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Pragmatic Engineer
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Researched profile. Starter Story's AI research system compiled this page from 63 public sources — the founder didn't write it. Automated research can misread or misattribute a source, so treat figures as best-effort. How this works →
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How Pragmatic Engineer Makes Money

Weekly tech insights and career advice for engineers

How did Pragmatic Engineer monetize?

Summary of the sourced claims below

Pragmatic Engineer monetizes primarily through a subscription-based newsletter, charging $150 per year or $15 per month, which provides paying subscribers with full access to deepdives, issues of The Pulse, and extra resources for career growth and engineering leadership. The newsletter has grown to around 500 paid subscribers and generates recurring revenue, with many subscribers expensing it as an educational resource.

Revenue sources

6 sources · grouped by how Pragmatic Engineer makes money

  • Recurring subscriptions

    · 7 mentions · 7 sources
    “Going forward, paying subscribers can expect two articles per week. This is more than the one article per week when the newsletter started a year ago… A special thanks to subscribers who pay for the publication, or expense it as an educational resource.”
    high
    Show 6 more quotes
    “Many engineering managers and engineers expense this newsletter from their L&D/education budgets. If you implement one suggestion from the issues that help your team, the subscription already paid for itself.”
    medium
    “A month into a paid newsletter for eng managers/engineers, it's taking off faster than I ever hoped: ~ 500 paid subscribers (thank you!) ~ 15,000 free subscribers ~ $62K ARR”
    high
    “He charges $150 per year, or $15 per month. ...he relies mostly on premium subscribers to his newsletter.”
    high
    “Special thanks to paying subscribers, who get full access to all deepdives, issues of The Pulse, as well as extra resources for career growth, and content for engineering leaders.”
    medium
    “Compensation with a subscription-based newsletter vs. his salaried position at Uber”
    high
    “It's one of the best newsletters focusing on the IT market, and the premium subscription is worth every cent.”
    high

  • Advertising revenue

    · 2 mentions · 2 sources
    “In June 2019, added a small, non-intrusive advertising block to this blog in hopes of making enough revenue to cover the hosting costs. In March 2022, I removed this advertisement for good ... In 33 months of these ads running, they generated a total of $3,541 after 2.1M ad views.”
    high
    Show 1 more quote
    “YouTube Adsense Gergely posted on YouTube for a little while and built his channel up to around 57,000 subscribers. He hasn’t posted on there since May of 2022, so I’m pretty sure this isn’t a big income source anymore, but I wanted to include it anyway.”
    medium

  • One-time / lifetime deals

    · 1 mention
    “This mobile apps book and a tech resume book made around $100k in the first year of sales. ... ebook on Gumroad, paperback/Kindle on Amazon and IngramSpark”
    high

  • Marketplace commissions

    · 1 mention
    “Gergely uses a tool called Pallet to put together a job board. The job market is a little weird right now so I don’t want to speculate on numbers. There are 17 jobs currently listed on the job board from 10 different companies.”
    medium

  • Sponsorships & partnerships

    · 1 mention
    “he got book sponsors. Yep, he went out and found companies that would sponsor the book so he didn’t have to worry about making sales.”
    high

  • Physical products

    · 1 mention
    “The book has now sold more than 40,000 copies, proving it was worth spending a very lengthy four years on writing it! This year, it was translated into four more languages, and is available in Japanese, Simplified and Traditional Chinese editions, Mongolian, German, and Korean.”
    high

How 1,868 businesses make money

Of businesses with mapped revenue sources, the share using each — Pragmatic Engineer’s highlighted.
  • Recurring subscriptions
    54% ◀
  • Services & consulting
    29%
  • Physical products
    29% ◀
  • One-time / lifetime deals
    23% ◀
  • Affiliate / referral commissions
    15%
  • Course / training sales
    13%
  • Sponsorships & partnerships
    10% ◀
  • Usage-based fees
    9%
  • Advertising revenue
    9% ◀
  • Add-ons & upsells
    9%
  • Marketplace commissions
    6% ◀
  • Licensing
    2%
  • Setup / onboarding fees
    2%
  • Donations & tips
    2%
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