embolden us to be slightly more aggressive with adopting newer Emacs features. Installation Methods Package.el remains the most popular method of installation, although straight.el has carved out a notable niche among the more config-savvy crowd. Nothing really shocking here. Usage Patterns Professional Use Just like in 2019, around half of the respondents use CIDER professionally. The remaining half are hobbyists or open-source tinkerers — which is awesome. Upgrade Habits There’s a visible shift from “install once and forget” toward upgrading with major releases or as part of regular package updates. CIDER’s release cadence seems to be encouraging healthier upgrade practices. Used Features This was the biggest addition to the survey in 2024 and the most interesting to me. It confirmed my long-held suspicions that most people use only the most basic CIDER functionality. I can’t be sure why is that, but I have a couple of theories: Information discovery issues Some features are somewhat exotic and few people would benefit from them I have plans to address both points with better docs, video tutorials and gradual removal of some features that add more complexity than value. CIDER 1.17 and 1.18 both make steps in this direction. Community & Documentation Documentation Satisfaction Documentation continues to score well. Most users rate it 4 or 5 stars, though there’s always room for growth, especially in areas like onboarding and advanced features. From my perspective the documentation can be improved a lot (e.g. it’s not very consistent, the structure is also suboptimal here and there), but that’s probably not a big issue for most people. Learning Curve The majority of users rate CIDER’s learning curve as moderate (3-4 out of 5), consistent with the complexity of Emacs itself. Emacs veterans may find it smoother, but newcomers still face a bit of a climb. I keep advising people not to try to learn Emacs and Clojure at the same time! Supporting CIDER While more users and companies are aware of ways to support CIDER (like OpenCollective or GitHub Sponsors), actual support remains low. As always, a small donation or contribution can go a long way to sustaining projects like this. As a matter of fact the donations for CIDER and friends have dropped a lot of since 2022, which is quite disappointing given all the efforts me and other contributors have put into the project. Conclusion CIDER in 2024 is a mature, well-loved tool with a seasoned user base. Most users are professionals or long-time hobbyists, and satisfaction remains high. If you’re reading this and you’re new to CIDER — welcome! And if you’re a long-timer, thank you for helping build something great. Thanks to everyone who participated in the 2024 survey. As always, feedback and contributions are welcome — and here’s to many more years of productive, joyful hacking with Emacs and CIDER. Keep hacking!

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The 2024 State of CIDER Survey reveals a stable and mature user base, with most users having 5+ years of experience. Despite a drop in survey participation compared to 2019, CIDER remains popular among both professionals and hobbyists. Users generally keep up with the latest versions of CIDER and Emacs, and installation through package.el remains the most common method. Although documentation is rated highly, there's room for improvement, especially in onboarding and advanced features. Donations for supporting CIDER have decreased since 2022, highlighting a need for continued community support.

State of CIDER 2024 Survey Results