Top 10 Web Development Frameworks

The backend frameworks are the collection of server-side programming languages that are used in developing the back-end structure of a website and application.

The demand for web development has been growing, and with it, so has the number of available frameworks. Here’s a list of some of the best back-end frameworks to help you choose one that fits your needs:

1.  Angular
2.  Node.js
3. CakePHP
4.  CodeIgniter
5.  Laravel
6. ASP.Net
7. Ruby on Rails
8.  Django
9. Express.JS
10. Spring Boot

Angular

Angular is a front-end framework that specializes in building rich Single-Page applications. It’s a vibrant framework able to build complete client-side applications, and there’s so much to do and learn in Angular. Angular 1. x used Javascript, but later releases adopted Typescript, which is a superset of Javascript. Angular’s main cons are its size compared to other frameworks, and the fact it’s not SEO friendly by nature, though it can be SEO optimized. Google developed angular, and Google, Microsoft, and Paypal use it.

Key Features of Angular Backend Frameworks

1. MVC Architecture – MVC stands for Model-View-Controller. The application data is managed by the Model and View manages the data display. While the controller plays as a connector between the view and model layers. Generally, in MVC architecture, you can split up the app accordingly and write code to connect the sam
2. Efficient Two-Way Data Binding – The most effective Angular feature is its two-way data binding system. The View layer exactly represents the Model layer and they stay in perfect synchronization.
3. Less Code Framework – Angular is a low code framework compared to the other front-end technologies. You don’t need to write separate code to link the MVC layers. And you don’t require specific code to view manually also.
4. Angular CLI (Command Line Interface) – The Angular CLI follows the industry-best practices for frontend development with striking build-in features SCSS support or routing. Moreover, the common Angular CLI like ng-new or ng-add supports the developers to discover ready-made features with ease.
5. CDK and Angular Material – Angular as a top frontend language has been improving its Component Development Kit (CDK) with the version upgrades. Refreshing and virtual scrolling are the prominent features of the latest Angular CDK. 

Node.js

Node.js is an open-source server environment that uses JavaScript to create dynamic page content on various platforms. Ideal for multi-user communication apps, such as social media, multiplayer games, and chat apps, this framework can manage many connections at the same time. Node.js allows for two-way communication and offers push capabilities. With an easier learning curve than other frameworks, developers can spend less time on development overall.

Key Features of Node.js Backend Frameworks

1. Asynchronous and Event-Driven – The Node.js library’s APIs are all asynchronous (non-blocking) in nature. A server built with Node.JS never waits for data from an API. from an API. 
2. Single-Threaded – Node.js employs a single-threaded architecture with event looping, making it very scalable. In contrast to typical servers, which create limited threads to process requests, the event mechanism allows the node.js server to reply in a non-blocking manner and makes it more scalable.
3. Scalable – NodeJs addresses one of the most pressing concerns in software development: scalability. Nowadays, most organizations demand scalable software. 
4. Quick execution of code – Node.js makes use of the V8 JavaScript Runtime motor, which is also used by Google Chrome. Hub provides a wrapper for the JavaScript motor, which makes the runtime motor faster. 
5. Cross-platform compatibility –  NodeJS may be used on a variety of systems, including Windows, Unix, Linux, Mac OS X, and mobile devices. 

CakePHP

CakePHP is a rapid PHP MVC framework built with an emphasis on clean code and simple syntax. It follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern, which separates your application into three logical components: models (data), views (presentation logic), and controllers (code).

Key Features of CakePHP

1. Controllers – Controllers are known to feature the application’s logic. Each controller can provide various functionality, retrieving and modifying data in database tables using models, register variables, and objects that are usable in the view
2. Models – Models are an actual depiction of database tables and are utilized in CakePHP apps for data access. They can create a connection with your database and perform queries if the controller gives the instruction and store the data in the database.
3. Views – Views are template files responsible for the content presented to the user. All variables, arrays, and any other objects in the views are recorded using a controller.

CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter, developed by EllisLab, is a famous web application framework to build dynamic websites. It is loosely based on MVC architecture since Controller classes are necessary but models and views are optional. CodeIgnitor promises exceptional performance, nearly zero configuration, and no large-scale monolithic libraries.

