Below are the results to date for the 2022 State of the CF Union survey, part 8.
For those of you who don't have time to read it now, here is a link to Download the PDF and read it later.
This is the eighth and the last part of the Survey, Wrap up which covers why you like/don't like CF, you work, how you work and your comments.
If you want to see the other 7 sections, just click on the section below.
1. Server Environment | 2. Your Environment | 3. Frameworks and Methodology | 4. Tools | 5. Your Programming Background | 6. ColdFusion Community | 7. Deployment | 8. Wrap up
Questions in this part:
44. What aspects of CF are keeping you and/or your company using it? (Check all that apply)*
45. What aspects of CF are preventing you or your company from embracing CF? (Check all that apply)*
46. What are your company’s plans for your technology stack, if any? (Check all that apply)*
47. What is your approximate salary range in USD? (Remember, this is anonymous) (Check one)
48. What is your current arrangement for CF work? (Check all that apply)*
49. What industry is your company in? (Check all that apply)*
50. Any additional comments/suggestions for the survey?
8. Wrap up
44. What aspects of CF are keeping you and/or your company using it? (Check all that apply)*
Others
Most of my clients are small businesses that use my custom CMS written in CF. 300 of our clients use it. So much easier than Wordpress! |
It was already in use by company |
Easily integrates into .net environments |
Rapid Application Development environment |
Excellent Database Integration |
Because I've been in the CF world since Alaire 3.5... |
I am the only developer and CF is what I know. |
I like CF! |
too old to learn any other language |
It’s a very reliable and stable platform |
Getting rid of CF ASAP |
Great backwards Compatibility in CFEngine, however not so much in Frameworks |
Already have developer knowledge on staff |
Already have developer knowledge on staff |
We’re migrating away due to the lack of talent in our price range |
Ortus Solutions and Lucee, CFML Slack |
Our new CIO has declared we will be a Microsoft only shop and that CF is going away. |
CommandBox and Forgebox for package management. It's like Node JS, but makes more sense. |
so easy to get complex tasks done quickly |
Familiar |
Ortus |
1. It’s simplicity. 2. Easy and fast to teach to new developers. |
Looking to move to .NET |
Team Specialty |
Rewriting in NodeJS |
45. What aspects of CF are preventing you or your company from embracing CF? (Check all that apply)*
Others
Thank you for helping people to know that CF is still a very a great way to go! And THANKS TO ADOBE for not giving up on it! |
ColdFusion is wonderful. It hurts to see Google searches asking if ColdFusion is dead. ouch. |
Price of enterprise servers!! We're a pseudo-nonprofit and the costs are prohibitive. |
Lack of 3rd Party API Support, Not Scalable for Server-Sent Events |
Whomever started the "Coldfusion is dying" campaign deserves a major award. I've heard this for 20+ year now... slow death I guess. Cost of VPS and Ability to find good affordable developers are the biggest struggle |
Nothing is preventing us. We use CF almost exclusively. |
Super expensive Adobe licences, Lucee not fully compatible |
I use lucee |
Need better CI/CD DevSecOps tools |
CF is Dead --- Poor Adobe Marketing of CF |
Misinformed leadership team with a Microsoft bias. |
License Costs |
Community is small, so cutting edge solutions aren't as battle tested as in larger communities |
Adobe sucks. |
Just wanted to say 'Cost/licencing issues' twice, since Adobe doubled their prices. |
the doc examples for many things are weak, especially features like building mobile apps. You are missing a great opp with this... CF is so easy to build apps, allow us to build a deploy custom mobile apps for phones. |
its very underserved reputation |
Can't stress enough Adobe poor marketing of CF |
Adobe is too slow to support new OS versions. |
Legacy code in 3 languages - too costly to consolodate. |
Lack of community support. |
Upgrade costs have kept many people on old versions |
No new beginner coders being actively developed in North America |
Lack of support to modern security scanning tools |
Adobe |
46. What are your company’s plans for your technology stack, if any? (Check all that apply)*
If migrating FROM CFML to another language, please specify
possibli go |
licensing costs |
.NET |
node |
I might migrate to Node.js |
Spring boot, Angular |
Undecided... |
Adding some ReactJS front end development |
.net |
Python |
