What are the best platforms to publish programming tutorials and reach a large developer audience?

If your goal is maximum developer reach, the best platforms are usually:

1. DEV Community — strong built-in developer audience, easy discovery, good for tutorials that invite discussion. (dev.to)
2. Hashnode — good for developer-focused publishing, especially if you want your own domain and a blog you control. Hashnode also emphasizes custom domains, API/headless publishing, and audience ownership. (hashnode.com)
3. Medium — broad reach, but less developer-specific and more limited for ownership/customization unless you’re on paid features. (hashnode.com)
4. freeCodeCamp / curated educational publications — better when your tutorial is highly practical and beginner-friendly, and you want it edited/curated for learning impact. (dev.to)
5. HackerNoon / In Plain English / Stackademic-style publications — useful for amplified distribution through themed publications and guest-post ecosystems. (dev.to)

My practical recommendation

• If you want fast visibility: publish on DEV Community first. (dev.to)
• If you want long-term brand + SEO ownership: use Hashnode or your own blog, then cross-post to DEV. (hashnode.com)
• If you want editorial reach and beginner-friendly readership: try freeCodeCamp or similar curated publications. (dev.to)

Best overall strategy

Publish the tutorial on:

• your own site or Hashnode as the canonical version, then
• cross-post a polished version to DEV Community, and
• pitch especially strong, beginner-friendly pieces to curated publications. (hashnode.com)

If you want, I can also give you:

• a ranked list by audience size vs. ownership, or
• a platform-by-platform comparison table for tutorials, SEO, and monetization.