⚡ Backend Frameworks

Backend frameworks are software libraries of tools and modules that help developers build the server-side of a web application.

They typically provide structured routing of HTTP requests, database interaction and object-relational mapping, middleware and session handling, security mechanisms such as authentication and protection against common web vulnerabilities, and utilities for formatting output and managing application logic.

According to our research, backend frameworks are detected on 13.8% of all websites.
96.6% of these sites use only one backend framework, 3.4% use two.

⭐ Most Popular in 2026

The following chart shows the leading backend frameworks in 2026, based on market share.

The most popular is ASP.NET with an impressive share of 30.6%, followed by Ruby on Rails with 20.4% and Laravel with 11.2%.

🚀 Country Highlights

Here is a list of frameworks that are especially popular in certain countries.
Differences between global and country rankings are shown in parentheses.

✨ Best Backend Frameworks

Below is a more detailed list of the top 25 of the 67 backend frameworks we track, ranked by their market share.

Available filters: PHP Python Java .NET Node.js Ruby Go
RankNameMarket share
1
ASP.NET
Redmond, Washington, United States

A server-side web application framework that runs on the .NET platform and enables developers to build dynamic websites and APIs using languages like C#.

FreeOpen source
2
Ruby on Rails
Chicago, Illinois, United States

A full-stack framework that includes everything needed to build database-driven web applications using the Model-View-Controller pattern.

FreeOpen source
3
Laravel
New York, United States

An open-source PHP backend framework that provides all features needed to build modern web applications such as routing, input validation, caching, queues, and file storage.

FreeOpen source
4
Next.js
San Francisco, California, United States

A React framework for building full-stack web applications that offers server-side rendering, static site generation, file-based routing, and built-in API routes.

FreeOpen source
5
Nuxt
San Francisco, California, United States

An open-source framework based on Vue.js that enables developers to build full-stack web applications and websites using conventions like file-based routing, automatic component imports, and type-safe support out of the box.

FreeOpen source
6
Express
San Francisco, California, United States

A minimal and flexible Node.js web framework that lets developers build web apps and APIs using routing, middleware, template engines, and support for serving static assets.

FreeOpen source
7
ASP.NET Core
Redmond, Washington, United States

An open-source, cross-platform web framework and the successor to ASP.NET that enables development of web apps and APIs using .NET on Windows, macOS, or Linux.

FreeOpen source
8
CodeIgniter
Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

An open-source PHP full-stack web framework with small footprint, high performance, and minimal configuration setup.

FreeOpen source
9
Yii Framework
Chicago, Illinois, United States

An open-source, object-oriented, component-based MVC PHP web application framework.

FreeOpen source
10
Symfony
Clichy, Île-de-France, France

An open-source PHP web application framework and a set of reusable components designed to speed up the development and maintenance of web applications using best practices and high modularity.

FreeOpen source
11
Jakarta Servlet
Brussels, Belgium

Enables developers to write web UIs using pure Java.

FreeOpen source
12
Jakarta Server Pages
Brussels, Belgium

A technology that enables developers to create dynamic web content using XML markup, custom tags, expression language, and Java.

FreeOpen source
13
Apache Sling
Wilmington, Delaware, United States

An open-source web framework that uses a Java Content Repository, such as Apache Jackrabbit, to store and manage content.

FreeOpen source
14
Django
Huntersville, North Carolina, United States

A high-level Python web framework that encourages rapid development and clean, pragmatic design while following the Model-View-Template architectural pattern and the "don't repeat yourself" principle.

FreeOpen source
15
Livewire
Buffalo, New York, United States

A full-stack framework for Laravel that allows developers to build dynamic user interface components using PHP and Blade templates without writing front-end JavaScript.

FreeOpen source
16
Struts
Wilmington, Delaware, United States

An open-source MVC framework for creating modern Java web applications.

FreeOpen source
17
Nette

An open-source, component-based, MVC web framework for PHP 8.

FreeOpen source
18
Java Portlet

Java Portlets are pluggable user interface software components that are managed and displayed in a web portal.
19
SvelteKit

A framework for rapidly developing robust, performant web applications using Svelte.

FreeOpen source
20
CakePHP
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States

A rapid development framework for PHP that uses MVC, front controller, associative data mapping and active record patterns to help developers build web applications faster.

FreeOpen source
21
Rack

A minimal, modular interface and invocation convention that operates between Ruby web servers and web applications to standardize how HTTP requests and responses are exchanged.

FreeOpen source
22
Inertia.js
New York, United States

A toolkit for building single-page applications with React, Vue, or Svelte while keeping classic server-side routing and controllers.

FreeOpen source
23
Spring
Palo Alto, United States

A Java framework for building enterprise-grade applications.

FreeOpen source
24
Remix
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

A full-stack React-based web framework that delivers server-rendered pages with nested routing and progressive enhancement.

FreeOpen source
25
ThinkPHP

A Chinese open-source, object-oriented web application framework based on PHP.

FreeOpen source

👉 See Also

Data is based on the analysis of 3,320,618 websites.
Statistics were last calculated on .
For details, see our methodology and disclaimer.