Web development now is seemingly a promising job as its demand is booming with a global revenue of roughly $131 billion by 2032. If you are a newcomer in this field, the nuisance here is where to start or which web development languages you should learn. Inevitably, this depends much on what type of project you join in, whether you feel more pleasant working with back-end or front-end technologies, and whether you are good enough at mathematics and logic to learn programming skills.
So this article from Designveloper will equip you with fundamental knowledge about these languages. This helps you have a better understanding to choose the right language for future jobs. Ready? Let’s dive in!
Overview of Web Development Languages
When some people learn about web development, they are advised to start with HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) and CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) but confuse these with programming languages.
HTML and CSS are in fact markup languages that produce electronic documents (or pages) and to design sites respectively. Meanwhile, web programming languages are more complicated and can come into two categories: Back-end and front-end web development languages.
Normally, web development includes server-side (back-end) coding, client-side (front-end) coding, and database technology.
Take LinkedIn – the world’s largest professional network as an example. To allow candidates from different regions to connect with others, search for a job or even learn new skills, LinkedIn was programmed by three distinct web programming languages: JavaScript, Java, and Scala, then having used Voldemort as a distributed database to store an enormous number of profiles.
Accordingly, languages for web development can be defined as “complex logical instructions and processes” to help build sites that meet certain demands (Wikipedia).
So which are the most popular web development languages in the world? And how different are they? Let’s find the answers in the following part.
Best Web Development Languages in 2024
1. PHP
PHP stands for Hypertext Preprocessor. It is a scripting language mainly used for the server-side of simple, dynamic sites and web apps, typically Drupal, WordPress, Flickr, or Facebook. PHP web development has supported many free and open-source extensions including .NET, Apache, or Bzip2, as well as allowed access to various databases such as MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and others.
As some of the PHP functions are similar to C language’s, PHP developers can add functionality to PHP by writing more plug-ins (also called add-ons or extensions) in C. Moreover, until now, PHP still retains basic Perl-like variables of the first version and the ability to be efficiently integrated into HTML. So PHP is easy for beginners to learn.
Recommended reading: 5 Best PHP Courses to Become a Master
However, in competition with others, PHP proves a bit out-of-date although its versions were released for improvements. That’s why developers often consider this programming language “not fun to program in.”
Other downsides are PHP lacks standardized functions to handle errors and has weak typing. That means types of objects can suddenly change and this consequently produces unexpected outcomes. Therefore, it is more challenging to debug in case any coding flaws arise.
2. Python
This is the highest demanded programming language in today’s market, with 41.9% of software engineers using it extensively in their development work.
Python is a high-level, yet beginner-friendly language, due to its straightforward syntax and support of various libraries or tools. Additionally, it can work well as a scripting or object-oriented language and has strong typing, so the process of debugging is much faster.
Python has high applications in different sub-fields of IT (e.g. Artificial Intelligence, Machine learning, or Video games) and especially in the scientific domain because the language facilitates the collection of empirical data and the integration with relevant databases.
In the field of web, Python is one of the best back-end web development languages and such Python web development projects as Spotify or Instagram use the Django framework written in this language.
Though processing faster than PHP, Python’s speed is still slower than C/C++ and Java. So the language does not suit Real-time apps, mobile apps, or memory-intensive apps.
3. Java
Java is an open-source and object-oriented language that has a good reputation for its stability. Many developers prefer this programming language because of its well-maintained libraries and web frameworks.
Other pros are JVM (Java Virtual Machine) also allows it to run on various platforms and developing with Java can limit security risks and automatically manage memory storage. Hence, Java is widely used to develop Android mobile apps or enterprise-scale complex web projects.
Because of those properties, Java is more difficult to learn and beginners probably struggle with long-winded and complicated codes if they decide to start their career with this language. Also, it’s hard to undertake Java web software development processes on a small scale.
4. C#
Compared to other web programming languages, C# is more special because Microsoft initially developed it for the .NET framework. So getting involved in C# web development means that developers will be restricted to that framework. So it only has libraries and types available to add functionality only to the .NET.
Having said that, the language still proves its popularity in programming many web apps or web APIs and developing video games on PC or Xbox.
C#, or pronounced as C sharp, itself is multi-purpose and object-oriented. Similar to Java, it has strong typing and is independent on platforms because of CLR (Common Language Runtime – a virtual machine to run any .NET programs). Software engineers can find some similarities between the syntax of C# and C++ or Java. Some typical examples include semicolons that end a statement and Curly brackets to group statements based on functions or classes.
5. C++
Along with other web programming languages, C++ contributed to building numerous famous websites such as Google, Twitter, and Amazon. As one of the oldest programming languages in the world, C++ undoubtedly has a large support community and owns a massive number of libraries to provide additional functions. Plus the ease to learn C++ due to its concise language of only 60 keywords, it is still popular now.
