Framework With Best Documentation

You don’t have to look far on the internet to see that the web development framework market is changing fast. Frameworks seem to be popping up every day. Companies big and small are creating their proprietary frameworks for internal use for rapid development and deployment. Some of these internal frameworks are becoming available to the public as open source products. This leads us to ask, “What’s the best framework?” It still depends on what your looking for, but here you will find a list of some of my favorites at the moment.

Most of us have experienced the pain of working on a project where all the key development resources (source code, WSDL files and documentation) are jumbled up in a disorganized manner. Web framework is about structuring a group of software modules and services, which will help you to build your web based applications. There are different front end frameworks available today. The aim of web frameworks is to simplify development process by providing everything needed to get started and more.

Frameworks, whether they are for frontend or backend development, are used to speed up the application development process. They’re also used to ensure that codes are optimized, easy to maintain, and scalable. In this guide we’ll go over some of the best frameworks available and how you can use them on your projects.

While in the game of programming, developers use web frameworks to carry out their tasks. They are a source of guidance for developers who are creating apps and also for those who are new to it. Web frameworks act like a net that can be used by developers to fetch information from one source and help them make informed decisions easily.

Best Front-End Frameworks

A front-end framework is responsible for what the users view on the webpage. The three main tools for developing a front-end framework are HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. The State of JS ranks the following five frameworks as most used in 2020.

1. ReactJS

Although it’s more like a library, developers still consider React one of the best web development frameworks. Developed by Facebook, React was the first framework that adopted a component-based architecture. Vue and Angular later adopted the same architecture. Let’s take a look at what makes the framework popular among developers. Start up with your free practical React Redux testing.

What Makes It Popular?

1. JSX makes React not only easy to use but fun as well. Developers can write their code in JavaScript only. They can develop a new feature and see how it appears in real-time. In short, React directly brings HTML into your JavaScript.
2. Components are what makes React unique. They allow you to break down complex UI. Instead of worrying about an intricate page design, you can break it down into smaller components and start developing the same.
3. Virtual DOM helps React to know when to re-render and when to ignore certain pieces of the DOM. It increases the performance of the page. And since the UI reacts promptly to a user action, user experience enhances a lot.
4. Due to the presence of many handy tools, the task of developers becomes easier. For example, React Development tools when used as Chrome extensions lets you inspect and debug the DOM easily.

Shortcomings

1. ReactJS is relatively new and primarily supported by Facebook. Hence the developer community, although rapidly growing, is still smaller in comparison to Angular.
2. Constant updating of React technologies is kind of a disadvantage. It is because developers don’t get time to make any proper documentation.
3. Since React covers only the UI, you will need to choose another framework for the backend.
4. For new developers, JSX can be a barrier since it requires a learning curve.

2. AngularJS

Angular is considered one of the best frameworks for web development that aids in building rich single web page applications. Google developed Angular to simplify web development. The framework first came into existence in 2010, and since then, it has received several updates to keep up with time. The framework is popular amongst developers because of a robust collection of components that simplifies the art of altering and writing code.

Let’s discuss Angular’s advantages and disadvantages in detail.

What Makes It Popular?

1. Since Google supports the framework, you can be sure that it is dependable, has some detailed documentation, and will keep up with the timely updates by Google.
2. There are a lot of third-party integrations which you can add easily. Thus, allowing developers to improve the overall functionality of their website.
3. Dependency injection of Angular is highly advantageous. Creating the dependencies can consume some time, but it’s worth it if you work on a large project where the site is expected to execute several functions.
4. With an ahead-of-time compiler, Angular apps provide a faster loading time. TypeScript and HTML are compiled into JavaScript during development (before the browser loads your app).

Shortcomings

1. If you are a complete beginner, even with knowledge of HTML, JS, and CSS, the learning curve of Angular can be a little steep. This is because Angular is opinionated and brings its own rules into the table when developers start using it.
2. Too many versions can confuse developers regarding which version to use and what extra features it offers. Also, like all other single-page web app frameworks, Angular has limited SEO capabilities.
3. Even a simple app requires a lot of boilerplate code. Complexity during installation makes new developers prefer Vue or React rather than Angular.

3. VueJS

Though Vue is a new framework, the Vue community is growing day by day. Vue is a progressive JS-based framework that you can use for building desktop and mobile apps along with web interfaces. Developed in 2013, Vue slowly ranked ahead of the other frameworks available in the market and currently ranked among the third web development frameworks.

What Makes It Popular?

