Survey: Which C++ Frameworks Are Actually Used in Production in 2025

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Survey: Which C++ Frameworks Are Used in Production

Despite its venerable age, C++ remains one of the most in-demand languages for high-load systems, game engines, financial software, and embedded solutions. However, choosing a framework for a real commercial project is a non-trivial task. The PythonLib editorial team conducted a survey among 500+ developers and analyzed which C++ libraries and frameworks are actually used in production, not just in pet projects.

Survey Methodology

Participants were asked to select up to three frameworks that they use in their current work on a commercial product. The survey involved developers from Russia, CIS countries, and Europe. The results were processed with duplicate votes excluded.

Top 5 Frameworks for C++ Production

Qt (78% of votes) — the undisputed leader. It is used not only for GUI but also for network applications, database operations, and multithreading. Main areas: medical software, CAD systems, automotive electronics.
Boost (64%) — the "Swiss Army knife" of C++. Used in the financial sector, telecommunications, and backend services. The most popular components: asio (networking), beast (HTTP/WebSocket), filesystem.
POCO (41%) — a stable choice for high-load servers and IoT solutions. Developers value it for its clean architecture and lack of "heavy" dependencies.
Crow (29%) — a modern microframework for REST API. Actively used in startups and microservice architecture. Key advantage: development speed and minimal overhead.
Drogon (22%) — a gaining popularity asynchronous framework. Most often found in projects requiring high HTTP server performance and WebSocket support.

Unexpected Results

Interestingly, developers mentioned Google Test and Catch2 as essential tools but did not classify them as frameworks. Separately, it is worth noting the growing interest in Folly (Facebook Open Source Library) — it is used in 7% of surveyed companies, primarily in large IT corporations.

What Didn't Make the Top

Wt (Web Toolkit) — only 4%. Developers note integration complexity and insufficient documentation.
SFML — despite its popularity in game development, it is used in production in only 3% of cases.
Pistache — 2%. An interesting alternative for REST, but it doesn't yet match the stability level of Crow and Drogon.

Results and Forecast

The C++ framework market is slowly but surely moving towards modularity and simplified development. Qt continues to dominate the desktop segment, Boost remains indispensable for infrastructure solutions, while Crow and Drogon are capturing the web niche. If you are choosing a framework for a new commercial project, start by analyzing your tasks: for GUI — Qt, for high-load backend — Boost + Crow, for corporate systems — POCO.

The survey was conducted in March 2025 based on the PythonLib community. 528 respondents participated in the voting.