Are you in the hassle to decide the right technology stack for your web development? What comes in your mind when anyone talks regarding web development? Do you have to use Angular or Ruby on Rails as a framework? Is React Native or android for application development? MySQL, Oracle or ADABAS which is the right database software to use? And what’s about the programming languages C#, Swift, Python or JAVA?
You have uncountable queries in your mind because the era of technology is dynamical. There are unlimited technologies available to create different web-based applications and for mobile applications too.
When it comes to developing a website, then it is terribly robust to decide which technology is healthier for web development, because there are uncountable options to choose from. This is often business of developers to come to a decision which technology will higher match according to the requirements.
What do we want in website? The web application works correctly, good speed, easy to use interface and development in less time. So, it is tough to decide which technology is fit according to satisfaction because technologies directly affect application performance.
If you have got such a lot of queries then this article assists you to make the right decision.
Before making any decision you need to know what is a technology stack?
The technology stack is a bundle of technologies (Languages, frameworks & databases) used to create applications. To know about the technology stack is crucial because it provides the knowledge of different coding languages, frameworks, databases, coding tools and software.
Hence, it summarizes the strength, weakness, and performance of different programming languages and technologies. It is good to familiarize yourself with technology stack because it gives you the knowledge to make the right decision for your web and app development.
Technology Stack is categorized into two types:
Front-end Technology Stack
Front-end is the visible part or user interface of applications through which users can directly access and interact with the applications. The front end web applications uses web technologies like:
- HTML – Hypertext Markup Language(HTML) is the backbone of web applications. It’s a tag representation language understood by the web browsers.
- CSS – Cascading Style Sheet specifies website style like colors, fonts, background and page layouts.
- JavaScript – Javascript is a high-level interpreted scripting language. It adds functionality in web applications and used to create a featured web application.
Hence, there are so many frameworks based on above front-end technologies. Bootstrap is one of the famous responsive web application framework. It uses CSS and HTML to create responsive web applications.
Java-script also includes some famous frameworks like React Native, AngularJS, and Jquery. React Native and Angular are known as the strongest framework for web application development because of their high performance and flexibility. Whereas jquery is a javascript library used to provide user-friendly functions to develop high-quality web applications. The key benefits of jquery is it can be used in all web-based applications (Servlets, ASP, PHP, CGI, JSP).
Back-end Technology Stack
The technologies that can be used to build web applications but users cannot directly interact with them are called backend technologies. Backend technologies include some major components like:
- Operating System – Operating system is a system software where developers can start building applications. Linux, windows, mac, and Ubuntu are some famous Operating systems.
- Database – Database used to collect data that can be changed, access, delete and edit by the authenticated users. Mysql, SQL server, AND Oracle are some well-known databases that can be used to store user information and user can retrieve data anytime. Databases serve back the user information at the front end whenever they needed.
- Web Server – Web server works on a client-server model. A web server is a software program that required HTTP to serve the webpage files to browser when users perform any query. Some illustrious web servers are Apache, Google Web Server, and Lite Speed web server.
- Server-side languages – To perform communication between application and databases server-side languages are essential. Web application uses server-side languages such as Ruby, Python, PHP, .NET and Java.
- Programming Languages – A formal language made with set of instruction is called programming language. It can be use to write thre code for back-end. There are many programming languages exist like C, C++, Java, Python, Ruby, .Net, Javascript and many more.
- Backend Framework – Backend web framework is a server side framework consist of languages and tools. Basically, framework is a platform that provide all resources to create a complete web application.
Choosing a backend & frontend framework is not much easy because there are abundant options to choose the right framework for your application. Although, every framework has its pros and cons.
Let’s see some popular web frameworks which developers generally use:
1. Django Framework
Django is the python language-based framework used to quickly develop API and web applications. It is an open-source web application development framework that often uses Mysql and Apache. It is secure and requires less coding to develop web applications. This framework is not appropriate for small web projects because of tightly coupled components, speed and lack of convention.
2. MEAN Stack
MEAN is a full-stack open-source javascript framework ideal for creating dynamic web applications. MEAN stack support software that is written in Javascript. It supports Socket.IO, NPM, JS, Node.js, Angular, Express, and MongoDB because they all are using javascript. It uses javascript at both the ends client-side and server-side. It is a highly flexible framework because it uses javascript everywhere, works faster, cloud-friendly and easy to scale. Some drawbacks of using MEAN stack which may or may not important for you like it is less secure, lack of widespread support and doesn’t offer easy customization ability of Ruby or Lamp.
3. .Net
dotNet is a software framework developed by Microsoft. Hence, it provides an object-oriented platform to create applications that would run on the Microsoft Windows platform. The key benefit of the .Net framework is we can create apps that run on multiple windows based devices like desktop and Mobiles. It also supports cross-platform server application creation that can easily support by Mac and Linux. The caching system of dotNet is robust and easy to manage. Sometime apps building with .net can be expensive, it’s only the minor drawback of using dotNet.
