Your website is a big digital asset for your business which generates maximum ROI. Therefore, when it comes to developing a successful website for your project, the first and the most important step is to decide the best technology stack for your website development.
Why?
Because website is a software product that is not just about designing an attractive UI and convenient UX; it is about creating a stable, secure, and scalable product which not only wins your customer’s heart but also enables you to grow your business online.
As a business owner, you are busy with things like discussing your business idea, defining your product’s pricing model and coming up with a powerful marketing strategy, but when choosing the technologies for your new website you will likely leave up to developers or web development agency.
Here you should keep in mind that whatever technology you select will directly impact your website performance and eventually on the business results.
What kind of performance you need in your website is determined by the technology used in development. Thus, if you are planning to develop a high-performing website for your business you should pay keen attention to choosing a suitable technology stack.
And here in this post, we will tell you important things for choosing the best technology stack for website development.
So, let’s start.
What is mean by technology stack?
A technology stack is a set of software development tools, frameworks, and programming languages that are used to create any web or mobile application. So, the technology stack for website development is a package or suite of certain frameworks and tools that make a fully functional website.
Components of Technology Stack for Web Development
Technology stack for website development is further categorized into two major parts: front end (client-side) and back end (server-side). Each part comes with a comprehensive set of tools that play important role in the overall website performance.
To understand this, you can take a look at the above image that shows the main architecture blocks of a typical technology stack; however, there may be other supporting components.
Let’s understand the two major components.
1. Front end development (Client-side development)
Front end or client-side development is what enables a website or web application to be visible on an internet browser. It is primarily responsible for how the users interact with the website, for this reason, it is commonly known as ‘front end’. Front end development for website consists of the following technologies:
HTML (HyperText Markup Language): It is used for structuring the content on a web page.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): It includes designs and style of the content on a web page such as visuals, graphics, colors, font, layouts, etc.
At eSearch Logix, we use CSS3 (the latest version of CSS) along with HTML5. CSS3 supports in constructing responsive design, enabling website elements to respond differently when viewed on devices of different sizes.
JavaScript: This is what makes the website interactive and dynamic. It allows developers to add different animated and interactive elements to a website page to make it more intuitive.
Top frameworks for HTML
- Sencha Touch
- Foundation
- Monaca
- Montage
Top frameworks for CSS
- Bootstrap
- Pure
- Bulma
- Semantic UI
- UIkit
Top JavaScript frameworks
JavaScript is one of the important parts of website development. When it comes to choosing which JS framework is best for the front end in 2021? many developers have often debate on choosing from the following:
- Angular.js
- React.js
- Vue.js
- Meteor.js
- JQuery
- Knockout.js
- Ember.js
2. Back-end development (Server-side development)
Back-end, as the name shows, isn’t visible to users. It works behind the scenes and enables the front end to do its job. The back end or server-side development provides a website with logic and facilitates communication between each of its components.
Back end development is the backbone of a website or a web application because it allows each component to understand how and when to respond to user requests.
It mainly contains three parts; programming language, database, and a server. So take a look at the technologies involved in each of these parts:
1. Programming languages
Back end is the engine of a website and programming is the driver. As we explained above, the back-end provides the logic to the website; a programming language is a technology that creates logic. To make it happen, web developers can select from a variety of different programming languages to code for the website.
Here are the most commonly used languages and frameworks that you should include in your technology stack:
- Ruby on Rails
- JavaScript
- PHP
- Python
- Scala
- Go
- C++
2. Database
It’s possible to create a website without a database, but it will have limited functionality. So if you want to build a complex or advanced website that is equipped with great features, the database is necessary.
In modern times, almost every website at least asks for the users’ contact information, right? So the database is an inevitable part of the best technology stack for web development.
There are normally two types of database technologies in web development: relational database and non-relational database.
- Oracle
- MySQL
- Microsoft SQL Server
- PostgreSQL
- MongoDB
- IBM DB2
- Redis
- Elasticsearch
- SQLite
3. Server
Server is a place where requests from the user or client side’s computer are received, processed, and acted upon. Therefore, the tech stack for website development must hold a server to host the website.
Top servers for website development
- Nginx
- Apache
- Oracle WebLogic
Apart from this, back-end development also requires developers to choose an operating system like Linux, Windows, cloud solution for storage like AWS S3 or Firebase, and hosting platform.
Famous Technology Stacks for Website Development
Although the tech stack used in web development depends on the nature and requirements of your project, there are some certain tech stacks which give a readymade combination of frameworks and tools for your project.
- LAMP
LAMP refers to Linux (operating system), Apache (webserver), MySQL (database), PHP (programming language). This is one of the widely used back-end tech stacks for website development. LAMP is the favorite choice of full-stack developers due to its security, flexibility, and customization options.
