Top six languages for Web App Development in 2022

The world of information and technology is full of data that informs us which programming languages are best for web development in 2022. This data is often collected by specialized services that use their own algorithms. Hence, the criteria to list which are the best languages in 2022 would be different for each of these surveys.

Also, it is not possible to exactly pinpoint that one language would be the best over the others. The reason for this impossibility is web application development may require permutations and combinations. Hence, it would be better to focus on the languages that would be truly required in 2022 rather than just focusing on that elusive popularity factor.

Here are the top six languages for web app development in 2022

1. Ruby

Ruby is a free, open-source programming language that was released globally in the year of 1995, and gained wider acceptance in the year of 2006. It is a much sought-after programming language by startups as it supports both static and dynamic typing methods. This allows the developers to develop simple apps.

Ruby is a very simple programming language that can be learned quite easily. It also provides an ease to write a code so that the developers do not need to write so many codes from scratch.

Ruby is described as a beautiful, artful, and elegant language by its fans. It allows the developers to create applications that are not just faster but also high-performing. It draws its strength from its full-stack web application framework Ruby on Rails.

Some of the popular apps that have been developed using Ruby include Airbnb, Twitch, GitHub, Basecamp, Shopify, Fiverr, and Bloomberg among many others. The use of Ruby language is considered the best for fast prototyping, eCommerce, data solutions, and content services projects as well as for projects that are constantly changing or evolving.

2. Golang

Conceived by developers at Google, Golang is the language that promotes the cause of functional programming. It is the only language that has all three components: ease of coding, efficient coding compilation, and efficient execution.

Also called Go, it is a system-level language that developers exploit for programming. It is used across servers with large-scale and huge distribution systems.

Being a compiled language, it finds its resemblance to C/C++. It also has some features of Java-like allocating variables, use of garbage collection, and object removal. This makes it an ideal language for any developer who wants to work within any hardware system.

According to Stack Overflow, Golang has earned a lot of respect and popularity within a very short time of its launch as it is desired by 62.3% of the developers. As per StackOverflow, it is the fifth-best language to learn for sure.

Golang is an open-source language that is emerging as a language that is truly meant for the next phase of the web. At the moment, Golang is used across multiple platforms, including mobile and web software applications along with the back ends.

Anyone who wants to master Golang needs to be willing to learn and to be updated consistently and continuously as Golang is an open-source language and it keeps changing with every major update.

3. Python

Built as a competitor for Java in the industry, Python was built by Guido van Rossum in the late 1980s in the Netherlands. In spite of being the oldest programming language, it is still relevant in the industry primarily because of its adaptability to almost every kind of application in the industry.

In the IEEE Spectrum, Python has scored 100 in the language ranking. It is a hugely popular and respected programming language among both the researcher and the developer community. It has a support percentage of 44.1%.

One of the reasons why Python would be a much-preferred programming language in 2022 is that all the industries are transforming into AI and are getting data-driven. Python would be the best option for these industries as it offers all kinds of mathematical and algorithmic packages. There are over 1 million packages available in Github which can be used to build almost any cross-platform software product using Python.

Python also offers great community support and there are so many third-party open-source packages, frameworks, and full-fledged open-source software that the developers do not have to work from the scratch.

Being a compelling language and brilliant for generating scripts, Python is most compatible with IoT due to its huge developer community, libraries, tools, and much more. The most popular products of Python include Django and Flask that can be utilized for web development. The fields of analysis and research use scientific tools like Jupyter and Spyder.

Though Python does have competition in the form of other languages like R and MATLAB, it is probably the best language to learn about machine learning or data science in general as it is simple and has plain syntax. No wonder then why almost all of the frameworks and libraries exploited in machine learning are built-in Python only.

Following are some domains in which Python is considered to be the most effective:

• Web development
• Desktop apps development
• Machine learning
• Neuroscience
• Medicine
• Pharmacology
• Astronomy

It is also one of the top programming languages for web development; especially contemporary social media sites or eCommerce sites such as Instagram, Spotify, Amazon, and Facebook. Python is surely a language for web application development in 2022.

4. Dart

In our earlier blog post, we discussed how Google’s Flutter exploits Dart which is one of the fastest-growing languages in the industry. The language was developed by Google and the tech giant launched it in 2011. Its simplicity has made it the most desired language by programmers.

Dart is the programming language that is used for building software that can be operated by anyone and everyone. Dart language is used by Google to develop many of its main applications including Ads. The Flutter framework is the greatest example of the successful use of the Dart language by Google.

