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Types of ASP.NET Development Services Application Design & Architecture Understanding the project requirements and designing a suitable architecture involves choosing the right ASP.NET components (MVC, Web API, etc.), architectural patterns, and cloud/on-premise setup to meet scalability and security needs.  The team often starts by designing and implementing the web application’s structure using ASP.NET in C#. Back-End Development ASP.NET services cover the server-side logic.  Developers implement business logic, database interactions, and APIs using C# and the .NET framework. They set up databases (e.g. SQL Server), write data access code (using technologies like Entity Framework), and ensure the back-end is secure. A core responsibility of ASP.NET developers is to produce code that is efficient, maintainable, and scalable for future needs. This includes following best practices in coding and architecture so the application can grow without major refactoring. Front-End Development If the project includes user interfaces, ASP.NET developers can build the web front-end (views, pages, client-side interactivity).  This means creating web pages and user interfaces with technologies like HTML5, CSS, JavaScript (and often front-end frameworks) that integrate with the ASP.NET backend. Quality Assurance and Testing This includes debugging issues, troubleshooting errors during development, and performing unit tests/integration tests to ensure everything works as intended.  Many teams conduct code reviews and follow continuous integration practices to catch and fix defects early. Project Management A custom development service often includes project managers who work closely with the client’s stakeholders.  They collaborate with other developers, designers, and any of the client’s in-house team members to make sure the software meets requirements.  Regular status updates, agile sprint planning, and direct communication with the client’s CTO/PM are common. Ongoing Maintenance & Support ASP.NET services often not only create new applications but also help monitor and improve existing applications and provide user support for them. They handle bug fixes, performance tuning, and updates (e.g. adapting to new OS, browser, or framework versions).  When Should You Hire Custom ASP.NET Development Services? When you don’t have a complete in-house development team available Building a complex web application requires multiple roles – front-end and back-end developers, database experts, QA testers, UI/UX designers, project managers, etc. Many businesses (especially startups or non-tech companies) lack all of these skills internally.  A custom development service gives you an instant, ready-built team of experts. This can be faster and more effective than trying to assemble and train a full in-house team from scratch. If your company has limited IT staff, an ASP.NET agency can provide experienced C# developers, QA engineers, and architects who start working on your project immediately as a cohesive unit. For complex, long-term, or evolving projects If your project is a core business application that has grown over time or has frequently changing requirements, a dedicated ASP.NET development team is a good choice.  Hire external APS.NET developers when the project is long-term, likely to evolve, or needs specific technical skills that you don’t have in-house.  The external team can bring deep knowledge of the latest ASP.NET Core features, cloud integrations, etc., and remain engaged as the project iterates. This is also useful if you plan to scale development quickly – an outsourcing partner can add more developers quickly as the scope expands. When speed and time-to-market are critical A specialized ASP.NET service delivers faster because they have established development processes, reusable components, and experience with similar projects.  If you have a tight deadline or need to rapidly prototype an application (for example, a startup building an MVP on ASP.NET), hiring an experienced ASP.NET team can accelerate development. They can hit the ground running with minimal oversight.  One benefit of hiring an agency is that if you begin building a custom solution and need to scale or speed up, an experienced software development company can readily add team members or adjust schedules to meet your timeline. When you require specific ASP.NET expertise or new tech integration Perhaps you need to implement something very specialized – e.g. building a Web API for mobile apps, migrating legacy .NET Framework applications to ASP.NET Core, integrating with Azure cloud services, or implementing high-security features for a finance or healthcare app.  By hiring a custom ASP.NET service company, you get developers who have done similar implementations.  If your business is heavily Microsoft-centric (using Azure, SQL Server, etc.), bringing in ASP.NET experts who know that ecosystem will ensure a smooth integration with your existing systems. They can also advise on architectural decisions using industry best practices. When your internal team is at capacity or you want to focus them elsewhere Even if you have an IT/development department, there are times when they are overloaded with other priorities (maintenance of existing systems, other projects, etc.).  