The best web development languages for programmers

They may change as things develop, but this is what we’re aiming for today.

jаvascript

When I was a junior developer, I remember consultants mocking jаvascript, claiming it wasn’t a “real” language and that something better would soon replace it. Fast-forward to today, and jаvascript is the world’s most popular language for web development! Since its ill-fated debut as a way to add interactivity to Netscape’s Mosaic web browser in 1993, jаvascript is now used in both frontend and backend (Nodejs) web applications, as well as mobile apps (React Native).

jаvascript’s unparalleled success is down to a number of factors:

  • Its forgiving and flexible syntax
  • It works in all major browsers
  • It’s one of the most beginner-friendly programming languages.

Python

Although Python has been around since the early nineties, somehow I never got around to using it. According to people with experience in Python, it’s one of the most versatile programming languages. Besides web development, Python is also well suited to Data Science, Scripting, and Automation applications. Like jаvascript, Python is considered a great language for learning to program, especially if you’re new to software development.

Thanks to its huge popularity, Python has a massive community behind it and lots of useful frameworks, libraries, and tools to help you build a web app quickly. For example, you can use Django to create full-featured web applications. If you want something even more “Pythonic,” you can also use Flask, which advertises itself as a minimalist web development framework.

TypeScript

Now, TypeScript is a language I know, mostly thanks to my experience with Angular. Some people call it jаvascript++, because it’s an extension of jаvascript that provides type safety. The idea is that it helps catch potential errors at compile time, which IDEs like VS Code do in the background while you code.

In TypeScript 2.0, the –strictNullChecks switch was added so that null and undefined values can only be assigned to variables that were declared to accept them.

The compiler also makes you initialize variables when they’re created or in the constructor. Although these strict checks can be annoying when you’re writing code, they really do help reduce runtime errors!

Ruby

Yukihiro “Matz” Matsumoto created Ruby by mixing parts of his favorite languages (Perl, Smalltalk, Eiffel, Ada, and Lisp) to form a new language that combines elements of functional and imperative programming. In his own words, Matsumoto “tried to make Ruby natural, not simple,” in a way that reflected life. Since he first released Ruby in 1995, it has become one of the most popular and beloved web development languages.

Beginners are drawn to Ruby because it has earned a reputation for having one of the friendliest and most helpful user communities. Add to that simple syntax, the awesome Ruby on Rails web application environment, and ties to major tech companies including Twitter, Airbnb, Bloomberg, and Shopify, and it’s perfectly clear why Ruby has become so ubiquitous.

GO

Known as the little language that can, Go is actually a low-level language that’s more like C and C++ than jаvascript or Ruby, but without the complex syntax and steep learning curve. Designed to run at lightning-fast speeds, it’s perfect for building web servers, data pipelines, and even machine learning packages.

As a web server, Go uses the net/HTTP package. Here’s code that tells the HTTP package to handle all requests to the root website (“/”) with a handler.

HTML and CSS

Of course, we can’t talk about web development without including HTML and CSS. Although they aren’t programming languages in their own right, they remain the foundation of web development and, as such, are still at the forefront of the field. Both have come a long way since the early days of the World Wide Web. HTML5 and CSS3 have contributed a lot to the responsiveness of the modern web, especially when combined with jаvascript!

If you want to get into frontend development in 2022, you need to master HTML5 and CSS3. The good news is that you can easily do that in a few weeks, since they’re relatively easy to learn.