decline of Qtforums
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It seems that we're talking about two things here: the lowered traffic in the forums, and the (possible) decline of Qt popularity in general.
Regarding the forums, there's no doubt in my mind that AI is a major factor. This year, my company licensed all the developers for ChatGPT, and in the several months I've used it, I've come to regard it as nearly indispensable. I still use the forums here, but...much less frequently. I imagine many others are in the same situation.
Regarding Qt's overall popularity, this is a fairly complicated issue. Qt has never been a tool for everyone, nor (I believe) does it try to be. In recent years it seems that the use of what I'll call "casual" desktop applications has declined in favor of mobile apps and browser-based solutions. TQC is certainly aware of this, and appears to have chosen to focus on selected industries in which software products have ultra-high requirements for stability and quality (and price points to reflect this. This is their bread and butter. And their current licensing options, as unpopular as they may be to many of us, are probably consistent with their target markets.
What this means for the future of Qt is uncertain, but it seems that we're unlikely to see Qt become a household word in most of the tech space. As long as TQC can realize a satisfactory revenue stream from their niche markets, though, they'll continue to develop it, and we'll all reap the benefits of that.
@mzimmers said in decline of Qtforums:
It seems that we're talking about two things here: the lowered traffic in the forums, and the (possible) decline of Qt popularity in general.
You are right, these are 2 separate issues, although certainly there is some correlation. LLMs can (most certainly do) lower traffic on forums, but they will not have much effect on usage of Qt itself. The other factors we've mentioned will affect both the forums and the usage.
What I know is the number of Qt projects I've seen got lower over the years, job offers for Qt are now more rare, and many Qt consulting companies are switching (partially or fully) to other technologies. Of course, I don't have global data on this, I'm only mentioning what I've noticed in my small, local information bubble.
I do wish Qt all the best though and hope it will rise again. Not only because I've invested so much time into learning and supporting it myself, but simply because it is an amazing framework, with great API and quite unmatched documentation - it deserves to be popular and recognised :-)
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I know little about Qt's user base or its market share, but I'm fairly sure that it's never been a dominant player. There are a few possible reasons: the company mission has morphed a couple times over the years; there's a steep learning curve, and then there's the licensing (heh).
But the point is, it's OK for Qt to be a relatively small player...as long as it's the best in its class in what it does. Look at Ferrari - market share < 1%, but is anyone worried about them disappearing? TQC seems determined to focus on that (admittedly small) user base that needs legitimately killer apps. As long as they can 1) identify those industries and 2) serve them well, there's really no reason to think that Qt can't outlive all of us.
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It's a very good point :-)
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There may or may not be correlation. I myself try to avoid forums where a preisthood assigns worthiness value to your questions, such as stack-exchange does.
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There may or may not be correlation. I myself try to avoid forums where a preisthood assigns worthiness value to your questions, such as stack-exchange does.
@Kent-Dorfman Yes, StackOverflow is really annoying to use (unless you are just reading answers without being logged in). I have seen discussions that were missing crucial details, but I'm not allowed to comment or answer. A lot of knowledge goes missing over there. The worst thing is when you are trying to upvote an answer and StackOverflow just tells you that they have registered your upvote, but they are not counting it because I don't have enough points. It just needed a few interactions like this where I don't normally even upvote answers anymore. From what I've heard the StackOverflow community is also a little bit more toxic.
Non of this can be said about this Qt forum. So, I hope there are not too many hurdles when using this forum (occasionally users are complaining that their posts are categorized as spam or that they are throttled in their number of answers).
I have seen interpretations of the graph mentioned by @Christian-Ehrlicher and there seem to be the following facts: 1) StackOverflow usage went down before AI. 2) There was a small peak during COVID, but the downward trend quickly continued. 3) AI only slightly accelerated the downward trend. This means the downfall of StackOverflow is not primarily because of AI (you really cannot give AI too much credit over there).
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Qt forums are quieter mainly because AI provides quick answers, licensing has become restrictive, and younger developers prefer Flutter, React Native, or web apps. Qt remains strong in niche industries, and initiatives like Qt Academy could help, but casual forum activity will likely stay low.
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Qt forums are quieter mainly because AI provides quick answers, licensing has become restrictive, and younger developers prefer Flutter, React Native, or web apps. Qt remains strong in niche industries, and initiatives like Qt Academy could help, but casual forum activity will likely stay low.
@inam said in decline of Qtforums:
licensing has become restrictive
The open source license has always basically been the same. And the Qt company has always tried to scare people into buying the commercial license. I'm not sure if anybody is driven away by changes in the commercial licenses.
@inam said in decline of Qtforums:
and younger developers prefer Flutter, React Native, or web apps
This would only be relevant if these technologies are stealing people away from C++. However, C++ is still growing: https://herbsutter.com/2025/12/ . Maybe there is a shift in regular desktop apps away from C++ (I don't know).
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Qt forums are quieter because AI gives fast answers, licensing feels restrictive, and younger developers favor Flutter, React Native, or web apps. Qt remains strong in niche industries, and initiatives like Qt Academy can help, but casual forum activity will likely stay low.
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and because of AI posts like this ^
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Qt forums are quieter because AI gives fast answers, licensing feels restrictive, and younger developers favor Flutter, React Native, or web apps. Qt remains strong in niche industries, and initiatives like Qt Academy can help, but casual forum activity will likely stay low.
@inam said in decline of Qtforums:
Qt forums are quieter because AI gives fast answers, licensing feels restrictive, and younger developers favor Flutter, React Native, or web apps. Qt remains strong in niche industries, and initiatives like Qt Academy can help, but casual forum activity will likely stay low.
About a month ago you wrote the exact same thing with just a handful of words changed. If you don't have anything new to contribute, you should stay quiet. And if you are really a bot, I'd like you banned on the forum.
