Today, techies or developers are overwhelmed with building full-stack applications like Amazon, Facebook, or Instagram. The communication bridge between Frontend, Backend, and Database is called Full Stack. The Internet is filled with whole web or mobile applications also called full-stack applications that work on three layers: The Presentation Layer, Business Layer, and Database Layer.
The three layers of the Full Stack Framework can be classified as:
- Front-End Development: It is solely based on user experience and user interface that is visible to customers or users that creates visual imagination of how software or the application will look like or how will it function with its features or buttons. It is also called a Presentation Layer as mentioned above.
- Back-End Development: It makes the software operate and function well behind the scenes, and takes care of server-side development of how data will be moulded and presented to the front-end scenario in the form of features fulfilling application goals and user experience. It is also called Business Logic Layer as mentioned above.
- Database Layer: It is responsible for storing authentic data of software applications around users and customers or the product.
On the whole, Full Stack Application is a combination of Frontend, Backend, Database, Middleware, DevOps, Project Management Tools and Version Control of a full-fledged application. This article explores top 10 full-stack frameworks in brief along with their benefits:
Top 10 Full-Stack Developer Frameworks
- NodeJS
- Django
- Angular
- React JS
- Spring Boot
- GraphQL
- Bootstrap
- Ruby on Rails
- Flask
- jQuery
1. NodeJS (JavaScript Framework)
Node.JS is an open-source and cross-platform runtime JavaScript engine. It provides a runtime environment to execute JavaScript code outside the browser. The Node JS Framework is typically used to create and operate on backend services of an application like API ( Application Programming Interface ). The Node JS provides backend support to front-end technology of web applications or mobile applications running on browsers.
This framework is an apt choice for developing real-time applications which are highly scalable and data intensive.
Checkout the complete NodeJS Tutorial.
Advantages:
- It is great for software prototyping and agile software development cycles.
- It is super fast and highly scalable and uses JavaScript.
- It has a faster response of execution with fewer lines of code due to a clean and consistent database.
- It is a developer-friendly framework used as backend support in giant applications like PayPal, Uber etc.
2. Django Framework
The Django Framework is a free and open-source framework that is used to provide production-grade backend support for web applications or mobile applications developed in Python. It is also called a battery-included framework as it comes with a lot of inbuilt and predefined features such that developers are not required to code it from scratch.
This framework provides an admin panel feature to monitor and manage all the activities related to the developed software application and an Object-relational Mapper (ORM) to query out the data from an abstract database without hard querying of data using SQL or some other commands. It also provides additional security features of authentication and caching of data.
Checkout the complete Django Tutorial.
Advantages:
- The Django Framework is quite a stable, old and mature framework with a high investment of trust across its multiple versions.
- It is based on the Model View Template Architecture strategy where views are the Python templated texts that pick up data from the model to build an HTML structure for end users.
- It has the high support of the developers community.
- This framework emphasizes reusability, pluggability and maintenance of components without re-inventing the code wheel again.
3. Angular Framework
The Angular Framework is a TypeScript-based framework for developing User Interfaces for web or mobile applications. It is a UI-based component-based UI library that uses CLI to create a component. This framework builds Progressive web applications with server-side rendering and Firebase support for application authentication in one go. It provides a mighty CLI ( Command Line Interface) tool to generate the initial template of the application with pre-configured routing and testing support with an inbuilt style processor like Tailwind CSS or another.
Checkout the complete Angular Tutorial.
Advantages:
- Angular excels in handling complexity with its dependency injection feature by easily maintaining the web application with growing hundreds of components extracting out the common components and features as services throughout the application.
- It provides high-level structuring of web pages and good maintenance support
- It provides no reloading of web pages again and again for minimal change in any component.
- It is less beginner-friendly for developers due to its steep learning curve.
4. React JS Framework
The React JS framework is a component-based framework that is used to build rich and interactive User Interfaces for mobile or web applications. This framework describes what the application looks like component by component, where the user interface updates without reloading the web page entirely as the data in the backend changes.
React knows how to update and incorporate minimalistic changes using the VDOM (Virtual DOM) feature due to its declarative nature. It is a highly reusable and testable framework that creates components only once and reuses them everywhere and anywhere required.
Checkout the complete ReactJS Tutorial.
Advantages:
- React handles the View part in the Model View Controller architecture representing how the application looks like.
- React JS framework written code is easier to debug and maintain for developers.
- React JS divides the application component by component where every component has its property and functions.
- React JS is developer-friendly, to begin with web development to its easy learning curve.
5. Spring Boot Framework
Spring boot is the popular Java framework of the biggest Spring framework that is used to provide backend web services to client or server-side tech applications. In simple terms, it helps us to speed up the process of web development. It helps us to create, run and configure stand-alone production-level Spring-based web applications.
Spring boot allows us to create fast, robust and auto-configured microservices that allow developers to develop, build and deploy web services independently.
Checkout the complete Spring Boot Tutorial.
Advantages:
- Spring boot is a 3-layered architecture consisting of the presentation, Service and Data Access layer. The layers communicate with each other in hierarchical order to provide backend development support and microservices.
- It is an Open-source Java platform used to create microservices which requires higher concurrency and a separate thread for every separate request to achieve concurrency.
