Development is one of the most-tracked categories in our index. 376 products since 2021. The year-over-year data below reveals whether this space is accelerating, plateauing, or cooling off.
Five years of Development launch data. Volume, engagement, and the products that stood out.
Development is one of the most-tracked categories in our index. 376 products since 2021. The year-over-year data below reveals whether this space is accelerating, plateauing, or cooling off.
| Quarter | Launches | Avg Interest Score | Top Product |
|---|---|---|---|
| Q1 2026 | 23 | 210 | CreateOS |
| Q2 2026 | 1 | 173 | Mercury Edit 2 |
| Q1 2025 | 22 | 136 | Trae |
| Q2 2025 | 32 | 185 | Claude 4 |
| Q3 2025 | 27 | 169 | AppStruct |
| Q4 2025 | 14 | 179 | Cursor 2.0 |
| Q1 2024 | 19 | 173 | Open SaaS |
| Q2 2024 | 22 | 157 | Octoverse |
| Q3 2024 | 45 | 119 | Replit Agent |
| Q4 2024 | 13 | 137 | Layouts.dev |
| Q1 2023 | 19 | 182 | react.dev |
| Q2 2023 | 29 | 138 | Humalect |
| Q3 2023 | 33 | 180 | ShipFast |
| Q4 2023 | 45 | 156 | The New GitBook |
| Q1 2022 | 1 | 100 | Sobriety Hub |
| Q2 2022 | 5 | 285 | ngrok |
The Development category has been accelerating over the past 5 years of tracked data. Total launches went from 32 in 2022 to 24 in 2026.
Average engagement ratio across all Development launches: 0.23. Products above that line tend to solve a specific, painful problem. Products below it often entered a crowded space without clear differentiation.
Development peaked in 2023 with 126 launches. That was 3 years ago. The decline since then could signal market consolidation, saturation, or attention shifting to adjacent categories.
Average engagement per product dropped from 0.34 in 2022 to 0.14 in 2026. More products competing for the same attention pool. The community is spread thinner, which makes high-engagement launches more impressive.
The highest-performing quarter was Q2 2022, with an average interest score of 285 across 5 launches. ngrok led that quarter.
Volume without engagement is saturation. Engagement without volume is opportunity. Check which one you're looking at.
Sum of all interest scores in the quarter divided by number of products. Simple average. We don't weight by category or product age.
Depends on what's declining. If volume drops but engagement rises, the market is maturing. That's often good for existing players. If both drop, the category may be dying. The quarterly breakdown on each page tells you which pattern you're seeing.
At least three. Two data points is a line, not a trend. We have five years of data for most categories, which is enough to distinguish real shifts from noise.
Current year launches compared to the same period last year. Positive means more products launching. Negative means the category cooled. Neither is inherently good or bad. A mature category with fewer but better launches is often healthier than one flooding the market with clones.
Launch volume drops but engagement per product rises. Fewer builders entering, but the ones that do find a more receptive audience. That's an opportunity signal. We flag it when we see it.
We report what happened. We don't predict. Five years of data shows patterns, but markets surprise people for a living.