Hiring an external team for a new ASP.NET project allows your internal team to focus on core business or strategic activities while the external experts handle the dedicated development work.  Many companies use this model to offload one-time or peripheral projects. As one tech executive noted, outsourcing short-term development needs to a team of skilled developers keeps your internal team focused and saves you the overhead of hiring more full-time employees for a temporary project. For projects requiring quick scaling or flexible resource allocation If your development needs are not constant – e.g., you foresee needing extra developers for a 6-month burst – an ASP.NET service is ideal.  You can engage them for that period rather than hiring permanent staff. Should the project scope expand or contract, you can scale the outsourced team size accordingly.  This flexibility ensures you’re not understaffed (causing delays) or overstaffed (wasting budget) at any point. It is often noted that dedicated development teams are useful if you want the flexibility to ramp resources up or down quickly without the long-term burden of in-house hiring. When Should You Not Hire Custom ASP.NET Development Services? When a simple off-the-shelf solution can meet your needs Suppose you require a basic content website or a simple CRM/ERP function that a readily available product or SaaS tool could provide. Purchasing or using an existing solution is often faster and cheaper than custom-building.  Hiring developers to create a custom system to fill a temporary gap or a one-time need can be overkill – a cheaper off-the-shelf software product might be a better alternative.  Custom ASP.NET development is best reserved for needs that cannot be met by existing software or where you seek a competitive advantage through a tailored system. If you need an e-commerce website, there are platforms (Shopify, etc.) that might handle 90% of requirements out-of-the-box. Only opt for custom ASP.NET development if the remaining 10% (or other factors like self-hosting, integration, etc.) justify it.  There are many off-the-shelf tools available that you can buy and customize. Some even allow branding so they appear custom.  If a commercial product or open-source project already solves the problem, and it’s not a core differentiator for your business, it could be prudent to use that instead of investing in custom development. When budget constraints outweigh the need for customization Custom development is more expensive than using existing software, because you are paying for engineering time to create something new. If your budget is very limited or if the ROI of a custom solution is uncertain, hiring a development service could lead to financial strain. Be cautious: the cost and scope of custom software can quickly blow your budget, especially if requirements expand. For small businesses or early-stage startups, it might be wise to start with simpler tech (even if it’s less tailored) until resources allow for a custom build. In short, do not hire a custom dev team if you cannot comfortably afford the potential costs, including contingency for overruns. For very small or short-lived projects If you only need a script or a very basic web page, or a utility that will run for a few weeks/months, an entire ASP.NET development service is likely overkill.  Such tasks could be handled by a single freelance developer or even an internal technically-savvy staff member.  Consider not hiring an agency when the piece of software you need is just to fill a temporary gap or add a single minor feature – in those cases, a simpler approach often suffices. How Much Does It Cost to Hire ASP.NET Development Services? Regional Differences in Rates Developer salaries and rates differ significantly across geographies. In the United States or Western Europe, ASP.NET developers are relatively expensive, whereas in Eastern Europe, the rates are lower (often for similarly skilled talent, due to lower cost of living).  For example, in the United States a full-time ASP.NET developer typically earns between $80,000 and $125,000 per year (with an average around ~$70/hour when converted to hourly). In contrast, in Eastern European countries like Poland  senior .NET engineers salaries are on the order of $60,000 per year. This means hiring developers from Eastern Europe or other offshore locations can often save 30-50% of the cost compared to U.S. rates, which is a major reason companies pursue outsourcing. Fixed-Price Project Costs In a fixed-price contract, you pay a lump sum for the defined scope of work. The cost here is entirely project-dependent – it will be estimated based on the number of developer-hours required, plus a margin for risk. For example, if a project is estimated at 225 hours of work and the blended hourly rate is $45/hour, the fixed price might be around $10,000 (plus some contingency). One important point: in fixed bids, vendors often include a buffer to cover uncertainties, so the quote might be higher than the pure time estimate.  