Top 10 Web Development Trends in 2021

Due to the pandemic, thousands of businesses went online to avoid closure and remain competitive on the market. MobiDev’s Web Development team has considered the latest trends and innovations in technology that enables you to shorten development times, increase performance and security:

Trend 1. Betting on the Optimal Infrastructure

Regarding the speed of development, a cloud platform is one of the best options – though it entails considerable expenditures. Two main types of infrastructure services – Backend as a Service (BaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) – are available today. Developers’ attitude towards BaaS and PaaS and choice between them differs.

Trend 2. JAMstack as an Alternative to Tools for Monolithic Architecture

By applying JAMstack, developers do not bother with backend server logic, focusing on the presentation layer. The major part of the functionality is kept on the client-side, and other features that require heavy labour are realized through third-party APIs. This trend provides strong perspectives for web and app development, combining the best tools and technologies, such as React, Webpack, React-router, GraphQL, in one solution.

Trend 3. The Extensive Usage of Static Site Generators

The application of SSG is an increasingly popular trend for developing a new class of web apps. Static site generators allow for obtaining the page view in advance and serving ahead of time – no need to wait until the page is requested and generated. It concerns any view of the website at a build time. 

Trend 4. Switching to Headless CMS

Today, developers find headless CMS the appropriate solution, so we can see the increasing popularity of headless Ghost, Strapi, and Netlify CMS that are based on Jamstack. 

“According to the Research and Markets study, the headless CMS software market is projected to reach US$ 1,628.6 million by 2027; it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22.6% from 2020 to 2027.”

Trend 5. Uniting Serverless and Microservices

Back-end development trends have been moving from monolith to microservices for the last couple of years. Anton Logvinenko, PHP Team Leader at MobiDev comments: “By applying Serverless microservices, companies get out of vendor lock-in and can choose Lambda Serverless, Google Cloud Functions, or Microsoft Azure Functions on the basis of the project.”

Trend 6. Accessing Customized API

GraphQL is being used for providing descriptions of the data in the API. It could be perceived as an alternative to the REST-based architecture. In contrast to REST, GraphQL is an appropriate tool to request specific data.

Trend 7. Adjusting Web Development Roadmap

Guidance is a code that is being kept under version control. Therefore, in comparison with any simple document, it’s more clear and easier to maintain. In web development, applying design systems has become an optimal approach for cooperation between teams and directions, yielding better focus.

Trend 8. Facilitating Complex Solutions

There is a possibility to use ML tools offered by cloud providers. These tools are beneficial but expensive - providers charge fees for operations tax. And any new tool in the architecture increases total costs. Part of the need for complex tools can be avoidable, and teams have to take it into consideration.

Trend 9. Researching New Opportunities Carefully

Low-code or no-code platforms are already in the public eye. Another beneficial method is to import maps for micro frontends. Importing maps for micro frontends results in accurate separation of concerns. Nowadays, import maps are maintained by Chrome. Anyway, the SystemJS polyfill makes a wider usage possible.

Trend 10. Exploiting Enterprise Tools

Thanks to adding Sentry in the CD pipeline, debugging becomes more convenient and efficient because it’s easier to find out to which software errors are related. MLflow is universal for management and tracking tasks and supports UI- and API-based models. CI servers and development tools are in high demand. Also, developers should determine whether a project is large enough to apply an independent pipeline tool. 

We have outlined the most significant web app development trends that should be taken into consideration by the CTO while defining the strategy of the development.
More detailed information about the Web development trends can be found here on MobiDev's blog.

MobiDev is a US-based software engineering company focused on helping visionaries create their products with ease and joy. The company invests into technology research and has years of experience building AI-powered solutions, implementing machine learning, augmented reality, and IoT.