Certain core internal apps will likely never migrate due to existing investment and CF’s high suitability for data-intensive applications. However at least half of the TOTAL codebase (most of external facing and simpler internal facing) that were 100% CF 12 years ago when I arrived, have been gradually replaced with WordPress, headless WP and React, or SharePoint (for internal) due to management beliefs and priorities. |
We are also using Pega |
some microsoft stuff i assume |
PHP |
Node |
Node or Java |
PHP |
php |
Asp |
Moving to SAP Hybris platform |
Python PHP Kotlin .Net |
C#, .Net, the Microsoft stack |
Node/React |
Java |
Clojure |
If migrating from another language TO CFML, please specify
Management wants us to migrate to .NET |
JavaScript |
Would love to move DNN to ContentBox but really having issues putting together proof of concept |
Node |
PHP |
No plans |
47. What is your approximate salary range in USD? (Remember, this is anonymous) (Check one)
Others
I own the corporation, we offer web design and Dev to small-medium size companies. |
I own this corporation. There is me and one other CF developer I trained myself. We supplement with Wordpress, PHP on VPS. |
sole proprietor of two pivoting businesses |
NA |
Can't disclose |
Skip |
Really, 85-150 |
We do not disclose data like this. |
Including additional income on a per-Job basis with non-salary side projects |
Not disclosing |
Pass |
48. What is your current arrangement for CF work? (Check all that apply)*
Others
Personal projects |
sorry, I'm salary remote. But I've selected all options we employ currently. |
In flux - leaving in-house employment, exploring remote opportunities, planning independent learning activities (and possible “sabbatical”) to transition from ancient to modern CF and other skills. |
I have a full time CF day job and a part time CF side job |
Full service includes development |
career position and co-owner and freelance on retainer. |
Currently not on a CF project. Details provided are for previous project. |
Entrepreneure |
49. What industry is your company in? (Check all that apply)*
Others
My company offers web design and development, we also supplement our CF with Wordpress, PHP clients if they request that. |
Web design and development. Currently have hundreds of clients. |
Housing |
Website development for multiple companies |
Legal |
50. Any additional comments/suggestions for the survey?
Can't thank you enough for helping to change the perception of ColdFusion. I have too many clients asking if ColdFusion is still a thing.
Can't thank Adobe enough for continuing to offer ColdFusion new releases and upgrades. I would be out of business if they ever gave up on ColdFusion.
It hurts to see Google searches asking if ColdFusion is dead. I will do what I can from here to help you change that perception.
ColdFusion is the best language out there, not just because I know it inside-out, but because I can use 1-2 lines of code in CF for what takes a book of code to do in PHP. CF is truly remarkable and worth the licensing cost.
I think Adobe could do more marketing around the latest ColdFusion releases and the great product ColdFusion is. If they would not only support new development but also help change people's perception of it I think it greatly help your effort to keep ColdFusion relevant. Not only relevant but the best way to go!
ColdFusion has a "reputation" as being a big headache with support people at hosting companies. When you say "ColdFusion" in a support ticket they run away.
Adobe must do more to help hosting companies train support staff in ColdFusion and promote what a great product it is. Support people must feel confident with it and ready to help.
When hosting companies feel more comfortable with ColdFusion, they will quit advising people to avoid it, and will encourage people to use it.
Adobe's influence there would really help! They should not only continue to support new CF releases, but to use their influence to change the wrong perceptions of ColdFusion out there.
They must help erase the bad "press", and come out whole-heartedly and let it be known they are proud of this product and and it is the best way to go today. They could do more to train the younger generations in CF by helping Universities, colleges and trade schools offer classes in CF and let them know there is much demand for more CF developers in the workplace.
I'll do my part from here too. THANK YOU for doing this work.
I hope this union can convince Adobe to do more to get young people trained and in love with CF and help companies to realize the value in it today.
Thank you again,
Kristi
I actually learned a lot from your survey because it listed several options that I did not know existed for certain areas like hosting. I was surprised to find AWS on your list of hosts.
