Ask HN: What makes an engineering blog great?

According to Stack Overflow’s annual surveys, about 1 in 3 developers say that company-owned content — like engineering blogs — is one of their top three ways of discovering potential employers (alongside personal networks and company reviews).

That got me thinking about what actually makes a great engineering blog. Here are a few patterns I’ve noticed — curious to hear what others think:

1. Transparency draws talent. The best engineering blogs don’t just explain what the company is working on — they offer a candid view into real challenges, trade-offs, and how the team thinks. For folks considering joining, this can be a signal of technical depth and culture.

2. Credit where it’s due. Companies like Netflix do this well — not just sharing the technical content, but also spotlighting individual contributors. That kind of recognition builds internal morale and shows the outside world the caliber of people behind the work.

3. Distribution matters. A good post can go unnoticed without internal buy-in. When engineers share their own writing (or each other’s), it creates a loop: more reach, more recognition, more reputational lift for the company.

4. The Medium migration. A few years back, Medium was the default blogging platform for tech orgs. Lately, there’s been a quiet shift back to company-owned domains — probably for better SEO, more control over analytics, and long-term ownership.

5. Substack? Not (yet) mainstream. I expected Substack might fill the gap — but very few engineering blogs seem to be using it. A couple examples like PostHog and Jam.dev stand out, but it’s not widely adopted. Curious if anyone else has thoughts or examples.

6. Write for devs. Engineering content that gains traction tends to teach something — not just showcase your stack. Code snippets, TL;DR summaries, actionable insights — these resonate more than generic case studies or product updates.

One trick I’ve seen work well: test draft blog posts here on Hacker News to get early feedback. It’s a fast way to validate whether the content is actually interesting to the broader dev community.

Would love to hear: - Which engineering blogs do you personally follow or recommend? - What makes one stand out to you?