Best Front-End Web Development Tools & Software in 2022

Websites are an essential consideration for any organization, large or small, in the digital age, especially if it wants to command a global reach. A company’s website has become the first point of contact for many of its prospective customers, and as such, it is of utmost importance that the website is of the highest possible quality, taking into account functionality, aesthetics, and user experience.

Front-end web development is the creation of the user-facing aspects of the website, such as the graphical interface, interactive elements, and SEO. Developers use programming languages such as CSS, HTML, and JavaScript to create these elements. This can sound like a complex and arduous process, but thankfully, plenty of useful front-end web development tools are available to help you to design an optimal website faster and more efficiently. They all have strengths and weaknesses, but choosing the best tool for the job can make all the difference. Below, we run through some of the best front-end web development tools in 2022.

Best Frameworks for Front-End Web Development

Front-end frameworks assist in developing user accessibility. The top tools include a few well-established market leaders that have proven their value in the industry, but there are also some newer platforms gaining traction that are worth considering.

The Market Leaders

React
React, an open-source framework created by Facebook (now Meta), is no doubt the most in-demand tool, used by the vast majority of the front-end developers according to Stack Overflow Developer’s survey 2021. More of a library than a proper framework, it owes its popularity to its excellent functionality, stability, user-friendly interface, and availability of helpful guides. Another strong selling point is that it is not only suitable for web apps, but using React Native, it can also be used to create cross-platform mobile apps. It is a perfect tool for new developers, high-traffic platforms, or web-and-mobile platforms and comes highly recommended.

Angular
Angular is a popular TypeScript-based framework that stands out due to its two-way data binding feature, which quickly synchronizes any changes between the view and model states of your app or website. However, compared to React, it is considered more difficult to learn from a developer standpoint.

Vue
Although less popular than React, the Vue framework has a good reputation for simplicity and clarity, as well as easy scalability for large projects. Because it is not so widely used, however, there are fewer plugins and community-created extensions for Vue.

The Latest Trends

Next.js
This open-source web development framework enables React-based web app functionalities, and its main advantage is server-side rendering, which significantly boosts the speed and performance of your web app. Although the copyright and trademarks for Next.js are owned by Vercel (a private company), they maintain and lead its open-source development.

Svelte
Svelte is quite a new tool and has yet to catch up to React, Vue, etc., in the market, but it is steadily gaining popularity at an unprecedented pace. The Svelte framework is more lightweight than React, using less code. It is easy to learn, and most suited to smaller, bespoke projects.

Front-End Hosting Cloud Solutions

Cloud computing solutions for hosting your website are essential for the smooth and stable operation of your online service, especially in the case of high traffic. There are a few ready-made solutions on the market via cloud hosting platforms, such as Vercel, Gatsby Cloud, and Netlify.

However, using a fixed platform for hosting can be limiting, and it is strongly recommended to use a custom cloud infrastructure based on AWS services (e.g., S3, CloudFront, WAF, Route 55). An experienced software development team can be hired to create a custom infrastructure that best suits your business needs. MS Azure and Google GCP also provide similar services and features to host your application.

Best CSS Libraries

A CSS library is a collection of ready-made and reusable components for a website, such as user avatars, buttons, images, etc. Using an existing popular CSS library can greatly simplify the task of web design, providing tried-and-true, widely-recognizable elements for the user interface.

Recommended CSS libraries include:

• Bootstrap: The most popular CSS library, Bootstrap is well documented, with a large community of supporters, and has a reputation for being beginner-friendly and reliable
• Tailwind: A relatively new CSS library, Tailwind is easy to use and more customizable than Bootstrap, better for creating more unique-looking sites, even if the community support is smaller.

Front-End Web Design Made Easy With Expert Knowledge

At AccelOne, our nearshore software development team is experienced in developing software for customer-facing web and mobile platforms. Our developers and QA engineers have a proven track record in creating front-end solutions for industry-leading companies.

To learn more about how we can help you create the perfect website for your needs, contact us online or call 800.863.6814.