23 February 2022
While the back end is responsible for the server side, the front end is the client side — the visual part of a web application that users see when opening the site in a browser. Whether your digital product is designed for smartphones, computers, tablets, or smartwatches, it needs the front end.
However, the front end is not only the visual component but also the logic behind everything that happens on the screen. It means translating miles of code into what the user interacts with — buttons, blocks, boxes, and menus. The front-end development technology stack depends on many factors and may differ widely. The Rocketech experts summed up the top tools and instruments front-end developers should follow in 2022.
The Holy Trinity of Web Development
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript are the three core technologies used for front-end development. Traditionally, these elements are responsible for either a layout or logic. In usual scenarios, business analysts articulate the problem, designers create layouts, and front-end developers translate this info into code so that the browser displays it accurately.
- HTML stands for the HyperText Markup Language. It structures the content and tells the browser how to display it.
- CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. It styles web pages by describing the appearance of an HTML document (colors, fonts, shadows, and effects). Pretty much all websites on the Internet are created with HTML and CSS.
Technically speaking, HTML and CSS are not programming languages; and real programming starts when it comes to logic. At this stage, front-end developers create the interactive elements. Essentially, it means receiving the data from the back end and accurately organizing the product’s logic for the user. Here’s where JavaScript entirely dominates front-end development by being the client-side programming language of 97.9% of all websites.
JavaScript (JS) is a multi-paradigm programming language commonly used as an embedded tool for programmatic access to various application objects. JS is what brings to life the page layout (HTML) and user functionality (CMS) of web pages.
Strictly speaking, it’s impossible to create interactive websites as we know them today without knowing JS. Today, JavaScript is the basic browser programming language, fully compatible with Windows, Linux, and Mac OS operating systems as well as all popular mobile platforms.
The Triad of JS Frameworks
One can’t talk about the best technologies for front-end development without mentioning the most in-demand JavaScript frameworks — React, Angular, and Vue.js. Certainly, you can hire a team of developers to write your product’s code from scratch. But using frameworks helps significantly save time to complete the project.
A framework is a ready-to-use model or a software template you can fill with custom code. It’s an intermediate option of flexibility and complexity between writing code from scratch and using CMS.
React, Angular, and Vue.js have been holding the top three positions in the State of JS ranking as the most widely used JavaScript frameworks since 2017.
React
GitHub Stars 183K☆
React is an open-source front-end JavaScript library for building user interfaces and rendering UI components created by Facebook developers. With React, developers create web applications that change the display without reloading the page. It enables applications to respond quickly to user actions like filling out forms or applying filters. Besides, React can fully control the front end. In this case, developers combine it with state management and routing libraries like Redux and React Router.
Who uses React?
- Facebook, Instagram, Salesforce, Uber Eats, New York Times, Walmart, and Netflix
Angular
GitHub Stars 79.8K☆
Angular is a free, open-source TypeScript-based web application framework developed by Google. It’s a structured framework for dynamic web applications that lets developers use HTML as a template language and extend HTML syntax to make the code concise. It functions on the browser JavaScript and works with any server technology. Brad Green, Google’s former Engineering Director, considered Angular a platform. It means that the framework is supported by plenty of libraries, tools, and services that create a complete and scalable development infrastructure.
Who uses Angular?
- Microsoft Office, Deutsche Bank, Gmail, Forbes, PayPal, Udemy, Delivery Hero, and Amazon
Vue.js
GitHub Stars 193K☆
Vue.js is an open-source front-end progressive JavaScript framework for building web user interfaces. It’s “approachable, performant, and versatile” and easily scalable “between a library and a framework depending on different use cases.” The main features include reactive UI, declarative rendering, data binding, custom directives, components, CSS transitions and animations, event handling, and filters. On top of that, Vue.js is lightweight and allows single-file components.
Who uses Vue.js?
- GitLab, Google, BMW, Grammarly, Xiaomi, Adobe, Nintendo, and 9GAG
Other Tools: Our Top Picks
As the functionality of web apps increases, front-end developers need a more advanced toolkit. In most cases, using just the code editor, terminal, Git, and one framework is insufficient to solve all routine tasks. From front-end design technologies to build and testing tools — every product has an instrument set to meet the requirements and achieve the objectives. Here are the expert insights on additional front-end tech stack options from Rocketech specialists.
Redux
GitHub Stars 57.5K☆
Redux is an open-source JavaScript library for centralizing and managing application states, used for building user interfaces with React and Angular. Redux is ideal for medium to large applications when it’s impossible to manage the application state with a standard tool (for example, in React) or any other library.
Who uses Redux?
- Instagram, Amazon, and Robinhood
MUI Core (Formerly Material UI)
GitHub Stars 75.8K☆
MUI Core is a React UI library that provides “foundational and advanced components, enabling you to build your design system and develop React applications faster”. It’s based on Google’s material design — a language that uses flexible animation and transitions, grid-based layouts, and depth effects. The library provides 100+ components, 1000+ icons, and Sketch, Figma, and Adobe Xd files for designers. On top of that, it has comprehensive documentation with code examples.
Who uses MUI Core?
- Spotify, Netflix, NASA, Amazon, Unity, and Shutterstock
Ant Design
GitHub Stars 78.3K☆
Ant Design is an “enterprise-class UI design language and React UI library” and the most popular library of this kind that provides the entire package of development tools and design resources. It includes over a hundred different components, from typography to tables. All components have attached Sketch and Figma files and support both JSX and TypeScript. Besides, the Ant Design documentation is clear and easy to understand.
Who uses Ant Design?
- Alibaba, Tencent, Lenovo, and Baidu
Storybook
GitHub Stars 69K☆
Storybook is a UI component explorer and a development environment for UI components that allows developers to view the library and component states and interactively develop and test components. It’s designed for React, Vue.js, Angular, and other front-end development frameworks. Moreover, Storybook provides many add-ons for interactivity, documentation, component design, and testing.
Who uses Storybook?
- Airbnb, Lyft, Slack, Microsoft, and Gov.uk
SwiftUI
SwiftUI is Apple’s framework for developing user interfaces for iOS, macOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. As this instrument uses the Swift language, it allows you to create applications of the same complexity but with much less code. SwiftUI automatically enables such features as Accessibility, Dynamic Type, Localization, and Dark Mode. Besides, it minimizes version control issues with the user interface as the code is much easier to read and manage than XML files.
Who uses SwiftUI?
- OkCupid, kevin., and Rose Rocket
Final Thoughts
Front-end development is a vast and ever-changing field of expertise that involves plenty of tools and technologies, with more appearing every day. When choosing the project’s tech stack, you first consider its architecture. If it is well thought-through (and you have a good understanding of the final product version), the choice most likely would be Angular. If the project is at the MVP stage, React or Vue.js will work.
However, the front-end development process goes beyond choosing one framework and includes various frameworks, libraries, other instruments, and their combinations. Moreover, it implies understanding the logic and principles of the back end and communication between them. Rocketech’s philosophy is to know that each project is unique and requires an individual approach and a hand-picked tech stack. By assigning the Dedicated Team to a project, we ensure that our specialists’ competencies meet the project requirements to create the highest-quality digital products.