1. Speaking of popular features, the first that comes to our mind is the size. With a minified jQuery library, the compressed Vue weighs around 29KB. Being a small ecosystem, you don’t have to worry at all about performance.
2. Because of its simplicity, programmers can quickly grasp it. The components are a combination of HTML and JavaScript; programmers experienced in these two languages can quickly develop large-scale templates.
3. Vue extensive documentation makes it easier to learn. With limited resources, programmers can easily handle complex operations. Also, the components are interactive and reusable. With Vuex, you can easily share the states between components.
4. Vue can easily handle 2-way data binding, thus making the code reactive. It’s better for single-page web apps since DOM changes accordingly whenever a code is changed. Thus, Vue is better for apps that require real-time updates.
5. The framework is opinionated. You can design the structure of the app any way you want. Also, having native support for TypeScript allows developers to migrate their apps from Angular to Vue easily.

Shortcomings

1. Although the framework is flexible, when working on a large-scale project with multiple developers, flexibility can lead to complexity, leading to more errors which can eventually raise the cost of development.
2. The community is still small, and it doesn’t have that much widespread support like Angular or React. And since the framework is evolving very fast, many tutorials that you will find might be outdated.

4. Svelte

We have finally a contender ready to join the Big 3 – React, Vue and Angular. Svelte is another popular web development framework for developers due to its clear-to-read HTMLX templating and aesthetically pleasing appearance. But is it an appropriate framework for your project? Let’s find out the advantages and shortcomings.

What Makes It Popular?

1. Just like Vue, the templates of Svelte are a superset of HTML. If you know HTML and CSS, the learning curve will seem to be relatively straightforward. The design philosophy of Svelte is similar to Python. There is an excellent tutorial with a real-time interface that helps developers quickly learn the framework.
2. The language extensions of JS, CSS, and HTML are meant to improve the developer’s experience. The framework has become popular because of its small bundles and performance. For performance gains, the server-side rendering mode of Svelte concatenates components and compiles them in a string format.
3. APIs are robust and good-looking. Starting from features to semantics, syntax, and installation size; everything is aesthetically pleasing.
4. Virtual DOM often has certain downsides. The best feature of Svelte is that it optimizes code during compilation, thus propagating changes with a minimal overhead during runtime.

Shortcomings

1. Svelte is not plain HTML, JS and CSS. It has its language. Although it adheres closely to web standards, still adoption can be a bit risky. You will need specialized tools and more framework-specific knowledge.
2. The architecture of compilers moves complexity from source code and run time to tools and build time. Although it appears like Svelte is eliminating complexity, in reality, the framework is just shifting complexity.
3. The best practices of Svelte are still evolving. If you are working on a large project, Svelte is not for you since the framework is still in its youth and not mainstream ready.

5. Preact

The next front-end framework in our best web development frameworks list is Preact. It is another popular JS-based framework that states itself to be a 3KB faster alternative to React. Since it doesn’t occupy a larger chunk of your app, this means you don’t have to worry at all about performance. Since it’s based on the ES6 framework, it has seen significant adoption among the JS developer’s community. Let’s discuss the advantages and shortcomings of Preact.

What Makes It Popular?

1. The significant advantage of Preact is the size. Less JavaScript means less execution time, enabling you to build a rich user experience without worrying about keeping a framework under control.
2. Preact has a faster virtual DOM library. Developers have batch updates and have tuned the framework to its peak when it comes to performance. Preact developers even work closely with browser engineers to get the maximum performance from the framework.
3. Apart from being lightweight, the framework is also fun to use. It uses standard HTML attributes and lets you be productive right from the beginning. Also, having a virtual DOM makes it easier to share reusable components like data providers and UI elements. You can seamlessly use the components that are available in the ecosystem of React.

Shortcomings

1. An important feature of React is synthetic event implementation. Unfortunately, that is not yet supported by Preact, and it relies instead on browser API. This can eventually cause performance and maintenance issues.
2. There is no createClass. The framework supports only ES6 class-based components and stateless functional components.
3. The developer community is still small. If you face any critical issue, it will take considerable time to get help from the community.

6. EmberJS

Ember, the stable version of which was released in 2016, is an open-source front-end JS-based framework. Ember is also one of the best web development frameworks for developing client-side applications. It is popular since the framework provides a complete solution having an application flow and data management. Let’s find out its popularity and disadvantages.

What Makes It Popular?

