Stay ahead of the game with our review of the hottest web development trends - from JavaScript frameworks to no-code/low-code solutions.
The web development world is evolving at a breathtaking pace. New technologies and tools are cropping up like mushrooms in a rainy fall. Each offers innovative features that make web solutions more efficient and user friendly.
Digital agencies, web development companies, and freelancers need to follow the latest web development trends to stay ahead of the competition and engage more customers or clients.
If you want to know what web technology or platform is the next “big thing” that will enable you to expand your business faster and make it more profitable, you should find our review of the top web development trends to follow in 2023 very helpful.
Unlike similar reviews that mostly draw general conclusions based on rather vague statistics, we collected detailed data for specific technologies so that you could get a more accurate picture.
Before we begin discussing the web development trends, let us explain how and where we obtained the data for our review.
Note that we focused our attention on the most common web development solutions and platforms rather than on software development solutions in general. Specifically, we put the following areas in the spotlight:
Now, without any further ado, let’s get started.
JavaScript libraries and frameworks greatly simplify the task of creating fast, well-performing, and highly interactive websites and web applications.
We have seen the emergence of multiple JS frameworks over the past decade or so. Some took off at once, becoming wildly popular among the development community. Others struggled, failed the test of time, and ultimately ceased to exist in a short while.
Let’s take a look at the current trends as far as JS frameworks are concerned.
According to data on w3techs.com over the past six years, jQuery and Bootstrap JS are still far ahead of the pack with the shares of 77.6% and 21.5% correspondingly.
This report shows the historical trends in the usage of the top JavaScript libraries since January 2012.
| 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| jQuery | 73.1% | 73.6% | 74.2% | 77.2% | 78.5% | 77.6% |
| Bootstrap JS | 16.5% | 18.3% | 20.1% | 21.6% | 22.6% | 21.5% |
| Underscore | 1.9% | 2.8% | 3.2% | 4.4% | 7.9% | 8.8% |
| Lodash | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.2% | 1.5% | 3.1% | 3.3% |
| React | 0.5% | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.3% | 2.5% | 3.2% |
| GSAP | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.7% | 1.7% | 1.6% |
| Angular | 0.5% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 1.2% |
builtwith.com gives us a somewhat different picture, with jQuery and React confidently leading the way.
Note: The year columns contain the number of live websites (in top 1 million websites according to the builtwith.com stats) built with a particular technology.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| jQuery | 550K | 580K | 600K | 650K | 650K |
| React | 12K | 15K | 65K | 112K | 110K |
| Lodash | 25K | 30K | 75K | 112K | 95K |
| Underscore | 45K | 55K | 87K | 100K | 100K |
| GSAP | 65K | 65K | 60K | 65K | 60K |
| Angular | 40K | 40K | 44K | 58K | 60K |
| Vue | 7K | 10K | 40K | 50K | 58K |
| Bootstrap JS | 90K | 100K | 110K | 55K | 50K |
| Backbone js | 15K | 17K | 17K | 27K | 25K |
| Mootools | 18K | 16K | 15K | 15K | 11K |
| Gatsbyjs | – | 2K | 3.5K | 4.5K | 5k |
What conclusions can we make as far as the popularity of JavaScript frameworks is concerned?
StackOverFlow is one of the largest web development communities on the Internet. Every year, they conduct a survey among the members about their preferred development tools, including programming languages, frameworks, and so on.
Unlike builtwith.com and w3techs.com, which provide present-day data, StackOverFlow survey results give us a glimpse into the future. They allow us to find out not only about the tools favored by developers at the moment but also those they would like to use in projects to come.
That was the primary reason why we decided to review the stackoverflow.co survey data as well. We discovered it to confirm the rising popularity of React and declining popularity of jQuery, as this table illustrates:
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| jQuery | 43% | 34% | 29% |
| React JS | 36% | 40% | 42% |
| Angular JS | 16% | 11% | 9% |
| Vue JS | 17% | 19% | 18% |
Another interesting trend is the growing share of Node JS among developers reported by stackoverflow.co last year. Almost half of the survey respondents (47%) marked it as the main framework in 2022.
One of the ways to determine the most popular web development trends is to gather search term statistics. Google Trends, probably the best tool for this purpose, provides no specific numbers but allows us to see the progress of a certain technology over time.
That’s why our next step was to look at search queries for the technologies we were interested in using the popular ahrefs.com service.
We focused on these two groups of queries:
Here is what we discovered.
Informational Keyword Frequency Statistics
Commercial keywords frequency statistics
Many content management systems like WordPress have been around for quite some time and have not lost their popularity among businesses since their inception. At the same time, a number of new, sophisticated no-code platforms have entered the market in recent years.
In a nutshell, no-code solutions allow both professional developers and ordinary users without a tech background to build software using a graphical interface rather than by writing code as it has always been the case.
What are the current CMS and no-code/low-code development trends? Let’s take a look.
Here is how w3techs.com has been ranking content management systems by popularity over the past six years, with WordPress outperforming all of its competitors by a wide margin.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| WordPress | 29.2% | 32.7% | 35.4% | 39.5% | 43.2% | 43.1% |
| Wix | 0.4% | 1.0% | 1.3% | 1.5% | 1.9% | 2.4% |
| Squarespace | 0.7% | 1.4% | 1.5% | 1.4% | 1.8% | 2.0% |
| Joomla | 3.2% | 3.0% | 2.6% | 2.2% | 1.7% | 1.8% |
| Drupal | 2.3% | 1.9% | 1.7% | 1.5% | 1.3% | 1.2% |
| Webflow | 0.1% | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.4% | 0.6% | 0.6% |
The stats from builtwith.com confirm the global popularity of WordPress over the last 5 years.