I wrote a CMS platform to be much like Wordpress, but in ColdFusion, and MUCH more user friendly. Our clients are doctors, lawyers, small shops, small businesses, and a few larger corporations - we program their custom back-office software and online classes for their clients who need to take their classes.
These clients don't know or care what language we do it in, as long as they can update their website themselves. Most turn to us when Wordpress scares them off because our CMS platform is so much more user friendly than Wordpress. We have 300 on our CF CMS now. We run 3 CF servers, one for our CMS, and 3 more for clients using our custom back office CF software. Another 300 or so on Wordpress, linux VPS.
Thank you for doing this for ColdFusion! I'm not a public speaker but I certainly care whether ColdFusion survives or now. My corporation depends on it. I will do what I can from here to help you change the image people have of ColdFusion as a first choice solution.
Thank you!
Kristi
Thanks for doing this annually.
thanks for the survey. i though cf is dead 😀
I find the CF community has gotten snobby. You can't post questions without someone jumping down your throat or making you feel like an idiot. Should take some lessons from the Python community.
The fact that we don't have a decent IDE is mind-boggling. CF Studio was the best. CFB is a joke.
Thank you for being a large part of a community dedicated to not only keeping coldfusion current and active, but evolving and improving. This survey is just one small example of the types of engagments our sub-industry needs. And taking this survey brought some attention to things I can do personally/professionally to improve within CFML and things I can guide our company into doing as we push ourselves to revise and improve our environment and value to our clients and customers. Cheers.
ColdFusion tech support has become a joke. It is practically non-existent. Support emails mostly don't receive a response. Support calls go unanswered and no callbacks. I have zero confidence I could resolve an issue in a reasonable timeframe. It makes me very nervous to run an on-prem CF server. Thankfully I have very few CF problems. It just runs. Still, it feels like I'm playing with fire.
Reposition anchor used in page URLs such that progress indicator is visible on onscreen after every page load. As it is now users do not see the progress indicator after page load. I was actually typing out "add a progress indicator" but then double-checked and found there is one it is just never displayed onscreen while taking the survey...unless you scroll up after every page load. TIA
thanks for providing this and helping the CF community
I've been using cf since 1998 but took a couple of years off and recently came back in.
The license fee is too expensive. Divide the cost according to the modules installed, eg. the module for managing an Oracle db could be more expensive than the one for MySQL and where is the Adobe VS Code for CFML ?
Many thanks, Michaela! Saw survey / raffle on LinkedIn just this morning, and it looked quite relevant to my current exploration. Glad I found it, and I’m looking forward to seeing the survey results. The last 12 years have been a different kind of learning for me, but unfortunately not conducive to keeping up with all the amazing stuff happening in the CF world. Complicated… most of those years were spent working under a “CF is dead” believer while I kept a suite of core business-critical CF apps as alive, maintainable, relevant and refactored as I could under the circumstances - even building new ones as required and pushing the learning envelope as far as I could to build them as responsibly as possible. So sad to think how much better some of them could be doing right now, if there had been support for keeping up with advances in testability, among other things. But that’s in the past now, and I am looking forward to a significant skills makeover that is only just beginning!
I am enjoying my work, because I am a ColdFusion developer!!!
Keep up the great work!
I you note from my responses I am lacking in training
It is not always clear whether the questions only target CF related work. E.g. in the company I work for we also use other tech stacks besides CF. I restricted my answers to CF only.
Note that I chose CFCamp as an event I'd like to attend, though it most probably won't happen this year.
I need to implement CI/CD with my 8 person CF team.
good activity
I love cf
Want to help to make CFML hot again.
Lucee is an amazing product. It would be nice to have a (current) roadmap page on the Lucee website. It’s difficult to plan upgrades and migrations without knowing lucre’s plans.
Great job keeping this going ever year! Thank you 🙂
I would love to see the backwards compatibility of CF also in its frameworks. However I habe experienced that updating or upgrading a framework often is a pain in the ass
Thanks for continuing to do the survey
Keep up the good work - all the best!
Total number of responses
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