What is web application development?.
A jargon-free guide to help you understand web application development, and how to get started building your own web application.
What is a web application?
Understanding web applications.
Before we get too deep into the detail, we first need to understand what a web application is.
What is a web application?
A web application, or “web app” is software accessed via a web browser over the Internet. This is different to traditional desktop or mobile applications, which are downloaded and run on your operating system directly.
Web applications are commonly built for specific tasks or functions. For example, Gmail (email), Google Docs (document editing) and Jira (project management). Any time you need to do something online that isn’t just browsing information, you’re probably using a web application to do it.
Web applications can be small and simple, or large and complex, and as such may be built by an individual in their spare time, or have an entire organisation dedicated to running them.
Web applications vs. websites
Websites traditionally just present information, whereas web applications enable users to create, update, and manage data.
The lines between web applications and websites are often blurred, as many informational sites incorporate small web app features. For example, a restaurant website (informational) may incorporate a contact form and booking widget. Similarly, some web applications function as websites for many of their visitors. YouTube, for example, functions as a website for most visitors who just watch videos, but as a web application for creators who upload and manage content.
For more on the differences between web applications and websites, see our blog post Web application vs. website: What’s the difference?.
What is a progressive web application?
A Progressive Web Application (PWA) blends the best features of web and mobile applications.
They are built using web technologies, but have the advantage of offering a user experience comparable to native apps on mobile devices, including features like offline access, push notifications, automatic updates, and installation on a user’s home screen.
Progressive Web Application adoption has historically been slow, as Apple have been reluctant to support them properly on iPhones. This situation is rapidly improving though, and in 2023 they offer a fantastic “build once, run anywhere” option for organisations looking to build experiences that can be accessed by their customers in a single tap or click.
Advantages of web applications
Development cost: Web applications are generally cheaper than traditional software development. Pre-built code and cheap services provide a lot of “off the shelf” functionality, and since they run in the browser, only one version of the application needs to be built.- Accessibility: Once deployed, web applications can be instantly accessed by anyone, anywhere in the world with a web browser. The web platform also incorporates many accessibility features for the differently abled, allowing web applications to be built for everyone.
- Discoverability: Since web applications don’t need to be downloaded and installed, visitors to your company website can become application users in a single tap or click. This makes it much easier to convert prospects into paying customers.
- Interoperability: At its core, the technology of the web is designed to connect. As result of this, it’s very easy to integrate things like payment providers, social media widgets, maps, audio, video and other services into web applications, enhancing their functionality.
- Portability: If you decide that you’d like your web application to be installable on desktop or mobile, tools like Electron and Flutter allow you to create native iOS, Android, Windows and MacOS versions. The same cannot be done in reverse for traditional software.
Disadvantages of web applications
Offline functionality: Web applications heavily rely on an internet connection, which can be a disadvantage in areas with unreliable or no connectivity. Conversely, once traditional software is installed, it can often work offline without any issues.- Performance variability: Web application performance can vary greatly depending on network speed and device hardaware, leading to a potentially inconsistent user experience. Traditional software can be optimized for specific platforms, making performance more predictable.
- Security concerns: As they operate over the Internet, web applications can be vulnerable to security threats like cross-site scripting (XSS) and data breaches. Traditional software can be more easily isolated from some web-related security risks, making it potentially more secure.
- Hardware access: Web applications have limited access to a device’s hardware capabilities, which can restrict certain functionalities that traditional software can leverage for enhanced performance or particularly resource-itensive tasks.
- External dependencies: Web applications rely on external servers and services, which can lead to downtime or functionality issues if those services experience problems. Traditional software applications typically rely on fewer external services, reducing this risk.
Understanding web application development
The big questions.
Now you know what a web application is, it's natural to wonder if you need one, and how much it'll set you back.
What is web application development?
Web application development is the process of designing, building, releasing and maintaining a web application.
It can be a complex process, and it’s important to understand that “development” is not just about writing code. Building software involves a variety of skills, including design, programming, project management, and business problem solving.
When people talk about web application development, they may be referring to building a web application from scratch, ongoing maintenance and feature development, or a mixture of both. It’s typical for a new build to transition into seamlessly into ongoing development after an initial release, as a popular web application will almost always require updates as business requirements and the technologies powering them change over time.
Do I need to build a web application?
If you just need to present information online, then you just need a website, not a web application.
