Web development frameworks have become essential for developing websites and web applications, as many businesses know they must provide users with a digital experience. This is necessary for survival in a competitive market. For most companies, establishing a strong online presence begins with a website, but what is a web development framework? We will find out in this most popular web frameworks guide.
However, choosing the right web framework for your website development can take time and effort, even for experienced developers. Not only are there many web development frameworks, but your choice of framework will influence your site’s functionality, scalability, network latency, and overall software development life cycle (SDLC).
Although it’s not a one-size-fits-all, many web development frameworks suit different project types. Whether back-end or front-end, there is a framework for the type of web app you want to build. If you’re struggling to choose, we’ve made it easier to decide.
This guide covers a list of the best web development frameworks for your next project, and the easiest web app framework.
A web development framework simplifies the process of building a website. It contains a set of tools, practices, utilities, and resources to develop a web app. Web development frameworks provide a wide range of code snippets, predefined components, and complete application templates. These resources ensure you don’t have to build the entire web application from scratch, test, and write repetitive code.
There are standard development and design conventions that can be used or modified to suit your project needs. This makes the job of web developers easier because they can automate routine web development activities and configuration details.
Ultimately, devs will focus more on unique software features, leading to faster development and deployment.
Choosing a top web development framework that thousands of people endorse is smart. But while popularity and community size are important, other factors must be considered. Your choice of framework will depend mainly on the type of web project, business goals, sustainability, license, documentation, security, etc.
Before choosing a web framework, let’s look at some of the benefits of web development frameworks in today’s market.
Web development frameworks streamline the coding process by reducing code length and complexity. Due to the pre-set functionalities and design components, there is a faster time to market. Also, these frameworks automate repetitive tasks and offer easy debugging and application maintenance tools to enhance efficiency. With customization capabilities, developers can build unique projects, and the extensively tested pre-written components ensure high-quality and reusable code.
Additionally, they contribute to improved software development security by incorporating built-in features that protect against cyber threats, reinforcing the need for early security measures in the development process. Here are other advantages of the best frameworks for web development.
Web development frameworks ensure developers don’t have to write complex code structures with hundreds of lines of code. They can use the predefined codebase and design conventions and make simple adjustments that suit the current project.
Frameworks provide code-generating components that enable conciseness while saving developers time and effort. For example, typing ‘rfce’ or ‘rafce’ in React into the code editor will provide a relevant auto-generated component structure for the codebase. Devs can also install packages into a framework to provide more code-generating capabilities.
In addition, frameworks offer developers the tools and features they need to automate repetitive tasks like authentication, URL mapping, caching, and session management.
Besides providing an efficient way to code and build web applications, frameworks also facilitate seamless debugging and application maintenance. Most frameworks offer built-in functionality for debugging and Quality Assurance (QA) testing. This helps developers run unit tests simultaneously.
However, high-level software testing requires QA experts skilled at using tools like JMeter, Telerik Test Studio, Katalon Studio, and JMeter.
At ClickIT, our Quality Assurance forms an integral part of a robust DevOps strategy. Leveraging the right framework and a comprehensive QA-DevOps transition plan, we provide top-of-the-line website development from the first line of code to testing and deployment.
With web frameworks, you can build the project’s base and add components to develop a unique project. If the framework doesn’t offer exactly what you need, you can simply add your code.
Also, since the pre-written components in the frameworks are extensively tested, they are proven to deliver high quality and performance. The most popular web frameworks provide code reusability, helping developers build multiple web apps using the same codebase.
Since developers don’t need to write long lines of code from scratch, they can save hours of coding effort using pre-written templates and intuitive coding interfaces.
Frameworks also offer cutting-edge features like live and hot reloading, which shorten development cycles. This means they can bootstrap development and quickly release a minimum viable product (MVP) into the market.
In addition, web frameworks provide quick prototyping and real-time code changes, which is a boon for agile teams.
Cyber-attacks have increased recently, with one occurring every 44 seconds in 2021. This means businesses must reinforce security and compliance procedures as early as possible during software development.
The best website development frameworks have built-in security features that will protect your web app against attacks like SQL injection, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), and data breaches.