If requirements change mid-project, costs will go up via change requests. Small, well-defined web projects (like a simple company website or basic web portal) might be a few thousand dollars, whereas large enterprise ASP.NET applications (multi-module systems, high complexity) could run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Always get a detailed quote and possibly break it into phases if using fixed-price. Dedicated Team/Monthly Rates If you hire a dedicated ASP.NET development team (staff augmentation model), you will typically pay a monthly rate per developer or a monthly lump sum for the team.  The monthly per-developer cost depends on seniority and location: for example, an ASP.NET developer from an outsourcing firm in Eastern Europe might be, say, $7,200/month. In the U.S., equivalent monthly costs would be much higher ($10k/month+).  By hiring dedicated offshore developers, companies can cut development expenses by around 40-50% versus local hires, after accounting for all costs. A dedicated team model sometimes comes with a minimum engagement period (e.g. 3 months or 6 months minimum commitment). Benefits of Hiring Custom ASP.NET Development Services Access to a Full, Skilled Team and Modern Skills When you hire an ASP.NET development company, you’re not just getting a single developer – you often get a ready-made team that includes all the necessary roles (project managers, backend/front-end developers, QA testers, etc.).  This "instant team" comes equipped with specialized skills in the ASP.NET (C#, .NET Core, SQL Server, Azure, etc.) as well as experience with similar projects. It spares you the trouble of hiring each role individually.  High-Quality Output and Adherence to Best Practices External consultants/developers often have broad exposure from working on many projects, which means they can inject fresh ideas and proven approaches into your software.  This can speed up development, lower risks, and ensure the final software is built to high performance and quality standards.  You benefit from their experience – common pitfalls are avoided. Additionally, they will make sure the application aligns with industry best practices (for example, proper architectural layering, secure coding standards, and thorough testing). Focus on Core Business & Less Management Burden By outsourcing the technical heavy lifting to a dedicated team, your management can focus more on core business decisions, product strategy, and other critical tasks. The development service will handle day-to-day project management of the developers.  They will ensure progress, handle technical hurdles, and often provide a project manager to coordinate work. This reduces the management burden on your side.  Handing off projects to an external team allows your internal staff to remain razor-focused on other projects, with the outsourcing partner taking care of the implementation details. Technical Support and Post-Launch Maintenance A key benefit of working with a development service is the continuity of support. After the initial development, the companies typically offer maintenance contracts or on-demand support.  Developers are familiar with the codebase and can efficiently handle updates, bug fixes, and upgrades (for example, migrating your app to the newest .NET version in the future).  You have experts on call who can step in if an issue arises in production. This gives peace of mind that the solution will remain stable and up-to-date. Leverage Latest Technologies & Security Practices ASP.NET development companies keep up with Microsoft’s technology stack improvements and industry trends. When you hire them, you gain access to modern capabilities like cloud services integration (Azure functions, DevOps pipelines), advanced libraries (for example, using Blazor for rich web UI or SignalR for real-time features), and so on.  They also bring strong security know-how – e.g., implementing proper authentication/authorization, protecting against common web vulnerabilities (XSS, SQL injection) – which is built into ASP.NET’s features. This means your project benefits from the latest innovations and security standards without you having to research and implement them from scratch. Factors That Make an ASP.NET Development Engagement Successful Select the Right Partner (Expertise and Experience) Success starts with choosing a vendor that has proven experience in delivering ASP.NET projects similar to yours. Look for a strong track record and portfolio in the .NET space. Check client reviews or references to gauge their performance on past projects. Ensure they are proficient in the latest technologies you plan to use - e.g., ASP.NET Core, Azure cloud services, front-end frameworks, etc.. A good partner will also demonstrate knowledge of your industry domain if possible. Define Clear Objectives and Requirements Up Front Document your business objectives, major features, and any specific constraints. If you have internal stakeholders (CEOs, CTOs, department heads) involved, gather their input to form a solid requirements baseline.  When the project starts, communicate this clearly to the development team. Clear initial direction helps avoid confusion and rework.  