8 best programming languages for web development

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The best languages for Web development are covered in this blog to help you become a successful web developer. There are many widely used programming languages, and each one is complex in its way. You might be in a dilemma to choose the best programming language; hence, the main aim of this blog is to give details about the finest programming languages so that it’s easy for you to select.

Confused About Choosing The Best Languages for Web Development?

One of the toughest parts for new software developers is choosing the right programming language. Well, the good news is that once you start your journey as a software engineer, you will slowly discover the programming languages that work best for you. To make it easier for you, I have mentioned some of the most popular as well as the most widely used programming languages.

Web developers and programmers use frontend languages, in addition to backend languages, to build a well-operating website. In this blog, you will come across both languages with their pros and cons. As a result, you can choose to learn the best languages for web development.

Best Languages for Web Development ( Frontend languages)

Frontend languages are important for creating user-friendly applications for mobile as well as the laptop. The most commonly used frontend languages for web development are HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and React.

1. HTML:

HTML, also known as Hypertext Markup Language is the most widely used frontend programming language. It creates electronic texts known as webpages, where each page has numerous links and hyperlinks to other pages. Every page on the internet is generated by using HTML in some capacity.

What makes HTML one of the best languages for web development?

Primarily, HTML programming language can be learnt quickly, besides being user-friendly.
Secondly, It is an independent platform, which aids the easy addition of videos and photos along with audio content to the web page.
Thirdly, and most importantly, it also facilitates the addition of hypertext to the text passages.
Above all, HTML is an inherent part of any Web development course. However, it is a lot less complex than any other programming language.

Pros:

HTML is the first programming language taught to developers since it is an essential part of any web development course.
It is easy to learn and easy to use, as it makes use of simple tags with no case sensitivity.
It is a free tool; therefore, web developers need not buy any software in order to use it.
HTML does not require any external plugins or software to access its features; hence, many businesses rely on HTML for website development. In short, you can build an entire website using it.
Most of the widely used browsers today support HTML. As a result, even if developers build an entire website using HTML, there is no worry regarding browser support.

Cons:

The first and foremost disadvantage of HTML is that it is not sufficient to support dynamic pages. It is difficult for developers to add dynamic content to a website/webpage that is built with HTML. Therefore, they will have to rely on other programming languages like JavaScript, ASP or PHP.
Most importantly, HTML does not display the content in a visually appealing manner. Hence, developers have to use programming languages like Cascading style sheets in order to make the HTML page content interesting.

2. CSS:

CSS, also known as Cascading Style Sheets, defines the delivery of documents to the users concerning style and layout. A document refers to a text that uses a programming language like HTML to mark the text. Now, the job of CSS is to convert the document into a presentable manner. In short, HTML determines textual content, whereas CSS determines the visual aesthetics of the document.

What makes CSS one of the best languages for web development?

Principally, the CSS selectors, referred to as structural components, play a major role in managing various elements of the web page. These selectors have a checked pseudo-class, which styles the checked elements, such as radio buttons and checkboxes.
Next, CSS3 does the job of adjusting the text justification and document’s white space, in addition to word hyphenation style.
Most importantly, CSS comes with features that assist in adjusting character spaces in order to augment the visual effects.

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Pros:

This programming language saves time, as you need to write the code only once, and you can use it across many HTML pages.
It makes web pages appealing, besides allowing user-friendly formatting.
CSS is compatible with formatting changes. For example, if you wish to format a few pages, there is no need to fix every page; instead, you can adjust the corresponding style sheet. Consequently, the changes are applied to pages using that style sheet.

Cons:

Making CSS changes to the website is an easy task for developers. However, you must double-check after making the changes because CSS functions differently with each browser.
The CSS programming language has multiple levels, such as CSS, CSS2, and CSS3, all of which have different specifications that might confuse developers.

3. JavaScript:

Along with HTML, JavaScript is also one of the most widely used front-end programming languages for web development. It allows you to design interactive as well as user-friendly websites. With the growing demand for dynamic and single-page applications, it’s nearly impossible to become a professional web developer without learning JavaScript.

What makes JavaScript one of the best languages for web development?

Essentially, it has evolved into a dynamic, multi-paradigm, and high-level language.
Secondly, it can run on any platform, including the cloud, laptops, mobile devices and servers.

Thirdly and supremely, it provides event-driven programming that is exceptionally suitable for head I/O processes.
Above all, JavaScript dominates the web-development field. For instance, popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, depend on JavaScript to design interactive web pages and dynamically display content.

Pros:

Most importantly, it runs quickly in the browser without the need for any compilation, besides providing an enhanced website interface.
In addition, JavaScript is highly adaptable and offers data validation functionality.
Furthermore, it enhances its performance using various add-ons, such as Greasemonkey.
Above all, JavaScript integrates easily with other languages, as well as helps in developing a variety of applications.

Cons:

Primarily, the JavaScript code is visible to the users; hence, there are chances of exploiting it for spiteful purposes.
Secondly, different browsers interpret JavaScript in different ways.
Moreover, JavaScript lacks a debugging facility.

4. React:

React is a framework of JavaScript developed by Facebook. It is one of the most extensively used fronted programming languages for web development, as well as a wonderful option for full-stack development. React is a great choice to develop visual user interfaces and data rendering for browsers.

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What makes React one of the best languages for web development?

React Native utilizes JSX to describe the appearance of the User Interface. JSX is one of the syntax extensions of JavaScript; hence developers who are familiar with JavaScript get a complete understanding of React quickly
Besides helping in User-Interface appearance, JSX facilitates users to create HTML structures present in the same file of JavaScript code.
React stores a lighter version of VDOM, otherwise known as Virtual Document Object, which assists the developer to build quick and scalable applications.

