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Best 19 ColdFusion Developers You Can Hire

coldfusion developers - Best 19 ColdFusion Developers You Can Hire

ColdFusion (CFML) continues to thrive thanks to a passionate community of developers who excel in open-source contributions, technical leadership, blogging, and community engagement.

Below is an updated list of 19 of the best and most active ColdFusion developers globally, encompassing both Adobe ColdFusion and Lucee (CFML engine) specialists. These individuals include prolific open-source contributors, startup founders who still code, influential bloggers, tech evangelists, and even coding competition champions – all weighed equally for their impact.

  1. Charlie Arehart
  2. Pete Freitag
  3. Nolan Erck
  4. Luis Majano
  5. Brad Wood
  6. Kai Koenig
  7. Gavin Pickin
  8. Michael Offner
  9. Igal Sapir
  10. Gert Franz
  11. Zac Spitzer
  12. Mark Drew
  13. Mark Takata
  14. Mark Kruger
  15. Chris Tierney
  16. Akbar Sait
  17. Eric Peterson
  18. Pothys Ravichandran
  19. Andrew Dixon

Now, let’s explore their contributions and impact in detail:

Charlie Arehart

YouTube Video

Nationality: American

Charlie Arehart is a ColdFusion expert with over two decades of experience and a reputation as the go-to troubleshooter for CF server issues. As an independent consultant, Charlie has helped over 1,000 clients with ColdFusion server tuning, configuration, and debugging.

He is an Adobe Community Professional and a regular presenter at CF Meetups and conferences, known for his deep-dive sessions on CF troubleshooting and hidden gems. Charlie runs the Online ColdFusion Meetup, fostering knowledge-sharing globally, and his blog on CArehart.org offers extensive tips and resources. His willingness to assist on forums, his detailed conference presentations, and the breadth of his CF server knowledge have made him a beloved mentor. Simply put, Charlie’s influence on keeping CF applications running smoothly is legendary in the community.

Pete Freitag

Security isn’t a checkbox—it’s a mindset. In ColdFusion, even small oversights can lead to big vulnerabilities.

Nationality: American

Pete Freitag is widely regarded as the top security guru in the ColdFusion world. As the founder of Foundeo Inc., Pete has focused on CFML security for over 15 years—creating tools like FuseGuard (CF firewall) and Fixinator (code security scanner) to help developers secure their CF applications.

He’s been working with CF for 25+ years and remains actively involved in the community, regularly speaking at Adobe CF Summit on best practices for locking down servers and writing secure CFML code. Pete’s blog (petefreitag.com) is a treasure trove of ColdFusion tips and security advisories, and he maintains the extremely useful CFDocs reference site. As an Adobe MVP and trainer, he has educated many CF developers on avoiding vulnerabilities. Pete’s blend of deep technical expertise and his contributions (like open-sourcing CFML security tools) have made a lasting impact on keeping CF applications safe.

Nolan Erck

Nationality: American

Nolan Erck is a well-respected ColdFusion consultant, trainer, and owner of South of Shasta Consulting. With 20+ years in software (starting in the video game industry), Nolan has built a breadth of knowledge from game development to web apps.

He is a long-time CFML developer (since the late 1990s) who now focuses on helping companies modernize their CF codebases and adopt best practices. Nolan manages the Sacramento ColdFusion User Group and has taught many official CF workshops. He’s also a fixture on the conference circuit – often presenting on topics like Dependency Injection in CFML, integrating CF with front-end frameworks (Angular/Vue), or tips for freelancing in CF. Attendees praise his clear, practical teaching style. Nolan has contributed to open-source and writes occasionally on his blog. His broad experience and his mentoring of others make Nolan a standout figure in the ColdFusion world.

Luis Majano

Luis Majano - Best 19 ColdFusion Developers You Can Hire

Nationality: Salvadoran

Luis Majano is the creator of some of the most important frameworks in modern ColdFusion development. He founded Ortus Solutions in 2006 and authored the ColdBox MVC framework, along with a suite of “BOX” products.

Under Luis’s leadership as CEO of Ortus, the CFML community gained enterprise-grade tools and the concept of “modern ColdFusion” through conventions, modules, and REST APIs. He’s an avid open-source contributor who still codes daily – for example, he spearheaded the design of BoxLang, a new CFML-based JVM language, and continues to improve the ColdBox ecosystem. Luis shares his knowledge in books and speaks at virtually every CF conference (CF Summit, Into The Box, etc.), often teaching workshops to help teams modernize legacy CF apps. His passionate advocacy for CFML (combined with 20+ years of coding experience) has inspired many developers to stay and grow within the CF community.