4. LAMP
LAMP stands for Linux, Apache, MySql, PHP. Hence, PHP(Backend language) and MySql(Database) are well-known and often supported by every hosting provider. LAMP offers high security and widespread support. Hence, it uses a common server for all the resources so, its response time is slow and not scalable.
Therefore, all the above technologies are used for frontend and backend development. These technologies have own specialty and drawbacks. Now, proceed towards how to choose the right technology stack for web development.
How to opt for the right technology for web development:
1. Website Type
The first factor you need to grasp the basic requirements, what kind of project or web application you want: simple, middle level or complex, because technology which you will use to create the web application depends on the type of website. Below is the categorization of websites according to the user’s needs.
- Simple Web Application – If you want a simple static web application for instance store website and school website. Then WIX, Squares Space, blogger.com, and Weebly is the right choice. These are the simple web application software’s which are easy to use and cheap worth. Simple web applications can easily be managed by the small team and no additional efforts required while making these simple web application. HTML, CSS, and Networking skills are required during the development of simple web applications.
- Middle Web Application – Middle web applications have more functions and landing pages such as e-commerce websites. WordPress Development is the best option. Hence, it is the demanding technology. More than 30% of the websites are built on WordPress. MTV News, Microsoft News, BBC America and Sony Music are some examples of WordPress based web applications. Basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, PHP, MySql, JavaScript, and Jquery is required in WordPress development.
- Complex Web Application – Complex web applications like social media sites required more functionalities. Hence, its development is incredibly complicated. To build complex web applications developers prefer PHP, Python, AngularJS, React Native, and Ruby on Rails.
PHP hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is a server scripting language used to create dynamic web pages. Good knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is required in PHP.
Python is an easy and powerful purpose programming language specially used for web development.
AngularJS is a widely-used open source web application framework. It can be static and dynamic at the same time. Basic knowledge of Html, CSS, AJAX, and JavaScript is required.
React Native is used to developing native applications JavaScript is a code required to build react native based applications.
Ruby on Rails – It is a framework for building web applications. Ruby is a dynamic open-source object-oriented scripting language. It has a simple syntax which is easy to read and write. Ruby on Rails is mainly used to build backend or server-side of web applications.
You can choose any one of them to develop complex web application according to your project type, requirements, and skills.
2. Development Time
It is very important to analyses the development time of the web application.
If you got restricted time to develop the application then choose the technology according to that, so that application can integrate in a limited time. For selecting technology according to requirements, the knowledge of stack technology is important because it is the only way to analyze the performance and app-building time.
3. Development Cost
Choose technology in keeping with the budget. If the budget is smaller amount then choose the technology which supplies you all the resources to build an application at a lower value. Some free web development tools are open source that has a tendency to use and modify for free of charge. Application maintenance through free development technologies is also very easy.
4. Scalability
If your application is growing in the market then scalability is essential to update the application without affecting the entire application. Scalable nature permits the application to adopt a different software package for the new tasks. So, if you are creating any web application for business purpose then choose the scalable or climbable technology. In real-world projects, it is terribly essential to feature new software package according to the user’s needs. Nodejs is the best example of scalable technology.
5. Security
Secure technology is very important to guard the web application against cyber-attacks.
The magnitude relation of cyber-attacks is increasing rapidly and many organizations and businesses face information loss issues. Well, there is no guarantee of 100% security in any of the technology however before choosing any technology should browse the correct security guidelines of the technology that you are willing to use.
6. Team Size
Technology’s decision also depends on team size. If you have got a minimum number of individuals to figure in a complex project then decide the technology in keeping with that. React native is a technology that does not need an oversized team size to manage a single project.
The simplest factor regarding react native is it will work for both windows and android without any additional knowledge. Yes, react native only required web-based languages such as JavaScript, HTML, and CSS.
7. Learn from previous projects:
Analyze your previous project work resolve out its cons and pros. Hence, choosing the right technology is all about experiences and practices. Only theoretical knowledge is not ample to choose the right technology for web development. If you ever applied some technologies in your previous projects then it will surely assist you to make the right choice and decision.
Conclusion
As we all know finding out the right technology stack for web development is hard. However, it comes with the knowledge of technologies stack. Technology stack is the bundle of various technologies that we have a tendency to use throughout web development. Hence, languages, frameworks, databases are the key terms of technology stack which are used to develop web applications. There are different languages, frameworks, and databases available but the main factor is to choose the right language, framework, and database for web development.
Facebook is an example of a technology stack because it uses different software such as Php, React Native, Hip-hop, Scribe, Memcache, MySQL, and Linux. Choose technology according to your project and analyze your previous project work before opting for any technology. Whereas selecting any technology some factors keep in mind like scalability, cost, and security. Before using any web development software read its guidelines then only implement it.
Wrap Up
So, we discussed all the ways to choose the right technology for web application development. If you have still any doubt then feel free to Contact Bytes Technolab. We are always here for you.
