Demand for web developers is rising daily, and the job market is also anticipated to increase by 15% by 2026. This increase in demand for web developers has made frameworks a crucial part of creating robust and efficient web applications. Web developments assist platforms in getting online so they can outreach paramount users. Web applications are collectively made of Front-end and Back-end. While the front end deals with the user interface (UI). The frontend layers assist you in interacting with the web and executing actions like registering an online shopping site. The design is usually accomplished with the help of CSS, HTML and JavaScript. The backend is responsible for supporting the web applications. Therefore, backend developers are vital since they create components and features on the server side, which users diagonally access through the frontend system. These developers are responsible for maintaining, debugging and testing the entire backend of a website, database, server and app.
Backend web development provides a foundational code that authorises websites to process the actions you take on the front end and bring the correct information in return.
Backend frameworks are libraries of server-side programming languages that assist in developing the backend structure of a web application. Backend frameworks provide off-the-shelf components for creating a vigorous web application. Using development frameworks gives developers a head-start by removing the need to build and configure everything from scratch.
When it comes to backend web development, there is a wide range of backend frameworks that can be used. These frameworks are written in several languages, like Python, PHP, and Ruby, and have different features. The ideal backend web development framework choice is primarily based on the elements needed in the application. Here is a list of seven top backend frameworks you can utilise when structuring the backend of your website.
Django (Python)
Being one of the most famous backend frameworks, Django (written in Python) was released in 2005. Django is an open-source and high-level framework that is scalable, customisable and consists of literally everything a developer needs. Django is suitable for developing sophisticated and feature-rich database-driven websites and is easier to operate. Django has better CDN connectivity and content management. CDNs (Content Delivery Networks) are specific servers with multimedia media and content that sites such as Netflix and Amazon Prime use for streaming. It’s because of this feature that companies like Instagram are using Django. Django is based on the DRY principle (Don’t Repeat Yourself), highlighting reusing the existing code and focusing on new features, making your work fast and efficient. It also puts into consideration the Model-View-Controller pattern. This framework is primarily considered for creating web applications promptly and utilises Python features. This framework provides an admin interface that performs CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations.
Companies using Django include Instagram, Youtube, Spotify, and DropBox.
Features of Django
- SEO Optimised
- High scalability customisation
- Secure Authentication
- Batteries included
- Open-source
- Considerable community support and extensive documentation
Lavarel (PHP)
Lavarel, released in 2011 under the MIT license, is an open-source PHP framework for designing Symfony-based web applications following the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architecture. Lavarel is a beginner-friendly framework with a user-friendly and intuitive interface, ideal API support and extensive libraries. This backend framework is perfect for building blogs, news and e-commerce websites. With the intuitive interface and out-of-the-box API support, Lavarel simplifies the development of modern and secure web applications. Lavarel offers its users several approaches to accessing relational databases, application maintenance, and deployment utilities. It also has a modular packaging system equipped with a committed dependency manager. It has a source code hosted on GitHub. It also allows rapid application mail sending through local or cloud-based services. Lavarel is considered to be one of the best backend web frameworks.
Some companies using Lavarel include 9GAG, Pfizer, Crowdcube and Razorpay.
Features of Lavarel
- Command Line Interface (CLI)
- Object Relational Mapping
- Simple API
- Model-View-Controller Architecture Support
- Template Engine
Spring Boot (Java)
Spring Boot is an open-source and lightweight Java-based framework. It was released in 2014. Spring Boot is used for designing stand-alone applications and production-grade Spring-based applications. It contains a spring core container which is a module providing containers. Java applications can make use of the core features of this framework. Spring Boot influences the Spring platform and third-party libraries to assist developers in starting with minimum hassle. Spring Boot will help you avoid complex XML configuration and provides robust batch processing. Spring Boot is easier to use because it eliminates several configuration overheads the Spring framework has. When using Spring Boot, you can get many valuable functionalities like transaction management, caching, monitoring and security.
Spring Boot companies include Microsoft, Google, Udemy, Amazon and Trivago.
Features of Spring Boot
- Initialisation
- Banner customisation
- Microservices
- API
CakePHP (PHP)
CakePHP is a widely-known open-source web framework written in PHP and has an MIT license. CakePHP follows the Model-View-Controller architecture and is based on the Ruby on Rails concepts. CakePHP also provides a wide range of convenient software design and engineering concepts like the model-view-controller, active record, data mapping, front controller and convention over configuration. This backend framework allows its users to design reusable code parts across multiple projects. Users can use several functionalities like behaviours, components, helpers and plug-ins without growing libraries. CakePHP provides the CRUD functionality that authorises developers to create, read, update and delete actions within a web application.
Companies that use CakePHP include SeatGeek, Zumba, Fujitsu and Deloitte
Gin Gonic (Golang)
Gin Gonic is a backend framework written in Golang and it’s one of its best frameworks. Gin gonic is well-known for designing high-performance APIs by including crucial libraries and features. It’s a simple and lightweight framework and an ideal tool for creating high-performing REST APIs. Gin Gonic is considered to be the fastest full-featured web framework, it provides Radix tree-based routing and a little memory footprint. Gin also offers speedy API performance. Besides that, Gin offers a flexible method of collecting all errors that happened at the time of an HTTP request. Middleware can write them to a database, a log file and send them via the network. Gin Gonic also can seize an error that happened during an HTTP request and reinstate it. Hence your server being readily available.
Companies using Gin Gonic as their backend framework include: Sezzle and Season
Features of Gin Gonic
- Routes Grouping
- In-built Rendering
- JSON Authentication
- Middleware Support
Ruby on Rails
Written in Ruby, Ruby on Rails was released in 2004 as an open-source and server-side framework for backend development. Ruby on Rails provides a default structure for web services and follows Model-View-Controller architecture. It generates a bug-free database and uses CSS, JavaScript and TML for designing web applications. Ruby on Rails operates on two fundamental concepts: Don’t Repeat Yourself (DRY) AND Convention over Configuration (CoC). The first concept limits the repetition of code, and the second offers maximum approaches to solving problems.
Companies using Ruby on Rails as their backend framework include: GitHub, Shopify, Netflix, Crunchbase and Airbnb.
Features of Ruby on Rails
- Automated testing
- Libraries
- Localisation
- Scaffolding
- Good community support
Flask (Python)
Flask was released in 2010 as an open-source, lightweight backend framework written in Python. Flask is beginner-friendly and has no dependencies, making it easy to implement. This backend framework has no validation, a database abstraction layer or components that need functions from external resources. Flask also offers support for extensions that can add features in a way that looks like they were implemented within Flask. Developers well conversant with Python have a high chance of efficiently working with Flask. Flask is also flexible as its components can be modified safely based on the requirements. The framework has few abstraction levels between the user and the database, requests and cache, providing high performance for many users. Flask also supports object-relational mapping, validating and mapping.
LinkedIn and Pinterest use Flask as their backend framework.
Features
- In-built Development Server
- Unicode backend
- Rapid Development
- Minimalistic
- RESTful Request Dispatching
Conclusion
These frameworks are prevalent in the backend community, and there is high demand for them in the job market. As a backend developer, the information above can assist you in making the right decision when selecting which backend framework suits the requirements of your project. Many of these backend frameworks are written in famous programming languages like Python, Java and JavaScript. Therefore if you’re a beginner, start with beginner-friendly frameworks like Flask, Django or Ruby on Rails.
