In addition to the basic differences between the individual programming languages, beginners may wonder what a programming language is at all, what the differences exist, and which one should be learned.
In this post, I’ll provide a short overview of different programming languages that play a role in web development. (Forgive me if I do not list all relevant programming languages to stay within the scope of this post.)
Rankings of Programming Languages
Various indexes evaluate the popularity of the most common programming languages, regularly publishing programming language rankings.
The TIOBE Index
The list below shows an overview of currently popular programming languages, based on the TIOBE index, as of March 2025. The TIOBE index considers the number of hits in search engines to calculate the popularity of a programming language. In other words, the more often a language is found, the higher its ranking. As should be clear, neither the quality nor the real popularity and spread of a programming language can be concluded from this information. In this respect, we advise you to consider this index only as an indicator and by no means as a criterion for selecting a programming language.
- Python
- C++
- Java
- C
- C#
- JavaScript
- Go
- SQL
- Visual Basic
- Delphi/Object Pascal
- Fortran
- Scratch
- PHO
- Rust
- MATLAB
- R
- Assembly Language
- Ada
- Kotlin
- COBOL
The RedMonk Index
Another index frequently cited is the RedMonk index. This index takes particularly strong account of relevant information from the developer community. For example, hashtags on community sites such as Stack Overflow are considered as well as the number of GitHub projects that use a particular language. Compared to the TIOBE index, this procedure is more meaningful so that its rating in comparison to the TIOBE index is more realistic and reflects the current degree of popularity for a programming language. For example, TypeScript also appears in this index (an extremely popular programming language at the moment), whereas Visual Basic is not included at all.
- JavaScript
- Python
- Java
- PHP
- C#
- TypeScript
- CSS
- C++
- Ruby
- C
- Swift
- Go
- R
- Shell
- Kotlin
- Scala
- Objective-C
- PowerShell
- Ruse
- Dart
The PYPL Index
Another index is the PYPL index (Popularity of Programming Language), which also uses search engine data to determine rankings. In contrast to the TIOBE index, however, this index does not use the number of search results but the number of search queries. This approach also appears to be more meaningful than the TIOBE index because current interest is assessed more strongly than past interest.
- Python
- Java
- JavaScript
- C/C++
- C#
- R
- PHP
- Rust
- TypeScript
- Objective-C
- Swift
- Go
- Kotlin
- MATLAB
- Ada
- Dart
- Ruby
- Lua
- PowerShell
- VBA
Which Programming Language Should You Learn?
Basically, don’t let yourself get influenced by an index when choosing a programming language, regardless of whether you’re learning a language or selecting it for a specific project. Rather, the choice of the “appropriate” programming language is an individual one that has a lot to do with personal taste. Also, each programming language has its advantages and disadvantages and can be well suited for some things but not well suited for others. Let me therefore briefly discuss a few programming languages in this section.
JavaScript
JavaScript is a language that supports both the object-oriented programming paradigm and the functional programming paradigm. In terms of object orientation, JavaScript is classless, even if newcomers may be confused at first glance by the class word class and the ability to create “classes.” Note that the “classes” in JavaScript (importantly in quotes!) are not real classes, only a syntactic refinement that help developers switching to JavaScript from class-based programming languages to get started.
While the JavaScript language has been used only on the frontend since its appearance in 1995 and in the early days of web development, it has also gained acceptance on the server side in recent years. The language owes this change from a pure frontend language to a frontend and backend language primarily to the Node.js runtime environment, which allows JavaScript code to be executed outside the browser (and thus on the server side). To execute JavaScript code, you don’t need a compiler: JavaScript does not need to be compiled but instead is interpreted and executed by a JavaScript interpreter at runtime.
Full stack developers will inevitably have to deal with the JavaScript language at some point since it makes sense to use this programming language not only for the frontend, but also for the implementation of the backend.
TypeScript
TypeScript is an open-source programming language developed by Microsoft that is based on JavaScript and extends it with various features, such as static typing (JavaScript only has weak typing). Via static typing, TypeScript allows you to specify a type for variables, object properties, function parameters, and so on, which in turn reduces errors the source code due to incorrectly used types. TypeScript code cannot be executed directly by browsers but must first be compiled into JavaScript code. Type errors can then already be detected during compilation.
