I’m Nick Craver, and you might know me from my articles about Stack Overflow’s deployment strategy, our hardware infrastructure, and the architecture we’ve built. However, there’s one question that consistently comes up, especially when I meet other developers: how does Stack Overflow actually make money? It’s time to demystify this and explain not just the what, but the why behind our revenue streams. At Stack Overflow, we deeply believe in radical transparency with our community. This openness, even when it comes to traditionally sensitive topics like finances, is crucial. It’s why we launched initiatives like the Stack Overflow Salary Calculator – to promote transparency in the tech industry.
Group of Stack Overflow employees at a company meeting, highlighting the collaborative environment and the diverse team.
To give you some context, I’m the architecture lead at Stack Overflow, and I’m writing this shortly after our annual company-wide meetup. This event is incredibly valuable, especially for remote team members like myself. It’s a chance to connect face-to-face with colleagues, many of whom I’ve only interacted with online, and to engage in deep discussions about the future of Stack Overflow. These meetups are a powerful reminder of our shared purpose and the synergy we achieve when working together. As I approach my sixth year of contributing to what I genuinely believe is the most valuable resource for developers worldwide, my passion for continuous improvement remains strong. But, it’s critical to remember that Stack Overflow is not a solo endeavor. I am incredibly fortunate to be surrounded by an exceptional team – developers, sysadmins, designers, managers, marketers, sales professionals, and countless others who support our mission. We, collectively, are Stack Overflow.
A larger group photo from the Stack Overflow meetup, emphasizing company growth and the increasing number of employees contributing to the platform.
Last week, I spent numerous hours at the meetup engaging with colleagues, both familiar and new faces, discussing our company’s growth trajectory. More importantly, we focused on how to achieve this growth while upholding our core values – being, for lack of a better word, honorable. I have a very high bar for ethical conduct, and I believe this should be evident in how you perceive Stack Overflow. I am fiercely protective of our users. Anyone who works at Stack Overflow can attest to this. I firmly believe that the trust we’ve built with our community is invaluable and irreplaceable. I am committed to working for a company that not only recognizes but actively respects this trust, and Stack Overflow embodies this principle.
A smaller group of Stack Overflow employees in a meeting setting, focused on discussions about company strategy and user experience.
While this commitment to users is company-wide, we’ve historically encountered skepticism about how we balance user respect with the need to generate revenue. Some perceive making money as a secondary concern, perhaps just for investors or to keep the servers running. We want to dispel this notion. Of course, financial sustainability is essential. However, our primary purpose is to serve our users. We exist because our community chooses to participate and contribute. This is why we’ve designed our monetization strategy as a virtuous cycle that continuously enhances the community, rather than treating our users or platform as resources to be extracted. Our financial success is a direct reflection of how effectively we are helping developers. By prioritizing user value, we build a strong and sustainable business. Very few companies have achieved this balance, and we are proud to be among them.
The Stack Overflow Approach to Making Money: Community First
So, how does Stack Overflow make money while staying true to its mission of serving developers? Our revenue model is built upon the foundation of providing genuine value to both developers and the companies that seek to hire them. We achieve this through a few key channels, all designed to be integrated with and enhance the user experience, not detract from it.
Stack Overflow Talent & Stack Overflow Jobs: Connecting Talent with Opportunity
One primary way we generate revenue is through our business-oriented products: Display Ads and Talent. Specifically, Stack Overflow Talent and Stack Overflow Jobs are designed to help companies build their brand and find skilled technical professionals. Simultaneously, these services help developers discover better job opportunities and learn about companies in a user-friendly manner – free from spammy outreach or intrusive advertising. We prioritize the developer experience in every decision we make, which is what sets our business offerings apart.
Screenshot of Stack Overflow Jobs page, showcasing job listings and company branding opportunities for tech talent acquisition.
It’s analogous to our question and answer platform. Companies are essentially asking for developers, and we provide the platform for expert developers to answer that call, in a way that benefits both parties. For this ecosystem to thrive, we need active participation from both companies and developers. The larger the pool of companies and developers, the more effectively and efficiently we can match the right talent with the right opportunities – ideally, their dream jobs. For companies, our goal is not to inundate them with hundreds of irrelevant resumes, but to connect them with a curated selection of highly qualified candidates who are a strong fit. This is where we provide significant value. We aim to optimize the hiring process, eliminating inefficiencies and saving time for both developers and companies.
Our position is unique because we can simultaneously serve the needs of both companies and developers. This isn’t just marketing rhetoric; it’s a core belief. We are confident in our ability to do this better than anyone else. We are already facilitating thousands of successful job placements, but there are still thousands more open positions waiting for the right candidates. One key initiative to improve this matching process is our Developer Story. I personally contributed to building this feature because I believe it’s a superior alternative to traditional resumes and CVs. It allows developers to showcase their skills, experiences, and contributions in a dynamic and maintainable way. And yes, it also helps you find a job. If you’re actively job seeking or even passively exploring opportunities, a complete Developer Story significantly increases your chances of being matched with relevant roles.
