100 most popular Perl libraries

In the world of Perl programming language there is a great thing called CPAN.

CPAN — is a storage for Perl libraries. Everybody can write Perl library, upload it to CPAN and then others would be able to take that library and to use it in their project.

There are several different web interfaces. All of them are working with the same CPAN storage, but shows its data in a bit different way. I prefer to use https://metacpan.org.

On Metacpan it is possible to vote for the libraries. If you click on the ++ symbol on the library page the system will understand that you have voted for this library (liked it):

There is no library ratings on Metacpan itself, but it has API that can be used to create top libraries by the number of likes.

I've written a simple script, that shows top 100 Perl libraries with the maximum number of likes. It is funny, but the Perl language is on the second place. And the most popular Perl library is web framework Mojolicious.

All good Perl programmers must known about popular libraries. It is not obligatory to know them in all the details (this is hardly possible), but it is worth knowing what is it for and when it should be used.

So, this is the list generated at 2017-05-28 (the number after the dash is the likes count):

1. Mojolicious — 332
2. perl — 287
3. Moose — 257
4. DBIx-Class — 242
5. Moo — 215
6. App-cpanminus — 214
7. DBI — 200
8. Plack — 191
9. DateTime — 163
10. Dist-Zilla — 151
11. App-perlbrew — 142
12. Dancer — 139
13. Test-Simple — 138
14. Try-Tiny — 137
15. Devel-NYTProf — 135
16. Catalyst-Runtime — 129
17. libwww-perl — 126
18. Scalar-List-Utils — 122
19. Path-Tiny — 113
20. AnyEvent — 113
21. Data-Printer — 107
22. Template-Toolkit — 103
23. ack — 99
24. List-MoreUtils — 97
25. Type-Tiny — 87
26. Perl-Tidy — 86
27. JSON-XS — 86
28. Starman — 85
29. Dancer2 — 82
30. HTTP-Tiny — 81
31. Devel-Cover — 79
32. URI — 78
33. Getopt-Long — 78
34. Perl-Critic — 77
35. Path-Class — 75
36. MongoDB — 74
37. Data-Dumper — 74
38. Capture-Tiny — 74
39. JSON — 72
40. XML-LibXML — 70
41. WWW-Mechanize — 69
42. Task-Kensho — 69
43. Carton — 69
44. Text-CSV_XS — 64
45. DBD-SQLite — 64
46. local-lib — 62
47. Time-Moment — 58
48. SQL-Abstract — 54
49. Log-Log4perl — 52
50. Parallel-ForkManager — 51
51. MCE — 50
52. Text-Xslate — 48
53. IO-All — 48
54. PathTools — 47
55. Imager — 47
56. File-Slurp — 47
57. autodie — 45
58. Reply — 44
59. Ubic — 43
60. HTTP-Message — 43
61. DBD-Pg — 43
62. YAML — 42
63. Rex — 41
64. Pinto — 40
65. Text-CSV — 38
66. Devel-REPL — 36
67. Carp — 36
68. XML-Twig — 35
69. Time-HiRes — 35
70. Minion — 35
71. File-Temp — 35
72. Devel-hdb — 34
73. Test-Harness — 33
74. Mouse — 31
75. Catalyst-Manual — 31
76. Term-ANSIColor — 30
77. PPI — 30
78. Moops — 30
79. Coro — 30
80. Role-Tiny — 28
81. PSGI — 28
82. Log-Any — 28
83. Daemon-Control — 28
84. DBIx-Class-Schema-Loader — 28
85. CHI — 28
86. Regexp-Common — 27
87. IO — 27
88. Test-Fatal — 26
89. Test-Deep — 26
90. Redis — 26
91. Mojo-Pg — 25
92. DBD-mysql — 25
93. Marpa-R2 — 24
94. Regexp-Debugger — 23
95. Mango — 23
96. DBIx-Class-Helpers — 23
97. POE — 21
98. Time-Piece — 20
99. Sereal — 20
100. Furl — 20