- It builds enterprise-level applications at the production level.
- It has huge community support with good scalability and maintainability.
6. GraphQL Framework
The GraphQL Framework is a query language for API ( Application Programming Interface ) developed by Meta. It provides a schema of the data in API. This framework acts as a mediator between the front-end client and the back-end services to aggregate multiple resource requests required by the end user into a single query.
It supports mutation that modifies the data resources and subscriptions to respond to clients all about the data modifications that happened. In simple terms, GraphQL sends and receives HTTP requests and responses. This framework helps front-end developers send multiple requests to different services to fill the UI or user interface with data.
Advantages:
- GraphQL gives you one single API to collect data from multiple request services.
- GraphQL allows you to do mutation on data like adding data, updating data or deleting data.
- The data with GrapQL is often passed over HTTP and returns back in JSON format.
- Above all, GraphQL acts as a middleware for full-stack web or mobile applications.
7. Bootstrap Framework
The Bootstrap framework is an open-source and modern front-end framework to speed up the web development process. When HTML gives the basic structure to the website, Bootstrap adds quick responsive behavior to the website with its predefined styles and CSS layout like buttons, cards, navigation bars etc.
Checkout the complete Bootstrap Tutorial.
Advantages:
- The Bootstrap framework has a rich and extensive collection of pre-build HTML components like buttons, cards, scrollbars etc.
- This framework provides cross-platform compatibility such that it is easily adaptable to older and newer browser versions.
- Bootstrap is easy to use for very beginner developers who have minimal knowledge of HTML and CSS to build good and complex web pages.
- Bootstrap has a high reach of support in the community and active development of the latest versions and features.
8. Ruby on Rails
The Ruby on Rails framework is used to build interactive web applications with the Ruby programming language. It is a server-based and MVC ( Model View Architecture) based framework to build server-side web applications. It provides readymade code libraries for cards, forms, menus and other HTML-based components to develop web applications without re-inventing the whole code wheel.
Checkout the complete Ruby on Rails.
Advantages:
- Ruby on Rails framework is cost-effective in creating and maintaining website development.
- This framework has ready-to-use plugins and modules to start and work with, saving developers time effectively.
- It has easy change management support in making quick updates and changes in the website without much developer hassle.
- It provides robust security and authentication support as well.
9. Flask Framework
Flask is a micro web framework written in Python which requires no tool or library to develop web applications. It is minimal and hassle-free to use with extended extension support to add data to the database or for form validation support. It is lighter in weight than the Django framework with a high speed of website development.
Checkout the complete Flask Tutorial.
Advantages:
- The Flask framework does not come with pre-defined dependencies or a giant Python web framework to develop websites.
- It can be used on anything due to its extension support.
- This framework is easily customizable according to the website’s requirements.
- It provides integrated Unit Testing, fast debugging and restful request dispatching.
10. JQuery Framework
JQuery was an essential JavaScript library tool earlier for manipulating the DOM easily. It was used to do HTML document traversal, event handling or animation and worked smoothly with AJAX API. This library simplified many JavaScript tasks to create rich and highly interactive web pages with fewer lines of code.
The biggest advantage of the JQuery framework was to update the web page without refreshing it with AJAX API but now with time, the use of JQuery is decreasing due to modern web browser’s new features and versions. It helped in creating web applications with minimal knowledge of HTML, CSS and JavaScript library dow to its beginner-friendly nature.
Checkout the complete JQuery Tutorial.
Advantages:
- Even today, JQuery is easily compatible with all modern browsers like Google Chrome , Safari or Firefox.
- JQuery effectively handles AJAX interactions with fewer lines of code.
- It saves time by speeding up the development process and helping the developer to focus on the business logic of web applications.
Conclusion
A full-stack developer cannot decide which full-stack framework is better than the other. It all depends on the smooth integration and requirement of Front-end and Back-end technology that the software and user demands. It solely depends on the specific needs and one’s preferences. The website development domain is in demand in a technical market where the knowledge of HTML, CSS or JavaScript is a bare minimum. One should have a top layer of any of the top 10 full stack developer frameworks mentioned above to be the rich odd one out in the pool of skills.
FAQ’s on Full Stack Developer Frameworks
1. Which is easy Django or MERN?
Django and MERN are the two popular frameworks used by developers. Django is based on Python programming language and MERN is solely based on JavaScript programming language. JavaScript is the most popular programming language that needs no prerequisites to learn comparatively to Python.
2. Which Full-Stack is in demand in 2023?
Rust and GoLang are in go-to demand with back-end technology in 2023 because they are much faster for development and lower in level to learn and adapt.
Now next JS13 will be the latest and new fancy front-end hype from 2023 onwards that moves much faster than React and server-side rendered component and client-side component features through TypeScript.
PostgreSQL and MySQL are the most popular database choices for 2023.
The GitHub Command Line is chosen for continuous deployment to deploy and live the full stack application free in the initial development growth of the application.
3. Which language Full-Stack Developer has the highest salary?
Full Stack Developer with an integration of any programming language is always high in top-notch companies and growing startups. MERN stack with React (used in Google, Amazon) is comparatively higher on the paying bar than the MEAN stack with Angular JS knowledge.