Just as the web has penetrated innermost recesses of everyday life leaving little room for digital separation, web development is becoming increasingly demanding and customer-focused. To stay in sync with these new trends, we have come across a variety of sophisticated tools every web developer should be familiar with.
In this post, we are going to explain some of the top tools for both front- and back-end development. Most enjoy the support of large developer communities and ready online help with all types of issues.
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Front-end web development tools
A website is basically made of two distinct categories — the front end and the back end.
The front end is basically about the user interface, user interaction and, above all, the look and feel of the site.
The following front-end tools make the job of web developers easier, while adding speed and sophistication to the development process.
1. Vue.js
Vue.js is a lean and extremely lightweight JavaScript library with an exceptional capability to build sophisticated websites rich in features.
Vue brings together the best of AngularJS and ReactJS, the other two popular front-end frameworks. Vue is popular because it:
- Allows two-way communication and helps developers see their changes in real time.
- Is very lean and extremely lightweight.
- Comes with a minimal learning curve.
- Offers comprehensive and detailed documentation to help developers learn the coding intricacies easily.
2. AngularJS
AngularJS is developed and maintained by Google and remains one of the most popular and stable frameworks for front-end web development. As of now, the framework has launched five different versions, and the sixth one is about to launch soon.
AngularJS is favoured because it:
- Allows two-way data binding and helps to render any change in real time.
- Comes with a rich set of features for modern web UI and UX.
- Provides full support to progressive web apps from within.
- Allows manipulation with the DOM.
- Comes with an optimizer that allows integrating material design.
Besides having robust support from Google, you’ll find support for AngularJS from a global community of developers.
3. ReactJS
React JS is developed and maintained by Facebook. This front-end tool owes its popularity to the fact that it:
- Offers a very low learning curve compared to others.
- Comes with virtual DOM of React Native that ensures the most sophisticated user experience and native quality performance.
- Has a component-based architecture that allows reusing components for faster development across the platforms.
- Comes with comprehensive documentation for developers to use as and when needed.
4. Ionic
Ionic, largely regarded as a cross-platform development framework, also works great for front-end development. Ionic is an excellent framework for building both native and web apps. This tool:
- Is open source and free for both front-end and cross-platform development.
- Enjoys excellent community support on leading platforms like Slack and Stack Overflow.
- By offering a single code base for all the mobile platforms, it adds pace to any project.
- Comes with an array of useful plug-ins.
5. Visual Studio Code
Front-end developers use Visual Studio Code for the express purpose of editing code. The tool is extremely lightweight and handy, allowing most developers to use it anytime and anywhere.
This framework is favoured because:
- It allows developers to search across various files at the same time using the multi-line search feature.
- The IntelliSense file icon helps developers quickly distinguish between various files.
- Developers have the option of closing all the stack frames to ensure optimum code visibility.
- It includes useful extensions like README and API.
Back-end web development tools
As we have already mentioned, back end or server-side development makes up the other part of a website. Back end deserves utmost attention to ensure optimum performance for the websites.
Let us see the most popular back-end tools available today.
1. Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a widely popular and developer-friendly web development framework. Built with Ruby programming language and implemented on Linux, it is one of the most performance-savvy server-side tools.
Ruby on Rails is popular because it:
- Follows MVC architecture.
- Comes with a whole array of valuable third-party tools and extensions.
- Offers excellent compatibility with various cloud hosting services.
- Comes with comprehensive documentation to guide developers throughout the project.
2. Express.js
Express is a versatile and flexible back-end web development framework with an array of features for building the most sophisticated apps.
Express.js:
- Is a reliable framework with excellent stability.
- Provides a routing API with a comprehensive routing solution for web apps.
- Comes with detailed documentation to help to develop rich apps easily.
3. Laravel
Laravel is a PHP-based development framework. It follows the MVC architecture pattern and offers an array of command-line tools to help developers build feature-rich apps easily.
Laravel’s features include:
- A robust range of paid tools for all kinds of web development activities, ranging from deployment to provisioning and learning.
- A sophisticated template system capable of compiling PHP code in response to service requests.
- A variety of development packages rich with tools coming either as paid or as free.
4. Django
Django is a Python-based dev framework known for creating a sophisticated feature-rich website with a vast scope of customisation. Here are some of the reasons developers should use Django:
- It is a framework that offers the optimum scope of customisation by allowing developers to use a variety of templates.
- Extensive documentation to help developers in each and every regard.
- It follows MVC architecture and offers a clean path with separation of concerns.
To conclude
Web development is increasingly getting competitive, and naturally, developers need to pick up tools that best suit their project goals. Choice of the right tool for both client-side and server-side development is crucial for the ultimate outcome. Hopefully this list has provided a few new ones to add to your toolbox.
