Q: Do modern app developers need frameworks to create the front or back end of the application?
A: Yes they do. This article reasons out!
This question seems quite straightforward and most sought after. Gone are the days when using frontend frameworks meant being limited to rigid, monolithic structures and clunky user interfaces. Today, modern frameworks offer unparalleled flexibility, modularity, and seamless integration with flavorful technologies, enabling developers to create responsive, and highly interactive web applications with ease. Every mobile app development company that is into Android and iOS app development has to do the same thing for iOS, and possibly for the web (later). So it is in dire need to use frameworks that work across operating systems. Frontend per se, for creating the frontend of the application and backend frameworks for creating the backend of the application.
Essential Services For Modern Businesses
A business needs to take care of web development services like (1) frontend development, (2) backend development, (3) full stack development, (4) web design, (5) responsive web development, (6) mobile web development, (7) e-commerce development, (8) content management system development, (9) Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) Development, (10) Single-Page Application (SPA) Development, (11) API Development, (12) Database Development, (13) Web Application Security, (14) Web Performance Optimization, (15) Cross-Platform Development, (16) User Experience (UX) Design, (17) User Interface (UI) Design, (18) Web Accessibility Development, (19) Static Web Service, (20) Search Engine Optimization (SEO), (21) Web Analytics and Tracking, (22) Web Portal Development, (23) Chatbot Development to thrive.
What steers modern applications? Especially the front-end (UI)?
To enable this, Frameworks come into the picture. These are important for server-side development in web and mobile apps and useful for creating interactive applications. They ensure seamless communication between the front end and the server, which improves the user experience.
It is noteworthy that frontend or backend frameworks for developing mobile applications are different from frontend and backend frameworks for developing a web application. Developers and test engineers have to execute experiments and feature flags on frontend frameworks by using client-side SDKs, depending on the specific framework. They have to subscribe to a feature experimentation module, or install an SDK in the codebase and run experiments using Activation API.
Where are they applicable?
Front-end frameworks save time in developing applications as developers just need to fill in the pre-defined template structure. This saves them from writing the same thing twice, ensuring that the website's UI is consistent across different browsers and devices, making it easier for users to navigate. Complex or simple applications can be built seamlessly due to the presence of pre-built templates, modules, and plugins that speed up the development process, especially for complex applications that require many different components. Most frameworks have a reusable set of components (Button, Card, Modal, Dropdown, Form, Input Field, Avatar, Notification, Sidebar, Breadcrumb, Table, Tooltip, Spinner/Loader, Badge, Tabs) that is used to quickly construct a UI. React's AuthorCredit component displays an author's portrait and a short bio for each article in a blog or online magazine.
Which Frameworks Are Suitable For Frontend Development These Days?
7 months through, it won’t be justifiable to check which frameworks are good for development in 2024, let's talk about 2025 otherwise. Native and cross-platform apps have different primary purposes and intended operating systems. Here’s a list of some niche frameworks used for UI development:
Ionic always forms the starting point of mobile app development framework discussion. It features animations, gestures, and push notifications, hardware accelerated transitions, touch-optimized gestures, pre-rendering, built-in support for JavaScript frameworks, light and dark mode, native device plugins for camera, maps, geolocation, Bluetooth, ionic capacitor, mobile routing, navigation, gestures, and animations;
React Native lets build native apps for multiple platforms using a single codebase. UI Components, Navigation, API Interaction, State Management, Animations, Device Features (camera, geolocation, sensors, GPS), and testing with libraries like Jest and Detox. It is a mobile counterpart for React (which is specifically for the web).
NativeScript is a well-established framework for cross-platform development that supports AngularJS and TypeScript and is built on the native UI toolkit for iOS and Android. NativeScript chips in with platform APIs that work with Javascript runtime to create web, iOS, Android, and Vision Pro apps with a shared codebase.
Flutter is a popular framework that lets developers develop cross-platform apps quickly and with good performance. Flutter facilitates integration testing, in-app advertising and purchases, and support for foldable phones and material design 3.
Xamarin is used to build native apps for Android, iOS, and macOS using .NET code. It is often used for UI/UX design, frontend, and backend development, and only requires basic Java and C/Swift skills. It facilitates development across operating systems and features a UI toolkit by the name of Xamarin. Forms, Native user interfaces, Xamarin Component Store, integrates backends like Microsoft Azure, Parse, and SAP.
Angular is used for creating web applications and cross-platform mobile apps. It works well with big data and provides tools for building web apps. It makes use of Typescript to add static typing for catching errors and improving code maintainability. It also features data binding, dependency injection, directives, routing, forms, HTTP Clients, Angular Material, Server-Side Rendering (SSR), and Testing - all to improve the performance, SEO, accessibility, and end-to-end testing of the application.
Vuejs development companies need a special mention amongst web development services for the front end. It is a lightweight option to create interactive user interfaces. Vue.js uses a v-model directive for two-way data binding, so there's no need to write complex code. It optimizes rendering by using a virtual representation of the DOM. It offers many ways to apply transition effects, including a transition wrapper, custom transition classes, and JavaScript hooks. It creates web design from scratch, which speeds up and makes the development process more efficient. It facilitates event handling, watching a component, and manipulating HTML elements to extend their functionality.
Apache Cordova, Framework7, Next.js, and Nuxt are other popular open-source JavaScript frameworks that connect to a mobile device's native functionality and operating system via a built-in JavaScript API. They are good for building hybrid web apps or mobile apps for iOS and Android devices and also offer an ecosystem with templates, icons, and plugins.
How to make a choice?
There is a need to use frontend frameworks to develop complex mobile and web applications because they require a streamlined approach. Such tools and libraries are also used for developing dynamic user interfaces and complex state interactions. Most of the time, Javascript is required to deal with the client side of the application. Therefore, it is mandatory to use frontend frameworks that are created using JS like React, Angular, Vue, Svelte, Ember.js, Preact, Meteor.js, etc.
Such frameworks facilitate in building of modern web applications by providing structured approaches, reusable components, and predefined components to streamline the coding process. They also boost productivity by attracting complex tasks like state management and DOM manipulation, allowing developers to focus on application logic. It becomes pertinent to have a close look at the project scale, desired features, and community support while picking a framework.