Key Features of CodeIgniter Backend Frameworks

1. Tiny Footprints – You can quickly deploy and work on updates with CodeIgniter source code with PHP syntax as the entire codebase size surge within 2MB.
2. Super Fast – Both the users and developers love an application that loads fast. Undoubtedly being a developer, you have tried many other frameworks. But, compared to those, CodeIgniter uploaded files in less than 50ms.
3. MVC Architecture – We have already mentioned above that the CodeIgniter framework uses the Model-View-Controller architectural design. The MVC is the industry standard practice that separates the data, business logic, and presentation in web applications.
4. Built-in Components – CodeIgniter has in-built application-specific components that allow developers to send an email, database management, session management, and many more without any hassle.
5. Remarkable Documentations – The CodeIgniter framework is well documented. Also, the vast ecosystem of PHP users makes it easy for beginners to understand CodeIgniter in the simplest ways. Apart from that, you will get easy solutions of CodeIgniter frameworks from Github and Stackoverflow.

Laravel

Laravel is a free, open-source PHP framework for web development that helps you build amazing apps with minimal effort. It’s built on top of Symfony’s Dependency Injection Container, which handles configuration and dependency resolution for Laravel apps.

Key Features of Laravel Backend Frameworks

1. Template Engine – The laravel framework is highly acknowledged for its built-in lightweight templates which can be used to create wonderful layouts using dynamic content seeding. In addition to this, it provides multiple widgets incorporating CSS and JS code with robust structures.
2. MVC Architecture Support – Laravel supports the MVC architecture pattern which ensures separate business logic and presentation layers. MVC pattern of Laravel has a lot of built-in functions, improves application performance, and increases security as well as scalability.
3. Eloquent ORM (Object Relational Mapping) – Laravel offers Eloquent Object Relational Mapping (ORM) which includes a simple PHP Active Record implementation. This allows web application developers to write database queries with PHP syntax rather than writing SQL code. An ORM is relatively faster than other PHP frameworks.
4. Security – The laravel framework offers very strong web application security. It uses hashed and salted password mechanisms so the password would never be saved as plain text in the database. It also uses the “Bcrypt Hashing Algorithm” for generating an encrypted password. Additionally, this PHP web development framework uses prepared SQL statements that prevent SQL injection attacks.
5. Artisan – Laravel framework offers a built-in command-line tool called Artisan which helps to automate the majority of tedious repetitive programming tasks. These artisans can also be utilized to create the database structure, a skeleton code, and manage migration so it is a pretty easy-to-manage database system.

ASP.Net

ASP.Net is another popular choice for back-end development due to its support for both client-side and server-side programming languages like C# and VBScripts (Visual Basic Script). In addition to this, it also features a comprehensive set of tools such as web services, management tools, and much more that can help developers build complex applications faster than ever before

Key Features of ASP.Net

1. Cross-platform & container support – With the introduction of .NET Core, you can now create ASP.NET applications and deploy them to Windows, Linux, and macOS. Microsoft and the community have put a huge effort into making Linux a first-class citizen for running ASP.NET.
2. High performance – Some say that performance is a critical feature of your software. I tend to agree! With the introduction of ASP.NET Core and the Kestrel web server, ASP.NET is touted as one of the fastest web application frameworks available. Tech Empower has some cool benchmarks you can check out.
3. Asynchronous via async/await – ASP.NET has excellent support for utilizing asynchronous programming patterns. Async is now implemented in all common .NET Framework classes and most third-party libraries. Most modern applications spend most of their time and CPU cycles waiting for database queries, web service calls, and other I/O operations to complete.
4. Unified MVC & Web API frameworks – Before ASP.NET Core, developers were most commonly using the MVC and Web API frameworks. MVC was tailored to creating web applications that served up HTML. Web API was designed to create RESTful services using JSON or XML.
5. Multiple environments and development mode – One of my favorite features is the new environment feature. It allows you to easily differentiate parts of your code for their behavior in development, staging, production, etc. There was no standard way to do this before ASP.NET Core.

