Best Programming Languages for Web Development in 2021

January 2, 2021
web development

Web development is all about coding in different programming languages to achieve different results. However, the growing number of programming languages poses a difficult choice for businesses and web developers alike.

Web Development Programming Languages

1. Swift

Swift was developed by Apple Inc. in 2014. It serves as a single platform with excellent execution diversified applications from desktop and mobile apps to cloud services and systems programming. Built on the fundamentals of Objective C, Swift offers flexibility, dynamic dispatch, extensible programming and late binding but poses performance and security concerns. Swift allows web developers to write new modules that integrate with existing Objective-C codebases. In fact, the server-side Swift can be used for web development requirements like integration with any technology. Since the Swift syntax resembles spoken English, it is easy to pick for beginner web developers. Thanks to automatic memory management and error handling, Swift is a developer’s favourite. It allows adding new features to pre-existing code and thus is highly scalable.

2. Python

Created in 1991 by Guido Van Rossum, Python reiterates simplicity and beautification in the world of web development. Touted as one of the best programming languages, Python is easy to learn with really short syntax. Simple lines of code make it easy for a web developer to edit and modify programs and run tests. Python supports multiple operating systems, like Windows, Linux, and iOS. This high-level language allows code to be created on one system and run on a second one. Python boasts of over 200 standard modules in its library itself. 

Easy integration with other programming languages allows web developers to scale complex applications with relative ease. Execute complex ML (Machine Learning) tasks and focus on building prototypes that facilitate testing for machine learning programs with Python.

3. Kotlin

JetBrains, the makers of the worlds best IDE’s developed Kotlin for Android app development. It’s the official language for Android app development, thus a step ahead of Java. The language compiled to JVM bytecode or JavaScript. All web developers who use garbage collected runtime, and even those who use Scala, Go, Python, Ruby, and JavaScript will like Kotlin. Its unique type system helps developers avoid null pointer exceptions. Kotlin is open source with high quality, one-click Java to Kotlin converter tool, and a strong focus on Java binary compatibility. Kotlin comes with a simple learning curve and with a lean and intuitive syntax. Besides it’s operator overloading, null safety and data classes earn accolades from developers. Web developers find it an immensely interoperable language. Kotlin comes with an advanced compiler that keeps track of compile and runtime and thus offers excellence in web development.

4. Java 

Tech scene was disrupted by Java programming in 1996 which gradually revolutionized enterprise application development. Java’s ‘Write Once Run Anywhere’ feature allows flexibility of the code, which can be originally prepared on one machine and run on another. It features automatic memory allocation and garbage collection that result in sufficient CPU memory for use by other applications. Java also boasts of a security manager feature and the exclusion of explicit pointer that makes it a secure language for web developers who love to code. There is scope for extensive APIs that help initiate a variety of tasks such as networking, database connection etc. Java programming is all about distributed computing that allows information exchange between multiple computers without the need to develop additional APIs. Java’s multi threading reduces lag at runtime. It also has a strong online community that guarantees support.

5. Scala 

Scala was launched in 2004 to address the inefficiencies of the Java programming language. While it is an object-oriented language, it also solves the purpose of functional programming. It is a static type language where variables are declared and defined, thus allowing the compiler to know the value of the variable at compile time. To conclude, Scala’s reduced performance issues at runtime. As a programming language, Scala was built to run on Java Virtual Machine. Scala can thus integrate with Java rather effortlessly, and each language can run on another’s Java Development Kit (JDK). Since it’s an easy language to learn, you can hire web developers that are adept with Scala. The language also features user-friendly compilations options with the code readily executable on web browsers with the help of Scala.js compiler. Its Lazy Evaluation feature also evaluates a value when there is a need, making it fast and efficient. Scala’s Future and Promises allow data to be processed in parallel due to which it finds abundant applications in Big Data analytics.

6. R

R programming language is a popular computing language among machine learning web developers. Being open-sourced, R can be tailored to fit in the project requirements. It’s flexible enough to allow adding of packages for extra features. Businesses can hire web developers to utilize R libraries to create production level statistical analysis represented with visually attractive designs to aid data visualization. It also aids data analysis as it involves the code to interact with databases with multiple packages enabling interoperability. All in all, R’s comprehensive development environment makes it a default choice for software development. Web developers also use R to create web apps. It also helps with distributed computing by delegating tasks to separate nodes in order to optimize processing time. R is, in essence, an interpreted language, which doesn’t need a compiler.

7. Go

Google developed Go as a programming language that is superior to other coding languages. They intended to resolve their collective dislike for C++ programming techniques with Go. It features useful characteristics such as static typing, runtime efficiency, networking, multiprocessing, and readability/usability of code. The language displays large data sets in an easily understandable workflow. Go features concurrency, the ability of a program to run multiple tasks simultaneously. Go eliminates the need for outward reliance with a powerful standard library. Web developers prefer to Go because of its type safety, garbage collection and dynamic-typing.

In the End

It’s evident that both computer science and software engineering are blooming segments in the tech industry. However, the irony remains that a vast field like computer science is difficult to keep up with. Web developers need to pick programming languages that are most popular in terms of scope to succeed in their career. We hope this list of best programming languages for web development will benefit upcoming web developers. Are you looking to hire web developers for web development? Get in touch with us today!

Also read:

Why Your Startup Should Start with Android Application Development

10 Best Practices for Successful Mobile App Development