1) Laravel (PHP)
There are a variety of server-side technologies across the web with approximately 76% of websites using PHP. Its popularity comes from the its ease of use and being one of the oldest server-side languages that were initially adopted to build websites. AdditionallyWordpress, the most popular content management system (CMS), adopted by 43% of all websites also utilises PHP. Today PHP is a stand-alone language to build websites, client and server-side, but is further enhanced backend frameworks, such as Laravel.
Released in 2011, Laravel is the most used backend framework across the web which provides many ready-made components and features to help build backends. Providing many security features for authentication, makes it a highly secure option. It offers many capabilities such as routing, caching, database integration and has a built-in testing framework. Laravel is also the most starred backend framework on Github and continues to evolve.
2) Django (Python)
Django is a backend framework based on Python that offers a variety of comprehensive tooling for building backends. Released in 2005, Django is a high-level framework which is database-driven and used to build feature-rich applications. Widely adopted as the second most popular web backend framework, with the second most stars on Github. Django is an easy to learn and robust framework that offers many security features, and a strong out of the box experience. These features and Django’s rapid approach to development, make it strong contender for developers as a backend framework.
3) Spring Boot (Java)
Spring Boot is an opinionated Java backend framework for developing applications on the Spring platform. Initially released in 2014 and aims to help develop Java web-based applications efficiently by eliminating boilerplate configurations and boasts a highly scalable environment . The auto-configuration on Spring Boot helps reduce time with manual setup, making it a great stand alone backend framework for developers. Spring boot is the 5th most starred backend framework on Github.
4) Flask (Python)
Flask is a simple and lightweight micro-framework utilising Python. Released in 2010, Flask follows the Web Server Gateway Interface (WSGI) standard, which means it runs a web server rather than in the browser. Flask offers essential features for building such as routing, a template engine and a built-in testing framework. Flasks minimalist approach paired with Python makes it great for quick development of smaller scale web applications.
5) ExpressJS (NodeJS/JavaScript)
Released in 2010, ExpressJS is a backend framework ran through the Node ecosystem. Due to using JavaScript, Express is simple and easy to learn and can be used to develop frontend and backends utilising the same language and codebase. Used alongside the popular MEAN/MERN software stack, Express is a popular choice for building full-stack applications. Features include routing, middleware libraries, many templating engines and more. It also provides HTTP methods, which makes it a popular choice for developing RESTful APIs. ExpressJS has a large ecosystem and with high performance making it a popular choice.
Choices of Professional Developers Today
Stack Overflow’s 2023 developer survey provides some insight into the technologies professional utilise. Seen in the figure below, React and Node.js are the most popular technologies. It is important to note that React can be used alongside most backend frameworks covered above. It can be seen that Express is the most popular backend framework, followed by Spring Boot, Flask, Django and Laravel. Besides Express, the other frameworks mentioned are relatively close in their usage. This survey can provide insight into trends and what is most used across the web vs. what is most developed with.
Overall, backend frameworks streamline the development of feature-rich and scalable applications. With the most popular being Laravel, Django, Spring Boot, Flash and ExpressJS, the choice between these depends on the specific needs of an application.