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Web frameworks and content management systems (CMSs) are designed to help the web developers in creating & managing interactive web applications, web services & digital content. Due to regular updates of web frameworks & CMSs, user expectations become higher. To meet user expectations, web developers rely on the new updates for more features & functionalities. Take a look at the top 10 web application frameworks & CMSs:
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WordPress:
It is a free & open-source content management system, written in PHP and supports UNIX, macOS, and Windows operating systems. It is not an independent CMS and its functionality depends on plugins and extensions.
Pros:
- Recommended for beginners
- Website development is economical
- Simple, convenient backlinking and syndication
- Mobile-friendly architecture
- Lots of professional themes
- Search engine optimization ready
Cons:
- Custom layouts aren’t easy to use
- Offers updates constantly
- Security concerns
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Joomla
It is one of the most famous open-source content management systems. It allows free usage of code without licensing fees. It is known for the best documentation and offers some excellent extensions.
Pros:
- Easy for beginners
- Best for SEO
- Finest content management capabilities
- Great performance management
- Resourceful, well-developed extensions
Cons:
- Difficult than WordPress
- Limited marketplace for additional modules and add-ons
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Drupal
A strong content management system that can handle complex projects of any level. It is simply not for beginners, requires a professional Drupal developer. It is created for fast and advanced performance. It is deemed to be one of the most sophisticated, open-source project community-run software.
Pros:
- Excellent for developing large and complex websites
- Security features are strong
- Provides room for creativity
- Got a rich set of modules
Cons:
- More difficult than other CMSs
- Requires time and effort
- Performance issues regarding speed and module compatibility
- Caching in Drupal makes it harder to use
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Magento
It is one of the popular open-source eCommerce platforms that allow modifying the source code as per requirements and templates. It can be customized to attain preferred functionality. Magento provides a flexible shopping cart system & user interface (UI) to online stores for better user experience (UX). It has inbuilt marketing, SEO & content management tools to sell your products & services online.
Pros:
- Free community version
- It is scalable & flexible
- More features than other similar platforms
- A large community of Magento users
- It is mobile-friendly
Cons:
- Expensive enterprise version
- Difficult to find experienced Magento developers
- Slow loading time makes it time-consuming
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Ruby on Rails:
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This is the best web application framework and is considered as the general-purpose website framework. It works on push-based MVC (model-view-controller) architecture and a lot of applications are formed using this framework. This software is free to use and developers can add the smart code and make it rich.
Pros:
- The convenience of using tools to create feature centric apps
- Easily accessible Library & the best code value
Cons:
- Slow runtime speed
- It is not flexible
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Net
.Net is a software development framework developed by Microsoft. It is popular, free and can be used to create mobile & desktop applications, IoT apps, gaming apps, and web services. It is supported on Windows, Linux, and macOS.
Pros:
- An object-oriented software development model
- A dependable and easy caching system
- Visual Studio integrated development environment
- Simple deployment and easy maintenance
- A large community of developers
Cons:
- Object-relational database support is limited
- Licensing cost building for .NET apps is expensive
- Issue of memory leaks
- Involves a vendor lock-in
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Laravel
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Laravel is a web application framework offering an expressive and sophisticated syntax. It makes the developer experience pleasant without forgoing the functionality of the application. It is accessible, strong, with potent tools to create robust and big applications.
Pros:
- Best PHP framework with the availability of diverse tools
- Provides an MVC structure
- Sophisticated ORM (Object Relational Mapping) support
- Simple to handle as well as abstract the routing process
- Good queue management
Cons:
- Less inbuilt support, community support, and slow development as compared to other similar platforms
- Slow and a new platform for developers
- Extending codes and classes is not easy for amateur developers
- Numerous methods included in the reverse routing process are difficult
- Tough for legacy systems to get transferred to Laravel
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Django
It is s free and open-source web framework. It is ideal for startups as it makes the process of web development easier which allows a web developer to focus completely on the development and improve performance.
Pros:
- Simple to learn
- Fast processing
- Clarity and readability
- Versatile to use
- No issues related to security
Cons:
- It is too monolithic
- Everything depends on Django ORM
- Components get installed together
- Knowledge of the full system is required
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AngularJS
It is a famous JavaScript-based open-source web framework that allows the developers to use HTML vocabulary to create expressive & readable dynamic web apps. AngularJS is managed by Google and a community of professional developers & corporations.
Pros:
- Loading time is fast
- Framework is lightweight and expressive
- Testability is easier
- Two-way data binding
Cons:
- Complete knowledge about the framework is required for good results
- Router has certain limitations
- It is a bit difficult to use the directives
- Code debugging is hard
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Squarespace
This software as a service platform simplifies web development, design & hosting. Its user-friendly content management system (CMS) allows developers to form a professional site in a browser without coding. It is very easy to use and manage.
Pros:
- Everything is owned and developed by Squarespace making it all-in-one platform
- Amazing inbuilt template design
- Pleasing backend design options
- Highly secured
- Good customer support
Cons:
- No Free Plans, only a 14-day trial is available
- Clumsy editor to some extent
- SEO customizations are limited
- Doesn’t work well with third-party content delivery networks
- Limited customized options available
Conclusion
Web frameworks and CMSs are fundamental and necessary partners for web developers. Trends & demands change with time, but they remain effective. Web developers need not discover functions to create apps or websites. All functions and accessibilities are in-built. It allows them to develop web apps and sites quickly, at a low-cost, and with more optimized features. There is no need to reinvent the wheel, each time. The best framework & CMS can be selected based on business requirements.