About Software & Support Media

Software & Support Media

Software & Support Media is a Frankfurt-based international media house for the IT industry, one of Europe's important specialist publishers for software development and IT professionals. Operating under the sandsmedia.com brand, the company produces trade magazines, digital portals, conferences, and training for developers and IT decision-makers across the relevant technology markets. Founded in 1995 and registered as Software & Support Media GmbH, it employs around 70 people and maintains offices in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, and Haarlem in the Netherlands.

Overview

Software & Support Media describes itself as an international media house for the IT industry, with an information and service offering directed at IT professionals in all relevant technology markets. Its portfolio combines specialist print magazines with high-traffic digital portals, notably the entwickler.de family of developer channels, alongside conferences, workshops, and webinars for software developers, architects, and IT managers. The company positions itself as a knowledge broker between technology vendors and practicing developers: the magazines and portals deliver tutorials, best practices, product information, and community content, while the events business connects the same audience with training and vendor presentations.

The company is headquartered at Hanauer Landstrasse 182, 60314 Frankfurt am Main, with additional offices in Berlin and in Haarlem, Netherlands, the latter operating as Software & Support Communities BV. Managing director is Dr. Pouya Kamali-Loibl, and the company is registered with the Frankfurt am Main commercial court under HRB 40312. The corporate profile service wer-zu-wem.de lists the company with 69 employees in Germany, founded in 1995, and a revenue class of 10 to 50 million euros. The group also maintains a London presence for its international activities. With a flat hierarchy for a mid-sized media company, it operates as an internationally active enterprise across the European developer market.

History

The company was founded in 1995 as the Software & Support Verlag, entering the market at a moment when professional software development in Germany was professionalizing and the demand for German-language developer media was growing. The early titles addressed the core technologies of the era, and the publisher built its reputation on practically oriented magazines written by practitioners for practitioners, a formula that distinguished it from purely academic or purely news-driven IT press.

The company is particularly known for the entwickler.de platform and conference series such as the JAX Conference, BASTA!, and the International PHP Conference. In 1995, the same year the company was founded, its first specialist magazine for software developers appeared: Der Entwickler, later known as Entwickler Magazin. In 1997 the EKON became the company's first specialist conference, and in 1998 the Java Magazin was launched. In 2001 the JAX Conference started as the company's first international conference series, and from 2006 the group expanded its international conference business across Europe, North America, and Asia, with events in cities including London, New York, San Diego, and Singapore. In 2008 the Entwickler Akademie was built up as the training arm for seminars, workshops, in-house training, and certification offers, and the same year saw the launch of Intellibook, a first digital reading platform for subscribers. In 2015 the digital platform was relaunched as entwickler.kiosk, and in 2017 entwickler.tutorials introduced a platform for video tutorials. In 2021 the company bundled its digital offerings under entwickler.de as a comprehensive knowledge platform for continuous learning, combining specialist articles, magazines, tutorials, video content, conference recordings, live events, and digital learning offers. Since 2022 the group has additionally operated the international English-language platform devm.io, followed in 2025 by devmio.nl for the Dutch market. In 2026 the conference brand VibeKode.it and the VibeKode Bootcamp Tour seminar series were expanded as an international event format in several countries. The group extended its footprint internationally with the Dutch Software & Support Communities BV and activities in London. The 1995 founding date places the company among the longer-lived independent IT media houses in Europe, having navigated the dot-com boom and bust, the shift from print to digital, and the consolidation waves that absorbed many competitors. The company renamed its brand presence to Software & Support Media, reflecting the shift from a pure print publisher to a multi-channel media house serving developers across magazines, portals, conferences, and academies.

Coverage and Content

The editorial program covers the full spectrum of professional software development: programming languages and frameworks, software architecture, agile methods, DevOps and cloud infrastructure, data engineering and artificial intelligence, mobile development, and IT security. The magazines are written by and for practitioners, with tutorials, code examples, architecture patterns, and experience reports forming the core of the content. The magazine portfolio has included the Java Magazin, the Entwickler Magazin, Windows Developer, PHP Magazin, and the JAX Magazine, alongside online channels such as jaxenter.de, webmagazin.de, windowsdeveloper.de, phpmagazin.de, and entwicklerforum.de, with some titles published digitally only. The conference program spans API Conference, BASTA!, JAX, JAX DevOps, JAX Finance, DevOpsCon, the MobileTech Conference, the ML Conference, the International PHP Conference, W-JAX, and webinale, among others. The group's own media data describe the magazines as compulsory reading for IT departments of businesses of all sizes, with developers, project managers, IT decision-makers, and service providers relying on the know-how communicated through them.

The events and training arm complements the editorial offering: developer conferences, specialized workshops, and webinars give the audience direct access to experts and hands-on learning, while sponsors gain lead-generation access to a defined professional audience. The company explicitly markets sponsorship and lead generation opportunities around its media, treating its developer readership as a premium B2B audience. The media kit materials document print advertising formats, data formats, and technical production standards for the print titles, confirming the continued operation of the print program alongside the digital business.

Organization and Ownership

Software & Support Media GmbH is registered at the Frankfurt am Main commercial court under HRB 40312, with its registered office at Hanauer Landstrasse 182, 60314 Frankfurt. The authorized managing director is Dr. Pouya Kamali-Loibl. Ownership details are not publicly disclosed in the available corporate profiles. The group operates with offices in Frankfurt (headquarters), Berlin, Potsdam, and London according to its careers materials, and the Dutch subsidiary Software & Support Communities BV is seated at Nijverheidsweg 18, 2031 CP Haarlem. The data protection officer is the Bitkom Servicegesellschaft in Berlin. With around 70 employees, the company is a mid-sized independent media enterprise; detailed shareholder information is not publicly confirmed.

Digital Presence

The company's digital home is sandsmedia.com, which presents the group's media, events, and advertising offerings in English and German, with contact forms for sponsorship and advertising inquiries and a careers section. The entwickler.de portal family serves as the editorial digital flagship, delivering daily developer news, tutorials, and community content. The company maintains social media profiles referenced in its imprint, alongside newsletters and webinar platforms. The imprint also applies to the company's social media profiles, and the site carries the standard German-language legal notices, privacy policy, and cookie management. The digital business, combining portals, newsletters, and online events, forms the growth engine of the group alongside the continuing print titles.

The Developer's Media House

Software & Support Media has spent three decades serving the German-speaking developer community through the transitions from print to portals to conferences. As an independent mid-sized media house headquartered in Frankfurt, it remains one of the few European publishers dedicated entirely to the IT professional audience, connecting developers with knowledge and vendors with developers across magazines, portals, and events.