Top 10 Gift Ideas for Programmers, Software Engineers, and Tech Geeks

My friend circle has a lot of programmers and non-programmers. When it comes to buying gifts for birthdays, anniversary, or holidays, I receive a lot of queries from my non-programmer family and friends about what to buy for a programmer? Well, buying a gift is easy but choosing or finding the right gift for someone is really really tough. I have had this experience when it comes to buying gifts for kids. I know they like toys but my wife told me to buy something more valuable, which not only keeps them engaged but also provides value, help them in learning and they appreciate every time they use. That's a lot to cater to one gift, but that's the perfect gift, isn't it?

Same goes for programmers, you buy them something which they don't care will not make a difference, they will gleefully accept it, and it will remain in the corner of the house, but, if you give something which they can use daily or carve for, they will not only remember you every day but also appreciate your sense of gift.

You will be in their good books for a long time. This is particularly important if you try to impress your colleague or boss, who happens to be a technical guy or programmer.

Like any gift, the budget is significant; some gifts are good, but if they are costly and you can't afford it, then to them not useful.

But, if you want to give someone who is dear to you, e.g. your husband, boyfriend, brother, or just a close friend, you definitely want to buy more valuable gifts. That's why I have included both precious and somewhat expensive, as well as many affordable gifts, which you can buy under 100$.

Top 10 Gifts for Programmers and IT Pros

Here are some of the best gifts you can give to your programmer friends. The gifts are listed in random order, and some of them are costly, you can choose based on your budget.

1. Gift a course from Udemy

Programmers love online courses, including me, and Udemy is the biggest collection of online courses. It has got over 55,000 online courses to learn anything, e.g. starting from popular programming language like Java and Python to advanced technology, e.g. Big Data, Automation, Cloud Computing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, Robotics, etc.

Udemy allows you to send a course or a gift card to your programmer friend, you just need to enter his email while purchasing the course.

My wife gifted me theMachine Learning A-Z: Hands-On Python & R In Data Science, and I simply loved it. If your husband is interested in Data Science, Machine Learning, or Artificial intelligence, then you can gift that too.

If you know what your husband or boyfriend likes, then you can choose some excellent courses from Udemy; otherwise, I just bought a gift card for them.

2. Plurasight Memberships

The programmer appreciates memberships. You can buy the Plurasight annual membership, which costs around 299$. It's a little bit expensive, but it offers him a lot of choices on learning, and your programmer friend will appreciate every time he uses it.

If you are concerned about the cost side, then monthly membership is also a good option, which costs around 29$. The annual membership of Pluralsightis a little bit costly, but it's worth every penny.

3.Amazon Prime Music subscription

Another thing Programers Loves is music, they just never get tired of listening to music. Many programmers, in fact, need music to work and increase their productivity.

Amazon Music is the biggest collection of music, and your programmer friend will surely find something he loves in this big store of music. He will appreciate your thoughts and effort every time he listens to music on his bose headset as well.

4.Raspberry Pi

Raspberry Pi has been around for a while, but it seems like it just keeps getting awesome. Programmers are curious people and them to play with electronics. Raspberry Pi is an entire mini-computer for a ridiculously low price, and you can get an excellent bundle, like this one, which adds all kinds of cool stuff to play with.

It's also great for tinkering around with teaching programming to kids or making your own network of servers. Once, I ran Linux on my Rasberry Pi and used putty to connect it, how awesome is that? In short, one of the best gadgets to gift your programmer friend.

5. Books

Similar to gadgets and music Programmers also like books a lot, but with the book, there is confusion. Which book you should buy for them? A novel, a programming book, or something else.

Well, even though many programmers like fantasy books and novels, they are not so valuable for them, but if you buy them something like Grokking Algorithms , books which every programmer can read, they will appreciate it more.

If you need more books to gift programs there are a lot of choices available, you should check out my list of 10 books every programmer should read here.

6. Fitness club membership

This is another awesome gift you can give someone you love. Since many programmers lack physical activity, you not only encouraging to do more physical activity but also improving their lifestyle.

They may not appreciate in a short time, but they will surely do in the long run :-)

7.Logitech G710+ Mechanical Gaming Keyboard

Every programmer needs an excellent keyboard, and your friend will not be different. Though some programmers like silent keyboard and some programmers like a Gaming keyboard, I like gaming one more because I also play games on my PC. Logitech is one of the best companies for peripheral devices, so to me, this keyboard is a great buy.

In addition to being a fantastic mechanical keyboard, it also has a bunch of really cool gaming features, so I’m a big fan of it.

8. PC and Console Games

Like gadgets, music, and books, Programmers love Games too, well I certainly do. I have grown up playing Nintendo games like Super Mario Bros, Mortal Combat, and I still play games on my Xbox.

So, either you can buy your friends a gaming console like Xbox or Nintendo PI, or if he already has one, you can buy them games like Minecraft. That's something they will enjoy for sure.

9.Intel Boxed Compute Stick with Windows 10 Pre-Loaded

This is a really awesome gift for tech geeks? An entire computer, complete with Windows 10, on a stick. You just plug this thing into a TV or monitor, and you have a computer.

And the best part of it is that it will just you over $100. Simply Awesome.

10. New 16-inch MacBook Pro

Programmers Love Gadgets, and nothing beats Apple when it comes to gadgets. If you are a programmer, friends don't have MacBook Pro, then its a perfect idea to gift that to him. Apple just announced a new 16-inch MacBook Pro, which many people calling the ultimate developer machine, and I also think the best programmer gift for 2019 and 2020.

Apart from Apple fixing the keyboard issue, here are some of the major highlights of New 16-inch MacBook Pro, looking like an awesome Developer machine:

•     16-inch Retina display
•     Up to 8-core processor
•     Up to 8TB SSD storage
•     Up to 64GB of memory
•     Up to 11 hours of battery life
•     Dedicated escape key
•     Dedicated arrow buttons
•     AMD Radeon Pro 5000M series graphics
•     Six-speaker sound system and studio-quality mics

Sure, it's costly, but if he is someone you love or very close to, then its definitely worth it, and whoever you gift it will not forget you for a long time.  In fact, this is the ultimate gift for a programmer, it's on the wish list too just in case if you want to gift me :-)

That's all on this list of 10 awesome gift ideas for programmers. I am sure your programmer friend or colleague will love any gift from this list. You can buy them for their birthday or gift them during the coming holidays.

I know its hard to choose a gift, but whatever time and effort you put into selecting a gift will be remembered forever by your friend if you keep their interest and needs in mind.

Btw, if you are still not sure what to buy, you can also check out this Biggest Electronic Gift Guide from Amazon.