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Ask HN: What is the best language/framework for getting things done on the web?

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Re: Ask HN: What is the best language/framework for getting things done on the web?

#11
I suggest you choose a framework based on whatever language you know well, or are willing to learn well.

I'm assuming you aren't building internal apps in an enterprise environment that would push you toward Java or .Net, but instead public facing sites/apps as an independent developer.

For Python, the major popular choices are Django[0], a "batteries included" framework, and Flask[1], a more lightweight option.

For Ruby, the equivalents are Rails[2], and Sinatra[3].

There are many other options, mostly created with a specific niche or use-case in mind.

Personally I am most familiar with the broader Python ecosystem, so additional frameworks that come to mind are Pyramid (Lightweight framework that scales up to complex projects as needed), Tornado (async non-blocking), Dash (low-code for ML), Cube (semantic web).

And of course there are many other languages (eg. Java, PHP, JS, etc.) in which you can create web sites and apps, but sticking to the popular options to start with has advantages in terms of ecosystem, documentation and other learning resources, and so on.

I'd be remis if I didn't mention one other option that has a lot of bang-for-the-buck if it fits your use case: Most websites (and a lot of web apps) are content-oriented and just a content management system. In which case, starting from an open source CMS and doing a bit of customization will get you to "done" a lot faster. There are plenty of open source CMSs to choose from (most are written in PHP) but the most popular by far is humble WordPress[4]. Check it out if your site is going to have anything like a simple posts and pages organization, and a drafts and publication workflow (personally I am invested enough in Python that even for that sort of site I default to choosing something like Wagtail or another Django-based CMS[5], or Plone[6], which reinforces what I said at the start: make your choice based on the languages and tools you know well).

[0] https://django.org/

[1] https://flask.org/

[2] https://rubyonrails.org/

[3] http://sinatrarb.org/

[4] https://wordpress.org/

[5] https://djangopackages.org/grids/g/cms/

[6] https://plone.org/

Re: Ask HN: What is the best language/framework for getting things done on the web?

#13
post #8

PHP => Laravel/Symfony, Python => Django, Ruby => Rails You just can't go wrong with one of these 3 above. Boring. Tested. Server side web pages All the 3 above also have great communities, support, documentation and above all, plenty of experienced talent over the years. These are battle tested.

Add HTMX over any of them (me I use Python Django) and you're golden.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best language/framework for getting things done on the web?

#14
post #5
post #2

NextJS is my recommendation. The React ecosystem is incredible, and NextJS brings it to the next level. Also the documentation is fantastic, you should be up and running in 5 minutes. Pair it with a good IDE (i.e. WebStorm) and the websites write themselves.

React fails the main requirements: “Server rendered web pages, no fancy client side js, just good old websites.”

"By default, Next.js pre-renders every page. This means that Next.js generates HTML for each page in advance, instead of having it all done by client-side JavaScript. Pre-rendering can result in better performance and SEO."

Re: Ask HN: What is the best language/framework for getting things done on the web?

#18
post #17

ASP.NET Core is very straightforward and easy to work in. It's typically more performant than interpreted language frameworks, but it can be more verbose.

Yea, I think that might be a good shout. I’ve seen some articles about it’s performance recently and it’s definitely not trendy.

Re: Ask HN: What is the best language/framework for getting things done on the web?

#20
post #5
post #2

NextJS is my recommendation. The React ecosystem is incredible, and NextJS brings it to the next level. Also the documentation is fantastic, you should be up and running in 5 minutes. Pair it with a good IDE (i.e. WebStorm) and the websites write themselves.

React fails the main requirements: “Server rendered web pages, no fancy client side js, just good old websites.”

React JSX is hands down the best templating engine for Server Rendered Pages, imo.

Doesn't have to be a SPA or include a bunch of fancy client side JS or anything.

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