To meet the requirements and expectations of online users, web development is continuously evolving. This includes new programming languages, libraries, and frameworks. However, the basics remain the same. Web development consists of frontend and backend development, requiring a framework. This blog will introduce you to web framework, frontend and backend development, as well as the 4 most popular frameworks in 2022.  

What is a web framework?

A web framework is a software framework for developing web applications such as web services, web resources, and web APIs. Hence, they provide a standard method for building and deploying web applications on the web to automate the overhead associated with common web development activities. This includes providing libraries for database access, templating frameworks, and session management as well as promoting code reuse. Web frameworks are suitable for both dynamic and static websites.

What are frontend and backend?

The frontend (or front-end) is the part of a system that is displayed to the user (presentation layer, user interface), e.g. a program on a client of a client-server system. A client is a computer, device, or program connected to a server for exchanging data or using programs and services of the server. The backend (or back-end) refers to the server component and the programs running on it of a client-server system, so it is the data access layer of a software or physical infrastructure or hardware. Therefore the backend forms the technical system of a website as well as its content and is not visible to the website users.

These are the top 4 most popular frameworks for web development in 2022

1. React (frontend)

React is a JavaScript library and provides a basic framework for the output of user interface components.
 

The powerful frontend tool React is just a library developed by Facebook. It is ideal for quickly rendering content and interactive applications. React handles the view component of the model-view-controller approach. For this, there is a DOM generated in HTML, which can be altered only with a lot of effort. React is based on JavaScript XML (JSX) and by using a virtual DOM, changes to the DOM can be easily implemented. For the achievement of basic tasks, little previous knowledge is sufficient.

2. Node.js (frontend and backend)

NodeJS is the framework of option for server-side development with JavaScript.

Node is an open-source and cross-platform JavaScript run-time that runs JS on the server side and yields dynamic websites. The framework is used for developing large scalable web projects, and it is especially good for implementing web servers. The execution is done in the JavaScript run-time environment "V8". Node is commonly used in backend development, but can also be used in the frontend.

3. Express.js (backend)

Express.js is a widely used NodeJS framework.
 

Express is a fast and simple open source framework and the most popular web application framework for Node.js. It takes the burden off you to solve basic problems, such as dealing with different URL paths. At the same time, it maintains maximum flexibility. Express.js extends Node.js with many handy tools and provides helpful features for web application and mobile application development. With the help of Express.js, you can quickly and safely create a powerful API. 
If you are a beginner in web development and have only basic knowledge of JavaScript, Express.js is the right framework to start with. Large websites such as PayPal use the framework for particular parts of their applications.

4. Vue.js (frontend)

VueJS is the popular client-side JavaScript web framework for single-page web applications.

Vue.js is open source and like React more of a JavaScript library. It’s well suited for building interactive user interfaces and simple applications. It competes with Facebook's React library and even integrates with React. You can achieve remarkable results with just a few lines of code. With the client-side JavaScript web framework, you create single-page web applications following the MVVM pattern, while multi-page websites are also possible. Server-side rendering has been supported since version 2.0, and performance has been increased at the same time. 

Summary

JavaScript is the language to go on each framework. The frontend frameworks React and Vue.js are both great for the output of user interface components and building interactive applications. The backend frameworks Node.js (also frontend) and Express.js are very suitable for web server implementation and building web applications.
 

For people interested in becoming web developers, this blog has given you a little overview of web development. Being able to develop on both frontend and backend frameworks is very beneficial for any web developer because it makes you a full-stack developer. But focusing on either frontend or backend can also be challenging as there are so many other frameworks out there. Choose what works best for you.