If you need to do something that involves creating or and managing data, but your needs simple, you may be able to use a website plugin, or even an existing web application rather than needing to build your own. Plenty of Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions exist for common tasks like form handling, file uploads, payments, content management and customer relationship management (CRM). These can often be integrated directly into your existing website, offering a seamless experience for your customers.
However, if your needs are more complex, you want full control over your users’ experience, or you have an idea for a new digital product, then building your own web applicaiton may make sense for you.
How much does it cost to build a web application?
Web application development cost can range from a few hundred dollars for something very simple, to millions of dollars for a large enterprise project.
Estimating development costs of web applications (or any software) is notoriously difficult, but it’s greatly affected by factors like application complexity, design complexity, technology choices, and the number of features.
The decision to use in-house developers or outsource can also affect the cost. In-house developers may have higher initial expenses but offers more control, whereas outsourcing can have predictable up-front costs which could increase with additional rounds of changes.
For more on the costs involved in web application development, see our blog post How much does a web application cost?.
How long does it take to build a web application?
Web application development time can range from days to months or even years depending on the complexity and requirements of the application.
While estimating timelines in software development is very hard, it’s crucial to understand that a larger team doesn’t always mean your web application build will take less time. Larger teams incur increased communication overheads, which can easily cause development to take longer.
Assuming a fixed team size, development timelines will also be affected by project complexity, unique features, technology choices and development methodologies. Hiring experienced developers is a great way to improve the overall speed of delivery, as they can work much more efficiently and will avoid common pitfalls that may delay your build.
How to build a web application
Building a successful web applications requires more than simply writing code, and typically involves planning, budgeting, designing, testing, and managing stakeholders along the way.
Understand your problem or opportunity
Web application development is expensive and prone to unforeseen complications, so it’s important to get clear on the problem you’re attempting to solve, or the opportunity you’re attempting to seize.
Without clearly defined goals, it’s easy for your web application to end up bloated, with unnecessary features that don’t help your business.
Understand your business constraints
Before designs can be made, or code can be written, it’s important to understand constraints such as your available time and budget.
There’s no upper limit to how technically ambitious a web application can be, so unless you understand your constraints, it’s easy to fall into the trap of overcomplicating development, delaying value and costing your business unnecessary money.
Come up with a solution and validate it
Once you know what problem you’re solving and what your constraints are, it’s time to come up with an idea for how your web application will solve it.
Try taking some rough wireframes to your target users, and validate that they have the problem you’re trying to solve, and that your web application solution would solve it for them. Doing this early on helps to ensure you don’t waste time and money building the wrong thing.
Produce designs for your web application
With your solution validated, it’s important to get stakeholders on the same page about how your web application will function.
Producing designs for your web application will avoid nasty misunderstandings by giving all stakeholders a clear shared understanding of what it will look like, and how it will work. It’s often sensible to get help from a digital product designer or user experience (UX) expert with this.
Understand your problem or opportunity
Web application development is expensive and prone to unforeseen complications, so it’s important to get clear on the problem you’re attempting to solve, or the opportunity you’re attempting to seize.
Without clearly defined goals, it’s easy for your web application to end up bloated, with unnecessary features that don’t help your business.
Understand your business constraints
Before designs can be made, or code can be written, it’s important to understand constraints such as your available time and budget.
There’s no upper limit to how technically ambitious a web application can be, so unless you understand your constraints, it’s easy to fall into the trap of overcomplicating development, delaying value and costing your business unnecessary money.
Come up with a solution and validate it
Once you know what problem you’re solving and what your constraints are, it’s time to come up with an idea for how your web application will solve it.
Try taking some rough wireframes to your target users, and validate that they have the problem you’re trying to solve, and that your web application solution would solve it for them. Doing this early on helps to ensure you don’t waste time and money building the wrong thing.
Produce designs for your web application
With your solution validated, it’s important to get stakeholders on the same page about how your web application will function.
Producing designs for your web application will avoid nasty misunderstandings by giving all stakeholders a clear shared understanding of what it will look like, and how it will work. It’s often sensible to get help from a digital product designer or user experience (UX) expert with this.
Web application languages and frameworks
How it's made.
Now you know what a web application is, it's natural to wonder if you need one, and how much it'll set you back.
What are the “frontend” and “backend”?