There are two primary types of web development frameworks: Front-end (client side) and back-end (server side) frameworks. Frameworks that allow software development on both ends are called full-stack frameworks. Front-end and back-end frameworks work together to build a fully functional web app.
Simply put, front-end web development frameworks deal with the user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Front-end or client-side frameworks determine the logic, behavior, design, and animation of every element users see on their screens when interacting with websites and web applications, from the overall layout to details like the logo design on the page.
Due to the importance of user experience, front-end frameworks help to build interactive, intuitive, and user-centric websites. Popular front-end web development frameworks are React, VueJS, Angular, and Ember.
Back-end frameworks provide tools and libraries of server-side programming languages that help developers build the web app’s structure. The back-end comprises the server, database, and the code interacting with them. This ensures that the website runs smoothly in the background.
Server-side frameworks simplify popular web development activities like user authentication, URL routing, database interaction, push notifications, and enhanced security. Some back-end web development frameworks are ExpressJS, Django, and Laravel.
Recently, ClickIT partnered with DecipherCredit to build a web-based Laravel application that streamlines the credit application process. The application provides several key features hosted on AWS and technologies such as CodeCommit, Redis, and SQS.
Now that you know what a web development framework is and why you need one, here are the top web development frameworks for your next project:
Although React is technically not a framework, it has a component-based architecture that streamlines the process of creating web apps. React is more of an open-source JavaScript library for front-end web applications. It can also be used on the server side.
It was released by Facebook in 2013 and has grown to be one of the most widely-used frameworks by developers and enterprises. And with the introduction of React Native, a cross-platform mobile development framework, it has become even more popular in the market.
One of React’s prominent features is the virtual Document Object Model (DOM), which gives the framework more robust capabilities. Developers no longer worry about state transitions because once they update that state, the DOM also matches.
React is the easiest web app framework.
Pros
Cons
Angular is a front-end framework released by Google (Angular 2) in 2016. It is excellent for building single-page applications and can also be used to develop complete client-side applications.
Although earlier versions of Angular used JavaScript, later releases adopted Typescript, a superset of JavaScript. Angular has several predefined components that make writing and modifying code easy.
Pros
Cons
Read our blog to find out which framework is ideal for your projects between React vs Angular
VueJS is a relatively new framework but one of the fastest-growing. Released in 2014, it was initially an individual project that combines the pros of AngularJS and React. Unlike Angular, Vue is a simple web development framework. It is also progressive, meaning you can adopt Vue for front-end refactoring in an existing project without affecting your entire code base. In addition, Vue has a visual DOM model, meaning it is as efficient as it is versatile.
Pros
Cons
Laravel is a Model-View-Controller web development framework that uses PHP, a popular programming language. As a back-end framework, Laravel provides many features needed to build modern web apps, such as validation, file storage, routing, queues, etc.
Pros
Cons
Trusted by Google, Instagram, YouTube, and Instagram, Django is a Model-View-Template web framework that uses Python for web development. This server-side framework has several features, is scalable, and is versatile.
As one of the most popular web frameworks, Django is an open-source that has built-in security features and is efficient for developing data-driven websites. This makes it a great choice to build a FinTech app.
Pros
Cons
Nest is a NodeJS-based framework that provides a full toolkit for creating server-side web applications that are dependable, effective, and scalable. Nest’s real-time rendering also lets you see how your app will appear in a browser. NestJS is a fast-growing framework and is already trusted by some big companies, including Adidas.
Pros
Cons
Express is one of the most popular web frameworks, a back-end web development framework that supports full applications and REST APIs with Node.js. It is compatible with other frameworks like Sails, Kraken, and Loopback.
The open-source web framework offers minimalistic functionalities with features like fast server-side programming, routing, and debugging. Express is trusted by brands like IBM, Uber, Fox Sports, and Accenture.
Pros
Cons
Ember is an open-source JavaScript-based framework that was released in 2016. It offers several features for application flow and data management. EmberJS provides two-way data binding alongside a component-based architecture. Although it has a few cons, bigwigs like Apple and LinkedIn use it as a part of their technology stack.
