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A Beginner’s Guide to Building a Web App: Key Tools and Frameworks

Web applications have revolutionized the way we interact with the internet. They allow businesses to provide interactive and personalized experiences to their users, and individuals to create and share content with the world. If you’re new to building web applications, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. In this beginner’s guide, we’ll introduce you to the key tools and frameworks you’ll need to get started.

What is a Web App?

Before diving into the key tools and frameworks, it’s important to understand what a web app is. A web app is a software application that runs on a web server and can be accessed through a web browser.

Web apps are different from websites in that they allow users to interact with the application in a more dynamic way, rather than just viewing static content. While it’s essential to the ins and outs of website creation to start working on web apps, the process isn’t the same. 

Why Is Picking The Right Framework Important?

Truth be told, there are hundreds of frameworks out there so boiling it down is a difficult task. Imagine walking into a tool shop and seeing all the different kinds of drill bits. While it’s true they all go into a drill, all of them perform different functions. The same applies to custom web app frameworks. You need to use what’s best for your current project.

That said, the following frameworks are a great baseline of what to look for when developing web applications. They are popular because they’re effective at what they do and have dedicated communities to help out beginners. Remember, these aren’t the end-all, be-all of frameworks, but they’re the best for getting you started. 

Best Frameworks For Beginners

Here are the current best web app frameworks to use if you aren’t too experienced yet. 

Django

The Django framework is a high-level Python web framework that is designed for the rapid development of web applications. It is open-source and free to use and is known for its simplicity, flexibility, and scalability. Django is also highly extensible, with a large ecosystem of third-party packages and modules that can be easily integrated into your project. 

Django provides a wide range of tools and features that make it easy to build web applications quickly and efficiently. Features such as social authentication, search functionality, and content management systems are only some of the features made easy thanks to Django’s unique framework. 

Spring

The Java Spring framework is a popular open-source framework for building enterprise-level Java applications. Spring is a comprehensive framework that provides a wide range of features and tools for building web, desktop, and mobile applications, with particular emphasis on comprehensive third-party support.

The Spring framework is based on the principle of dependency injection, which allows developers to write code that is modular, testable, and easy to maintain. This simplicity makes it very popular amongst major companies such as Netflix, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. 

ReactJS

ReactJS, commonly referred to as React, is a popular open-source JavaScript library for building user interfaces. React was developed by Meta (formerly Facebook) and is now maintained by a community of developers. React allows developers to create reusable UI components, which can be used to build complex user interfaces for web applications.

React can be used with a variety of other JavaScript libraries and frameworks, such as Redux for managing application state, and React Native for building mobile applications. React has a large and active community of developers, and a rich ecosystem of third-party packages and tools to extend its functionality.

Svelte/Sveltekit

Svelte is a free and open-source web application framework that allows developers to build fast and reactive user interfaces for the web. Unlike other popular frameworks, Svelte is a compiler-based framework, which means that it compiles your application code into highly efficient JavaScript that runs in the browser.

SvelteKit, on the other hand, is a higher-level framework built on top of Svelte that provides a complete solution for building web applications. It includes features like server-side rendering, routing, and code splitting, which make it easier for developers to build fast and scalable web applications.

General Tools To Help Your Web App Development

Some of these apps aren’t strictly used for web app development, but they may play a crucial role in the overall project.

  • Vscode – Front End Dev
  • Pycharm – Python Backend 
  • Insomnia – API Development 
  • Terminal – Command Line
  • Notepad++ – Source Code Editor
  • RunJS – JavaScript Playground
  • Firefox – Dev-Friendly Web Browser
  • Atom – Open-source Text Editor
  • Slack – Team Communications 
  • Asana – Task Tracking

Conclusion

It’s important to remember when developing web applications that you’re always going to be learning. Technology is always evolving, so it’s important to stay on top of what frameworks are gaining traction amongst startups. There are even ways to develop an API with OpenAI now, although it’s still a bit sloppy.

That said, make sure to master one or two evergreen languages first because there’s always going to be a need for legacy developers. However you start your web app development journey, the tools and frameworks above will set you on the right path.

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