Comparison image contrasting a traditional resume with the Stack Overflow Developer Story, highlighting the visual and comprehensive nature of the Developer Story.
Even if you’re not currently interested in job searching, that’s perfectly fine. While we are eager to help connect you with great companies, we designed both Jobs and Developer Story to support our overarching mission of serving all developers, including those who aren’t actively seeking new employment. We are committed to improving how companies interact with developers, not only through the standards embedded in Jobs (like our strict no-spam policy) but also through our Developer Hiring Blog, specifically created to promote better employer and recruiter practices. With Developer Story, we aim to shift the perception that a developer’s worth is solely defined by their last job title or employer. Developers are creators with unique stories, reflected in their code, blog posts, team contributions, and even their ongoing learning journey. These products were not simply launched to boost the bottom line; they were created to drive a positive change in the tech industry.
Stack Overflow Ads: Relevant and Respectful
As a major online platform, advertising is a crucial component of how Stack Overflow makes money and sustains itself. However, we are committed to ensuring that our ads solution provides value to our users, not just interruptions. Our aim is to deliver ads that are as relevant as possible to your interests and needs. When perfect relevance isn’t achievable, we strive to show you ads that our intelligent systems predict are still valuable to you. We are constantly refining this process, working to make the necessary ads as unobtrusive and relevant as possible. We have a dedicated team of talented individuals focused on this challenge, driven by the overarching goal of deeply understanding developers to serve you better. (And for those wondering about ad blockers, we have a clear stance: we don’t mind, and here’s why.)
Our current ad strategy focuses on enhancement, not expansion. We are not increasing the volume of ads; instead, we are making them smarter and more targeted. We leverage our deep understanding of developer technologies and interests – powered by machine learning – to deliver more relevant ad content than you might experience elsewhere online. We are also working to improve ad loading speed, a significant project in progress. Crucially, we are not compromising on ad quality. In fact, we intentionally leave a substantial amount of ad inventory unsold each month. Every time we display a “house ad” (promoting other Stack Exchange network sites) or a “community ad” (voted on by the community), we are choosing not to run a paid advertisement. This is a conscious decision driven by our commitment to quality. We have rejected automated ad selection systems because they didn’t provide the control necessary to maintain our desired quality standards. We are willing to forgo potential revenue because sacrificing user experience is not an option. It’s important to note that this rejection of potentially lucrative but lower-quality ads is driven by our own ad sales team – the very people responsible for generating ad revenue. They prioritize our community’s experience and perception of Stack Overflow over maximizing short-term profits. This level of dedication to user value, even within our sales teams, is incredibly rare and a testament to the company culture.
We are aware of occasional slow-loading ads (thank you to our meta users for reporting these!). We are actively working to identify and resolve these issues, collaborating with advertisers to improve performance. Performance is a core feature of our site, and anything that impacts page load times is a priority. In line with this commitment to performance and security, I am working with our ad sales team to ensure that all advertisements will be HTTPS compatible starting in January 2017. While most ads are already compliant, we are moving to enforce HTTPS across the board. This is part of a larger initiative to move all aspects of Stack Overflow to HTTPS, including Imgur images and site logos – a significant undertaking that deserves its own detailed explanation.
Stack Overflow Enterprise: Empowering Developers Within Organizations
Another crucial revenue stream and a way to extend our impact is Stack Overflow Enterprise. This offering is gaining momentum and represents another avenue for how Stack Overflow makes money while simultaneously benefiting developers and organizations. We have dedicated resources focused on developing and enhancing Stack Overflow Enterprise. Enterprise environments have unique needs, and we are tailoring our solution to meet those requirements. However, it’s important to note that Stack Overflow Enterprise is built on the same core codebase as public Stack Overflow. It’s the same git branch. In fact, features developed for Enterprise often find their way back to the public platform. For example, we are exploring building a simple image proxy for HTTPS compatibility, which would also be valuable as an internal image hosting solution within Enterprise environments. Similarly, the client-side timing metrics we are implementing will provide valuable data for optimizing performance in both public and enterprise contexts. We see Stack Overflow as one interconnected ecosystem, and improvements in one area often benefit all users.
Building Trust: The Foundation of Sustainable Revenue
Ultimately, how Stack Overflow makes money ethically and sustainably boils down to trust. For a company of our size, effective marketing is essential. However, like many developers, I initially held a degree of skepticism towards marketing. My past experiences led me to a somewhat cynical view of marketers. But my experience at Stack Overflow has fundamentally changed that perspective. I’ve come to realize that my initial prejudice was unfounded. We have built an exceptional marketing team composed of individuals who genuinely care about the same values I do – particularly user trust. To Kaitlin and the entire marketing team, thank you. Our marketing team has faced internal pushback and skepticism with remarkable resilience and professionalism. They have consistently demonstrated the value of their initiatives and successfully convinced even the most critical thinkers within the company. Every team at Stack Overflow understands that the Stack Overflow community and the trust we’ve earned are our most precious assets. Our communication strategy is focused on providing value and fostering engagement, not alienation. We aim to connect with users who we genuinely believe we can help. And yes, when we do this effectively, it also benefits Stack Overflow as a business. This is not a conflict of interest, but a virtuous cycle. As the company grows, we are able to invest in building even more valuable resources and features for our community. I have countless ideas for future improvements and innovations. Ask me sometime about my vision for deploying Stack Overflow on 2U servers across Europe, Asia, and South America to optimize latency – just to give you a glimpse of the ambitious projects we are constantly considering. I recently attended a presentation by Adrianna, our new CMO, who I had not met personally before. Her presentation was truly eye-opening and inspiring. The marketing strategies she outlined to unify and strengthen our brand were so compelling that my immediate thought was, “Why haven’t we been doing this for years?”
