What is a Framework?

Frameworks are software tools used by developers to build applications. Using frameworks, you don’t need to start from scratch as you can leverage tools designed to help you with your project.

Using a software framework to develop applications lets you focus on the high-level functionality of the application. This is because any low-level functionality is taken care of by the framework itself.

Why use a Framework?

Developing software is a complex process. It necessitates a plethora of tasks, including coding, designing, and testing. For only the coding part, programmers had to take care of the syntax, declarations, garbage collection, statements, exceptions, and more.

Software frameworks make life easier for developers by allowing them to take control of the entire software development process, or most of it, from a single platform.

Most Popular Web Development Frameworks in 2022

There are several app development frameworks employed by developers for both mobile and web development. According to a survey conducted by Stack Overflow, in which over 82000 participants responded, we have compiled a list of most popular technology frameworks in 2022:

1. ReactJS

40.14% of respondents picked ReactJS as their first choice web development framework, overtaking jQuery as the most popular framework. ReactJS is a view layer for building user interfaces. It renders views using data passed down from components. Components are reusable pieces of UI created using JSX.

React is a JavaScript library created by Facebook. It was released in 2015 and is used to build user interfaces. It's a simple way to create dynamic web pages without having to learn advanced HTML. It works by defining components (elements) and then connecting them together using props.

2. jQuery

Picked by 34.42% of respondents, jQuery is a JavaScript library that makes things easier for web developers. It simplifies DOM manipulation, event handling, animation, Ajax, and HTTP requests.

3. ExpressJS

23.82% of developers have picked ExpressJS as their preferred framework. ExpressJS is a robust web framework for building RESTful APIs. It is based on Connect middleware and provides many features out of the box.

4. Angular

Ranking fourth on the list is Angular which was chosen by 22.96% of respondents. Angular is a frontend MVC framework for dynamic websites that includes HTML5, CSS, and JavaScript templates. It is built on top of Google’s popular jQuery library.

5. Vue.JS

18.97% of respondents picked Vue.JS, which is an open-source framework built on top of the JavaScript library and launched in 2014. The core library is focused on the view layer only and is easy to pick up and integrate with other libraries or existing projects.

6. ASP.NET

ASP.NET ranks sixth on the list and was chosen by 18.1% of developers. Developed by Microsoft, ASP.NET is a free and open-source framework for building web apps using C# and .NET. Asp.Net reduces the line of code needed to develop large applications.

It is purely server-side technology, so the code is processed on the windows server before it is displayed in the web browser. Therefore, ASP.net applications execute more quickly than interpreted scripts

Most popular Mobile App Development Frameworks

Here’s a list of the top 4 most popular mobile app development frameworks:

1. React Native

Picked by 14.5% developers, React Native is a free and open-source mobile framework that uses JavaScript. It was released in March 2015 by Facebook. React Native is an effective framework for cross-platform development, building mobile apps using JavaScript language, and developing applications for both Android and iOS using a single codebase

2. Flutter

Chosen by 13.55% of mobile developers, Flutter is a mobile application framework developed by Google. It was released in 2017 and is based on the Dart language. Flutter makes use of native widgets and provides a smooth user experience.

It's a cross-platform technology that works across Android, iOS, macOS, Linux, Windows, etc. Flutter apps are written using the same codebase and run on any platform supported by the underlying operating system. Flutter apps have been designed to work well on both smartphones and tablets.

3. Xamarin

Used by 13% of developers worldwide, Xamarin is a Microsoft-owned open-source mobile app development framework used for building native, high-performance Android, iOS, and macOS apps using .NET and C# programming languages. There are over 13,000 apps built using the Xamarin framework, amounting to more than 2 billion downloads

4. Ionic

Ionic is an open-source, cross-platform toolkit used for building efficient mobile and web apps. Ionic uses standardized web technologies like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Since 2013, over five million apps have been developed using Ionic. Its custom widget development, single codebase, full utilization of Cordova plugins and smooth user interface make it a popular choice among mobile developers.