5 Top Back-end Languages in 2023

Back-end development is a server-side development covering anything that relates to the under-the-hood functionality of web applications, including app performance, security, scalability, ease of maintenance, etc. It's fair to say that developing the back end of your application is the most essential part of your project. The back end consists of the server, which provides data on request, the application that transmits it, and the database that contains and organizes the information. Choosing the right programming language and associated tools is only a minor yet essential component on which the future success of an application depends.

There are numerous back-end languages, and they all have strengths and weaknesses. The famous world rankings TIOBE and PYPL reflect the popularity of programming languages. TIOBE measures the number of queries related to programming languages ​​on popular search portals, while PYPL analyzes how often language tutorials are searched on Google. If you check those rankings, you will see they both put Python first. GitHub ranking also put Python first based on the number of projects. At the same time, a W3Techs survey put PHP as the most used back-end language. According to all mentioned rankings, Python and PHP main competitors are Java, C#, and JavaScript. So, let's examine our top 5 closer to understand the pros and cons of each. 

Python is an undisputed winner among back-end languages in 2022 and is likely to continue to outpace its competitors in 2023. The language is open-source and platform-independent - it can run on Windows, MacOS, Linux, and Unix. It is also compatible with advanced technologies like Machine Learning, Deep Learning, IoT, data science, etc. It was released in 1991, but despite its respectable age, the language has constantly adapted to the latest developments. Such world-known companies as Spotify, Netflix, Dropbox, Pinterest, and Instagram rely on Python. The main features of Python are the following:

Python has plain syntax. Developers value it for its simplicity and friendly syntax. Python's syntax resembles that of plain English, making it concise and easy to understand. The code length is 3-5 times shorter than, for instance, Java and JavaScript code. Fewer lines of code mean not only faster development but also easier maintenance. Using whitespace syntactically, Python seeks to be explicit and prioritizes readability. In other words, it strives to be as close as possible to human language. It runs on an interpreter system, meaning that code can be executed as soon as it is written. Consequently, prototyping becomes really fast. 

Python has a vast collection of rich libraries. They contain a large quantity of pre-written code, making the coding process simple and development time shorter. At the same time, Python allows the manual development of any required custom functions. 

Python is secure. Its easy syntax makes it simple for developers to script Python automation security tasks. The Open-source web application security project (OWASP) makes apps built in Python less vulnerable. 

Python has a low learning curve and a great community, so it is a fairly easy language to pick up. It is the reason why it attracted such a big developers community. And its incredible community is something that makes Python so compelling. Many active groups and forums are dedicated to Python, where developers can find the required answers or guidance. It is also very well documented. Almost all its libraries come with extensive documentation, and developers can even find code examples to see the implemented functions.

There are many Python frameworks for back-end development, but Django and Flask are the most popular in the list, and both are actively used as they serve various purposes. The former is a full-stack web framework that provides all of the necessary features by default. It is excellent for developing large and complex web applications. Django website calls it a solution for perfectionists with deadlines. Flask, on the contrary, is a lightweight micro-framework. It offers only the basic tools and capabilities and is brilliant for simple websites or developers who do not want to go into the complexities of Django. In Flask, almost everything has to be built from scratch, and it offers developers more flexibility when projects require greater customization.

Despite its benefits, Python has some weaknesses as well. Unlike native languages like C/C++, Python is an interpreted language, which makes it slow as its code has to be interpreted during run time rather than being compiled into native code. However, developers may argue that any language is not fast enough compared to C/C++. Still, being relatively slow, there are better choices than Python for real-time control-type applications, like video conferencing, online gaming, instant messaging, etc. Python's memory consumption is also high due to the flexibility of the data types. Python takes but doesn't liberate memory slots until it has finished executing. So, it is also not the best choice for big projects or memory-poor systems (such as embedded systems). It is also the reason why it is almost never used on the client side or for mobile applications. Python has limitations with database access, so it is not advisable to use it when smooth interaction with the database is required.

