- By Nasir Zaidi

Backend frameworks are crucial to app development for millions of developers all across the world. Without a good framework, a site cannot work correctly.

Picking the right framework is quite vital for developers to ensure optimized performance and scalability. With multiple options available today, making the right decision might be a hassle.

However, don’t worry as we’ve got you covered! Take a look at the top 10 backend frameworks for Web development below.

What is a backend framework?

Backend frameworks are software applications that allow developers to build websites. Backend frameworks are often used to create back-end services for websites.

A website's backend is the part of the application that runs behind the scenes. In other words, the backend is the part of a website that handles data storage, user authentication, and other tasks.

A backend framework helps developers write code faster and easier. There are many different types of backend frameworks out there, including PHP, Ruby on Rails, Python, Java, NodeJS, and others.

Why use a backend framework?

Backend frameworks provide a consistent way to build applications across different platforms, allowing developers to focus on building their applications rather than worrying about how to make them work on various devices and operating systems.

They also help developers create robust applications that can handle any type of data input and output.

Moreover, backend frameworks are designed to be scalable and flexible enough to accommodate future changes and updates. They are built using modern programming languages and technologies and are not tied to specific hardware or software.

In addition, many backend frameworks are open-source, free, and extensible.

1. Java Spring MVC

Spring MVC is a free and open-source web framework developed by the Spring Framework project.

It provides a set of annotations and components that simplify the creation of RESTful web services, controllers, and views.

Spring framework provides dependency injection container and application context infrastructure classes.

These classes provide a set of services that allow developers to define their own beans (objects) and wire them together using annotations. Spring MVC is among the favorite backend framework choices for developers because of:

Excellent RESTful web services support - It enables rapid and parallel development.
Promoting separation of concerns - it's a great way to develop modular web applications
Servlet API - This is the standard API for building servlets. A servlet is a program that runs inside a container (such as Tomcat) and responds to requests sent over HTTP. This takes away the tedious and boilerplate tasks of handling HTTP requests

2. Django

Django is a Python Web Development Framework. It is free software released under the GNU General Public License (GPL).

Django is a high-level Python Web framework based It is built around the concept of “batteries included”, meaning that Django includes many features out of the box.

Django encourages clean code, and rapid application development while providing a robust infrastructure for deployment. Additionally, Django is preferred for backend development due to the below factors:

Community Support - Django enjoys the support of a huge and very professional community of developers who have inside-out knowledge of Django and are always ready to help
REST Framework - REST is a toolkit for creating Web APIs. This is an added benefit of Django as it is powerful enough to build a full-fledged API in just two or three lines of code.
Infrastructure - Django is independent and a complete set in itself. It means that it does not require any other external solution. It is everything, from an ORM to a web server. This enables it to use various databases and switch them accordingly.

3. Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is a web application framework written in Ruby. It was created by David Heinemeier Hansson and Michael Shurack at Basecamp Software in 2004. It is designed to make developing web applications easier and faster than previous approaches.

Some of the benefits of employing Ruby on Rails include:

Easy to learn - you do not need extensive programming knowledge to start using ROR. All you have to do is download the application and run it. By seeing how the app works, you will get a better idea of Ruby on Rails
Fast Development Speed - Another great benefit of using ROR is its fast development speed. Because ROR is a full stack framework, it gives you everything you need to build a website.
Scalable - one of the biggest advantages of using ROR is that it is scalable. As long as you know how to write code, you can scale your application. You can create different versions of your application depending on the number of users.

4. ASP.NET Core

ASP.NET Core is a cross-platform, open-source web framework for building modern cloud-based apps using. NET.

It is built on top of the.NET Standard 2.0 platform and supports both Windows and Linux operating systems. ASP.NET brings the following advantages to its users:

Rich feature set - ASP.NET offers many features that allow developers to build rich client-side applications. These features include drag and drop controls, data binding, validation, event handling, and much more.
Extensible - ASP.NET supports both Windows Forms and Web Forms. It also includes a number of different technologies that enable you to create powerful business solutions.
Cross Platform - ASP.NET runs on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, and Unix platforms. It also supports mobile devices like Android and iOS.

