Top 10 Server Side Solutions For Your Next App

This article will explore ten of the best server side solutions for your application. The list includes Back4App, Firebase, Ruby on Rails, Laravel, etc.

Modern businesses are leveraging technology in innovative ways to provide value for their customers. For instance, companies invest in developing apps with helpful functions and easy-to-use interfaces.  However, developers understand that server-side solution for necessary to make desirable app functions.

The server-side solutions are frameworks that have brought advancements to mobile and web app development. They consist of programming languages, tools, libraries, and interfaces that bring value to app development assignments.  

Most developers prefer server-side solutions that offer templates and other ready-to-use functions which make app development faster and easier to manage.

In any case, the best-in-class server-side solutions are the ones that offer more than tools and structures. They allow developers to create robust apps that remain responsive under heavy load.

In this article, we have outlined the top-ten server-side solutions for developing web and mobile apps.

Back4app 

Back4app is a leading Backend as a Service provider that offers a platform that allows developers to build robust and scalable apps.  This company offers a managed service based on the Parse server. 

The functions of this server-side solution help developers build apps with modern features faster and scale them automatically when the need arises.

This managed service offers an application server, scalable hosting, development tools, REST and GraphQL APIs, and app optimization utilities. Developers can query a database in real-time, send email notifications, and pish notifications without hassles.  All these features make Back4app likable among developers globally.

Core Features

• Storage
• Authentication
• Notifications
• REST and GraphQL APIs
• SQL and NoSQL databases

Pricing Structure

• Free plan
• Shared hosting at $25/mo
• Dedicated hosting starts at $250/mo

Keep reading to discover more solutions for server side development.

Firebase

Firebase is one of the leading server-side solutions that offers a suite of tools for developing, publishing, and managing your mobile and web apps. Developers leverage the Firebase platforms tools to develop top-notch features for their apps with relative ease. 

So, if you want to develop an app that offers an outstanding user experience, Firebase is an excellent server-side solution for you. It offers features like authentication, storage, push messaging, database, analytics, and much more. Since the services are on the cloud, developers can scale their apps without hassles.

Core Features

• Analytics
• Machine Learning
• Notifications
• REST APIs
• NoSQL databases

Pricing

• Usage-based shared hosting
• Free Tier

Express.js

Express.js is a minimalist framework for building mobile and web apps. It helps expedite the app development process for Node developers. Express.js provides a suite of middleware that responds to HTTP Requests and renders dynamic HTML pages. The framework uses to parse HTML augments from HTTP data and renders the results into templates.  The framework creates an internal routing table for performing various URL and HTTP request methods.

Core Features

• Expedites server-side development
• Middleware
• Single-paged web apps

Pricing

• Free to download

Laravel

This is a PHP-based backend development framework for building apps. It provides a straightforward way for adding modern features to your web applications. 

The interface of Laravel is clean and elegant, allowing developers to write clean codes and elevate their development skills. Developers love this server-side solution for its useful features like the database migration system. This function allows developers to build, edit and share an app’s database schema.  You can use Laravel to develop small and large web apps with amazing features.

Core Features

• Modularity
• Caching
• Authentication

Pricing

• Free to download

Django

This is an open-source back-end development framework based on Python. The framework’s name is inspired by the French guitarist called Django Reinhardt.  This open-source server-side solution can be used to build APIs that simplify web apps backend development so developers can build apps without extensive coding. 

Other desirable features of Django include stateless authentication, scaling apps, “share nothing” architecture, and the ability to add hardware at any phase. Django also helps integrate JSON and XML files seamlessly with a relational database management system.

The efficiency of Django makes it a preferred server-side solution for building apps that performs optimally under heavy workloads.

Core Features

• Secure
• Scalable
• SEO-friendly

Pricing

• Free to download

Ruby on Rails

Rails is an MVC-modeled solution that is developed with Ruby. Rails allow developers to create database structures, web services, and web pages. Developers use Rails to build apps, add database features, migrations, scaffolding views, and much more. 

This server-side solution provides a wide array of tools required to develop apps with modern features. Ruby on Rails presents a detailed error log that empowers developers to troubleshoot apps and fix bugs. It is the best solution for developing apps that is easy to test and maintain.

Core Features

• Automatic testing
• Automatic deployment
• MVC architecture

Pricing

• Free to download

CakePHP

Just as the name implies, CakePHP is a server-side framework developed on PHP7 to minimize coding and enhance faster development. Developers can leverage the modern features of this server-side solution to build apps with fantastic features in record time.  For instance, CakePHP handles errors excellently and offers a flexible database layer. 

Given that CakePHP expedites development assignments, it is widely used for developing prototypes and commercial apps. Some noteworthy features of this platform include database access, caching, XSS protection, CSFR protection, translations, and many more. 

Core Features

• MVC architecture
• CRUD functions
• Flexible licensing

Pricing

• Free to download

Meteor

Meteor is a JavaScript framework developed in 2011, it is widely used for building web and mobile apps.  As a full-stack framework, it is an excellent choice for building prototypes. That is why it is very popular among developers. 

Over the years, developers have come to appreciate the power of Meteor and have used it to develop commercial apps. The flexibility of this language coupled with an extensive number of packages makes it easy to develop real-time apps. For instance, it can handle both codings on the client-side and perform database assignments on the server-side.  

Core Features

• Ecosystem
• Database integration
• Live reload

Pricing

• Free to download

Flask

Flask is one of the most used server-side solutions for building backends for web apps in Python. This framework has enjoyed wide adoption since this framework was launched in 2004 by a team led by Armin Ronacher. The lightweight Jinja2 app engine and Werkzeug library make Flask an excellent platform for building lightweight backends for apps.

Setting up Flask is straightforward, it is a complaint with the Web Server Gateway Interface technology. Moreover, developers using Flask don’t have to bother about dependencies. Flash makes the required suggested which the developer can simply accept to make the platform work flawlessly.

Core Features

• Dev server
• Unit testing
• Documentation

Pricing

• Free to download

Nest

NestJS, which is also referred to as NEST is a robust server-side solution for building NodeJs-based apps that scale seamlessly. This technology supports TypeScriot and JavaScript. It combines multiple coding paradigms such as functional reactive programming, object-oriented programming, and functional programming. 

NEST depends on the Express HTTP Server framework, but can also work with Fastify. It has the advantage of providing a higher abstraction layer than Node.js frameworks and also allows the developers to use their APIs directly. In essence, the NEST developer can use several other third-party modules for app development projects.

Core Features

• Efficient
• Scalable
• Multiple programming paradigms

Pricing

• Free to download

Conclusion     

This article has streamlined the top-server side solutions that create value for backend developers. You can explore these solutions and choose the one that works best for your development projects.

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