About The Pragmatic Engineer Newsletter
The #1 technology newsletter on Substack. Highly relevant for software engineers and engineering managers, useful for those working in tech. Written by engineering manager and software engineer Gergely Orosz who was previously at Uber, Skype/Microsoft, and at startups.
What to expect:
Big Tech and startups, from the inside. Tech is accelerating rapidly: but some fast-moving companies are ahead of the rest of the pack. What are they doing differently and why? I talk with people working at these companies to get insights and details.
Actionable advice for engineering managers, software engineers and tech workers. Topics covered are relevant to those working at tech companies. Get tools and insights to become a more efficient engineering leader. If you use just one approach to make your project, team, or company more efficient, the weekly newsletter already pays for itself.
A pulse on the tech market and trends worth knowing about. What is happening in tech, and why? How is the market changing? What does this mean for hiring managers and for those navigating their careers? I cover patterns and trends heard within Big Tech and high-growth startups in the series The Pulse.
An independent viewpoint. I don’t take sponsorships of any kind, and disclose any affiliation I would have with the companies covered. Read my ethics statement and more about the lack of sponsorship in the newsletter.
Join 1,000,000+ subscribers on the #1 technology newsletter on Substack. Read reviews from readers, and read more about the history of the publication.
🙌 For free subscribers:
One issue every Tuesday. These are typically the first half of a full, deeply researched article or analysis, exclusive to The Pragmatic Engineer. Once a month, you receive a full article. This is about the quarter of the content that paying subscribers get.
Wednesdays: podcast episodes delivered to your inbox, with a summary of key takeaways.
Listen to articles. Using the Substack app, you can listen to articles, too.
🔒 For paying subscribers: on top of the above:
Tuesdays: long-form educational articles. These articles typically go deep into a topic relevant for software engineers or engineering managers, and tend to offer actionable advice. See the full archive here, and the list of Real World Engineering Challenges
Thursdays: timely articles on Big Tech and startups. These issues are usually The Pulse pieces: insights, patterns and trends I observe and hear about within Big Tech and at startups.
Early insights into industry trends. I cover trends happening across the software engineering industry. In the past I’ve uncovered trends weeks — and often months — ahead of when mainstream publications like Bloomberg , The Wall Street Journal, or The New York Times reported on them.
Resources and templates for engineering managers and engineers. Access them here.
Message Gergely via this chat and suggest topics through this form.
No ads. No sponsored content, or other types of ads in the Tuesday and Thursday deepdives.
How much does it cost? $15/month or $150/year (or local currency equivalents). See also the “Discounts” section below for students and purchase pricing parity.
To get the full value of this newsletter, subscribe to the weekly, paid edition. Many subscribers expense this newsletter to their team’s learning and development budget. Here is an email you can send to your manager.
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Many subscribers expense this newsletter using their learning, professional development, or training budget. Here is an email you can send to your manager.
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Questions on invoices or need an EU VAT-compliant invoice? See this guide or send an email to billing@pragmaticengineer.com.
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Buy a group subscription here. Once you have bought a group subscription, manage your group on this page.
When setting up a group subscription, an administrator can purchase X annual seats for the group. They can then add/remove/replace people in the organization who receive newsletter issues. Here’s how the user interface looks like for the group manager:
Group discounts: Use this group discount for groups of 5 or more seats. Contact me for further group discounts when purchasing over 10 seats.
Invoices: Invoices can be generated to expense groups and additional group members can also be added later on.
To add further group members: the group admin can add additional seats. Follow the steps outlined here.
Discounts
Purchase pricing parity: if you are based in a country with lower income compared to the US and Western Europe, email me at ppp@pragmaticengineer.com with your country of residence to get a more affordable option.
Students: Student discount for academic email addresses. Don’t have an .edu email address? Email me at ppp@pragmaticengineer.com.
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Usage guidelines & sharing content
One subscription is intended for one individual, and not for groups. See the ‘Group/company subscriptions’ on details for group subscriptions.
Occasional forwarding of newsletter issues internally is completely fine. If you find yourself doing this regularly, please consider getting those people a subscription - or gifting them one!
Refunds
My business philosophy is that if you, as a customer, are not happy, then I’m not happy. I have a 30-day, no-questions-asked refund policy. Please email billing@pragmaticengineer.com for a full refund. I appreciate if you can share the reason you are unhappy with the contents or purchase, but doing so is not necessary for a refund.
Read past articles
See the most-read newsletter issues in 2021 here.
Get a sense of the type of content I write with these essays:
Incident review and postmortem best practices across the industry
🔒 Engineering career paths at Big Tech and high-growth startups
Ask a question
For billing inquiries, email billing@pragmaticengineer.com.
For topic suggestions, submit a topic you’d like to hear about in the newsletter.
For anything else, email hello@pragmaticengineer.com.
Publishing schedule and holidays
The Pragmatic Engineer publishes every Tuesday (deepdives), Wednesday (a podcast episode) and Thursdays (timely pieces / The Pulse). You can control which issues you want to receive over email on this page.
Expect to more than 100 issues in your inbox every year.
Exceptions to this are on holidays during summer and winter break. In 2025, these are:
24 Jul - 4 Aug: summer break
24 December - 2 January: winter break
Additionally, there will be no Thursday articles (only Tuesday and Wednesday ones) on another 3 weeks during the year:
20 Feb: winter break
24 May spring break
27 Nov: Thanksgiving
I appreciate your understanding and thank you for your ongoing support.
This schedule can be changed in case of unexpected events. Last update: 18 Feb 2025.
Guest posts
Occasionally, the Pragmatic Engineer features in-depth, practical guest posts from hands-on tech professionals. More details, including how to express interest.
Sponsorships and advertisements
The newsletter does not run advertisements or sponsorships.
The Pragmatic Engineer Podcast has limited sponsor slots. See more details here.