Brad Wood

CommandBox isn’t just a CLI—it’s a gateway to modern ColdFusion development.

Nationality: American

Brad Wood is a Senior Developer at Ortus Solutions and the lead engineer behind CommandBox, the CLI and package manager that revolutionized CF development.

With nearly 20 years of CF experience (every version since CF 4.5), Brad has emerged as a key innovator – he’s also a core contributor to Lucee Server and ColdBox MVC. Brad is a frequent speaker on topics like CommandBox, Docker deployments for CF, and the results of the annual State of CF Union survey. He co-hosts the weekly “CFML News Podcast” keeping developers up-to-date. Known for his “coder’s revolution” blog and for answering community questions on Slack and Stack Overflow, Brad has a knack for making complex DevOps and CLI topics accessible to CF developers. His work on CommandBox (allowing CF apps to run anywhere easily) and other tooling has greatly modernized the developer experience in CFML.

Kai Koenig

Nationality: German-New Zealander

Kai Koenig is a software architect and trainer who has been a prominent advocate for ColdFusion (CFML) in the Asia-Pacific region and globally. Based in New Zealand, Kai wears many hats: he co-founded Ventego Creative, consults on web & mobile projects, and regularly speaks about CFML’s relevance in the modern era.

With a background that spans Java, Android, and front-end, Kai brings a polyglot perspective to CFML discussions. He has been dispelling the “ColdFusion is dead” myth for years – notably in a Medium article where he explained why CFML is not the zombie some think. Kai is a frequent speaker at Adobe CF Summit and CF Camp, where he covers topics like improving CFML code quality and integrating CF with cloud services. He also co-hosts the CF Camp sessions and contributes to open-source tools. Kai’s strong public presence and his balanced, insightful take on technology have made him an influential voice encouraging the CF community to embrace modern tools and practices.

Gavin Pickin

Gavin Pickin - Best 19 ColdFusion Developers You Can Hire

Nationality: New Zealander

Gavin Pickin is a Senior Developer at Ortus Solutions and an outspoken advocate for CFML modernization. He began using ColdFusion back in 1999 in New Zealand and later moved to the US, where he has led development teams and trained many new CF developers.

Gavin is a co-host of the popular Modernize or Die Podcast: CFML News Edition, where his energetic updates help unify the community. He’s also a frequent conference speaker (Into The Box, Adobe CF Summit, etc.), known for live-coding demos on ContentBox CMS, Docker containerization, and ColdBox best practices. Within Ortus, Gavin contributes to open-source projects and client solutions, while externally he manages the Sacramento CFML User Group and writes blog posts. His passion for continuous learning is infectious – Gavin often jokes about listening to podcasts or watching tutorials “while changing diapers or at the gas station”. This zeal to absorb and share knowledge has made him a driving force in the CFML community’s evolution.

Michael Offner

Nationality: Swiss

Michael Offner is the chief architect of the Lucee CFML engine and was the original creator of the Railo open-source CFML server. Based in Switzerland, Michael started Railo as a student project and grew it into a full CFML engine used worldwide.

In 2015, he forked Railo to create Lucee, ensuring an open-source future for CFML. Michael has been “heart and soul” in CFML for over 20 years – he’s intimately familiar with ColdFusion since version 3.0 and is equally adept in Java, the language under CFML’s hood. As CTO of Rasia, he still spends his days deep in coding: building compilers, improving Lucee’s performance, and mentoring the next generation of CFML engineers. Michael often speaks at CF conferences and CF Camps, sharing insights on language design and the future of CFML. His relentless dedication to CFML’s evolution has solidified his status as a legend in the CF open-source community.

Igal Sapir

Nationality: Israeli

Igal Sapir is a core developer of the Lucee CFML engine and a driving force in its ongoing development. Fascinated by programming since his teens, Igal embraced ColdFusion in the mid-90s and naturally gravitated to the open-source CFML engines as they emerged.

His contributions to Railo/Lucee led to an invitation to join the Lucee Core Team, where he has built significant parts of the engine. Igal is known in the CFML community for his keen insights on the Lucee forums and for implementing community-requested features and fixes. He currently serves as CTO at Rasia (North America), guiding clients on CFML projects and ensuring Lucee remains robust and enterprise-ready. When not improving Lucee’s core, Igal also applies his CFML expertise in the real world – for instance, he’s the CTO of 100Candles.com, where Lucee powers the e-commerce platform. Igal’s blend of low-level programming skill and practical application makes him a linchpin of CFML’s open-source movement.

Gert Franz

Gert Franz - Best 19 ColdFusion Developers You Can Hire

Nationality: Austrian

Gert Franz is a long-standing leader in the CFML community, best known for co-founding Railo and later helping steer Lucee’s success. Gert led Railo Technologies from 2003 to 2014, bringing the lightning-fast Railo CFML engine to organizations like NASA and Apple.

