Fintech developers are spending significant time building special tools for their needs to keep up with the rapidly evolving payments space.
This is just one of the findings revealed by S & P Global Market Intelligence’s recent study in conjunction with Rapyd. The landmark study also revealed that 45% of fintech developers are coding every day, evidence of how deploying code daily is quickly becoming the norm. What’s more, 80% of the work in companies where code is used goes into production within a week or less. In short, developers are busy creating original tools and deploying code often, which is reshaping fintech and financial services. We’ll dig into those findings more below.
Want to build the best fintech developer tech stack? Read what 500+ devs are saying. Read the full State of the Global Fintech Developer report here.
Developers Spending Time Creating In-house Tools, Hybrid Solutions
In-house problem-solving can be time-intensive for developers, with two in five respondents spending more time developing in-house tools than performing their other job responsibilities. The developers we surveyed spent a significant amount of time creating their own fintech developer tools.
That’s because there’s not always a standard, one-size-fits-all product that works for everyone. In fact, only about 26% of developers use commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products, while 22% use open-source tools, 18% create their own, and 34% create a hybrid approach. Some of the fintech developer tools used most frequently are Complier and Debugger. In addition, APIs are becoming more and more common in fintech, helping developers create financial apps and services.
Developers Must Use the Right Tools and Partners to Create Time for What They Do Best
In-house development can result in more control and greater customization, however, the fact that developers are creating in-house tools speaks to the complexity of the fintech ecosystem. Building tools can take away their focus on product and distract from other key product priorities.
This is especially challenging given that 5% of fintech developers are coding every day, and deploying code daily is quickly becoming the norm.
Developers should consider using ready-made products and APIs that fix the need for building special tools. Thus, there appears to be an opportunity for more developer tools that are created especially for the fintech industry. More specialized tools would enable developers to shift their focus back to the product.
Other Findings from the State of the Fintech Developer Report
Developer Language Preferences
Generally, fintech developers prefer Python and Java. Python, Java, and JavaScript are the most commonly used coding languages in the US, UK, and Asia. Python ranked the highest (36%), followed by Java (35%) and JavaScript (33%).
Among these, Python is the preferred coding language, especially by those with 10 or more years of coding experience. Secondary choices were C/C++/C#, with the remainder including SQL, HTML, and R. Many developers prefer Python for its ability to handle challenging integration issues inherent to many eCommerce applications.
Better Documentation Means Better Results
Developers want better documentation. The study found that one of the most highly prioritized vendor-provided resources is detailed project documentation/use case guides, with 56% of respondents saying this was one of their most prized resources. Companies that can offer improved documentation/use case guides can expect better results.
Cloud Services Are Becoming Standard
Developers need top-performing cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Azure. According to our study, 67% of fintech developers work with AWS. That’s compared to 56% of developers who work with Azure. However, 62% of developers who work at companies with more than 5,000 employees tend to use Azure; 55% use AWS. Both of these applications are friendly environments for hosting fintech developer tools.
Open-Source Projects Stimulate Community Connection
Related to tools, most developers are involved in open-source projects. In our study, 95% of respondents said they are currently, or have previously been, involved in open-source projects. Of those, 83% have contributed to public repositories on Github in the last 12 months. This kind of open-source project involvement helps support a stronger fintech developer community.
About the Study
Rapyd’s Black & White paper with S & P Global Market Intelligence’s 451 Research is a study based on primary research survey data that assesses the market dynamics of a key enterprise technology segment through the lens of the “on the ground” experience and opinions of real practitioners — what they are doing and why they are doing it.
The findings presented in this report draw on a custom global survey of 502 fintech developers. The survey was fielded in Q2 2021 and included respondents based in the US, UK, Singapore, New Zealand, India, Hong Kong and Australia.
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