Pros
Cons
React is the easiest web development framework and a great place to start due to its popularity and user-friendly nature. It is easier to learn than Angular and provides many job opportunities.
Learning React also makes it easy to learn React Native for mobile apps.
When selecting a web development framework, prioritize its popularity and community size for ongoing innovation. Security is paramount, so opt for a framework that effectively protects against cyber threats. You should also evaluate the learning curve and consider the experience of developers, as well as the available documentation and community support.
Here are the most important criteria to consider when choosing a web development framework.
A web framework is more likely to evolve and grow with better functionalities the more it is recognized and accepted in development communities and circles. A framework that is supported by a quickly growing and thriving community is sure to be pumped with innovative ideas and can be counted on to get high-quality plug-ins regularly.
As cyber threats increase, choosing a framework capable of protecting against potential threats is critical. While choosing a web framework, you must consider one that minimizes security risks and data tampering.
You are more likely to find useful documentation for a widely used framework. Having good documentation at your fingertips will save you a ton of time while setting up, and you run into problems. Assessing how easy it is to resolve potential issues or make future changes is vital before choosing a web framework.
Check the license a framework is distributed under before you start building with it. While most licenses are fairly flexible and allow you to develop commercial apps, some are not. The last thing you would want is to complete developing a web application only to learn that the license prohibits commercial distribution. On the other hand, if the licensing isn’t free, is the licensing cost worth it either during development or later on during maintenance?
You should consider the learning curve involved in a framework. This is especially important when using relatively new frameworks without much documentation. Does it take a long time to pick up or not?
It’s essential to consider the level of experience and knowledge of the current crop of developers in the chosen framework. Fortunately, this consideration won’t be a problem with a software development partner like ClickIT. Our team of developers is experienced in various programming languages and web frameworks that suit multiple project types.
Open source frameworks will generally have many people contributing to maintaining the code – even if there is no formal support. This means there are more chances of growth as many people use it. However, consider the recency of contributions. If there aren’t any recent commits, the web framework may be at risk of becoming stagnant.
Unit testing can prevent hassles later on by identifying problems beforehand. Hence, frameworks with built-in unit testing will save you a ton of time. If unit testing is critical to your project, you should research how easy the framework makes it to build custom unit tests.
The top web development frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular can be used for projects of virtually any size. The outcome may depend on the developer’s level of experience and qualification. However, some frameworks are better suited to the size of your project. Small projects don’t require frameworks and VanillaJS works. React, or Vue is great for medium-sized projects due to its flexibility and third-party library integrations. Many developers prefer Angular for complex and large-scale enterprise solutions for many users.
ClickIT provides high-quality software development and DevOps services. Our skilled engineering teams provide best-in-class end-to-end solutions that match your web development goals. ClickIT has simplified outsourcing procedures, the best legal & IP protection, and seamless collaboration among in-house engineers. Our client base features simple web development projects for Fortune 500 companies.
This article covered the eight most popular web development frameworks for your next project. While it’s important to know the top options available, it’s vital to consider the project type and the unique objectives before choosing your tech stack. While most developers prefer to use popular frameworks, using other new ones can be a great learning experience.
If you’re still stumped on the right web framework to use, we can help. ClickIT is the No. 1 IT outsourcing company in Mexico. We have highly experienced and certified developers and engineers on our team. If you have an idea, book a call now to understand how ClickIT can bring your project to life.
In 2024 the most popular web framework is Node.js and React.js
React is a great place to start due to its popularity and user-friendly nature. It is easier to learn than Angular and provides many job opportunities. Learning React also makes it easy to learn React Native for mobile apps.
React, Vue, and Angular are the best JavaScript frameworks to learn.
The purpose of web development frameworks is to provide a standard structure for developers to build web apps without writing code from scratch. They only need to reuse pre-written components and resources, helping them save time during development.
No, HTML is not a web development framework. HTML is a markup language used to create and structure the content of web pages. It provides the basic building blocks for web pages by defining elements such as headings, paragraphs, links, images, and other multimedia.
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