1. You can quickly work with APIs provided by the framework.
2. Ember is well known for processing similar tasks in one go. Thus, resulting in high performance.
3. With Ember, you will get a complete front end stack. The framework comes with its router, services and asset pipeline.
4. Routing is one of the best that you will get. URLs have route handlers enabled so that you can view conceivable states of applications. Also, asynchronous logic in the router determines promises.
5. The philosophy of Ember is “convention over configuration”. The framework has everything readily configured for you so that you can start working on your project immediately.

Shortcomings

1. For a small project, although Ember JS is quite good, it can get complex for large projects. For example, Handlebar is not as efficient as JSX. If you want flexibility, JSX is a better option.
2. The selling point of Angular and React is type checking. In Ember, type checking is yet to be improved, especially when it comes to the object model.
3. Some work is yet to be done in the tree shaking as well. The ecosystem of React has better options when it comes to tree shaking.

7. LitElement

The LitElement framework is easy to use as a base class to create lightweight and faster web components for working with any framework. LitElement is yet another one of the top web development frameworks among developers for using lit-html for rendering into shadow DOM. It also adds API for managing attributes and properties. Let’s find out whether the framework is good enough for your project.

What Makes It Popular?

1. The framework provides you with web components that you can easily define and share across your organization.
2. You can use your components anywhere, in CMS, your main document or a framework like React or Vue. Custom elements can be included in the web pages.
3. The framework uses lit-html for rendering templates. Since only dynamic parts of your UI are rendered, DOM updates are swift.
4. Your components will work with your preferred framework since LitElement follows the standard of web components.
5. You can declaratively express your UI. Since the framework allows you to use JavaScript, you don’t need to learn any new language for templating.

Shortcomings

Although the community is growing slowly, the popularity is not as much as React or Angular. If you face some complications, you may have to wait for support from fellow developers.

8. Alpine.JS

If you have a highly interactive SPA, we suggest you use Vue, React, or Angular. If you are working on a small project which only needs one or two components, it’s better to use AlpineJS. AlpineJS is considered among the top web development frameworks which is particularly for apps that are rendered server-side. Alpine is popular among developers as it leaves a minimal footprint of the app. Let’s find out the advantages and shortcomings.

What Makes It Popular?

1. The most significant advantage of AlpineJS is the size. At the time of writing, with a size of about 4KB, the framework works great with your current frontend templates. It doesn’t matter what you are using. Be it Blade, HTML or anything else, Alpine can easily interact and help you to manipulate the DOM.
2. You can efficiently manage the framework. Being developer-friendly, it allows you to focus on developing and less on configuration. Apart from web applications, you can also use them on Android or iOS.
3. AlpineJS allows you to harness the declarative and reactive nature of frameworks like Vue, React or Angular at a lower cost.

Shortcomings

1. When something is changed in any non-interactive event, the DOM is not updated.
2. Working with nested components or communication between them is a significant limitation.

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Best Back-End Frameworks

Now, let’s discuss the top back-end frameworks. We have compiled the list from the popular frameworks according to the State Of JS 2020 Survey. Until there is a significant change in usage, these frameworks will retain their popularity in 2021.

1. ExpressJS

JavaScript has unlimited usage scope. In other words, it’s not a problem nowadays to build an entire website using JS. Thanks to the popularity of NodeJS, ExpressJS is currently among the popular web development frameworks for web development. Being fast, minimal, and unopinionated, Express provides some core features of a framework by leveraging the robustness of Node. Let’s take a look at its benefits and drawbacks.

What Makes It Popular?

1. If a developer is comfortable with NodeJS for the back end, they will become more comfortable with Express’s improved and advanced process.
2. You can define the routes of a preexisting app with the help of URL and HTTP.
3. Static files and resources are easy to serve.
4. A very advanced feature is the creation of a REST API server.
5. You can connect with MongoDB, Redis as well as MySQL.
6. You can easily customize and configure the framework as per user requirements.
7. When used with NodeJS, both frameworks can support multiple concurrent actions.
8. With an open-sourced community, the code constantly gets reviewed and improved. And whenever you are stuck, you will get some help from the other community users.

Shortcomings

1. When a developer is migrating from any other programming language, the event-driven nature of Express JS can be a little complex to comprehend.
2. If you are planning to develop a mobile app with Express JS, you have to get familiar with the concept of middleware.
3. The framework is perfect for medium and minor projects. If you aim to create a large project, a middleware framework like ExpressJS should not be your choice.

2. Next.js

NextJS is a React framework that you can use to develop single-page JS-based applications. Next.js is by far one of the best web development frameworks that have numerous benefits, both from the client and developer perspective. Creators of Next advertised the framework as a single command toolkit for React apps that doesn’t need any configuration. Let’s find out what makes it popular and what does not.

