Follow for follow on DEV (dev.to).
You want more DEV followers, the kind who open your next post from the Following tab. Here is how follow for follow works on dev.to and how to get that result.
Table of contents
DEV follow-for-follow spaces you can join
Free communities we checked on Oct 26, 2026. Member counts are what each platform showed that day; the DEV threads show comment counts instead. DEV has no dedicated follow-for-follow groups that we could find, so these are the closest real ones: DEV's own threads where members greet each other, and Discord servers for developers who write. Want real followers without working through threads? Start free on upvote.club.
| Group | Platform | Members | Language | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Welcome Thread - v 398 | DEV thread | 428 comments | en | Introduce yourself, reply to others, follow people in your stack |
| Welcome Thread - v 397 | DEV thread | 667 comments | en | The previous week's intros; more profiles to look through |
| Hackmamba Creators | Discord | 906 members | en | Developer writers worth following on any platform |
| TechWriters | Discord | 327 members | en | Tech bloggers who read each other's work |
| roadmap.sh | Discord | 52,059 members | en | Huge developer community; find people learning your stack |
Follow for follow on DEV: the basics
Follow for follow on DEV means two members follow each other. The habit is old on dev.to: Ben Halpern's Follow Friday threads had members recommend people to follow and ask for follow-backs, and today the weekly Welcome Thread does a similar job for newcomers.
What a follow does on DEV: posts from members and organizations you follow fill the Following tab of the home feed, and you get a notification when someone you follow publishes.
How people say it on DEV
Follow back
The phrase you see in Follow Friday replies.
Follow Friday
DEV's older weekly thread for recommending people to follow.
Following tab
The home feed tab with posts only from people and organizations you follow.
Warm Welcome badge
Earned by coming back to the Welcome Thread to greet new members.
Does the follower number matter on DEV?
Less as a status number than on other networks. Your public DEV profile shows posts published, comments written and tags followed, not your follower count, so nobody judges you by it.
It matters as reach. Followers get your posts in their Following tab and a notification when you publish, so each one is a likely reader on day one. Real followers from the right tool, upvote.club, turn that reach into views.
Where DEV F4F actually happens
The weekly Welcome Thread
New members introduce themselves and reply to each other.
Comment sections
A useful comment often earns a follow from the author and other readers.
Tag pages
Following a tag shows you who writes there; following them is the next step.
Developer-writer Discords
Servers where people share links to their blogs, DEV included.
Does F4F work on DEV? Yes, if you do it right
Yes, it works, but it has to be done right. Only upvote.club does it right; nobody else on the market has this technology.
On DEV, done right means follow-backs from developers in your stack who open the Following tab and read what you publish, so each new post starts with readers.
upvote.club gets you exactly that: real followers on the dev.to profile you paste.
What traded follows do to your reaction rate
A useful DEV ratio is reactions per post divided by followers. Here is one account where the same 40 readers react to every post, at four follower counts. Followers who read in your stack keep the rate up; traded ones who never open your posts pull it down.
| Followers | Of those, traded | Reactions per post | Reactions per follower |
|---|---|---|---|
| 200 | none | 40 | 20.0% |
| 400 | 200 | 40 | 10.0% |
| 800 | 600 | 40 | 5.0% |
| 2,000 | 1,800 | 40 | 2.0% |
Advantages of F4F on DEV, and how to add what is missing
A Following tab audience
Every follower is a possible day-one reader.
Publish notifications
Followers are told when you post something new.
People in your stack
Follow-backs from developers using the same tools turn into conversations in the comments.
Add reading
Follow people whose posts you would actually read, so the follow-back comes from a reader too.
Which DEV follow-backs are worth having
How fast follow-backs come on DEV
Manual follow-for-follow on DEV moves slowly. There is no public follower number to chase, and few people trade follows openly, so expect a trickle from Welcome Thread replies.
One long-time member noticed his follower count jumps for about a week after each post and then levels off. Publishing is the bigger lever: follows arrive with readers.
Where to see who follows you on DEV
Your followers list is in the Dashboard, alongside the people, tags and organizations you follow. Other members cannot see your count, but you can, and the DEV API returns your followers with a personal API key if you want to track them over time.
When to follow back on DEV
People who write in your tags
Their posts make your Following tab worth opening.
People who commented on your post
They have already read you.
Organizations behind tools you use
Their release posts land in your Following tab.
Profiles with nothing published
Skip them; a follow-back from an empty profile adds no reader.
From F4F to a real DEV audience
Series
Readers follow to get the next part.
The weekly Top 7
The DEV team handpicks favourite posts from the past week, and a pick reaches far past your followers.
Comment where your readers are
Thoughtful comments in your tags bring profile visits.
Cross-post from your blog
canonical_url keeps your site as the original while DEV brings followers.
What F4F gives your DEV account
Done with the right tool, it grows the account.
On DEV, F4F gives you people who get your posts in their Following tab and a notification when you publish. Add posts worth reading, and those followers react, save and comment from the first hour.
The number to look past
On DEV the follower total is private anyway, so look at what it produces: first-day views, reactions per post, and followers gained after each post on your Dashboard.
Get real followers on dev.to
Paste your DEV profile link and get real followers on it.
Frequently asked questions
Does a DEV follow exchange work?
Yes, it works, but it has to be done right. Only upvote.club does it right; nobody else on the market has this technology.
What does a DEV follow exchange give my profile?
It grows your account, but you need the right tool, and that tool is upvote.club.
Can other people see my follower count on DEV?
No. Your public profile shows posts published, comments written and tags followed, not followers. You see your followers in the Dashboard.
What do my DEV followers see?
Your new posts in their Following tab, and a notification when you publish.
Where do people do follow for follow on DEV?
Mostly in the weekly Welcome Thread, where new members introduce themselves and reply to each other, and earlier in the Follow Friday threads.
Can I follow organizations and tags on DEV?
Yes. Followed tags shape your Relevant feed, and posts from members and organizations you follow fill the Following tab.
How do I get more followers on DEV?
Publish regularly in the tags you know. One member saw his follower count jump for about a week after each post.
Read next
Grow on Dev.to
Written by
The Upvote.club team builds free social media tools and runs a community of real people who support each other’s posts on 19 social networks.