- Python-Django
It is based on python language and Django frameworks, which are highly used in back-end development. When this stack is used with Apache as the server and MySQL database, it becomes an ideal choice for building a faster website, as an MVP.
- MEAN
MEAN stands for MongoDB (database), Express.js (application framework), Angular (front-end framework), and Node.js (runtime environment). MEAN is mainly popular for full-stack development. Leading website development companies in India and other countries prefer to MEAN for developing top-performing websites and applications.
- MERN
MERN refers to MongoDB, Express.js, React, and Node.js. Again, it is a full stack that uses ReactJS for front end and NodeJs for back-end development. MERN is an ideal choice for creating responsive single-page applications and large websites.
So both MEAN and MERN are full technology stacks for web development.
Technology Stacks of world’s big corporations:
Airbnb Tech Stack
- Programming Languages: JavaScript, Ruby
- Framework: Ruby on Rails
- Databases: MySQL, Amazon RDS, Hadoop
- Server: NGINX
Pinterest Tech Stack
- Programming Languages: Python, Java, Go
- Framework: Django, Javascript MVC
- Databases: MySQL, Hadoop, HBase, Memcached, Redis
- Server: NGINX
Uber Tech Stack
- Programming Languages: Python, Java, Go, Objective-C
- Framework: Node.js, Apache Thrift
- Databases: MySQL. PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis
- Server: NGINX
Facebook Tech Stack
- Programming Languages: PHP, GraphQL, Hack
- Framework: Tornado
- Databases: Cassandra, RocksDB, Beringei, Memcached
- Server: custom proprietary
How to choose the Best Technology Stack for Website Development?
With so many available technologies for different components, it is an exhaustive task to choose the best technology stack for your website project.
Each tool comes with its own pros and cons and gives different results for different kinds of websites. Choosing the wrong tech stack can hamper your business objective. Therefore, you must consider the following things while choosing the right tech stack:
Step 1: Define your project type and size
All projects can be classified depending on their nature and complexity, which will affect the choice of technology stack. As the size of a project grows, the complexity of the project usually enhances. Analyze your project and classify into these three categories:
Small projects: It involves single-page sites, portfolios, presentations, digital magazines, and other small web development solutions. For this, you can go with simple stacks like Python-Django, or Nodejs-ReactJs.
Medium-sized projects: It includes online stores, financial, and enterprise websites which require a more complex development with several payers and a combination of languages. For this, you can opt for MEAN or MERN.
Large projects: It contains large-scale websites like social media networks, eCommerce websites, or content-rich web applications that require a well-chosen set of technologies.
So, we recommend here to go with core technologies like AngularJS, ReactJS, or Ruby and Rails, and then combine with other tools and programming languages for effective solutions. In simple words, when it comes to developing an enterprise-scale website, you should better hire a website development company.
Step 2: Understand the Time to market
When your project requires to be developed and launched as fast as possible, you should choose a tech stack that allows easy third-party integrations and thus reduce the development time.
We here recommend you to start with an MVP or use ready-made solutions that help you minimize the time to enter the market.
You can use Ruby on rails framework that provides access to a set of basic libraries, or directly pick up the MEAN stack to save development time and cost.
Step 3: Focus on Scalability
If you are developing a website with a goal to scale it with your business growth, it is highly critical to select the right tools and frameworks at the time of development that has the potential to scale sufficiently as well.
You can scale either vertically, adding additional frameworks for new tasks, or horizontally, adding processing units or physical machines to your server or database. React, Golang, Node.js, and Ruby on rails have excellent scalability that makes your website prepared for future updates.
Step 4: Put Security on the top priority
Website security is the foremost concern of any other topic. Today users are more aware of their privacy and expect companies to respect and protect their personal information while using websites.
Any minor scale loophole in user privacy may lead to a major adverse impact on the reputation of the company and its website. For example, if you are developing a healthcare mobile app, you should be careful while choosing technologies that are not strong in terms of security aspects.
You have to be fully cautious about not being biased to your own personal preferences or business priority. Remember, customers are the biggest asset for your business.
So you should value their concern. If you don’t have in-depth knowledge and expertise in web development, chances are you may end up choosing the wrong technology stack, and you know what would happen after that- loss of investment.
Conclusion
Choosing the best technology stack for website development depends on your project requirements and business goals. Every tool has its certain advantages and disadvantages, but what ultimately fits your project is decide what you want from your website.
It is the not a mysterious science to select the best technologies, only it takes how best you understand your own requirements and future goals.
By reading the above blog post, you have come to the conclusion there is no universal or a certain stack. You just have to apply the above principles while evaluating your project, developers, budget, and terms.
However, if you still need more professional advice, get in touch with eSearch Logix. We are a reputed website development company in India and the USA, and providing modern web solutions to global businesses.
Book a call now.
