Top 15 Backend Frameworks Apt for Web App Development

As the world of web application development reaches far and wide, backend frameworks play an important role in offering optimal solutions. They play a lead part in creating and implementing web applications in a timely and effective manner since they offer developers the apt tools and techniques to manage activities like database management, server configuration, routing, etc.

Leveraging the most popular backend frameworks can offer API route creation and communication, data processing and database integration, enhanced user experience, better server-side code efficacy, rapid prototyping, scalability, agile business model, user authentication, and an advanced client-focused approach. They keep the entire software environment in synchronization.

With the fast-moving technology landscape, the set of backend tools, frameworks, and libraries are changing. Businesses must stay abreast with the trends and that is where choosing the ideal backend framework plays a pivotal role.

This article brings into light the most popular backend frameworks of today that are sure to see a bright tomorrow and their salient features.

What are Backend Frameworks?

Backend frameworks are a robust set of tools, components, and libraries of server-side languages, ideal to support the backend of a website and create dynamic web applications.

They are server-side frameworks that make web development easier and faster, automating the different steps of web app development.

It becomes easy for developers to leverage the pre-existing structures, tools, and modules instead of writing each line of code in different languages. They can now create the logic and functionality in an application, with ease since these frameworks help developers in controlling the actions of the application.

Key Benefits of Backend Frameworks:

• Lesser coding and more productivity
• Inbuilt features with more security
• Scalability, flexibility, performance
• Reduced development costs
• Well documented with large community support
• Simplified integration

15 Backend Frameworks That Are Popular

• Laravel
• Node.js
• ASP .NET Core
• Fiber
• Phoenix
• Ruby on Rails
• Django
• Spring Boot
• Flask
• Express.js
• Meteor.js
• AppMaster
• Koa
• Next.js
• CakePHP

Laravel:

Laravel is a flexible open-source PHP web framework that Laravel developers can leverage for creating beautiful web applications with elegant syntax and faster development practices owing to minimal coding.

As a popular backend framework, there is more to it which not only makes it simpler for the developer but also the business as it is based on the MVC architecture and highly cost and time effective.

Salient Features:

• Traffic handling
• Highly secure and flexible
• MVC architecture
• Easy third-party integration
• Simple unit testing

Node.js:

NodeJS, being one of the most favored technologies, for top leading companies today, has carved a niche for itself. It offers high-quality and effective coding using JavaScript, attending to both – frontend as well as the backend.

It is a leading JavaScript framework that writes JS on the client side as well as the server side and assists in the implementation of scalable network apps.

It is event-driven, asynchronous, light-weighted, effective, and goes by a non-blocking process. The server-side runtime is a real-time JavaScript application that operates across operating systems.

Salient Features:

• Scalability and performance
• Mobile And developer-friendly platform
• Fast and reliable
• Multi-user real-time web applications
• Low development cost

ASP .NET Core:

Developed by Microsoft, .NET is a software development backend framework that adopts a variety of coding languages, including F#, C#, and Visual Basic. Developers leverage ASP.NET Core as a simplistic, powerful, and advanced framework for developing maintainable, scalable, and performant web applications with a single codebase.

As a cross-platform framework, it creates apps for multiple platforms like Windows, Linux, and macOS.

Salient Features:

• Optimized for scalability and performance
• Deployable to major cloud platforms
• Modular architecture for maintainability
• Enhances security features like inbuilt authorization, authentication, etc.
• Great caching system

Fiber:

Fiber is a known backend framework, especially for Golang developers, developed on Fasthttp, the fastest HTTP engine. It is a powerful and slim framework that offers great scalability in terms of changing user requirements as and when needed.

It offers easy integration with third-party libraries and consumes less memory, with fast backend development.

Salient Features:

• Supports simple routing
• Creates REST APIs
• Static files with a custom prefix
• Fast performance with low memory usage
• Support for major template engines

Phoenix:

Phoenix is a popular, open-source backend web framework written in Elixir and Erlang, ideal for creating web applications in a fast and easy manner. It offers support for real-time client communication through WebSocket.

The backend functionalities that it offers are effective for all types of web apps. It is concurrent and offers the competency to execute multiple processes together.

Salient Features:

• Built on Elixir, known for speed and scalability
• Makes use of Erlang VM, known for fault tolerance and reliability
• Inbuilt and dedicated testing framework
• Low memory footprint
• Real-time elements with enabled authentication

Ruby on Rails:

Ruby on Rails, also known as Rails, is a popular backend framework, that is also a MVC, and web application framework written in Ruby. It provides default structures for web applications, web servers, and databases. It makes optimal use of web standards like XML or JSON for transmitting data, HTML, and CSS for UI and styling. It offers full-stack competencies with easy utilization and hence has been a developer’s delight.

Salient Features:

• Flexible, adaptable, scalable
• Promotes usage of HTML, CSS, JS, JSON
• Adheres to software patterns like DRY, COC, etc.
• Support from multiple tools and libraries
• Modular architecture with inbuilt testing functionalities

Django:

Django is an open-source, high-level Python-based web framework that goes by an MVC architecture, separating the application logic layer, presentation layer, and data layer into different components. It offers smooth development of web apps with minimum boilerplate code and focuses hard on simplicity, speed, and ease of usage. It makes the best use of proper guidelines that helps novices to learn the framework faster and more effectively.