Note: The year columns contain the number of live websites (in top 1 million websites according to the builtwith stats) built with a particular technology.
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| WordPress | 200K | 230K | 250K | 260K | 270K |
| Drupal | 30K | 28K | 29K | 32K | 26K |
| Hubspot CMS | >1K | >1K | >1K | 13.7K | 16K |
| Joomla | 15K | 15K | 15K | 15K | 13K |
| Unbounce CMS | 1.5K | 5K | 8.7K | 10.2K | 11.2K |
| Webflow | 1.8K | 2.2K | 4.5K | 6.5K | 7.5K |
| Wix | 3.2K | 4K | 5.5K | 8K | 9K |
| Squarespace | 4.5K | 5K | 5.5K | 6K | 4K |
| Progress Sitefinity | 2K | 2K | 2.3K | 2K | 2K |
Unsurprisingly, search volume statistics and our research into web development companies also show that WordPress tops the charts both in the USA and globally.
Commercial queries search statistics for CMSs
Commercial queries search statistics for CMSs (USA)
Drupal remains the second most popular CMS. Other platforms, such as Joomla, Hubspot, Contentful, Craft CMS, and Squarespace, are searched for far less frequently.
Let’s sum up what we have discovered.
There is an abundance of low-code/no-code solutions. As the Low-Code Development Platform Global Market Report 2022 (a general study of low-code solutions, not just those related to web development) by researchandmarkets.com concludes, the popularity of low-code solutions will continue to grow. While the market for low-code solutions was $25 billion in 2022, it is expected to grow to $68 billion by 2026.
However, the search volume for most is extremely low or non-existent. People do not search Google for services to create websites using those tools.
The frequency of informational search queries for ‘Low-code/No-code development’ is 1,000 in the US region and 5,000 globally. At the same time, the frequency of commercial queries in the US region is 30, while being 10,000 globally.
The reviewed web development companies don’t focus on those solutions either. For example, they are not included in the list of services on the home page.
Other findings:
E-commerce CMSs allow online merchants to manage their stores from one centralized location, effortlessly performing all essential business operations such as product sourcing, marketing, analytics, and a lot of others.
New e-commerce platforms that have entered the market in recent years are more robust, secure, and convenient than their predecessors. Which of those are currently more popular and promising than their competitors? Here is the data.
According to w3techs.com, the list of the most popular e-commerce platforms over the past six years looks like this:
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| Shopify | 0.9% | 1.4% | 1.9% | 3.2% | 4.4% |
| PrestaShop | 0.6% | 0.8% | 0.7% | 0.5% | 0.5% |
| OpenCart | 0.4% | 0.5% | 0.6% | 0.6% | 0.5% |
Note: w3techs.com provides no statistics for e-commerce CMSs separately, putting all CMSs (WordPress, Drupal, etc.) and E-Commerce CMSs (Shopify, OpenCart, etc.) into one group. We have only focused on the latter.
builtwith.com has been ranking e-commerce platforms over the past five years this way:
Note: The year columns contain the number of live websites (in top 1 million websites according to the builtwith stats) built with a particular technology. The World and USA columns represent the percentage of sites built on a particular CMS in the world and in the USA, respectively.
| World | USA | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| WooCommerce | 2.7% | 16% | 8K | 12.5K | 18.5K | 23K | 23K |
| Shopify | 2.6% | 26% | 10.5K | 13K | 16.5K | 21.5K | 25.5K |
| Magneto | 0.9% | 0.5% | 9K | 9K | 9K | 8.5K | 7.8K |
| Wix Stores | 0.7% | 25% | 1K | 2.5K | 3K | 4K | 4K |
| Squarespace | 0.3% | 14% | 1.5K | 1.5K | 1.5K | 2K | 2.5K |
| Opencart | 0.2% | 1% | 1.7K | 2K | 2.2K | 2.5K | 2.2K |
| Prestashop | 0.2% | 0.6% | 1.5K | 1.7K | 1.7K | 2.2K | 2K |
| BigCommerce | 0.2% | 0.3% | 1.2K | 1.3K | 1.5K | 1.6K | 1.7K |
| Ecwid | 0.1% | 3.5% | 1K< | 1K< | 1K | 1.1K | 1.2K |
According to Google Trends, Shopify is an undisputed leader among all e-commerce CMSs. Regarding search queries for specific e-commerce platforms, the results look as follows:
Commercial queries search statistics for E-Commerce CMSs
Commercial queries search statistics for E-Commerce CMSs (USA)
So what do we have?
Based on the collected data, there is an overriding takeaway that we want to highlight: the web development industry is moving in two opposite directions.
Which direction you choose depends on your specific business needs and financial situation. For example, if your goal is to roll out an MVP to validate your product hypothesis as fast as possible, then low-code/no-code development is definitely the way to go.
On the other hand, if you have long-term objectives, wanting to ensure the maximum coverage of your target audience and provide the best user experience, consider a more complex approach to web development with state-of-the-art JavaScript frameworks.
Looking for advice on which path is optimal for your business or need help building a website or web app? We will be happy to assist. Our team of experienced web developers offers comprehensive expertise on using low-code/no-code solutions and leveraging the great power of JS frameworks, e-commerce platforms, content management systems, and more.
Let’s get in touch!
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