Anyway, Python is a booming programming language nowadays. Its advantages, such as plain syntax, extensive community, and fast development, outweigh some of its weaknesses. It is advantageous in big projects for areas like AI and math-heavy simulations. And it already has vast codebases that will need to be maintained. So it will not give its way to other languages anywhere soon, and its usage is expected to grow. 

PHP is a server-side, general-purpose, and cross-platform scripting language. It is one of the most popular, sustainable, and well-elaborated back-end languages that has been on the market since 1994. It is a pure back-end programming language that interprets scripts on the server side, just as Javascript does on the client side. So its application area is pretty limited with the back end. PHP is used by more than 77 percent of websites. Therefore, its popularity in the development world is undisputed. The most well-known PHP users are Facebook, WordPress, Wikipedia, Slack, Etsy, and DailyMotion. PHP features are: 

PHP is platform-independent, adaptable, and flexible. Technically, it belongs to the LAMP stack, including Linux, Apache, and MySQL. It runs on various platforms like Windows, Unix, Linux, and Mac OS and is supported by all major web servers, including Nginx, OpenBSD, and Apache. Most online technologies, from cloud services to seamless HTML integration, are compatible with PHP. PHP's adaptability and flexibility match that of other programming languages, and it's used in various application development stacks.

PHP supports many database options, including MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL, db2, Oracle Database, and MongoDB. As a result, developers have more flexibility in selecting the most appropriate databases for a particular project.

PHP has a low learning curve. With a robust ecosystem of resources available for beginners - numerous tutorials, manuals, references, and demo projects - it is relatively easy to get started with. It has already gained a strong community and has a massive codebase.

Multiple frameworks reduce development time and costs and increase the development team's productivity. Laravel is one of the best PHP back-end frameworks. It is free, open-source, and offers an immense development environment without installing PHP, web server, or third-party software. It follows an MVC (model-view-controller) design pattern and allows reusing available framework elements, making applications look more organized and practical. Its extensive set of features dramatically enhances the web development process, saving time for the project. 

Among the weaknesses of PHP is that it is synchronous with multithreaded blocking I/O (input/output) processing, which means that every module or function is processed in the code-specified order. If one query is not executed, the next one will not get executed until the previous one is accomplished. It makes it a relatively slow language, just like with Python. But PHP libraries can hardly compete with Python libraries, such as TensorFlow, Scikit-learn, Theano, and Keras, intended to construct web apps powered by machine learning. As a result, PHP is not the ideal solution for any app requiring machine learning.

Thus, PHP is currently at the top of the web development world. It is a powerful tool supported by a large community and extensive documentation. But this will most likely change as there are easier programming languages for web apps. Python already attracts more new developers than PHP, and this trend is not likely to change soon. Python deals with some highly demanded features, such as machine learning, better than PHP due to the presence of specialized libraries. PHP requires a significant leap in its evolution to catch up with Python. Otherwise, its popularity will most likely continue to decline.

Next comes old and mature Java. It is an object-oriented programming language released in 1995 and the world's second to fourth most popular programming language according to the rankings mentioned earlier. It has constantly been evolving and adapting to suit the latest market trends. It has gained incredible popularity because of its performance, simplicity, open-source libraries, extensive documentation, and wide range of possible applications. Java possible applications include back-end development and execution of many other tasks, including desktop development and mobile and video games development. It's not always the best choice for everything, but it can do almost anything. It is platform-independent - any machine running an installation of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) can execute Java programs. Airbnb, LinkedIn, Snapchat, eBay, and BlaBlaCar have their back-end written in Java. Java features are the following:

Java offers excellent performance and robustness. Java high performance comes from its Just In Time (JIT) compiler. The code is compiled into bytecode and then compiled by the Java compiler. Before converting into machine-level code, the code runs through Java Virtual Machine. Robustness equals reliability, and no other language except Java assures this. Java holds multithreading capabilities to maximize CPU utilization and give users quicker response time, multi-operations, better performance, and faster concurrent access.