Salient Features:

• Needs lesser code and is easy to learn
• Goes by the DRY principle – write once, use multiple times
• Renders HTML templates
• Writes and executes tests
• Connects well to other databases

An Interesting Read: Django vs Laravel: Two Prominent Web Frameworks Being Evaluated

Spring Boot:

Spring Boot is a leading open-source, Java-based, web framework that is known for creating enterprise-level, stand-alone applications with clean and modular code. It is considered apt because it is extensible, modular, robust, and easily integrates with other frameworks. It is created on the known Spring framework that empowers developers to create robust applications, with the least coding.

Salient Features:

• Light weighted, modular, flexible
• Fast and secure authentication and authorization
• Inversion of Control (IoC) container for Dependency Injection
• Less time spent in the configuration of the framework
• Effective management of meticulous tasks

Flask:

Flask is a lightweight, small-scale backend framework developed using Python. Developers find it easy to build web apps by handling HTTP requests and responses in Python. It is scalable, customizable and gels well with other libraries and tools, because of its Microservices architecture. Since it is a WSGI framework, it executes the web server instead of the user’s browser.

Salient Features:

• URL routing and profiling web apps
• Inbuilt web server for debugging
• HTTP request handling
• Fast to set up and start app creation
• Incorporates third-party extensions

Express.js:

Express.js is a leading backend framework and a minimalistic Node.js web app framework that is flexible and lightweight. It is ideal for creating server-side applications and RESTful APIs. It is an integral component of the MEAN stack and is preferred for creating online applications. There is a robust routing mechanism, multiple HTTP utility methods, and middleware support for request and response handling.

Salient Features:

• Makes the best use of full-stack JavaScript features
• Offers high-end performance and easy to use
• Great community support
• Easy integration with third-party libraries
• Robust toolset for error handling and debugging

Meteor.js:

Meteor.js is one of the best backend frameworks that is open-source, mature, and facilitates the creation of web, iOS, Android, and desktop applications with ease and scalability so that it can reach out to multiple users. It is written using Node.js and can create applications using JavaScript or TypeScript. It is popular for facilitating rapid prototyping and creating cross-platform code.

Salient Features:

• Simple, effective, and flexible coding
• Cross-platform compatibility with uniform code usage
• Strong community support and extensive documentation
• Reactive templates and automatic CSS
• Custom Package Manager

AppMaster:

AppMaster is a known no-code platform that is considered one of the best backend frameworks for the creation of production-based applications like web applications, admin panels, customer portals, process automation, bots, robots, IoT applications, etc. It offers real AI-generated backend and visual editing tools. Apart from that, there is not much code involved.

Salient Features:

• Fit for novices as no coding needed
• Fasten and eases out work with process automation
• Automatic generation of source code
• Enhanced features that assist in the implementation
• Powerful visual editing tools

Koa:

Koa is designed to be a web-based framework that is expressive and light in weight. It has a robust foundation for web applications and APIs. It makes use of modern-day JavaScript features that encourage developers to write middleware in a sophisticated manner. It offers a simple, modern way to manage HTTP requests and responses. It has a concise and clean code structure that is easily readable and maintainable.

Salient Features:

• High-end performance
• Support for asynchronous code
• Enhanced error handling
• Seamless third-party integration
• Easy code reusability across projects

Next.js:

Next.js is an open-source React backend framework that offers server-side rendering and possesses inbuilt support for CSS. It splits code automatically into tinier chunks that can be managed on an individual basis. It helps in the creation of full-stack web apps with increased loading speed of web pages and enhanced user experience. It develops enriched web applications that can load faster and are SEO-friendly.

Salient Features:

• Hot reloading feature
• Inbuilt routing and static site generation
• Serverless functions
• Advanced pre-rendering capabilities
• Ideal for creating a minimal viable product (MVP)

CakePHP:

CakePHP is a rapid development framework that makes custom web development an easy task through its MVC architecture. It is a robust and scalable framework that is apt for novices and experts alike. Developers just need to have experience with PHP based on which they can develop web applications with ease. It implements software principles like an active record, front controller, etc.

Salient Features:

• Needs minimal configuration
• Object Relational Mapping (ORM
• Inbuilt tools and plug-ins for security features
• Powerful routing system
• Inbuilt templating and caching support

As We Wind Up:

When you choose the best backend frameworks, there are certain important factors that must be considered. Some of the major ones are – the learning curve that is involved, availability of documentation and community support, flexibility in access to libraries, security features and frequency of updates, and competency to scale as needed.

As you scan through the above-mentioned list of backend frameworks, you now know the characteristics and salient features of each one of them. It offers a direction as to which one should you choose for your project. You can even reach out to an experienced panel of software specialists who can analyze business requirements and suggest to you the right technology, for your organization.

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