It's understood that requirements may evolve (especially in agile projects), but having at least a well-defined MVP or first phase scope is critical. It's been noted that lack of clear requirements is a primary cause of project issues - so addressing this factor greatly increases the chance of success. Adopt Effective Communication and Collaboration Practices Establish regular communication channels - e.g., a weekly progress meeting, daily stand-ups (if time zones allow), and collaborative tools (Slack/Teams for quick chats, project tracking tools like Jira or Trello for tasks).  Transparency of cooperation and close communication greatly contribute to success, especially under flexible development models. If something isn't working or you have feedback, communicate it promptly rather than letting issues fester. Use an Agile, Flexible Approach (especially for complex projects) Embrace an iterative development process such as Agile or Scrum. This allows for frequent check-ins on progress and the ability to adapt to changes.  A time & materials or dedicated team engagement dovetails well with agile methods, giving you flexibility to reprioritize features as you learn more or market conditions change. By working in sprints and delivering incremental builds, you can continuously validate that the project is on the right track and give feedback. Emphasize Quality Assurance and Testing Ensure that the development service includes thorough QA processes. From the outset, define the testing approach - unit tests, automated UI tests, manual testing cycles, performance testing if applicable, etc.  Monitor quality by asking for test results and perhaps doing your own UAT (User Acceptance Testing) on interim releases. It's much easier (and cheaper) to fix bugs and refine features during development than after the software has been deployed.  If your domain has specific quality needs (like financial calculations accuracy or medical data compliance), communicate those clearly. A good vendor should welcome this and possibly even assign dedicated QA engineers to your project. Maintain Project Governance and Senior Oversight For CEOs/CTOs of the company, this means scheduling periodic reviews (say, milestone reviews or monthly steering meetings) to stay informed and to provide executive input when needed.  While day-to-day project management might be handled by the vendor's PM, your organization's leadership should remain engaged to make key decisions quickly (for example, approving a change in scope or adjusting priorities).  Clarify Cost, Timeline, and Deliverables (and monitor them) Even in a flexible model, it's wise to set expectations about budget and timeline and then track against them.  If you're using a fixed price model, obviously those are agreed upfront - but then monitor milestones closely to ensure things are on schedule (or if not, understand why).  In a T&M or dedicated model, you should still have an approximate roadmap and budget in mind. Use burn rate charts or reports from the vendor to see how the spending aligns with progress.  Transparent pricing and knowing your planned budget usage is a factor in success -  you don't want surprises at the end.  Ensure the Team Can Scale and Support Future Growth Make sure the vendor is writing scalable code (you might request an architecture review or have an independent expert glance over it if you don't have that skill in-house).  Also consider future engagement: if you'll need ongoing development, can the team stay on board for maintenance or new phases? Ideally, the initial development lays a foundation that the same team (or at least the vendor) can continue to build on, providing continuity. Ensure the team can handle your project's future growth and scalability needs. This might involve using a modular architecture, cloud-ready design, and documenting the system for easier handovers. Cultural and Working Style Alignment If your company values strict processes and documentation, the vendor should be able to follow that. If you're more dynamic and fast-paced, the vendor should adapt to that style.  An alignment in professional ethos (e.g., both teams value innovation, or both value risk-averse careful planning - whichever is important to you) will smooth the collaboration. Even time zone strategy - like if you expect overlap hours daily, ensure they commit to that.  Why Hire a Custom ASP.NET Development Service from Belitsoft? If you have decided to seek an ASP.NET development partner, you might come across Belitsoft in your research. Belitsoft is a well-known software development company (headquartered in Poland) that specializes in .NET and other technologies.  There are several compelling reasons why a company might choose Belitsoft for custom ASP.NET development. Proven Expertise in ASP.NET and Domain Experience Belitsoft has a strong track record in building .NET applications across various domains, notably healthcare, manufacturing and finance. Their focus on these industries means they have pre-existing knowledge of common requirements and compliance standards (for instance, HIPAA in healthcare, or high security for finance).  