It was originally seen as an extension of C, so it inherited various variables of the language such as compatibility with hardware devices, but also got relatively messy syntax.
Modern C++ can be either object-oriented, functional, or procedural. It’s also seen as a compiled language that translates source code to machine code via compilers like Microsoft Visual Studio on Windows or XCode on MacOS.
C++ is widely applied to build desktop apps, video games, and e-commerce servers, while its web development application is ranked lower than that of JavaScript or Java.
6. Ruby
When hearing of Ruby on Rails web development, some often think of Ruby as an abbreviation of Ruby on Rails. But the latter is effectively a common web framework written in Ruby, with typical projects on Airbnb, GitHub, or CodeAcademy.
The language itself is high-level and purely object-oriented. This means “every value is an object” and no primitive data types are available in Ruby. It also features strong, dynamic typing and automatic garbage collection – a form to manage memory.
Ruby’s syntax is comparatively similar to that of Python and Perl and quite flexible. Although this makes Ruby easy for coders to read, it can easily produce unpredictable run-time flaws that are hard to debug.
7. Javascript
In this list, JavaScript is the only language that serves both the server and client sides. It’s the most common programming language with 62.3% of global users as of 2024. Like HTML and CSS, JavaScript plays a core role in programming user-friendly and interactive front ends of most websites, regardless of scale and complexity.
In terms of server-side development, JavaScript is a high-level programming language. It has multi-paradigm (e.g. object-oriented or functional) features, dynamic typing, and numerous libraries or frameworks such as Node.js, React, or Vue.js that are compatible with multiple operating systems.
8. Go (Golang)
Go (Golang) is a programming language that Google created in 2009 for cross-platform app development. As a compiled language, Golang can be translated directly into machine code. This allows it to run more quickly than interpreted languages like JavaScript or Python. As a result, Golang becomes a highly efficient language for back-end development that requires fast response times and minimal latency.
Another plus of Go is that it can remove complex features found in other languages (e.g., method overloading or inheritance). This makes code maintenance simpler than ever. Plus, it’s developed to instinctively support concurrent programming through goroutines, which enables apps to process many tasks at the same time.
These capabilities make Go ideal for large-scale applications that require high performance and scalability. These applications include web servers, RESTful APIs, cloud services, and other backend systems.
At Designveloper, we also leverage Go, coupled with other technologies like Python or Nodejs, as a robust backend language for developing scalable, high-performance websites like ODC (healthcare platform) because of its rich standard libraries and simple syntax. Further, you can see some popular websites now using Golang. They include Dropbox, Dailymotion, and Soundcloud.
Despite the good points we mentioned, Go still has some limitations. One of them is its lack of advanced features and error-handling capabilities.
9. Perl
Developed by Lary Wall in 1987, Perl is a high-level, general-purpose programming language known for its robust text-processing capabilities and flexibility. This makes it well-suited for applications that require handling text data effectively, like data parsing or log analysis.
For web development, Perl helps developers create dynamic HTML content through the Common Gateway Interface (CGI). Also, it has powerful text manipulation capabilities to handle vast volumes of text, regardless of format, like HTML, JSON, or XML.
Plus, Perl’s Database Interface (DBI) enables smooth integration with databases, such as PostgreSQL, MySQL, or Oracle. This benefits websites and applications that need effective data storage and retrieval. Further, Perl has a large, open-source repository of modules, called CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network), to handle different tasks like file handling or encryption.
With these capabilities, many websites like Craigslist, BBC, or Booking.com rely on Perl for their backend tasks. However, Perl is criticized for its complex syntax and lack of frameworks or libraries to develop complex applications.
10. Scala
Scala was originally developed to solve some challenges of Java, like reducing the amount of code needed for complex tasks. Therefore, its syntax is concise and expressive, keeping the code easy to understand while speeding up development time. Further, Scala operates on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This allows developers to fully use existing Java frameworks, libraries, and tools.
In addition, Scala offers an extensive ecosystem of libraries like Akka, Play Framework, or Slick. These powerful tools help build real-time applications that deal with high traffic. Scala is also compatible with Apache Spark – a common big data processing framework – to process vast amounts of data. For this reason, Scala is beneficial for applications that depend on real-time data processing and data analytics, typically in social media or eCommerce. Some popular Scala websites accordingly are Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest.
Another plus of Scala is its robust static typing and type inference that reduces the likelihood of unexpected bugs in development.
A Conclusion About Web Development Languages
This article mentioned some best web development languages. Besides them, the tech world is still witnessing the rise in others like Go, TypeScript, and Scala. However, not all languages can be easy to learn though. Not to mention that you need to master the abundance of frameworks to build desired webs. So identifying your future career and establishing realistic goals can help you to choose the most suitable programming language.
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