Below provides an idea of the TypeScript syntax.
interface User {
firstname: string;
lastname: string;
id: number;
}
class UserAccount {
firstname: string;
lastname: string;
id: number;
constructor(firstname: string, lastname: string, id: number) {
this.firstname = firstname;
this.lastname = lastname;
this.id = id;
}
}
const user: User = new UserAccount('John', 'Doe', 1);
PHP
Unlike the other programming languages presented so far, which also play a role in other development fields, PHP is used almost exclusively for web development. Embedded in HTML code, PHP is parsed on the server side by a corresponding interpreter (the PHP interpreter) and is suitable, for example, to dynamically generate HTML, as shown here.
<html>
<head>
<title>PHP Test</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
echo "<table border=\"1\" style='border-collapse: collapse'>";
for ($row=1; $row <= 20; $row++) {
echo "<tr> \n";
for ($col=1; $col <= 10; $col++) {
$value = $col * $row;
echo "<td>$value</td> \n";
}
echo "</tr>";
}
echo "</table>";
?>
</body>
</html>
PHP was one of the most popular languages of the web for a long time. Although this popularity may have waned in recent years due to alternative “web languages,” you can still find a lot of websites developed in PHP. PHP therefore continues to play an important role in web development, if only because content management systems (CMS) like WordPress and Joomla are programmed in PHP. In addition, PHP is part of the well-known LAMP stack (the Linux operating system, the Apache web server, the MySQL database, and PHP).
Python
Python is an interpreted programming language, which means that the code does not have to be compiled into machine code before execution. Instead, the Python interpreter executes the code directly.
The syntax of Python is a matter of taste. Java and JavaScript developers might have a hard time at first because Python doesn’t use curly brackets and instead uses indentations to define corresponding code blocks, as shown in the listing below. However, once you get used to the syntax, Python code can be quite clear.
message = "Hello World!"
for x in range(5):
print(message)
Basically, Python can be used to program anything from command line applications to desktop applications to web applications. Regarding the latter, the server-side Django web framework is worth mentioning, among others, for simplifying the implementation of web servers with Python.
Moreover, Python is considered the language par excellence when it comes to the development of artificial intelligence (AI) applications or applications using n machine learning. Frameworks in this context include TensorFlow and scikit-learn.
Ruby
The Ruby programming language was designed in the mid-1990s by Yukihiro Matsumoto, with the goal that programming with Ruby should above all be fun and that the source code should above all be understandable for developers. The language supports several programming paradigms, including procedural, object-oriented, and functional programming.
message = "Hello World!"
for a in 1..5 do
puts message
end
With regard to web development, Ruby became known in particular through the web framework called Ruby on Rails. However, like PHP, Ruby and Ruby on Rails have lost their popularity in recent years. A large community still exists around the language and framework, but due to competition from frontend frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue, much of the functionality of web applications is covered in the frontend, With the enormous success of Node.js, interest in Ruby and Ruby on Rails has declined significantly.
Java
Java is an object-oriented, class-based programming language. The syntax of Java is similar to C and C++, but this language has fewer low-level functions than the other two languages. Java code is translated by the Java compiler into machine code that can then be executed within the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). This approach has an advantage: Java applications don’t need to be compiled separately for each operating system. The only requirement for the machine code to run on any operating system is that the JVM be installed.
Java can be used for all types of applications: command line applications, graphical desktop applications, web applications, and mobile applications for smartphones running Android. With regard to the development of web applications, Java Enterprise Edition (JEE), the Spring framework, and the Play framework can take lot of work off your hands and deserve mention. These frameworks should be part of the toolbox of every Java developer who wants to develop professional web applications with Java.
public class ExampleClass {
public static void main(String args[]) {
int x = 10;
int y = 25;
int z = x + y;
String message = "The sum of x and y is equal to " + z;
System.out.println(message);
}
}
Go
Go is a programming language that originated as a hobby project by some Google employees and has gained significant popularity in recent years. Code written in Go must be compiled into machine code by a compiler before it can be executed. Interestingly, Go can be compiled not only into machine code but also into JavaScript code using the GopherJS compiler. This compiler allows you to write code in Go, which then runs (after compilation into JavaScript) within a web application on the client side.