This domain expertise can accelerate understanding your project and ensure industry best practices are followed. They are not a generalist body-shop. .NET is one of their core competencies. High-Quality Deliverables at Competitive Cost According to independent reviews, Belitsoft's team delivers high-quality .NET solutions at competitive rates. This suggests a strong value proposition - you can expect a robust, well-engineered software product without an exorbitant price tag.  As a Poland-based company, their development costs are lower than in the US/Western Europe, and Belitsoft passes those savings to clients while maintaining quality. You get the benefits of East European outsourcing (cost efficiency, well-educated engineers) with a company that has Western client references and standards. Successful Track Record (Case Studies) Belitsoft can point to concrete project successes. For example, one highlight project mentioned in an industry report is a telemedicine platform featuring video consultations and patient data management that Belitsoft developed.  Delivering such a complex healthcare solution (which would require real-time video streaming integration, secure patient records, etc.) demonstrates their ability to handle challenging ASP.NET projects end-to-end.  This kind of case study provides confidence that Belitsoft can tackle enterprise-grade applications with modern requirements. Comprehensive Service Offerings When you hire Belitsoft for ASP.NET, you're also getting a company that provides complementary services around the development itself.  They can assist with business analysis (refining requirements), UI/UX design, quality assurance (they mention including QA testers by default in teams), DevOps (deploying to cloud, CI/CD), and ongoing support.  Belitsoft can thus deliver a full-cycle solution: from initial consulting and architecture through to long-term maintenance. This one-stop-shop capability can simplify vendor management - you won't need separate providers for testing or design, for example. Client Testimonials and Reputation Belitsoft has been included in lists of top .NET development companies and has positive testimonials.  Clients have noted that Belitsoft “provided a dedicated development team and we highly recommend this company” for those wanting similar benefits.  Such references, plus their long-standing operation (they've been in business since 2004, over a decade of .NET experience), indicate a reliable partner. They also often work with startups and enterprises alike, indicating adaptability to different project scales. Focus on Communication and Transparency Being a company that frequently works with international clients (including in the US and EU), Belitsoft emphasizes communication. They typically assign English-proficient project managers and make use of tools for transparency (you'll likely have access to JIRA boards, regular sprint demos, etc.).  Cultural compatibility and work ethic from Eastern European developers are generally high, which helps in collaboration with Western clients. This reduces the friction often experienced in outsourcing. Belitsoft’s Engagement Models and How to Choose Dedicated Developer or Team You hire Belitsoft's developers (or a team of developers, plus optionally QA engineers, etc.) who work full-time on your project. They function as an extension of your team.  Belitsoft's dedicated team model allows you to have one or more developers who are managed either by your in-house managers or jointly with Belitsoft's project manager, but in any case, they focus only on your tasks.  This model is best for long-term collaborations or when you have a pipeline of work and want consistent personnel continuity.  Belitsoft being a nearshore/offshore provider means these dedicated resources come at a cost savings compared to hiring locally, yet you still get to hand-pick from their talent pool and integrate the team as needed.  You pay a monthly rate per developer or a monthly fee for the team. The advantage is flexibility and deep involvement (you can real-time reprioritize work) and over time the dedicated team becomes very knowledgeable about your product.  Clients who have ongoing development (for example, a SaaS product that will need continuous new features) often choose this model. Fixed-Price Project Belitsoft can execute a project for a fixed cost if the scope is clearly defined. In this model, you would work with Belitsoft to specify requirements in detail upfront - once both sides agree on the deliverables, Belitsoft will provide a fixed price and timeline for completion.  This is suitable for well-defined, smaller projects or MVPs. It gives you a predictable budget and is somewhat “hands-off” after kickoff (though you'll want to monitor progress).  Belitsoft uses this model for clients who have a very clear specification or for initial phases/prototypes. It's a good choice if you have fixed requirements, limited budget, and need a guarantee of delivery for that set scope.  Time & Material (Hourly Billing) Belitsoft also supports a classic time & materials model. You don't commit to specific people or full-time resources, but rather they log hours on your project and bill periodically. It's effectively outsourcing on a pay-as-you-go basis. This model is ideal when you have an evolving project or need support in sporadic bursts.  