After Railo’s transition, he co-founded the Lucee Association and now serves as CIO at Rasia, focusing on client success with CFML solutions. Gert has a deep background in performance tuning and has spoken frequently on optimizing CFML applications. He is also a fixture at European CF events (like CFCamp in Germany) where his enthusiasm for CFML is on full display. Gert’s “CFML evangelism” dates back to early Adobe community forums, and he remains active in guiding Lucee’s roadmap and rallying support. His decades of experience and unwavering advocacy for CFML have earned him a reputation as a guru and mentor in the global ColdFusion scene.

Zac Spitzer

Nationality: Australian

Zac Spitzer is a prominent contributor to the Lucee CFML project and serves as Lucee’s Community Manager. Based in Australia (and often in Europe), Zac has been instrumental in coordinating Lucee’s development, testing, and release announcements.

He works as a Technical Lead at Pixl8, a UK firm specializing in CFML solutions, where he helps integrate Lucee in large-scale projects. Zac’s passion for open source shows in his relentless support on Lucee’s Discord/Slack channels and his detailed bug reports and patches on Lucee’s GitHub. He frequently appears on CF podcasts and webinars to discuss “behind-the-scenes” improvements in Lucee. In the community, Zac is known for his willingness to help troubleshoot issues at odd hours (truly living in the global CF community). His contributions ensure that Lucee’s releases are stable and that the CFML community stays informed and connected.

Mark Drew

Nationality: British

Mark Drew is a veteran CFML developer and entrepreneur, highly regarded for his contributions to developer tooling. He is the original creator of CFEclipse, the popular CFML plugin for Eclipse that was a standard IDE for ColdFusion developers in the 2000s.

Based in the UK, Mark co-founded CMD Consulting and has worked on a variety of CFML and JavaScript projects. In recent years, he’s been advocating for Docker and containerization in CFML deployments – even hosting workshops on getting CF apps running in Docker within minutes. Mark is also known for contributions to PresideCMS and other open-source libraries, as well as his active voice on CFML Slack channels. A regular speaker at CF Camp and other conferences, Mark often covers emerging tech like GraphQL integration with CFML or modern CI/CD practices. With over 25 years in web development, Mark brings creativity and humor to the CF world, making complex topics enjoyable for the community.

Mark Takata

Mark Takata - Best 19 ColdFusion Developers You Can Hire

Nationality: American

Mark Takata is the Technical Evangelist for Adobe ColdFusion and one of the most high-profile ambassadors of CFML today. With 20+ years as a developer across multiple languages, Mark brings a fresh energy to the ColdFusion community.

In his role at Adobe, he produces tutorials, webinars, and guides to help developers get the most out of ColdFusion’s features. Mark is a fixture at CF Summit and Adobe Developer Week events, often demoing new CF features or integrations. Before joining Adobe, he was a long-time CF developer and consultant, giving him credibility and understanding of real-world CF challenges. According to Adobe, Mark’s innovative approach and broad skillset made him ideal to lead community outreach. On social media and the CF portal, he actively engages with developers’ questions and feedback. Mark’s mission is to show that ColdFusion is alive and evolving – and through his outreach and technical know-how, he’s become one of the most influential figures keeping ColdFusion in the spotlight.

Mark Kruger

Nationality: American

Mark Kruger (a.k.a. ColdFusion Muse) is a pioneering CF developer and the founder of CF Webtools, a Nebraska-based ColdFusion consultancy. Mark has been programming in ColdFusion since 1998 and earned a reputation as a “CF guru” early on.

His blog, ColdFusion Muse, has been widely read by CF developers for its insightful musings and practical solutions over many years. Mark’s company CF Webtools, started in 1999, has grown to a team of dozens of CF developers and has tackled projects across nearly every industry. He has also been a community organizer – he founded the Nebraska CF User Group and frequently spoke at CF.Objective() and other conferences in the 2000s. Even as a company CEO, Mark continues to code and troubleshoot. He’s well known for solving “impossible” CF server problems and for his engaging writing style that mixes humor with deep technical content. With over 25 years in IT, Mark Kruger’s continued advocacy and knowledge-sharing have helped keep the ColdFusion community robust and informed.

Chris Tierney

Nationality: American

Chris Tierney is a seasoned ColdFusion developer who has been building CF applications since 1997. He is a senior member of the CF Webtools team in the U.S. and is known for his problem-solving skills in complex CFML projects.