What Makes It Popular?

1. It has built-in CSS support. Developers can easily import CSS files from JS.
2. With the next/image component, developers can automatically optimize images.
3. Because of its growing popularity, Next.js has several contributors. Thus, instead of solving an issue from scratch, you will get a solution from the community whenever you face any issue.
4. Developers can update existing pages by just re-rendering them in the background. Thus, static content gets converted to dynamic.
5. Automatic TypeScript compilation makes Angular development easier.
6. The main focus of Next.js is to focus on business login. And since it provides an automatic bundling and compilation experience, projects are ready for production right at the beginning.

Shortcomings

1. Since the framework is not that front-end friendly, you have to develop the entire UI layer from scratch.
2. Next does not have a built-in state manager. If you need one, you have to use Redux or a similar library.
3. Compared to Gatsby, there are not that many plugins that you can adapt quickly.
4. You will need a dedicated person to handle the development and management if you don’t have an in-house team.
5. The usage of Next is limited to its file-based router. If you want to use dynamic routes, you have to depend on a Node server.

3. Gatsby

Gatsby is also one of the best web development frameworks for React Developers. With Gatsby 3.0 at the backend and React at the frontend, you can create a superfast web experience that integrates with your preferred services. Currently, it is the most preferred framework for e-commerce sites, blogs, or landing pages. Let’s take a look at the pros and cons.

What Makes It Popular?

1. If you are using Gatsby for development, it means you are getting all the features of the most preferred front-end libraries like React. You will get the scope of developing a fully customized user experience.
2. Since Gatsby is a static site generator, it doesn’t connect with the database or sensitive information. Hence, you don’t need to worry about security.
3. The framework is built with performance as the top priority. Gatsby sites are a lot faster than other sites. All you need to do is create a source, and Gatsby.js will compile the webpack configuration to build your site. The framework follows a PRPL architectural pattern developed by Google that aims to increase your site’s performance.
4. The framework also allows you to use Gatsby Cloud to build, preview, and deploy your code hosted on a global edge network.

Shortcomings

1. The learner curve is a bit steep. Since the framework is a blend of GraphQL and React, you will need to know both. However, this, in turn, broadens your knowledge base as a developer.
2. If you have large content and regularly update your site, Gatsby is not for you. It will increase the time to publish content. For example, if you have a magazine type of blog, generating a static website and publishing it can take a lot of time.
3. If you plan to develop a client-side web app like Twitter, Gatsby should not be the choice since it’s mostly suited for blogs, presentation sites, or e-commerce sites.

4. Nuxt

Are you thinking about using Vue to make your next front-end application? Are you confused about what to use as a backend? Go for Nuxt, an open-source framework aimed at making web development powerful and simple. Let’s take a look at why Nuxt ranks among the most popular web development frameworks.

What Makes It Popular?

1. Nuxt is well known for the friendly experience it provides to developers. The team behind Nuxt constantly works to improve it. You will get descriptive error messages, detailed documentation, and powerful defaults. If you have any queries or issues, the community is highly supportive and always ready to help you.
2. The architecture of Nuxt is modular. To make your development faster and easier, you can choose from more than 50 modules. You can also add Google analytics, generate a sitemap or get the benefits of a progressive web app easily.
3. You will get an out-of-the-box optimization experience with Nuxt. By utilizing the best practices of Node and Vue, developers have created a performant framework. What’s better? You will get a bundle analyzer and lots of other tools to fine-tune your web app.

Shortcomings

1. Using custom libraries can be challenging, especially if you have a short timeline.
2. Heavy traffic can create a load on the server.
3. Unlike other web development frameworks, Nuxt can be challenging to debug. This is an issue that many developers frequently report. Developers often don’t know where to start to track the root cause of an issue.

5. Django

Django is a Python-based Model-View-Template framework for web development. This platform is used by well-known companies such as Google, YouTube, and Instagram. Python’s popularity has grown exponentially, which has directly influenced Django’s rapid adoption. It adheres to the Convention Over Configuration pattern and the DRY pattern.

Django offers techniques and tools to developers to help them build a secure website, or it incorporates security in the framework itself, such as blocking code execution in the template layer. Besides, Django has many powerful features, which makes it different from other web development frameworks for the back-end. Let’s take a look at Django’s popularity and shortcomings.

What Makes It Popular?