Java is secure. Safety characteristics are built in Java and the runtime system. Runtime checking and static type are checked at the compile time. Having such features, it becomes challenging to invade a Java-based application from the outside. 

Java is one of the languages that have a steep learning curve. But learning Java is worth the effort as developers with a strong Java base can quickly switch to modern Swift and Kotlin. These programming languages are improved versions of Java with many similarities at the core. So Java is the key to success. As for the community, the Java community is one of the biggest and oldest and has active members. Certified and experienced Java developers support boosting the back-end programming of web apps.

There are plenty of Java frameworks, but Spring is among the best and most popular. With lots of documentation and an active community, it is used to create enterprise-level applications. Modules like Spring Boot, Spring Cloud, Spring Core, Spring MVC, Spring Security, etc., add numerous useful functionalities like configuration management, transaction management, monitoring, security authentication, authorization, etc.

So, right now, Java is less popular than it once was. Still, until the concept of object-oriented programming exists, Java will remain one of the widely used programming languages. As practice shows, some modern programming languages come and go, but only a few can compete with Java's popularity and durability. Java is not always the best for back-end development but never the worst. Java will be an excellent go-to option for an enterprise-scale application heavy on the CPU. Whereas for a startup, other lighter and easier languages are more preferable. 

JavaScript is one of the most widely used programming languages. Stack Overflow's Developer Survey 2022 ranks it at the top of the most popular technologies, receiving 65.36% votes from survey participants. It was originally used mainly only in front-end development. But the introduction of Node.js in 2009 boosted the use of JavaScript as a language for back-end development. So, right now, speaking about back-end development with JavaScript, programmers usually refer to Node.js rather than Javascript itself. Node.js is a JavaScript execution environment that executes JavaScript code outside a web browser. Node.js is suitable for developing apps for different platforms - Windows, Unix, Linux, MacOS, and other mobile devices can use NodeJs. Such world-known companies as PayPal, Uber, NASA, Trello, eBay, Amazon, and GoDaddy rely on Node.js. The main features of Node.js are the following:

Node.js allows unified code, meaning developers can build their entire application in JavaScrip. Unifying the front and back end codebase makes full-stack engineering teams possible, thus making the development more time and cost-effective. In this regard, developers can utilize Angular.JS for the front end, Node.JS with Express.JS framework as the back end, and MongoDB as a database. In short, it is the perfect tech stack to build one of the best-performing application software with JavaScript. 

Node.js allows the creation of lightweight and fast apps. Built on Google Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine, it compiles the code directly into the machine code, resulting in faster implementation. Node.js is designed as an event-driven environment, which enables asynchronous I/O. It operates on a single thread, allowing it to handle thousands of simultaneous event loops. Rather than being executed sequentially, the requests are processed asynchronously. Single module caching reduces app loading time and helps boost the responsiveness of an app since it can deal with multiple concurrent users simultaneously. It makes it appropriate for the microservice design. In contrast to Python apps, apps built with Node.js have the necessary reactiveness, making Node.js an excellent choice for real-time applications like instant messaging and collaboration tools. 

Node.js is easy to learn and has an extensive community. A JavaScript developer can pick it up immediately, and the number of developers using Node.js is constantly growing. With many active developers in the Node.js community, it is simple to receive responses to any technical question quickly. Node.js has a great ecosystem of packages and libraries, which are well-documented. Therefore, developers don't have to write everything from scratch. 

Numerous Node.js frameworks include different pre-built elements. They all aid in simplifying and accelerating software creation. Based on the GitHub ranking two most popular are Express.js and Nest.js. Express.js, a lightweight and minimalist framework with many HTTP utilities, is the most common Node.js web framework boasting over 58k GitHub stars. It is an ideal option to take advantage of high-speed operations with a straightforward architecture. The second in the list is Nest.js, with more than 51k GitHub stars. It is one of the most advanced and powerful back-end frameworks appropriate for constructing enterprise-level projects. In fact, its approach to architecture is similar to that of Angular's front-end framework. Like with Angular, NestJS is built and fully supports TypeScript, which facilitates writing bug-free code. NestJS is a go-to option for launching projects that are supposed to be scalable and easily maintainable.

