58% of Developers Are Considering Quitting Their Jobs Because of Inadequate and ‘Embarrassing’ Legacy Tech Stacks

• Survey by Storyblok of 200 senior developers at medium-large businesses finds widespread dissatisfaction with tech stacks - 86% are ‘embarrassed’ by their tech stack - with one in four saying legacy systems are the chief problem
• 73% of developers know at least one fellow professional who has quit their job in the past year due to the poor state of the tech stack at their company - 40.5% say they know more than three, and 12.5% know at least five
• Keeping developers will cost business leaders - 92% say the minimum average pay rise they will require to keep working with their inadequate tech stacks is 10%, with 42% saying they will need at least a 20% rise - a further 15% say they would need a more than 25% pay hike
• Outdated CMSs come under particular fire with only 4% saying their platform perfectly fits their needs and nearly half saying it’s a constant hindrance to them doing their best work

New York, NY - June 11, 2025 - Research by headless CMS Storyblok (opens in a new window) has found widespread dissatisfaction and embarrassment among developers at the poor state of the tech stacks they work with.

Storyblok surveyed 200 senior developers at medium-large businesses on a range of issues including the performance of their tech stack, hurdles they face in their day-to-day work, and the actions businesses could take to retain their services.

An overwhelming number of participants said their tech stack is negatively impacting their job - 47.5% say it made them consider quitting in the past year. 31% of respondents said they regularly thought about quitting in the past month.

When asked what made them most unhappy in their day-to-day jobs, the chief culprit was ‘maintaining and fixing bugs on legacy system’ (27.5%), followed by ‘dealing with non-technical stakeholders who don't understand technical limitations’ (21.5%), and ‘a lack of clear requirements and constantly shifting priorities’ (14%).

Delving into issues around tech stacks, developers said the main problem is a lack of key functionality (51%), 47% said it’s the difficulty of maintaining it, and 31% said it’s an absence of compatibility with the latest innovations, such as AI.

Developers were also asked if there are any aspects of their tech stack that they found embarrassing - 24.5% said it was the use of legacy systems, followed by excessive technical debt and workarounds (22.5%), and outdated frameworks and libraries (18%). Only 14% of respondents said they are not embarrassed by their tech stack.

The influence of tech stacks on developer job satisfaction was further illustrated when Storyblok asked how directly it tied to their professional identities - 74% said it was a ‘significant’ influence, with 19.5% stating it ‘defined’ them. Only 2.5% said it didn’t matter to them.

To improve tech stacks, developers sent a clear message - companies need to provide resources and leadership to drive modernization. 37.5% said that a ‘clear modernization roadmap with actual resource allocation’ should be a top priority, while an equal percentage prioritize a leadership team that values technical excellence in a tech stack at the same level that they value the features it contains.

Interestingly, when asked how their tech stack compares to their competitors, 49.5% said they were industry leaders and 41.5% said they were ‘on par’. This means that despite most developers recognizing that their tech stack is not fit for purpose, it was in line, or perceived as better, than the rest of the industry they work in - indicating that low tech stack standards are pervasive.

Outdated content management systems are a particular focus of developer dissatisfaction with 67.5% saying their company’s CMS is holding them back from doing their best work - with nearly half of those respondents saying it’s a ‘constant’ hindrance to them. 29.5% would replace their CMS with a platform that offered a better developer experience, 23.5% said they would like modern tech stack integration capabilities, 17.5% cited performance and scalability, and 12.5% said functionality such as AI integration is a priority. Only 4% said their CMS was ‘perfect’.

AI is also now dominating how developers code - 89.5% of respondents said they use AI to code frequently or constantly. Ranking the reasons why, the top was ‘increasing efficiency’ at 30%, followed by automating routine tasks (23%), and improving skillset at 22%.

Alexander Feiglstorfer, CTO and Co-Founder of Storyblok, said: “The message to businesses is clear - outdated tech stacks are making your developers unhappy to the point of quitting.

“Rectifying this problem means either paying developers more to stay or investing in updating legacy systems. Pay rises are a short-term fix as our research shows how closely developers tie their professional identity and happiness to the quality of the tech stack they use. If you want to bring joy back into your development team, and consequently improve performance and productivity, you need to commit to a modernization roadmap. Not only will this reduce developer team churn, but it will open the door to your business being able to more effectively leverage the latest innovations within AI and composable tech.”

About Storyblok

Storyblok is a headless CMS for marketers and developers who want to make a bigger, faster market impact. It frees you from the pain of legacy CMS platforms and empowers your teams to ship content quickly and build with complete flexibility.

Legendary brands like Adidas, T-Mobile, and Renault use Storyblok to make content management fun and collaborative. It’s Joyful Headless™ and it changes everything.