5. NodeJS Express

Express is a simple, robust, and flexible Node.js web server framework. It is intended to provide a small footprint, fast start time, and simple deployment. Many web developers prefer Express because it is:

Lightweight - The size of NodeJS Express is small compared to other frameworks. It only takes up 1 MB of RAM.
Highly Scalable - With NodeJS Express, you can easily scale your application horizontally without having to worry about memory leaks. Your app can handle thousands of concurrent users without crashing.
Secure - NodeJS Express uses HTTPS protocol to encrypt data between client and server. So your information is safe and secure.
Very good documentation - Apart from having good documentation, NodeJS Express is also open-source.

6. AngularJS

AngularJS is a JavaScript framework developed by Google. It was created to make web applications easier to develop and maintain. AngularJS uses MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture.

It provides a set of directives that allow developers to create custom HTML tags and attributes. AngularJS is built using TypeScript, a language that compiles to JavaScript. Advantages of using AngularJS include:

Cross-browser compatible - AngularJS is compatible with Windows, macOS, and Linux devices

Code Splitting - Angular apps load quickly with the new Component Router, which delivers automatic code-splitting so users only load the code required to render the view they request.
Animation - Create high-performance, complex choreographies and animation timelines with very little code through Angular's intuitive API.
Testing - With Karma for unit tests, you can know if you've broken things every time you save.

7. PHP Laravel

Laravel is a free and open-source PHP web application framework created by Taylor Otwell and intended to make developing web applications easier.

It is based on the model–view–controller pattern and uses an expressive syntax. You might consider using PHP Laravel due to the following reasons:

Easy to use - PHP Laravel is an open-source web framework written in PHP. It provides a set of tools for developers to build dynamic websites and web applications. It is designed to make web development easier and faster than ever before.
Fast loading speed - Laravel is built on top of the Symfony framework, which means that it uses the same underlying code base as Symfony. As a result, it's able to provide a fast loading time.
Highly secure - The security features of PHP Laravel allow you to easily protect your website from hackers and malicious users. You can easily create login forms, user management systems, password reset functionality, and much more.

8. Next.js

Next.js is a framework for building modern web applications using React.js. It provides a set of tools for developers to build single-page applications (SPAs) without having to learn any additional technologies.

The goal of Next.js was to create a tool that would allow people to build SPAs without having to learn anything new. It does this by providing a set of tools that make it easier to write code than ever before.

Hot reloading - Hot reloading means that changes to the code are reflected immediately without having to restart the app.
Next.js supports SSR - SSR stands for Server Side Rendering. In simple words, it means that the server renders the pages and returns them to the browser.
Next.js is built on top of React JS framework - Nextjs is a static site generator built on top of react js framework. It helps developers build fast, scalable, and maintainable single-page applications (SPA).

9. Flask

Flask is one of the best Python-based web app frameworks that help create robust and modern web apps. It’s a WSGI framework that runs on the web server rather than the user’s browser.

Accordingly to a report by Jetbrains, 46% of Python developers prefer to choose Flask for developing web applications:

Lightweight - With a modular and lightweight design, it is easy to transform it to the web framework you need with a few extensions without weighing it down
Documentation - Flask’s documentation is comprehensive, full of examples, and well structured.
HTTP request handling functionality - gives you the ability to process an HTTP request without starting the page life cycle

10. Cake PHP

CakePHP is a free and open-source web application framework written in PHP PHP is one of the most popular and well-known web development languages. It's simple to learn and is used in a wide variety of web applications. Additional advantages include:

Easy Interaction with the Database - The developers have easy and full control over the database. The insert, delete, and update operations can be handled easily with CakePHP
Testing Framework Support - It supports unit testing framework making it easy for developers to test the application
User-Friendly Tool - Cake PHP using the MVC architecture is user-friendly and coding in CakePHP is quick and easy
Built-in Validation - The built Validation of CakePHP makes the code validated.

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Top 10 Backend Frameworks for Web Development