Introduction to Web Frameworks

What are Frameworks?

If we look at a couple different web applications we can see that there are a lot of duplicated features. Many have user authentication, pages that render, they connect to databases, they have profiles you can look at, they all have stylized feeds of information etc. If I wanted to, I could write all of that logic myself every time I want to build a new application; however, there are also a lot of tools available which can do that for us instead.

In addition, a lot of the time when we build applications we want to format our code in certain ways that help us become more efficient and help other developers understand our code. Web frameworks help us achieve structure in our applications, and they give us additional features we can add to them without too much extra work. Frameworks give us a place to start so that we can focus on features rather than configuration details.

Code is read many more times than it is written, and it is so important when you are working with other developers that they know where the code for certain tasks is being written so they can use it in their own code. The frameworks also have conventions for how the code is written and structured, which standardize how the developers write their code.

Do i really need Framework for web app development?

"Framework" is a word used a lot in relation to code. So, what even is a framework? When we talk about frameworks, those frameworks normally fall into three different categories -- frontend, backend, and CSS or user interface frameworks. But even once you know what frameworks are, which one should you learn or use and why? This post will discuss what a framework is, what frameworks are out there, and how to make decisions about what kind of framework you should use for your projects!

Different types of frameworks popular in 2024/25 for web app development.

1) React Js:

React is not a framework, it’s a frontend library, but many developers consider it a framework and it’s usually compared in that context. React was the first to adopt the component-based architecture that Angular and Vue, and many other frameworks started to adopt later on. React’s virtual dom makes the dom-manipulation much faster, and it’s quite easy to pick up, mainly thanks to its JSX syntax. React could be used server-side or client-side. It was developed and maintained by Facebook, and Facebook and Instagram use it.

2) Vue-js :

Vue.js is the new rising star; it started as an individual project and quickly grew into becoming one of the most trending JS frameworks out there. There are many cool things about Vue. First, it’s a progressive framework, which means that if you have an existing project, you can adopt Vue for one portion of the project, and everything would work just fine. Second, it also brings along the component architecture to play, and the Vue ecosystem can help you build complete frontend applications. Some people are wary of using Vue since big companies like Facebook or Google do not support it, but that’s quickly changing as big names are starting to invest in Vue.

3) Angular:

Angular is a front-end framework that specializes in building rich Single-Page applications. It’s a vibrant framework able to build complete client-side applications, and there’s so much to do and learn in Angular. Angular 1.x used Javascript, but later releases adopted Typescript, which is a superset of Javascript. Angular’s main cons are its size compared to other frameworks, and the fact it’s not SEO friendly by nature, though it can be SEO optimized. Google developed angular, and Google, Microsoft, and Paypal use it.Django: Django is a Model-View-Template framework that uses Python for web development. Big names such as Google, Youtube, and Instagram use this framework. Django boasts its batteries-included feature, which is a bunch of features such as authentication and messaging that Django has. It follows the Convention Over Configuration pattern and the DRY pattern as well. Security in Django is essential. Django provides techniques and tools for developers to build a secure website or implements the security features in the framework itself, like preventing code execution in the template layer.

4) Express:

Thanks to the skyrocketing popularity of Node.js, Express is quickly becoming one of the most trending best framework for web development nowadays. It is popular amongst Accenture, IBM and Uber, and many other companies, and it’s also compatible with other frameworks such as Kraken, Sails, and Loopback.Express prides itself as a minimal, fast, and unopinionated framework. It provides some core framework functionalities without obscuring the features of Node and leverages the robust performance of the asynchronous Node.js. It’s also quite flexible and supports full applications as well as REST API, as well. Perhaps the biggest drawback of Express is the fact that there’s no defined way of doing things, at least for beginners.