1. Django is the best at documentation since its inception, and its documentation has only improved drastically with current tech innovation, and it is also available in multiple languages.
2. Django controls the website via URLs instead of IP addresses on the server, making it simple for SEO executives to connect the website to the server while avoiding the need for the web developer to translate the URL into any numeric code.
3. There is no need for prior experience of the backend to build a fully functional website. It runs multiple files simultaneously without requiring the development of separate server files for database design.
4. It provides flexibility by pluggable apps, through which third-party applications can be quickly plugged.
5. Django provides high security by default, closing loopholes previously left open for the backend developer to complete.

Shortcomings

1. Django is not supported for highly scalable applications.
2. Django has a steep learning curve. Though it is a simple and easy framework, it is coded in Python, making it difficult to learn.
3. Unlike other web development frameworks, Django cannot handle multiple requests at the same time.
4. The Django framework is monolithic. It has a limited number of dependencies, which makes it difficult to use.

6. Rails

Rails is a Model-View-Controller framework that uses Ruby, and it’s a popular framework that is loved by many developers. Airbnb, GitHub, Hulu, and Shopify are primary users of Rails. Rails is considered a beginner-friendly framework, and the fact pros and cons are debated, helps beginners get started with web development quite quickly. There are many useful gems for rails, which are library-like dependencies that extend the functionalities of your application and helps you develop even faster and more efficiently. The Rails community is quite reliable and friendly, and there are many tutorials, screencasts, and resources that can help you become a rails expert in no time.

The main disadvantage of rails lies in the fact that they take quite some effort to deploy and run in a production environment, and the learning curve of rails becomes steep once you dive deeper into the framework to unravel the magic behind it.

Rails Github Link: https://github.com/rails/rails

7. Laravel

Laravel is a Model-View-Controller framework that uses PHP, which is one of the most popular languages of the web. It’s relatively young compared to other frameworks on this list.

Laravel comes with API support out of the box, and it also possesses a decent amount of packages that could extend its reach. Laracasts is a screencasts tutorials website with over a thousand videos on PHP, Laravel, and frontend technologies in the Laravel ecosystem that could be considered to be a beginner’s heaven. In terms of performance, however, Laravel doesn’t compare to Django or Express, which might be a drawback for massive projects.

Laravel Github Link: https://github.com/laravel/laravel

Want to master Laravel? PHP with Laravel for beginners is a great online course.

Top 5 Benefits of Using Web Frameworks

Unlike other development tools, frameworks come with a predefined codebase and guidelines for easy website development. As a result, it speeds up the development process and thereby reduces time-to-market. Here are the top 5 benefits of using web frameworks:

1. Easy Debugging and Maintenance

Most programming languages don’t give importance to code readability and maintenance. But many popular website development frameworks do that. Frameworks are recommended for custom web development because they have a lot to do with the ease of debugging and support. There is a community of developers with every framework so that you can be assured of quick responses to any issue.

2. Reduce Code Length

If you are using frameworks, there is no need to write long code lines for adding standard functionalities to a website. Frameworks come with code generation features to promote simplicity and conciseness, reducing the time and effort required by developers. Moreover, frameworks provide tools and functions that help developers automate regular tasks like authentication, URL mapping, caching, etc.

3. Improved Security

Frameworks provide built-in security features and mechanisms that help developers protect websites from present and future security threats. By using frameworks, programmers can safeguard websites from various cyberattacks like data tampering, DDoS, SQL injections, etc. Moreover, you can use open-source web frameworks to build custom security specifications for websites.

4. Bootstrap Development

Frameworks offer a variety of tools and packages to help developers bootstrap the development process. By using frameworks, programmers do not have to write all scripts from scratch. If you have less experience in web development, frameworks provide more ways to explore specific features, just like an experienced developer. Moreover, frameworks handle most of the development processes from the beginning and significantly reduce coding time. 

5. Improves Code Efficiency & Reusability

Web frameworks provide a fast, responsive and efficient coding environment for developers. In addition, frameworks come with advanced features like hot reload and live reload, leading to faster development cycles. Also, while using web frameworks, developers do not need to write complex or multiple lines of code. Instead, they can use the predefined codebase to make easy modifications and perform easy bootstrapping.  

Conclusion

Clean architecture is a development approach that helps us to write code without any parasite and unnecessary dependencies of the unwanted concepts and frameworks. It helps us to Google our framework from the internet at some point.

Since this is a popular topic, I decided to make the best article for you. Nowadays, the entire web industry is bombarded with different web frameworks. Their diversity is rapid and uncontrollable. That’s why it’s quite hard to develop one framework with top-notch features which will solve all your problems. However, there exist some web frameworks which have won millions of hearts with their high success rate and low failure rate in several fields of web development.