Pros:

Primarily, it’s easy to learn, as well as a user-friendly language, with plenty of tutorials and online training resources.
Secondly, React is a framework of JavaScript; hence developers who are well-versed in JavaScript learn React quickly.
Above all, Virtual DOM is one of the key advantages of React programming language, as it boosts speed and Performance.

Cons:

Although ReactJs is one of the best programming languages, it has its share of problems. It changes continuously, ultimately raising the bar for developers to adapt to the changes.
Another major problem with React is frequent updation, which consequently causes difficulty for developers to keep up with the tools and React documentation for each update.

Best Languages for web development ( backend languages)

Developers use backend programming languages to create internal systems that support the background of web applications. The four best backend languages for web development are as follows.

1. Python:

It is an open-source language that is immensely easy to learn and deploy. Python is one of the most powerful, multi-purpose languages widely used to build scalable applications. Hence, it is one of the best languages for web development as well as data analysis.

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What makes python one of the best languages for web development?

The Unique Selling Point of Python is its design. Besides being simple and elegant, it is productive as well as powerful.
Secondly, it has influenced a wide range of programming languages like Go and Julia.
In addition, it has superior integration with languages like C and C++.
Most importantly, besides providing abundant tool sets for computational science, mathematics and statistics, it effortlessly offloads heavy tasks of the CPU to C or C++.

Pros:

Fundamentally, it supports many systems and platforms, in addition to improving the productivity of programmers and developers.
Secondly, it provides a wide range of support libraries, besides allowing developers to scale complex-web applications.
Above all, it is an Object-Oriented Programming language.

Cons:

Python is not suitable for mobile applications
In addition, it has an underdeveloped, primitive database.

2. PHP:

PHP is also one of the best languages for web development, along with JavaScript and Python. Although PHP faces tough competition with them, developers who know this programming language are always in demand. In addition, PHP is a dynamic language used to build server-side applications.

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What makes PHP one of the best languages for web development?

Primarily, it is a highly-productive language widely used in web development to rapidly build and deploy applications.
PHP is used to develop social media applications. For instance, Facebook, one of the most prominent social media platforms, is built with PHP.

Pros:

PHP is a language that offers a wide range of frameworks.
It provides an excellent debugging facility with its Xdebug extension.
Besides supporting functional and object-oriented programming paradigms, It supports several automation tools for web development.

Cons:

No doubt, PHP is one of the best languages for web development. However, it has its drawbacks. For example, building a web page using only PHP is sluggish compared to other programming languages.
Another major disadvantage of PHP is that it does not have security and error-handling features.

3. C#:

It is a general OOC language designed by Microsoft as a part of their .NET framework in order to develop window applications. This is developed on the foundations of the C programming language. In addition to window applications, mobile developers use C# to design cross-platform apps on the Xamarin platform.

What make C# one of the best languages for web development?

Predominantly, C# permits developers to code faster, unlike other programming languages.
Secondly, C# has been in use for the past 20 years; hence, it has numerous frameworks as well as libraries.
Thirdly, C# is an object-oriented language; as a result, developers can create maintainable applications and reusable codes.
Fourthly, this language has an effective system to remove the garbage on the system; as a result, the system does not hang in the middle of execution.
Above all, C# is one of the best languages for web development if you wish to build games. C# is recommended to learn in order to develop 2D, as well as 3D games.

Pros:

First and foremost, C# allows faster compilation and execution
Moreover, it is safer than C and C++
In addition, this language is fully integrated with the .NET library
Above all, it contains rich data sets, as well as library functions.
To sum up, C# is suitable for any type of web development.

Cons:

Although C# and C++ share a common ancestor, C# is not as flexible as C++
Additionally, it requires time and effort to learn as it is complex
To conclude, C# language takes a long time to achieve expertise.

4. Java:

It is one of the best languages for web development to learn because it is suitable for building Mobile, Android, as well as desktop applications. Java is a multipurpose language used by various organizations for decades because of its stability.

What makes Java one of the best languages for web development?

In the first place, it is a powerful programming language that offers high productivity for developers.
Secondly, it is a multi-paradigm, feature-rich language with a moderate learning curve.
Thirdly, Java has remarkable requirements in business development due to its backward compatibility nature.
Above all, in contrast to Python or Scala, Java has never made major updates, which is why it still remains the primary choice for most companies.
Additionally, Java uses both compilers, as well as interpreters, unlike other programming languages which use either of them.
Most importantly, Java is platform-independent, which means it allows the programmer to write programs on one machine and execute them on a different machine with a different configuration.

Pros:

Java offers plenty of open-source libraries
It is an object-oriented language; hence, it allows the creation of modular programs and reusable codes.
This language is platform-independent with the support of JVM.
In comparison to other languages, Java is easy to learn, write, compile and debug
Java supports computing along with multithreading.
This programming language provides essential security to programmers.

Cons:

Unlike other languages like C and C++, Java is a tad bit slow.
In addition, the development of data structures with high quality is limited because it lacks templates.
Moreover, It is expensive to manage memory with Java.

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Conclusion:

Web development is one of the most sought-after careers today, as it is challenging and creative. If you are willing to choose this as a career, then you should know the best programming languages for web development. If you are new to the development field, you might be confused about choosing the best programming language. Therefore to help you, this blog has a list of the best programming languages with their pros and cons.

As you have seen, I have listed four backend and frontend programming languages to help you understand. Now, it’s your turn to choose the best programming language. Choose the one that best suits your requirements and learn to become a successful web developer.