10 Most Popular Backend Frameworks

In this article, we will share the 10 most popular backend frameworks based on the GitHub stars.

1. Laravel

Laravel is a web application framework with expressive, elegant syntax. We believe development must be an enjoyable and creative experience to be truly fulfilling. Laravel takes the pain out of development by easing common tasks used in many web projects, such as:

Laravel is accessible, powerful, and provides tools required for large, robust applications.

GitHub repository - https://github.com/laravel/laravel

GitHub repository stars - 61.4k

2. Flask

Flask is a lightweight WSGI web application framework. It is designed to make getting started quick and easy, with the ability to scale up to complex applications. It began as a simple wrapper around Werkzeug and Jinja and has become one of the most popular Python web application frameworks.

Flask offers suggestions, but doesn't enforce any dependencies or project layout. It is up to the developer to choose the tools and libraries they want to use. There are many extensions provided by the community that make adding new functionality easy.

GitHub repository - https://github.com/pallets/flask

GitHub repository stars - 52k

3. ExpressJs

Express is a fast, unopinionated minimalist web framework for Node.js

Express.js is a web application framework for Node.js. It provides various features that make web application development fast and easy which otherwise takes more time using only Node.js.

Express.js is based on the Node.js middleware module called connect which in turn uses http module. So, any middleware which is based on connect will also work with Express.js.
GitHub repository stars - 50.1k

4. Django

Django is a high-level Python Web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design.

GitHub repository stars - 50.9k

5. Ruby on Rails

Rails is a web-application framework that includes everything needed to create database-backed web applications according to the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern.

Understanding the MVC pattern is key to understanding Rails. MVC divides your application into three layers: Model, View, and Controller, each with a specific responsibility.

GitHub repository - https://github.com/rails/rails
GitHub repository stars - 46.4k

6. Meteor

Meteor is an ultra-simple environment for building modern web applications.

With Meteor you write apps:

  • in modern JavaScript
  • that send data over the wire, rather than HTML
  • using your choice of popular open-source libraries

Try a getting started tutorial:

GitHub repository stars - 41.9k

7. Spring Framework

Spring makes it easy to create Java enterprise applications. It provides everything you need to embrace the Java language in an enterprise environment, with support for Groovy and Kotlin as alternative languages on the JVM, and with the flexibility to create many kinds of architectures depending on an application’s needs.

GitHub repository stars - 39.2k

8. NestJs

Nest is a framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js server-side applications. It uses modern JavaScript, is built with TypeScript (preserves compatibility with pure JavaScript) and combines elements of OOP (Object Oriented Programming), FP (Functional Programming), and FRP (Functional Reactive Programming).

Under the hood, Nest makes use of Express, but also, provides compatibility with a wide range of other libraries, like e.g. Fastify, allowing for easy use of the myriad third-party plugins which are available.

GitHub repository - https://github.com/nestjs/nest
GitHub repository stars - 30k

9. Koa

Expressive HTTP middleware framework for node.js to make web applications and APIs more enjoyable to write. Koa's middleware stack flows in a stack-like manner, allowing you to perform actions downstream then filter and manipulate the response upstream.

Only methods that are common to nearly all HTTP servers are integrated directly into Koa's small ~570 SLOC codebase. This includes things like content negotiation, normalization of node inconsistencies, redirection, and a few others.

Koa is not bundled with any middleware.

GitHub repository - https://github.com/koajs/koa
GitHub repository stars - 29.9k

10. BeegoJs

beego is used for rapid development of RESTful APIs, web apps and backend services in Go. It is inspired by Tornado, Sinatra and Flask. beego has some Go-specific features such as interfaces and struct embedding.

GitHub repository stars - 24.8k

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