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General Discussion

Posted by Carl Martin
Carl Martin
12,088 Points

How to select a backend programming language?

I'm a bit confused when it comes to selecting the right programming language for backend coding.

It seems like Ruby, Javascript (especially Node.js), Python, PHP and Java can all be used for backend development. I read somewhere that Google uses Python and many startups use Node.js. Treehouse seems to have the most material on Ruby.

I want to build an application, that relies heavily on database queries. As far as I understand my Swift App would then connect to the backend through an API (I'm a newbie so this may be wrong).

There is so much conflicting information out there and I hope you can help me select the right one.

2 Answers

Ken Alger
STAFF
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher
Ken Alger
Ken Alger
Treehouse Teacher

Carl;

You really can't go wrong with any of those languages for back-end development and you can utilize them for a multitude of other tasks beyond web development as well. Choose a language in which you are comfortable and enjoy programming with and build your application. All of the ones you listed can handle database queries. Depending on how "heavy" that aspect of your application is, you may find some performance improvements with one setup over another. For example, and this is by no means necessarily accurate, you might find better performance with Node.js and MongoDB than Java and Oracle SQL, or vice-versa depending on your particular application.

Just my two cents, post back with other questions if needed.

Happy coding,
Ken

Carl Martin
Carl Martin
12,088 Points

Thanks Ken - this was really helpful!

Miguel Palau
Miguel Palau
24,176 Points
Miguel Palau
Miguel Palau
24,176 Points

Well PHP is like super common on cheap web hosting services so that's a plus.

Rails is semi-rare but still becoming more and more common on web hosting services.

Node.js is usually a feature you have to pay extra to get on a virtual private server or vps.

My suggestion would be to aim at the future and either learn Node.js with the full MEAN stack (MongoDB Express.js Angular.js and Node.js) cool thing about that is that everything is done with js plus its build with performance in mind.

Else go with Rails. But I found it a bit hard. So MEAN would be my perfect choice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MEAN_(software_bundle)