Most Popular Web Frameworks

Websites are an integral part of a business’s digital identity. Creating sophisticated and intuitive websites is the best way to attract new users since 70-80% of people conduct online research before making the final buying decision.

The framework plays an essential role in the field of web development and web applications.

There are many frameworks in the market and choosing the right one is a tricky task.

For an enterprise, you should consider that the framework you choose must be suitable for your company’s resources and goals.

If you are a developer looking for a job, you are likely looking for a high in-demand framework in the job market that fits your profile.

In this article, we’ll discuss frameworks for both enterprises and developers. Our criteria to choose web development frameworks are:

• mainstream and well adapted in the industry.

• highly popular with stable or increasing popularity.

• in-demand in the job market.

For this list, we’ve used data from reliable sources such as GitHub, StackOverflow Developer Survey, and Indeed’s data.

What is a web framework?

A web framework is a software platform for developing web applications and websites. It has a collection of libraries and modules that support the development process.

Web development frameworks can be used for the development of web services, web APIs (Application Programming Interface), and other web resources.

There are generally two types of development frameworks – client-side and server-side frameworks.

While client-side frameworks are used for dealing with the user interface, a server-side framework works in the background to ensure the smooth functioning of the website

1. Django - Python Framework

Python’s popularity impressively increased in the last decade, which directly affected the high adoption of Django. Django offers many great features and is currently one of the main Server-Side Web frameworks.

Django is a popular framework when it comes to building quality web apps, in fact, it is one of the older web development frameworks.

Developers favor Django because they find it impressively quick, secure, scalable, and versatile. Django is a free open source web development framework that supports the fast development of back-end web applications with minimal coding.

More than 12,000 known projects are built in the Django framework, such as Disqus, Pinterest, Instagram, and Quora.

2. Ruby on Rails

Ruby on Rails is one of the favorites among web developers today.

RoR is free to use, open-source, and runs on Linux.

According to most of the developers, the Rail framework is one of the most developer-friendly programs and is quick in getting you through the planning stage and on to the developmental stage.

Moreover, the Rail framework provides developers with predefined solutions that help them perform repetitive tasks.

The Rail framework is helpful in building the back end of web applications like Github, Shopify, and Zendesk, Hulu, Airbnb, and Basecamp among others.

3. Angular

Angular is essentially a JavaScript open-source framework that can help you make single web-page applications using an MVC (Model-Controller-View) architectural pattern.

While Angular is not really a full-stack framework, you can consider it as a front-end framework so it is one of the best frameworks for web developers.

Angular is remarkably stable and has introduced no critical breaking change in the last 5 years. Angular is also focusing on stability and robustness over innovation and a perfect framework for enterprise application development.

Websites that use Angular are Upwork, Lego, PayPal, Netflix, etc.

4. ASP.NET

A framework that is helpful to build dynamic web applications for PC and mobiles is ASP.NET. Microsoft created it to let programmers build vibrant websites, applications, and services.

In 2016, Microsoft released the successor of ASP.NET as ASP.NET Core, which is open-source and a complete rework of its predecessor. It is a modular Web framework that can run on multiple platforms and works seamlessly with modern JavaScript Client-side frameworks.

Some famous companies using ASP.NET are TacoBell, GettyImages, StackOverflow, to name a few.

5. React

Within a short time, React became overwhelmingly popular among Enterprises and developers.

While React is not a framework, but a frontend javascript library, it doesn’t mean it should not be available on the list because many developers consider React as a framework.

React is very popular because of its revolutionary component-based architecture. Moreover, React provides a straightforward and quick interface.

It has the slogan "Learn Once, Write Anywhere" as software engineers can use React to develop Apps for any kind of User Interface, e.g., Web, Mobile, Desktop, or even for Smart TV.

React.js is maintained by Facebook while being supported by a massive community of developers. The main reason why React is famous is that it is used in two big projects: Facebook and Instagram.

Please note that this shortlist is not all-inclusive and there are many excellent frameworks that were not included.

Startups, small companies, and even large organizations that prefer faster development and time to market, likely would go for Django or Ruby on Rails.

But of course, the framework you choose ultimately depends on the programming language that you are comfortable with.