WHICH LANGUAGE IS BEST FOR WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT

The web development industry is continuously evolving. It’s one of the most trending IT industries, which means there are constant updates and changes in approaches to creating websites. Programming languages, frameworks, technology stacks – all these development aspects gain and lose popularity in discussions every year, if not every month. Our aim is to discover the most advanced web technologies to date. Which programming language is best for website development? Which libraries, frameworks, tools are the most efficient and well-supported by modern IT-community? Let’s find out!

Which Platform Is Best For Website Development

We must clarify definitions before going any further. The development platform is considered in the context of a language underlying the website programming.

In general, modern web development methodology divides the process into two fundamental parts: front-end and back-end development. While front-end means building the visual interface which the user interacts with (the client side), back-end means taking care of data storage, manipulation and protection (the server side). This division allows developers to focus entirely on a single task. This improves the overall development results, as highly specialized professionals often deliver solutions of better quality.

Front-End Web Development

Web browsers are the interpreters of the hypertext. It ties front-enders to HTML/CSS+JavaScript stack.

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Of course, there are plenty of JS alternatives: CoffeeScript, TypeScript, Kaffeine, Roy. However, we strongly recommend using JS, and here are the three main reasons why:

• Browser support. If you develop a web application for a wider audience, you will have to implement old browser version support. While JavaScript has the best browser coverage, some alternative languages may struggle to work correctly in older browser versions;
• Low popularity. A small and immature community won’t provide you with the needed assistance. Also, if you plan to hire developers for your projects, finding developers experienced in using such technologies at a reasonable price is close to impossible;
• Lack of tools. As the result of the previous point, an insufficient amount of useful frameworks to speed up the development process is a critical drawback.

Back-End Development

Luckily, this part is much more diverse. As back-end doesn’t deal with browsers and manages the server-side operations, developers can go beyond one standardized technology stack.

PHP

This is one of the oldest web development back-end languages you can find that is still widely used in the IT-community. Take a look at the diagram below:

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It shows that more than 80% of modern websites still use PHP for their back-end. Google, Wikipedia, Yahoo, Facebook and other corporations still have a place for PHP in their technology stacks.

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This time-tested script language is HTML-embedded, which makes it a decent option for the content management and web templating systems.

Pros:

• Steep learning curve;
• Functional Programming & Object Oriented Programming compatibility;
• Huge open-source software community.

Cons:

• PHP is an interpreted language that is compiled into Opcode;
• Threaded executors make scaling problematic;
• Global extensions are required for efficient performance.

Java

Java is a mature and widely used language. It’s a perfect decision for websites with enormous traffic, as it shows excellent raw speed scores.

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A great community has created a wide range of Java libraries and frameworks, so you won’t face the lack of tools or any assistance issues.

Pros:

• Utterly steep learning curve;
• A platform-independent language;
• High security.

Cons:

• May be a bit slower than C or C++;
• Employment of a unique paradigm;
• Inability to use multiple inheritance.

Python

This interpreted programming language offers short syntax which is easy to understand.

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Powerful, strict and readable code along with the simplicity of learning it make Python a great choice for the web back-end technology stack.

Pros:

• Versatile & user-friendly;
• Large open-source community;
• Vast availability of libraries for various development niches.

Cons:

• An interpreted language, therefore, slower performance;
• Threading issues due to the Global Interpreter Lock;
• Weak compatibility with mobile platforms.

Ruby

Similar to the previous one, Ruby puts emphasis on the productive web development.

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However, this open-source language provides more flexibility, which makes it a viable competitor with Python.

Pros:

• Clean syntax (comprehensive, readable code);
• Extensive availability of libraries & tools;
• Huge popularity in the world of programming speaks for itself.

Cons:

• Limitations outside of web development;
• Complicated for beginners;
• A dynamically-typed language that doesn’t highlight data types (crucial in programming).

JavaScript

After all, no one stops you from using your JS knowledge to develop back-end software.