For example, you might need 100 hours of a .NET developer's time in January, then nothing in February, then 50 hours in March - T&M can handle that variability.  It offers maximum flexibility for changing requirements, as you can adjust the workload and deliverables on the fly. It also allows incorporating continuous feedback, as you're not bounded by a pre-set scope.  Belitsoft tracks hours via timesheets and will charge based on agreed hourly rates for different roles. In addition to these, Belitsoft have variants or hybrids (for instance, Staff Augmentation which is good the dedicated model, or Managed Team where you get a dedicated team but Belitsoft also provides a project manager on their side to manage day-to-day). They also offer consulting or discovery engagements (short-term fixed-price analysis phases that can precede a larger project).

What is Blazor Blazor is a framework made by Microsoft to build interactive websites with C#. Before Blazor, you had to write server code in C# and browser code in JavaScript. Frameworks like Angular and React force teams to maintain more languages, build tools, and packages. You needed to know both languages and manage two sets of tools. Blazor gives the same interactive experience without requiring a separate JavaScript framework. You can write most of your code in C#. When you need specific JavaScript libraries or browser features, you can call JavaScript from C#. Hosting models Blazor Server keeps all working code on the server. SignalR connects the browser to the server and sends small updates in response to user interactions (button clicks, form submissions, etc.). This makes the page load faster initially and works on older browsers. But the connection between the browser and server must stay open the whole time. Your server uses more memory too for each user. Blazor WebAssembly loads the .NET runtime into the browser. It doesn't need to send requests to a server for each action. You can work offline with it. WebAssembly shifts compute load to the client and lowers ongoing server costs. But the downside is that it takes longer to load at first because a visitor's browser is downloading the runtime and your application code. .NET 8 introduced Auto render mode as part of the new Blazor Web App template. This mode combines Server and WebAssembly. Pages load quickly using Blazor Server first, then .NET downloads WebAssembly in the background. Once it is ready, the application switches to run in the browser. User interactions no longer require a server connection. Blazor Hybrid puts the same C# components inside a .NET MAUI WebView. So you write your UI in Razor/HTML with C#. It looks the same on desktop and mobile. These apps also have access to native device features like cameras and GPS. Advantages of Blazor to create a .NET application No JavaScript Required (though you can use it if needed) Blazor enables you to write client-side code in C# that runs in the browser without you writing JavaScript. You can add interactive elements to the UI (to update with real-time data, or handle complex forms) using C# code. Previously, ASP.NET MVC and Razor Pages were server-based. To add client-side features, developers had to add JavaScript or build a separate single-page application. Fast Initial Load, Less CPU/Memory Usage With pure Blazor WebAssembly or pure Blazor Server (before .NET 8), you had to choose one model upfront (each had significant trade-offs). Auto mode gives you both without any reconfiguration. Initially, you get fast page loads with server rendering. The WebAssembly runtime downloads in the background. Once it has finished downloading, the application switches to WebAssembly. Server load is reduced, and user interface interactions become faster. On subsequent visits, the cached WebAssembly files are used from the start. Built-in security and compliance New Blazor web application projects are configured with HTTPS, HSTS, and antiforgery middleware enabled by default. Assemblies are packaged in the Webcil format rather than as raw DLLs, preventing antivirus or host blocks that would otherwise block DLL downloads. Static hosting option when needed For scenarios that allow only static files (such as file shares, GitHub Pages, or Azure Static Web Apps), the Blazor WebAssembly Standalone template packages the application without server dependencies, preserving deployment flexibility. Long-term support and streamlined templates .NET 8 is a long-term support (LTS) release, providing security and servicing updates through 2028. Microsoft has reduced the Blazor template set to two main web options plus one hybrid template, lowering maintenance overhead and simplifying project selection. Shared C# code reduces duplication Business models, validation logic, and user interface components can run on both the server and the client, reducing duplicate code and speeding delivery. Free, cross-platform development tools It's a modern .NET platform feature that Blazor gets automatically. The old .NET technologies like Web Forms and the original ASP.NET MVC on .NET Framework only worked on Windows. You needed expensive Visual Studio Professional or Enterprise licenses. Blazor supports cross-platform development: Windows, macOS, Linux. You do not need expensive development tools: Visual Studio Community Edition, Visual Studio Code, JetBrains Rider, and the dotnet CLI are free. This is a significant advantage for companies maintaining legacy .NET applications and planning to migrate from Web Forms or old ASP.NET MVC. State management in a Blazor application Every modern application has to remember things - customer choices, the items in a basket, user preferences, and so on. In Blazor-based systems, that memory, or "state," can be stored in different places.  