Dart’s strength lies in its flexible compilation and execution. It is the only programming language that allows the developers to compile Just In Time (JIT) and Ahead of Time (AOT). JIT is used during development whereas AOT is used when the application is actually released.

Dart can also be compiled to JavaScript to be run by browsers. It can also be compiled directly to native code. This is possible only if its execution is faster.

It can be used for client or server-side development due to its versatility. Its syntax is like ‘C’ which means it is typed statically and offers more certainty on the types of values. Dart also uses arrows and asynchronous functions like JavaScript.

Hot Reload is yet another unique feature of Dart. Developers can test their code like an HTML as they can see the changes as they make them.

Its stability, ease of learning, availability of documentation, and high performance make it a very interesting programming language that facilitates web, mobile, and command-line apps. The use of Dart in combination with AngularDart would certainly make it a very powerful tool for web application development in 2022.

5. JavaScript

JavaScript was originally developed as a scripting language for Netscape Navigator in 1994. Netscape Navigator was one of the best browsers at that time. JavaScript came into prominence when it was devised by Google to build the V8 engine for Google Chrome in 2008. Since then it has earned its unique place in the developer community.

Designed for frontend development, it is a very simple and easy-to-learn language. Stack Overflow co-founder has famously said: “If any application can be written in JavaScript it should be written in JavaScript.”

With JavaScript, websites can be made more interactive with the addition of pop-ups, windows, and simple arcades. By introducing the ES2015 standard, JavaScript has transformed the web and mobile world totally.

Due to the introduction of Node.js by Ryan Dahl, JavaScript is now used for Full Stack development. Earlier it was restricted to client-side scripting languages. It offers a broad range of libraries and frameworks to be exploited by developers.

Node.js can be used as a platform for back-end development and JavaScript as a language. For front-end, angular, react, and vue can be used.

In order to check the intended functionality, flexible tools such as Jest and Mocha can be used to help set up unit tests.

JavaScript has the highest development community support which is as high as 67.7%. It offers the largest number of support packages among all the programming languages. The language is suitable for most application developments including mobile app development, web development, and desktop app development.

According to Stack Overflow’s 2020 Developer Survey, with 67.7%, JavaScript is the most commonly-used language in the world. As per Glassdoor, giants like PayPal, Google, Microsoft are using JavaScript as their programming language.

It is used for the following things:

• Mobile app development
• Web games
• The client-side of web applications
• The server side of web apps
• Desktop apps development

JavaScript reduces demand on servers and it has interoperability with other programming languages. It is ubiquitous and does not demand prior coding knowledge. Anyone can learn, practice, and implement it immediately. It is indeed the language for web application development in 2022.

6. Java

James Gosling, Mike Sheridan, and Patrick Naughton developed Java in 1991 which was called Language Oak. It was the first programming language to have a great global impact as it combined the same format of C/C++ along with some new ideas.

Mainly used in back-end development, Java has been ruling the programming language for the last 20 years because it is based on the principle of “Write once, Run Everywhere.” The principle implies that programs based on Java can be run smoothly on different hardware and operating system configurations.

Java is simpler than C++ as it uses automatic memory allocation and garbage collection. Being 99% object-oriented, it is a very powerful language as its objects do not refer to any data which is outside of them.

Being a highly cross-platform language, it can be compiled into low-level machine code and then executed on any platform with the help of JVM – Java Virtual Machine which is platform dependent.

Java laid the foundation for the Android operating system. It selected around 90% of fortune 500 companies to create various back-end applications. It offers a wide variety of libraries and frameworks that exploit Java under the hood. Apache Hadoop data processing, run by Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Windows Azure is one of the greatest examples of Java-based software platforms.

Java is used for app development through Spring and Hibernate. JUnit helps programmers establish unit tests for Java projects. Java is widely used in the development of native Android applications. The Android SDK is indeed based on the Java Development Kit or the JDK.

Mostly introduced as an introductory computer programming course in a college or a school, Java is often taught as object-oriented programming to the masses. It is a much sought-after language in the areas of analytics and research as well as financial and banking services.

Conclusion

There are some general criteria that define the demand of the language. They are:

• Number of written code lines
• Sales of books and manuals about a certain language
• Job offers that demand some experience
• Number of internet searches

However, these are very primary criteria. A programmer needs to have a thorough understanding of market trends and industry requirements. Six languages discussed above in this post are going to be the most important languages for web application development in 2022. Do take your call and pick the one or the ones that serve your purpose quite well.