There are lots of web frameworks out there. Here is a non-exhaustive guide to some of the most widely used ones you should be familiar with.
If you’re a web developer you are more than likely familiar with most of the names on this list. You probably know some of these frameworks quite well or rely on them as part of your work routine. If you’re just beginning your dev career or you are, for whatever reason, slightly out of date when it comes to some of these tools, this list is for you. It’s a guide to some of the many front-end and back-end web development frameworks in circulation at the moment.
Before we dive in, let’s just explain what a web development framework is. (You’ll also see them referred to as web frameworks as the terms are used interchangeably.)
You can think of a web framework as being comparable to a photo frame in that it holds the entire ‘picture’ – or web app – together. They are designed to make developers’ jobs easier and some are for front-end developers, while others are for back-end developers.
These frameworks provide a standardised set of design and development parameters that can be tweaked as needed for the end website. Using a web framework saves developers time by automating a lot of the more fiddly processes.
Here is a list of some of the popular ones you should know.
ASP.NET
First released more than two decades ago, this high-performance framework was developed by tech titans Microsoft. It uses the C# language. It is open source and best for back-end developers. It uses .NET to develop web apps and it is fairly fast and powerful, despite being on the scene for a long time.
React
Meta created and now maintains this front-end JavaScript library. (It is not strictly speaking a framework but it works very like one.) React is useful for developing user interfaces for single-page web applications. It’s also open source.
Django
Another one for the back-end devs, Django is based on the Python language and it is also open source. It’s pretty high-performing and powerful, so it’s good for complex projects. It’s also secure. Some of the world’s best-known websites like Instagram and Spotify are built using Django.
Ruby on Rails
You might remember a while back we wrote about the Ruby programming language. Well, Ruby on Rails is a framework that is based on the Ruby language. It’s fast, reliable and scalable. It is another one for the back-end devs.
Angular
Angular is a front-end, open-source framework that is based on JavaScript. PayPal, Netflix and Upwork were all built on Angular. The tool was created by Google and it is favoured by enterprises because it can handle large-scale projects.
Express
A Java-based framework, Express is for back-end devs. It is used by Accenture, IBM and Uber. It doesn’t have a lot of frills, but it is fast.
Laravel
Laravel is good for building small- to medium-scale web applications. It is open source and based on PHP. It includes API support.
Vue
Last but not least, Vue is an open-source, front-end JavaScript-based framework that is particularly good for creating single page apps quickly. It is easy to make nice looking apps using Vue, so it’s a good one for UI devs to know.
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