High-speed performance: choosing the proper framework in 2022

Suppose you’re an experienced developer or a beginner just starting a career in technology. In that case, you cannot do without knowledge of trending frameworks, programming languages, and various technologies that have just entered the market. On the one hand, 51.3% of programmers evaluate this factor priority when choosing a workplace. On the other hand, it’ll show you whether your technology provider’s tech stack suggestions are genuinely made with your best interests at heart.

To determine those frameworks that can be at the height of their popularity next years, we used statistical research of development environments provided by NPM Trends, GitHub, and StackOverflow. We consider this approach the most reasonable since these resources collect detailed data about active file repositories, a total number of Pull Requests, etc., doing regular reviews. So, fasten your seatbelts, and let us take you for a ride through the modern front-end and back-end instruments.

Trendy Scripting Languages

Good software solutions providers know, that choosing the right language for the particular need will influence the whole project. Currently, the majority, namely 64.96% of developers, utilize universal JavaScript. SQL interacts with databases on the back-end and is the leader in usage with a 47.08% ratio. Though, PHP, the experienced developers’ property, also doesn’t fail: 21.98% are still using it as a server-side scripting language. Of course, it’s not as complex as, for example, Python: PHP started as a dynamic language to refresh HTML pages with syntax like Perl and started off as a somewhat fundamental programming language.

Usually, there’s a compromise between the speed of writing code & the speed of application execution. For example, PHP doesn’t require a compiler or JAR files, significantly speeding up the task. If you’re looking for an optimized result and even access the callbacks, you’d apply longer coding with Node.js.

Recognized languages are like ordinary coffee: to make it tastier, add sugar, caramel, or milk. When considering Python web development services, you’d know HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Without a basic understanding, you won’t master Python frameworks like Django, Flask, etc.

Developers have to understand that the used framework will need to support afterward. We decided to predict the future and created our rating of the fastest and most used frameworks, popular in 2022.

JS frameworks

Comparing the dynamics of framework downloads over the past six months, NPM Trends provides highly predictable data similar to GitHub and StackOverflow.

React.js leads the way, followed by Express, Angular, Vue.js.

Let’s consider them in more detail!

React.js

React has become one of the most commonly used open-source front-end JavaScript instruments and is best known for its virtual DOM feature. The React Native market share is very competitive and amounts to 16.82%. Undoubtedly, it’ll remain in trend in 2022 because of such popularity.

Pros:

• Ability to create machine-readable codes;
• HTML quotes and tag syntax render particular subcomponents;
• Reusable components are responsible for outputting a small piece of HTML code;
• Performance enhancement through a virtual DOM that works with HTML, XML, or XHTML;
• SEO Friendly;
• Easy to learn because there’s an extensive collection of tutorials and a comprehensive JavaScript library.

Cons:

• The high pace of development also has a negative impact, as developers often have to write instructions themselves as new tools become available;
• You can only consider the UI Layers of the app;
• JSX can be difficult to learn.

Angular

Angular is a part of the MEAN stack and is one of the popular front-end frameworks. A lot of companies like BMW, Xbox, Forbes, choose Angular instead of React for front end development.

Pros:

• Mobile-first approach;
• High code quality through the use of TypeScript component-based architecture;
• RxJS library is used to handle asynchronous data calls;
• High Performance through hierarchical dependency injection and Angular Universal support;
• Material Design takes into account how people interact with digital products;
• Reusable components;
• To extend HTML capabilities and add/remove elements from the DOM tree, Directives exist.

Cons:

• Angular apps gradually get slower over time. But several manipulations allow you to make a compromise between code quality and performance;
• It has limited SEO support;
• Difficult to learn.

Vue.js

Vue is the default front-end JavaScript abstraction that has appeared relatively recently but has already gained recognition. The tool is the ideal choice for resource-intensive apps.

Pros:

• Vue is a high-speed tool;
• Detailed documentation;
• Support for component reuse and reactivity;
• The MVVM architecture that Vue.js uses is excellent for enhancing the UI experience;
• The ability to utilize TypeScript;
• Easy to learn.

Cons:

• Inability to support large-scale projects;
• Lack of plugins;
• Small community.

PHP frameworks

For decades, PHP has been the favorite programming language around the world, which it still is. It’s applied on 79% of websites because development is relatively fast and projects are highly secure. To date, the most popular framework is the open-source Laravel, which is not inferior in importance to Symfony. However, we won’t start with them.

CodeIgniter

CodeIgniter also has a reputation for being the fastest PHP framework for web development. Its light footprint, including documentation, doesn’t exceed 2 MB. Nevertheless, it provides developers with a pool of standard modules for creating reliable, reusable components.

Pros:

• Easy error handling and leaner server requirements;
• Database support for MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite3;
• CodeIgniter is flexible: it allows the development of applications with the MVC architecture as well as non-MVC applications;
• Defenses against CSRF and XSS attacks;
• It supports multiple methods of caching, speeding up your apps;
• Easy learning.

Cons:

• Irregular updates;
• Low level of application security.

Symfony

Symfony is considered to be one of the most reliable and fastest frameworks. It provides bundles and components for higher flexibility and developer productivity.

Pros:

• Fast code changing. Also, the PHP Unit makes testing faster;
• Regular updates, stability, and well-structured documentation;
• It reduces redundant coding with dependency injection.

Cons:

• It has a steep learning curve;
• Unreliable for real-time apps.

Laravel

Laravel appeared back in 2011 and since then has been the unparalleled leader among the abstractions for small and medium-sized web applications. Let’s figure out why.

Pros:

• Laravel makes it faster, easier, and safer to develop complex web applications than any other framework;
• Easy to learn as a considerable number of manuals have been accumulated over the years;
• It avoids any silly architectural forms and provides an MVC framework;
• Object Relational Mapping supports automating and abstracting the model part;
• The blade template engine;
• The web apps to be executed are high-speed;
• It gets queued for unnecessary tasks.

Cons:

• Laravel is slow out of the box, but there are ways to optimize it;
• Less inbuilt support when compared to Django and Ruby on Rails;
• Namespace slash (\) in the front of a call to another core file can make extending classes a bit trickier;
• The composer isn’t so strong as compared to NPM or Ruby gems and pip.

Summary

A front-end developer needs to use JavaScript to navigate three popular tools: React, Angular, and Vue. Although React still holds the lead in the StackOverflow 2021 ranking and surpassed jQuery as the most commonly applied web framework, the next two are starting to lose popularity, dropping a couple of positions lower. Laravel, which is also slowly beginning to lose popularity as other faster PHP tools are taking over.  Make sure to utilize the power of all front end technologies since they all provide proper things for your overall site’s performance.

The constantly competitive environment forces providers to create new and updated solutions to stay in the market. It’s clear that a few years later, everyone’s favorite frameworks can become atavisms. Or not.