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This multi-paradigm language is a dynamic and well-structured solution for back-end development. JavaScript developers have plenty of high-performance and truly flexible tools for creating powerful server software.

Pros:

• Very fast client-side performance;
• Steep learning curve;
• Reduced server load demands.

Cons:

• Exploitable client-side security of code;
• May be unpredictably interpreted in different browsers;
• Overloaded syntax.

Which Technology Is Best for Website Development

Cutting-edge web development technologies make lives of developers easier. Various tools and frameworks powered by the respective communities slash the time needed for creating decent software products. Taking into consideration the web development platforms described above, let’s discover the most relevant technologies that can be your best choice for developing a website.

Front-End Technologies

These frameworks specialize in fast, effective and painless user interface development.

React

Supported by Facebook,React is a trending JavaScript library for creating interactive UI.

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This open-sourced technology allows building lightweight front-end solutions and offers various virtual DOM features. What is more important, you can use your React skills in the cross-platform React Native tool and in a back-end framework Node. However, React doesn’t have exhaustive and proper documentation, as it is being developed at a rocket speed. It also requires a profound knowledge of MVC frameworks integration.

Pros:

• A very SEO-friendly environment;
• Reusable components;
• Fast performance while processing many components.

Cons:

• May require too much coding as opposed to other frameworks;
• Can process data changes manually only;
• A view-oriented language.

Vue

Vue.js is a highly adaptive and flexible framework. Its tiny size and decent scalability are the substantial strengths. Vue’s simple structure and detailed documentation enhance its learning.

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Nevertheless, its insignificant market share decreases the knowledge spread and narrows the community. It is partially influenced by the fact that some part of the documentation is still in Chinese as this framework has the Chinese background.

Pros:

• A very well-formulated documentation;
• Integrations for any developmental purposes;
• Can be used to develop large-scale reusable templates.

Cons:

• May demonstrate issues when integrated with some huge projects;
• Not all important materials are translated from Chinese into English;
• The community is still growing.

Back-End Technologies

The need for the infrastructure that speeds up the back-end development is continuously increasing. More and more innovative frameworks appear on the market to allow developers to deliver productive and secure solutions for the server-side development.

Node

Node is a JavaScript runtime environment. It’s very convenient for full-stack developers as it uses the same script language as for the front-end development.

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Fast page load and the asynchronous system make this cross-platform solution competitive on the market.

Pros:

• A high-performance, event-based language;
• Extensive ecosystem with over 350 000 compatible tools;
• Strongly supported by large corporations.

Cons:

• Many tools are of poor quality or untested;
• Insufficient with heavy computations;
• Difficult to learn as opposed to JavaScript.

Ruby on Rails

RoR is a web application framework. Simple to use and execute, this technology drastically reduces the development financial and time expenses, and the Ruby language takes all the credit for this advantage.

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Moreover, the RoR methodology is consistent, and the framework is IDE-friendly and flexible. However, keep in mind that Ruby on Rails doesn’t show the best performance and demands deep skills in programming.

Pros:

• High-speed development;
• Huge RoR community;
• Finest web development standards & practices.

Cons:

• Not much flexibility;
• Architecture errors may cost you a pretty penny;
• Slow runtime speed that affects scalability.

Django

Modular and transparent,Django is the MVC framework written in Python. It inherits the language benefits allowing to reach the maximum code efficiency and security.

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Fast and scalable, this technology is a perfect solution for startups which strive to spend minimum resources and build secure server software in no time. Bear in mind that advanced knowledge of this tech is a must, so a developer has to learn the whole system to work with it.

Pros:

• Accelerated development of custom web applications;
• Provides all required development resources out of the box;
• Efficient security features.

Cons:

• Fails to handle multiple requests simultaneously;
• Advanced features may affect small solutions in a bad way;
• Doesn’t keep web application components loosely coupled.

The Bottom Line

The website platform and technology choice is a very situational decision. Each presented option has its strengths and weaknesses. Evaluate your resources and team skills properly to pick the right technology stack for your project.