Ruby on Rails

The Ruby on Rails framework is a powerful back-end framework for developing web applications. It provides the power of Ruby and the full stack of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for building modern web applications. It has a wide variety of components including a router to handle URL routing, a request dispatcher to handle API requests and responses, and a view layer that handles model views with templates and helpers while using MVC design patterns and controllers.

Key Features of Ruby on Rails

1. Convention over configuration. It helps to create the corresponding advanced components by automatically sensing simple conventional elements.
2. Automated Testing. RoR runs its own set of tests on the code you write. You can save time and effort in quality assurance.
3. Localization. The localization feature helps you integrate your pre-designed code into the RoR framework for a bigger project.
4. Scaffolding. This feature allows the programmer to define how the application database should function. After that, the framework automatically generates the required code according to it. The scaffolding technique creates interfaces automatically.
5. Libraries. RoR has a lot of vast libraries to equip a developer with all the necessary tools to produce high-quality products AJAX library, Database access library, and Common tasks library are some of the few that RoR comprises in its collection.

Django

Django is an open-source web application framework that makes it easy to create database-backed websites or apps. It is written in Python, so it can run on any platform that supports Python 2 or 3. Its primary focus is speed, reliability, and flexibility.

Key Features of Django Backend Frameworks

1. Excellent Documentation – This is one of the main reasons to start learning Django. If we compare Django with other open source technologies, it offers the best documentation in the market.
2. Python Web framework – Python is also one of the main reasons people started learning Django. It is that one tool that can solve all your problems and in any kind of operation out there, we can use it. It’s very simple and easy to use. All these features are inside Python. Python is currently the most popular language in the market. It is because of these 2 main features.
3. SEO Optimized – This is a special feature of Django due to which it has an edge over others. SEO is Search Engine Optimization as from the name it means that adding your website to the search engine such that it appears in the top results.
4. High Scalability – A lot of MNCs on a worldwide scale uses Django and it gets implemented there without any defects or errors. It is the best example of Django being scalable
5. Versatile in Nature – Django is very versatile in its own Django way. The logical project structure and MVT architecture of Django sometimes seem very limiting. But, that’s just the opposite because by giving us the files it is providing us with a solid foundation that can then be used to make whichever application we want to create.

Express.JS

It’s no surprise that Express.JS will be the most popular framework for back-end development in web development. It is a server-side JavaScript framework that offers several features such as to request routing and middleware, model validation, and more.

Key Features of Express.JS Backend Frameworks

1. Express supports MVC Architecture with a little bit of work.
2. You can build RESTful APIs faster.
3. You can use many templating languages like Jade or EJS which reduce the amount of HTML code you have to write for a page.
4. Has to support NoSQL databases out of the box. And pretty simple implementing it too. (You can also use relation Databases like MySQL, no worries..)

Spring Boot

Spring Framework is an open-source application framework and the Java platform’s inversion of control container. Java applications can utilize the core features of this framework. Users can also use many extensions for creating web apps based on the Java EE platform. 

Key Features of Spring Boot Backend Frameworks

1. Auto-Configuration – You might have worked with Spring-based Java web applications before, which connect to a relational database, e.g. an in-memory database like H2, and if yes, then you might know that you need to declare the JdbcTemplate as a bean and also need to configure a DataSource, which is a dependency for the JDBC template.
2. Starter POMs – While Auto Configuration takes away the pain of configuring common functionalities, the Starter POMs take away the pain by finding and adding common dependencies in your project.
3. Spring Boot CLI – In the first paragraph of this article, I said that it’s now possible to create a Java web application that can fit in a tweet. This happens because of Groovy and Spring Boot CLI.
4. Actuator – The actuator is another awesome feature of Spring Boot that allows seeing what’s going on inside a running Spring Boot application. With all its goodness of auto-configuration, there comes a risk of not knowing what is inside your application and that risk is addressed by the Spring Actuator.
5. Spring Boot Initializer – Spring Initializer is another feature of Spring Boot that solves the problem concerning project structure. It’s a web application that allows you to generate Maven or Gradle projects with Java, Kotlin, Groovy, or Spring Boot.