There are two main sections of a web application, the “frontend”, and the “backend”. They have separate roles in a web app, and are developed using different languages.
The frontend refers to everything your users see and interact with in their browser. Things like buttons, form inputs, images and text are all part of the frontend.
The backend refers to the code running on servers elsewhere that responds to events on the frontend. When you submit a form in a web application, for example, the frontend usually sends the form data to the backend to be processed.
What is a web application framework?
Frameworks are pre-packaged scaffolding that takes some of the complexity out of building web applications.
They provide ready-made code to perform common tasks, as well as structure and conventions that promote efficiency and scalability in development. In many cases, frameworks also help to abstract away the divide between the frontend and backend to enable faster web application development.
Unless your needs are very simple, or extremely complex, a framework is likely to save you a significant amount of time when developing your web application, as well as setting you up for faster development going forward.
Frontend languages
Popular languages.
Web app frontends are almost exclusively built using the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript programming languages. Together, they deliver web pages as we know them.
HTML
HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is used to create web pages. It defines structured content with elements such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, and forms. HTML is composed of “tags” that wrap content to indicate its purpose (e.g., <h1> for main headings, <p> for paragraphs).
CSS
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is used to describe the look and formatting of a document written in HTML. It defines the appearance of layout, colors, fonts, spacing, and more. CSS rules are defined in stylesheets, that target HTML elements and specify how they should appear.
JavaScript
JavaScript: is used to make web pages interactive and dynamic. While HTML provides structure and CSS deals with presentation, JavaScript handles interactivity and dynamic content updates without needing to reload the page.
Backend languages
Popular languages.
Any programming language can be used to build a web application backend, but some popular ones are JavaScript (Node.js), Python, Java, PHP, and Ruby.
Node.js
Node.js allows JavaScript to be used outside of the browser as a language for general purpose development. It has has proven popular for web application development, as it allows developers to use JavaScript across both the frontend and backend of their web application.
Python
Python has gained a lot of traction as a backend language thanks to web frameworks like Django, Flask, and FastAPI. The readability of Python code, along with its scalability and versatility, has made it a preferred choice for many startups and large companies alike.
Java
Java remains a staple in the enterprise world and is widely used for building scalable web applications, especially with frameworks like Spring Boot. Its platform-independent nature and strong community support have kept it relevant for web development.
Ruby
Ruby (particularly with the Rails framework, often called "Ruby on Rails") is in use by many companies and developers for building web applications. Although less popular than it once was, its convention-over-configuration philosophy and expressive syntax make it a favorite for rapid development.
PHP
PHP is an old, but still widely used language for web application development. It powers many websites and is behind popular content management systems like WordPress. With modern frameworks like Laravel and Symfony, PHP remains a strong choice.
Web application frameworks
Popular frameworks.
There are hundreds of web application development frameworks out there, but some popular ones include React, Next.js, Ruby on Rails, Django and Laravel.
React
React is a JavaScript library developed by Meta for building interactive user interfaces. It allows developers to create reusable user interface components and manage how they respond to interaction and changes in data. It is an extremely popular choice for building web application frontends.
Next.js
Next.js is a more full-featured React-based framework developed by Vercel that makes it easy to build performant and SEO friendly web applications. It emphasises developer experience and productivity, at the cost of being difficult to run outside of Vercel’s hosting platform.
Ruby on Rails
Ruby on Rails is a mature framework written in Ruby. It champions principles that streamline the web development process, providing default structures for databases, web services, and web pages. It is well known for its rapid development capabilities, extensive libraries, and strong community support.
Django
Django is a high-level framework written in Python that promotes rapid development and a clean, pragmatic design that emphasises reusability of components to write less code. Django simplifies common web development tasks, making it easier to build secure and scalable web applications.
Laravel
Laravel is a popular PHP framework that simplifies common web development tasks such as database access, HTML templating, authentication, routing, and caching. It also boasts an active ecosystem of tools that enhance developer productivity and application capabilities.
Conclusion
Wrapping up.
We've covered a lot, but hopefully you're now able to tell your web apps from your native apps, and why you might choose one over the other.
This article should give you everything you need to understand what web application development is, the steps you need to go through to develop your own web application, and some idea of the programming languages and frameworks that you might hear mentioned if you decide a web application is right for your business. If you’re still unsure, or would just like to find out more, please get in touch and we’ll be happy to answer any questions you may have.