Node.js is a fantastic tool for building scalable and high-performing online applications. Due to its non-blocking, asynchronous nature, developing highly interactive IoT-based apps, online chat apps, video streaming sites, single-page apps, and other I/O-intensive apps is often easier in Node.js than in other alternatives. At the same time, Node.js is a not-to-go option for anything requiring much computation. Therefore, it is unsuitable for developing applications with complex CPU calculations or apps relating to the financial field.

And finally, C#, a general-purpose language created by Microsoft in 2001. It provides fast compilation, scalability, and interoperability and is one of the most widely used languages for creating system back-ends. Inspired by languages like C, C++, and Java, Microsoft decided to make a language similar to Java but based on C++ and Visual Basic .NET. So C# took their best parts and innovated further by introducing new concepts like value types, properties, and events. Developed primarily for the .Net framework, it now has extensive applications in multiple areas, such as the development of desktop apps, VR apps, game development, etc. It was initially built for Windows and later adapted to Linux and macOS. It is one of those few languages constantly ranking under the top 5 programming languages at various standard indices. Popular websites that use C# are GoDaddy, Marketwatch, Stack Overflow, etc. Its main C# features are the following:

C# has a simple syntax. Microsoft took the original syntax from the C language, so the names and structures of these two languages are similar. It boosts the overall readability, so a developer can quickly understand the code and make necessary improvements. The high readability makes C# an excellent choice for large development teams. On top of it, it is designed to be a high-level language, meaning C# does lots of things automatically. While programming for C++ and Java, developers must manually prepare parts of code.  

C# has powerful development tools. Microsoft provides a comprehensive set of powerful tools to aid programmers in developing better apps built in C#. Visual Studio is one of the most important of all. Visual Studio is an integrated development environment that includes compilers, code completion tools, graphic designers, and many more features to enhance the software development process. In addition, C# comes up with a rich set of libraries that helps the developers for a faster and more efficient development process.

C# has a low learning curve. For developers who already have the basics of C and C++, it's almost effortless to learn it. It has one of the largest communities in the world. The .NET platform provides detailed C# programming tutorials and recommendations for particular cases, code formatting templates, etc. There's a separate GitHub repository for the development of C#. 

The most widely used C# framework for back-end development is ASP.NET Core. It is fully open-source and available on GitHub. It provides libraries and reusable elements to speed up application development and enable building the back-end for modern, cloud-based, Internet-connected applications. According to the Stack Overflow Survey 2022, ASP.NET Core scored more than 71% of developers' most loved frameworks. 

Although there are more modern languages nowadays, C# is one of the fastest-evolving programming languages. Being built and maintained by Microsoft, it will remain among the leading programming languages in the near future. Microsoft continually updates the language with new and advanced features, ensuring it is compatible with other Microsoft technologies. Similar to Java - it might not be the first choice for startups. Still, C# is one of the most popular programming languages for game development as it's used in the Unity game engine, which is today's most popular game engine. It is undoubtedly the best option for building pure Windows apps. 

Thus, the back-end tech stack choice depends on the application to be built, how it is architected, what kinds of traffic it needs to serve, etc. For an enterprise-level solution, we suggest you need Java. Node.js is a go-to option for I/O-intensive apps. If time to market is critical, but execution speed is not essential, we suggest you need Python. C# takes more time to market, but the app is faster at runtime and is an excellent choice for gaming apps. For small businesses and individual websites that do not need a lot of resources but cost issues are defining, we suggest you need PHP. With the PHP Laravel framework that can be hosted on shared hosting, it is the cheapest yet fast development option of all. We at Scrumlauch constantly monitor development trends and will help you select the most suitable back-end stack for your project. Reading time 13 min 1 sec