Chris’s personal blog focuses on technical challenges he has overcome in his work, serving as a reference for both his team and the broader community. Over the years, he has tackled everything from legacy system integrations to performance optimizations in ColdFusion, and he often shares code snippets or techniques on his blog for others to learn. Chris is also active on community forums, lending his expertise particularly on topics of CF/SQL interaction and server configuration. While not as visible on the conference circuit, within the CF circles he’s respected as an expert practitioner — the kind of developer people turn to for a solution when all else fails. His decades of steady contribution and mentorship at CF Webtools have cemented his status as one of the top ColdFusion developers in practice.

Akbar Sait

Nationality: Indian

Akbar Sait is a ColdFusion consultant and educator who runs the resource-rich site akbarsait.com. He has made a name for himself by curating extensive lists of ColdFusion tutorials and learning materials for each CF release (CF9, CF10, CF11, etc.), which have been praised by community experts.

Akbar’s site serves as a one-stop hub for CF developers seeking guidance on new features or looking for best practices – Charlie Arehart himself refers people to Akbar’s tutorial lists as invaluable resources. Beyond curation, Akbar also provides CFML development and consulting services, helping businesses with application development and server deployment. He maintains an active presence on Adobe’s ColdFusion portal and social media, often sharing tips and answering queries for newcomers. His efforts in community building have lowered the barrier to entry for many aspiring CF developers. By blending consulting with a strong public-facing educational mission, Akbar Sait has become a trusted name, especially for those learning or upgrading ColdFusion.

Eric Peterson

Eric Peterson - Best 19 ColdFusion Developers You Can Hire

Nationality: American

Eric Peterson is a prolific ColdFusion developer at Ortus Solutions, celebrated for building modern tooling that extends CFML’s capabilities. He is the creator of QB (a fluent query builder for CFML) and Quick (an ActiveRecord-style ORM built on QB) – both open-source projects that have significantly improved how CF developers write database code.

Eric also developed ColdBox Elixir, integrating CFML with modern JS build processes. In addition to his coding, Eric is a frequent instructor on CFcasts and speaks at Into The Box about topics like modular architecture and package management in CFML. He is deeply involved in the ForgeBox package ecosystem, encouraging CF devs to share and reuse modules. Despite being relatively early in his career, Eric has contributed more CFML libraries than many veterans, reflecting his passion for open source. He’s active on Twitter as @_elpete, where he shares progress on his projects and engages with the CF community. Eric Peterson’s innovative tools and enthusiasm have had an outsized impact, empowering CFML developers to write cleaner, more maintainable code using patterns from other modern languages.

Pothys Ravichandran

Nationality: Indian

Pothys Ravichandran is a core developer of the Lucee CFML engine and one of the younger contributors leading the next generation of CFML development. Based in India, Pothys joined the Lucee project in 2016 and quickly became an invaluable member of the team, known for his diligent work in fixing bugs and adding features.

He is an Adobe Certified Expert in ColdFusion and works at MitrahSoft, where he mentors a team on CF/Lucee projects. Pothys regularly tackles tickets in Lucee’s JIRA tracker and writes regression tests to improve engine stability. His efforts have earned him recognition as someone with “great skills in both Railo/Lucee and Adobe ColdFusion”. In the community, he’s active on Stack Overflow (with a high reputation in the ColdFusion tag) and occasionally blogs about CFML tips. Pothys exemplifies the hands-on, open-source spirit: contributing code, ensuring quality, and helping others resolve issues. As Lucee grows, developers like Pothys are crucial, and his dedication has made him one of the best CFML engine developers active today.

Andrew Dixon

Nationality: British

Andrew Dixon is a UK-based ColdFusion expert known for his contributions to Lucee and the broader CFML ecosystem. He has been working with CFML for over 15 years and is an active member of the Lucee Association.

Andrew frequently writes technical blog posts to help others adopt the latest CFML advancements. As a senior developer at Pixl8, he has helped build and optimize CFML applications and frameworks. Andrew also volunteers time on community forums like Dev.to and the Lucee mailing lists, where he’s known for thoughtful, thorough answers. He has spoken at CF meetups and user groups, often on Lucee best practices and migrating legacy ColdFusion code to modern CFML. Andrew’s dedication to open knowledge-sharing is evident: he maintains CFML guides on his personal site and even co-created a CFML blog aggregator. His quiet leadership and technical chops have made him a respected figure among the newer generation of CF developers.

Wrap Up

These legends represent exceptional talent, making them extremely challenging to headhunt. However, there are thousands of other highly skilled IT professionals available to hire with our help. Contact us, and we will be happy to discuss your hiring needs.

Note: We’ve dedicated significant time and effort to creating and verifying this curated list of top talent. However, if you believe a correction or addition is needed, feel free to reach out. We’ll gladly review and update the page.

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