However, Go is primarily used for the implementation of backends. Web frameworks like Gin or Revel or frameworks that help implement microservices like Go Kit or go-micro can be quite useful.
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
fmt.Println("Hello world!")
i := 1
for i <= 3 {
fmt.Println(i)
i = i + 1
}
}
C and C++
No list of programming languages is complete without mentioning the classics: C and C++. After all, the C language is already a good 50 years old and thus one of the most widespread programming languages. Then, in 1985, the (object-oriented) language C++ was launched, extending C with classes and objects. Code written in both C and C++ must be compiled by an appropriate compiler before it can be executed.
C or C++ are particularly suitable if you develop “close to the operating system” (for example, the Linux kernel is mostly written in C) or if you develop programs that must perform extremely well or must squeeze resources out of hardware (for example, computer games). However, both languages are poorly suited for entry-level programming and/or web development due to their complexity.
C#
The C# language is based on the C and C++ languages and was published by Microsoft in 2002. C# is a lot catchier than the two heavyweight predecessors: The language is often compared with the beginner-friendly Java. Especially in combination with the .NET framework, C# is also an option for implementing backends.
Similar to Java, C# code is compiled into intermediate code before execution, which can then be run within the runtime environment included in the .NET framework (Common Language Runtime). Like Java, C# is suitable for beginners in programming.
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace Example
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
string message = "Hello World!";
Console.WriteLine(message);
}
}
}
But Seriously Now: Which Programming Language Should You Learn?
After our deliberately brief overview of the programming languages that play an important role in the context of web applications, I would like to conclude by giving my personal opinion on the question “Which programming language should you learn?”
My advice for anyone completely new to web development is—you’ve probably guessed it—to take an in-depth look at the JavaScript language. Sure, some smarties still consider JavaScript as a “script kiddie language” and not a programming language to be taken seriously: Do not listen to them! JavaScript has changed tremendously in recent years, from a completely client-side programming language to a full-fledged programming language that can implement complex applications.
If you know JavaScript, a helpful pursuit might be to take a closer look at TypeScript. TypeScript builds on JavaScript, so getting started with this language shouldn’t be particularly difficult. More and more JavaScript frameworks are focusing development on TypeScript or at least making their APIs available in TypeScript as well as JavaScript.
The third language is then a matter of taste and depends above all on the area in which you work or want to work. If you want to implement larger web applications with complex backends, the choice probably falls on Java or C#. If you plan to take a closer look at CMSs like WordPress, and possibly even plan to write a plugin for WordPress, you can’t get around PHP. If your goal is to write a particularly high-performance application, C or C++ would probably be a suitable choice. And if you want to deal with AI and machine learning, get to grips with the Python language.
Personally, the first programming language I learned (after HTML, CSS, and basic Java- Script) was Java. The reasons were that, first, the language was incredibly hip at the time (at the beginning of the millennium); second, it was taught in university; and third, I had to master it at a professional level due to my parallel work at Fraunhofer Institute. It wasn’t until the release of Node.js in 2009 that I started to work more intensively with JavaScript again and got to know it as a programming language that should be taken seriously. TypeScript came next, and I’ll probably take a look at the Go language soon as well. I’ve had some experience with the other languages I’ve mentioned, but I haven’t really gotten “stuck” with any of them. But as I said, much of this choice is also a matter of taste.
Editor’s note: This post has been adapted from a section of the Full Stack Web Development: The Comprehensive Guide by Philip Ackermann. Philip is the CTO of Cedalo GmbH and the author of several reference books and technical articles on Java, JavaScript, and web development. His focus is on the design and development of Node.js projects in the areas of Industry 4.0 and Internet of Things.
This post was originally published 3/2025.
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