I’ve been part of the ColdFusion community for a long time. I’ve spoken at conferences. I’ve written articles. I’ve mentored developers. I’ve answered questions in forums. Like many people in this community, I spend a surprising amount of my own time trying to help ColdFusion succeed.
Which is why this article isn’t a complaint. It’s a wishlist.
Adobe has continued investing in the product itself. Every release brings improvements, security updates, language enhancements, and modernization. ColdFusion today is objectively a stronger product than many people give it credit for.
The problem isn’t the product. The problem is the ecosystem surrounding it. In fact, I think Adobe has done a remarkably good job modernizing the language over major releases. The platform is moving forward. The ecosystem simply isn’t keeping pace.
Most of the things holding ColdFusion back today aren’t technical problems. They’re community problems. Marketing problems. Education problems. Visibility problems. And unlike rewriting the compiler or implementing a new language feature, these are problems Adobe could begin solving almost immediately.
Here are four places I’d start.
1. Treat the ColdFusion Community Portal Like It Matters
When the ColdFusion Community Portal was announced, I was genuinely excited. A central place for articles, recognition for contributors, and an incentive for people to participate. Exactly what the community needed.
Unfortunately, the execution hasn’t matched the vision. I’ve personally submitted articles that have sat unpublished for weeks. Not because they needed major revisions. Not because there was discussion. They simply... sat. At the time of this writing, I currently have five articles pending publishing in the ColdFusion Community Portal.
That sends a message. At some point, the Community Portal stopped feeling like an active community and started feeling like a backlog. The message contributors receive is that the portal isn’t being actively managed. Whether that’s true or not almost doesn’t matter; the perception is the same.
If Adobe creates an official community portal but doesn’t actively curate it, publish regularly, engage with contributors, and keep content flowing, people eventually stop contributing. To put that into perspective, my ColdFusion AI 101 series made me the Community Portal’s top contributor in less than a week.
This shouldn’t be possible on a healthy, active community site.
That’s less a compliment to me (because trust me, I'm not winning any Pulitzers) than an indication of how little fresh content is flowing through the site.
Community momentum is fragile. When contributors don’t know whether an article will appear tomorrow or next month, many simply choose to publish elsewhere. I certainly did. I built the blog portion of this website out of frustration. Adobe doesn’t need to publish everything instantly, but the community portal needs to feel alive.
Publish consistently. Highlight authors. Feature great articles. Promote new content. Encourage discussion. Improve the tools. The end-result article looks nothing like the TinyMCE editor it was created in. Build it in (forehead smack) ColdFusion instead of WordPress!
The community portal should become the first place developers think to visit; not somewhere they occasionally remember exists.
2. Invest in Growing New ColdFusion Developers
At the very first ColdFusion Summit, I remember looking around a ballroom filled with roughly 500 developers. It was exciting to see that many people in one place who cared about the platform. But I also remember leaving with a question that I’ve been asking ever since: "How do we make this 700 next year? 1,000 the year after that? 1,500 after that?"
More than a decade later, attendance has remained remarkably consistent, typically somewhere between 350 and 500 people. A stable conference is healthy. A growing conference is evidence that a platform is attracting new developers. It reminds me of the Commodore Amiga. Technically brilliant. Commercially under-marketed.
I've heard of companies that say "if you're having a hard time finding ColdFusion developers, hire Javascript developers and turn them into ColdFusion developers. They're both ECMAscript based languages... many of the ideas transfer very easily. However, hiring someone in a language they're proficient in with the intention of training them into a new language isn't always appealing. We need to get people interested in ColdFusion before we feel the need to convert them.
Every ColdFusion conference eventually arrives at the same conversation. “Where do we find new developers?” Adobe actually has a unique opportunity here. Imagine professionally produced, completely free learning paths titled:
- ColdFusion for Java Developers
- ColdFusion for C# Developers
- ColdFusion for Python Developers
- ColdFusion for JavaScript Developers
- ...and on and on and on.
Don’t teach programming, teach translation. Get developers interested in translation before they start looking for opportunities and passing by ColdFusion postings. Show experienced developers how concepts they already understand map naturally into ColdFusion. How does dependency injection compare? How does ORM work? How does request handling differ? What replaces familiar libraries? How do you call Java? What can be reused?
An experienced Java developer doesn’t need a beginner programming course, they need someone to say, “Here’s how what you already know applies in ColdFusion.”
The barrier to entry becomes dramatically smaller. Adobe already has the expertise. Packaging it into structured, modern training would pay dividends for years.
3. Build an Official ColdFusion Jobs Directory
This one is admittedly more complicated. There are legal considerations. There are moderation concerns. But I still think Adobe should seriously consider it.
Imagine an official site that lets companies identify themselves as ColdFusion employers. Alongside that, developers could create professional profiles highlighting:
- certifications
- years of experience
- specialties
- availability
- location
Today, companies routinely ask where they can find experienced ColdFusion developers. It's a question so challenging, it causes them to switch development platforms instead. Developers ask where they can find ColdFusion jobs. Those two groups are already looking for each other. Adobe is uniquely positioned to introduce them.
Companies could post positions. Developers could post resumes. Recruiters would finally know where to look.
Adobe already certifies developers. So why does it feel nearly impossible to discover who those certified developers actually are? Where is the official opt-in/opt-out directory of Certified ColdFusion Developers from Adobe? They know who has renewed their certification. They already have the Adobe IDs and they already have the Community Portal. Adobe has the infrastructure required. This isn’t building something entirely new; it’s connecting pieces that already exist.
Certification should be more than a certificate you download once. It should help connect qualified developers with employers. Helping companies hire isn’t just good for developers. It’s good for the platform.
4. Tell the Modern Story of ColdFusion
If you’ve worked with ColdFusion for any length of time, you’ve heard it.
- “Isn’t ColdFusion dead?”
- “We should probably migrate away.”
- “Nobody uses ColdFusion anymore.”
The interesting part isn’t that people say these things, it’s how rarely Adobe responds.
Meanwhile, every release adds modern language features. Performance improves. Security improves. Docker support improves. Java compatibility improves. Cloud deployment gets easier.
Yet outside the existing community, almost nobody hears about it. Adobe should be producing a steady stream of content showcasing:
- companies successfully running ColdFusion
- modernization success stories
- performance improvements
- new language features
- migration guides
- conference presentations
- customer interviews
- architecture case studies
Not because propaganda changes reality, but because silence lets someone else define it. ColdFusion’s reputation today is often based on what people remember from twenty-five years ago; not what the platform actually looks like in 2026.
ColdFusion doesn’t need hype. It needs visibility. Adobe needs to become the platform’s loudest advocate.
The Real Problem Isn’t ColdFusion
Whenever people ask why companies migrate away from ColdFusion, one answer comes up more than any other. “We’re worried we won’t be able to hire developers.” That’s a very different problem from, “ColdFusion can’t do what we need.”
The first is an ecosystem problem. And ecosystem problems can be solved. Support the community. Train new developers. Help employers find talent.
Actively tell the story of what ColdFusion has become.
None of these ideas require inventing a revolutionary new language feature, but together, they could make the community healthier, stronger, and more sustainable.
Adobe doesn’t have an adoption problem to solve alone. It has thousands of passionate developers willing to help. The community has already shown up. ColdFusion has never lacked capable developers. It simply needs more of them.
Now it’s Adobe’s turn to meet us halfway.