A mixed group of Stack Overflow employees from engineering, sales, and marketing departments, showcasing cross-departmental collaboration and shared goals.
Marketing, much like software development, is fundamentally about connecting the dots. My initial apprehension towards marketers has transformed into genuine enthusiasm for collaboration. We have intelligent, well-intentioned marketing professionals who are making a positive impact for everyone involved – our users, our company, and the broader developer community. I am genuinely excited about the future.
Mini Case Study: Email and the Feature of Trust
This emphasis on trust and shared values extends to every aspect of our operations, including the internal tools we build. A recent example that highlights the centrality of trust is our new email system. My Architecture team (or, more accurately, Samo Prelog and myself – “team” might be an overstatement for a pair!) recently developed a new email infrastructure to ensure consistent and user-centric communication. Initially, I was completely opposed to building such a system. However, I became convinced of its necessity, provided it was built with user trust as the paramount consideration. What was the very first feature we prioritized? Opt-outs. Unsubscribe functionality was the absolute first thing we implemented. One-click unsubscribe links and a comprehensive preference management page were non-negotiable requirements from day one. As a developer who deleted my LinkedIn account due to unwanted emails years ago, I understand the frustration of spam. If you no longer want to hear from us, that’s perfectly acceptable. We apologize if we’ve inadvertently bothered you and appreciate your understanding. One of my biggest concerns is ever annoying our community; it’s something that genuinely keeps me up at night. We are currently sending out an email to announce Developer Story to a wider audience, hoping to provide value to a segment of developers. If you reject this email, you will be unsubscribed. If you are unresponsive to our emails, you will be unsubscribed. If you mark our emails as spam, you will be unsubscribed. We are committed to being responsible digital citizens. Every non-transactional email sent through this new system includes three links in the footer: a one-click unsubscribe, a direct link to manage all email preferences, and a feedback link. One of the key reasons we invested the extra effort in building this system in-house was to ensure that user opt-out preferences are preserved even if we change email service providers (we are currently using SendGrid, and it’s working well so far!). We wanted to eliminate any risk of re-engaging users who have explicitly indicated they are not interested. While we currently have a single email category (“New Features”), we plan to expand this to encompass existing communications like community newsletters (which are already opt-in). Our goal is to consolidate all email communication within this new system, providing users with a single, unified preference management interface and a reliable one-click unsubscribe that always works. Our current email preferences page is, frankly, a mess – a legacy of our growth from a single site to a network. We are actively working to simplify and improve this. One of our designers, Donna, is leading the effort to create a dramatically simplified user experience. This requires significant backend changes to support unification and simplification. Our vision is to have a single user email address and a single location to manage all email communication from Stack Overflow. If our emails are ever intrusive or unwanted, unsubscribing should be effortless – at most, one or two clicks. Every interaction and communication must reflect our respect for your time and attention. If it doesn’t, we have failed you and ourselves. Our mission is to improve life for developers, and this principle guides everything we do. Earning and maintaining your trust is paramount. If we introduce new email categories in the future (beyond simply categorizing existing emails), existing users will not be automatically opted-in. Only new users will receive default email subscriptions. We are determined not to become “that site.” This user-centric approach is deeply ingrained in our system design, even at the database schema level. If you received our Developer Story email and it’s not relevant to you, that’s perfectly fine. We hope Stack Overflow continues to serve you in other ways, and we appreciate your engagement with the platform. We believe initiatives like Documentation and our ongoing Q&A improvements are making a tangible positive impact on developers’ lives. This is why we are here. This is why I am here.
How We Think About What’s Next
Looking ahead, I am filled with ideas and enthusiasm. I want to explore time-series databases in SQL Server with Clustered Columnstore indexes. I want to test a midnight brainstorm idea for improving developer news consumption. I want to build several data connectors to streamline workflows for our internal teams. The list is endless. I am particularly excited about the future of Documentation and Developer Stories. I am eager to continue building and innovating. My ultimate goal is to ensure the financial sustainability of Stack Overflow so we can focus on what truly matters: building valuable tools and resources that our community wants and needs. I am confident that we can achieve this in a way that benefits everyone – our users, our company, and the broader tech ecosystem. I hope you share this perspective. I hope this explanation has provided some insight into the inner workings of Stack Overflow, at least from my perspective. If you disagree with our approach or have suggestions for improvement, please share your thoughts in the comments. Your feedback is invaluable as we strive to do better. Thank you for taking the time to understand how Stack Overflow makes money and why we believe it’s an ethical and sustainable model.
