The C language has been a programming staple for decades. Here’s how it stacks up against C++, Java, C#, Go, Rust, Python, and the newest kid on the block—Carbon.

Its top 10 were JavaScript, Python, Java, PHP, C#, CSS, C++, TypeScript, Ruby, C, and Swift. Rust was in 19th spot. Notably, though, Java was not one of the languages to see much growth on GitHub.

C++ is "doing very well", Tiobe CEO Paul Jansen, says in the company's September 2020 index for the world's most popular programming languages. C++ currently ranks fourth, behind C, Java, and Python.

Based on a formula that analyzes searches on languages on a number of sites, Java’s rating in the September index was 14.14 percent; C++ had a rating of 4.67 percent.

Java was ranked top in April 2020, its highest position since 2001, and dropped to number 4 in September 2023, its lowest position (since 2001) after being overtaken by C++, C, and Python.

The programming language C++ builds off of C, and goes back almost as far — dating back to 1979. Bjarne Stroustrup created it while he was working on his PhD thesis, as a way to add additional ...

There are other differences between the two languages, however they have less of an impact of the respective levels of performance. For example, Java is an object orientated language, C is not.