Top 10 Most Popular Web Development Frameworks

‍Introduction

A web development project often comes in two parts: front-end and back-end. The front-end, often called the client-side, is the visual aspect of your web. It’s everything that shows on the screen: the content, color, media, buttons, and more. The back-end, otherwise known as the server-side, goes on behind the curtains to keep the stage functioning. Your software development team must work with different frameworks to achieve a complex and sophisticated web app or website. Let’s review the most popular front-end and back-end frameworks that best fit your project!

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Popular front-end frameworks

In web applications, the front-end is typically built using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It is in charge of the UI/UX but also deals with other crucial aspects such as SEO, optimization, code snippets, templates, user interaction management, and more. Using these languages without additional “help” with frameworks can make the web application bland (or even useless!). Here are our five picks for the best front-end frameworks software developers love when building a web application.

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Angular: Angular was created by Microsoft in 2009 and originally used JavaScript as its programming language. In 2016, this framework switched to TypeScript and was well-known for developing dynamic web pages. Angular is harder to learn than other frameworks because it is all-inclusive, containing controllers, libraries, directives, and other components. Some advantages are that it supports MVC architecture and speeds up application development projects. Some disadvantages include slow processing, a steep learning curve, and poor documentation.

React: React was created by the giant technology corporation Facebook (now Meta) and is often seen as a strong competitor of Angular. This web framework is mostly used to develop single-page front-end applications. One distinct feature is that it supports the development of mobile applications. It effortlessly integrates with multiple other libraries and consists of a virtual DOM that offers fast manipulation in the document. However, just like Angular, it has a somewhat complicated structure and unorganized documentation.

Vue.JS: Vue.JS is popular for building single-page apps and user interfaces for web apps. The framework is based on MVVM architecture, is surprisingly lightweight, and has numerous tools and features to create functional user interfaces. It is easy to use and learn, aids in swift development, and is easy to integrate with third-party apps. Unlike other major popular frameworks, Vue.JS is not supported by any global tech enterprises, and the available tools are not very stable.

jQuery: jQuery is a JavaScript library that is used to build user interfaces. It is widely used because of its ability to create exceptional effects and animations in the developed apps. It is known for its simplistic approach and cross-browser compatibility. The library is small in size and has multiple plug-ins to further add functionality to its structure. Some other advantages include a strong open-source community and easy documentation. The disadvantage is that an extra jQuery JavaScript file is necessary for the app to run.

Ember: Ember offers many out-of-box features that earn it the reputation of being the best JavaScript framework. This web framework is based on MVVM architecture and is simple to use. It removes some of the redundant tasks and adopts some of the best JS practices in its own design. Ember delivers high performance, has code debugging features, and offers extensive, well-maintained documentation. The downside is its steep learning curve. Ember is also not suitable for smaller projects.

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Popular back-end frameworks

Every web application has two parts: front-end and back-end. Depending on the complexity, back-end frameworks are a must to help developers make the dream function a reality. Now comes the hard part, which framework is the perfect one for your project? Well, it depends on what kind of web application you are building and how complex it is. Many global-scale projects have used this list of 5 popular back-end frameworks.

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Express: Thanks to Node.JS skyrocketing in popularity, Express - its web API - is also trending in web development today. It is extremely powerful and can create highly productive web applications. Many large enterprises use it, such as Accenture, IBM, and Uber, due to its flexibility. It prides itself on being minimalist and fast while having several built-in features and functionalities such as third-party integrations, routing, templating, server-side scripting, and more. Express is perfect for API development. Some disadvantages include monotonous callbacks and a high learning curve. 

Django: Django can be used for both back-end and front-end, but it is much more popular as a back-end framework. Python is its programming language which has an extremely high demand among developers and businesses. Django uses the concept of reusability and follows the MVT (Model View Template). This framework has been used by many major corporations and is suitable for designing large complex projects with some key features like messaging, built-in validation, and authentication. The only downside of Django is its slow processing and steep learning curve.

Ruby on Rails: Ruby on Rails (also called Rails) is a framework with MVC architecture built on the Ruby language. It is a beginner-friendly framework that has been used by many global companies such as Spotify, Airbnb, and Github. The framework supports the usage of complex algorithms to design functional logic. Its advantages include speedy development, automation-enabled, and powerful libraries and tools. The only disadvantage is poor documentation and slow processing.

Laravel: Laravel is a PHP framework and has always been a strong competitor of Symfony. It works on the concept and paradigms of PHP scripting language and has an MVC architecture. It comes with API support and offers various packages that make the framework adaptable and extensible, which makes it perfect for small to mid-range web solutions. Laravel has good documentation, cache back-ends, integrated mail services, and the availability of PHP’s newest features. The drawback of this framework is that there is no support for payment gateways, and it does not work well for building mobile applications.

Flask: Flask is a Python-based microframework that prides itself on being flexible, lightweight, and scalable. It includes all the necessary libraries and functions to create applications from scratch. Some key features include a built-in web server and debugger, unit testing support, WSGI compliance, and Unicode support. An advantage of Flask is its good documentation. However, it requires higher maintenance, has limited tools, and is difficult to use for complex applications.

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Conclusion

These popular frameworks are used widely by global organizations like Google, Netflix, Twitter, and many more. If you are still unsure which framework is right for you and don’t yet have a web development team to work with, get in touch with our expert consultants at Dirox! We also provide highly-qualified developers who specialize in your desired language or framework with exceptional communication skills that you can add to your existing team. Either way, our consultants are here to help.

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