What will be the top web development frameworks in recent years?

Web frameworks have greatly changed and facilitated the world of programming and have become an integral part of the development process. Today there are a huge amount of web development frameworks and it’s important to understand and distinguish a difference between them to find the best framework solution for your future website.

What is a framework?

Let’s start from the beginning; a web framework is a software tool that aims to facilitate the process of writing and running a web application. So, you don’t need to write a bunch of code on your own and waste time searching for potential errors and bugs. Depending on your needs, you can choose one framework covering all expenditure, or combine several.

Now, it’s time for the rating of top web development frameworks in 2020:

1. Ruby on Rails or RoR, is one of the most popular web frameworks among web developers. From the beginning of its establishment in 2004 Ruby on Rails tool almost immediately got a well-deserved recognition. Let’s find out why it’s so good and just look at the pros and cons of RoR:

Pros

1. Speed. It takes less time. According to statistics the time to develop with Ruby on Rails is 40-50% less compared to other programming languages.
2. Flexibility. Thanks to special modular design of the tool the solution can easily be improved, amended or extended even after launch.
3. Extra tools and libraries such as RSpec-Rails (testing tool), RuboCop (code analysis tool), Better_Error and binding_of_caller, etc.
4. Inheritance. Ruby is the concept of consistency in structure and methodology when writing code with subsequent RoR developers to make interaction between developers easier.

Cons

1. No room for creativity. Ruby on Rails is a pretty standard with its own set of default, set objects and it’s a perfect tool for the basic needs and features.
2. Constantly evolving. Someone would say that it’s an advantage, but in practice it’s pretty hard to keep track of changes, especially for the beginners.
3. Performance time. Let's be fair and consider that RoR apps are not as fast as applications in Java/C. However, the truth is that for most Ruby On Rails applications are sufficiently fast. Some of the biggest websites created on the Ruby on Rails basis include Hulu, Airbnb, etc.
4. AngularJS is no less popular web development instrument than Ruby on Rails. It’s a software platform used for front-end building. While AngularJS may be used regardless, it’s also a part of MEAN stack, an ecosystem with its full-stack developers that aims covering all aspects of software development.

Pros

1. Two-way data binding. It allows drafters to reduce development time as it requires no additional code to provide continual View and Model synchronization because of using an MVC architectural pattern.
2. Advanced testing features. There are a lot of AngularJS testing features such as testing a controller, testing filters, testing directives, testing promises that facilitate the development process.
3. Fast app prototyping. Thanks to Angular JS engineers can easily develop application prototypes via writing significantly less code and waste significantly less time
4. Dependency injection. It defines the connection between different pieces of code and also identifies how the changes in one component impact effect to the other ones.
5. Strong support and community. As one of the most popular web frameworks AngularJS has a strong base with a lot of engineers, training materials, discussions, and third-party tools.

Cons

1. Speed. If you create an Angular JS app with deep object graphs it can work slowly compared to the counterparts. Also, Angular is not the best solution for games or complicated visualizations because of too many bindings.
2. Hard learning. Because of the universality of the framework, it imposes a myriad of information, difficult features and a lot of ways to complete any task, Angular JS has produced some confusion among developers.
3. Inexperience with MVC.
4. React.js is a Javascript product as Angular JS is. React is not just another MVC framework or some other framework. This is just an open-source library that is used for building user interfaces and for rendering your submissions. Also React.js is usually used as an e-commerce website development tool.

Pros

1. Virtual DOM (document object model). This structure allows to transform the representation HTML-syntax into the document object model, which we can see in browsers. This in turn leads to better user experience and faster developer’s work.
2. One-direction data flow. This allows to maintain the code stable because of direct work with components and uses downward data.
3. Constantly evolving. If you search for trending solutions for your website, be sure that React.js can easily help with it. Creators don’t get tired to add new features and components in this library.
4. Redux. Redux is framework-agnostic, but it’s a great tool when you speak about storing and managing component states in large apps with many dynamic elements.

Cons

1. React.js uses JSX. JSX is a good tool that allows mixing HTML with JavaScript and has a lot of benefits. But at the same time, because it is difficult for understanding and learning compared with JavaScript without impurity.
2. Additional SEO hassle. When you use React.js in the development process of your website you should be sure that in the end it will be Google friendly. Simply put, you have to do some testing to ensure that Google can index your dynamic web page.
3. Poor documentation. Because of constantly evolving processes in React.js it can cause some development issues with the creation of documentation and instructions for this new functionality.
4. CakePHP is another popular framework that has Angular JS created on the Model-Controller-View model. Usually this open-source PHP framework is used for e-commerce website development, it makes web apps creation process simpler, faster, while requiring less code.

Pros

1. The advantages of MCV. CakePHP uses the newest product of MVC – Hierarchical MVC (HMVC). The main feature of HMVC is that it allows for scaling websites quickly, simplifying maintenance.
2. Reuse the code. Code generation and scaffolding allow engineers to develop prototypes and code that in the future can be used for creation of multiple different projects.
3. Fast and flexible. CakePHP enhances the app by creating custom templates. At the same time, robust plugins help keep your codes clean.
4. More innovation. Compared to other typical frameworks CakePHP has more advanced build-in tools that make the apps modern, safe and secure.

Cons

1. Not Fancy URLs friendly. Compared to other PHP frameworks CakePHP does not support default routes for Fancy URLs.
2. Usually used for small web application development. Not strong enough for complex websites that need manual maintenance.
3. More complex than other PHP frameworks.
4. Node.js is the last but not least tool in the list of top web development frameworks in 2019. Node.js is a modern environment that allows you to execute JavaScript on the back-end side. Node.js technology is used by Walmart, Netflix and LinkedIn.

Pros

1. Freedom for creativity. Compared to RoR Node.js has a lot more space in doing it your own way. This is due to the fact that Node.js framework is completely unopinionated, and the developer has to start the creation process from scratch. In this case Node.js offers only the base from a fresh install, making it less restricted.
2. Full stack JS. In the past, without Node.js JavaScript was used only for client-side development. Thanks to Node.js JavaScript became a full stack. Now it allows to write both front-end and back-end of web apps in JavaScript, making app deployment much easier and more effective.
3. Single Language. As a full stack framework Node.js gives an opportunity to coding in one single language during the back-end and front-end development process.
4. Speed. Node.js is much faster and lightweight compared to different types of PHP frameworks.
5. Server-side solution. Node.js also gives an opportunity to create a server-side solution which maximizes the usage of a single CPU thanks to non-blocking I/O systems.

Cons

1. More time for the development process. Node.js is unopinionated and that means that engineers must spend more time developing everything from scratch.
2. Not strong enough for heavy-computing applications. Node.js can serve complicated apps, but performing long-running calculations can cause blocking the incoming requests and lead to decrease of performance.
3. Lack quality of tools that can fail at meeting coding standards.

Every application is unique and has its own needs, so it’s not possible to say which one of the frameworks is the best, so first of all you should decide what you need, how you see your future website and only after that and after comparing all pros and cons makes the right decision.