When the application runs on the server, a real-time SignalR connection holds the state in server memory. When it runs entirely in the browser (WebAssembly), the state is in the user’s tab. If the page reloads or the connection drops, everything in memory disappears, which is why state management is critical to a smooth customer experience. There are several practical ways to keep the data safe: Server storage Databases, blob stores, and similar services hold information permanently and are always accessible, no matter how the front end is hosted. The URL Small identifiers - like a blog post ID or a page number - can be placed in the address bar so that a link will always recreate the same view. It is useful for sharing links but unsuitable for anything that should remain private or invisible. Browser storage. Modern browsers offer local storage (persists across sessions) and session storage (cleared when a tab closes). On the server version of Blazor, the data can be encrypted automatically; on the browser-only version, it remains readable, so it must never hold sensitive details such as prices, discounts, or personal data. In-memory services A small C# service kept alive by dependency injection can act as a "live clipboard" while the user is on the site. In the server model, one instance can serve every visitor and even broadcast changes instantly - useful for dashboards or live editing. For browser-only hosting, the same effect requires a lightweight real-time channel such as SignalR. Root-level cascading values This feature lets the application publish a single object - say, the user’s theme preference - and have every component pick it up automatically, refreshing whenever the value changes. Each approach has trade-offs in performance, security, and development cost, but together they give the organization a flexible toolkit: Customers do not lose their basket when the page reloads. Links carry the right context for marketing campaigns. Administrators can push live updates to every open screen without writing JavaScript. Sensitive data stays on the server or in encrypted storage. Custom Blazor Components Blazor delivers web applications as collections of modular "components," each packaged in a single .razor file that combines layout and C# logic. Engineers can keep code and markup together for rapid prototyping, separate them for easier maintenance, or write purely in C# when low-level control is required. Underlying this model is Blazor’s dependency injection framework. Shared services - such as data access, configuration, or logging - can be registered once and injected wherever they are needed. Services can be scoped to the whole application, to each user’s active session, or to individual operations, giving architects clear levers for controlling resource use and isolation. Every component can be delivered in one of four modes. It can be a cost-efficient static page, a live server connected screen, a fully client-side WebAssembly experience that relieves the server of processing, or a hybrid that starts on the server and migrates to the browser automatically. These decisions are made on a page-by-page basis, allowing teams to match hosting cost and performance to business needs without restructuring the application. Because components compile into standard .NET libraries, the same user interface code can be shared across multiple projects and can switch data sources - from a local JSON file today to a cloud API tomorrow - without rewriting the front end. This modular, service-oriented architecture reduces development effort, eases future integration work, and lets organizations tune operating costs and user experience with precision. Advanced Blazor Components Blazor approaches the user interface as a collection of small, self-contained building blocks called components. Each component can display data, react to user input, and be reused wherever it is needed.  Data moves between a component and its on-screen representation in one of two ways. With one-way binding, the component pushes information to the page. With two-way binding, the page can also push changes back to the component. Two-way binding relies on a simple naming rule - pair each value with a companion "Changed" callback - and Blazor takes care of synchronizing the data and refreshing the screen. A component signals that something has changed through an EventCallback. This callback is lightweight and automatically triggers a screen refresh when it completes, so developers do not have to write additional plumbing. When more than one downstream function must react, the developer can expose an ordinary .NET action or event instead. A component can accept a slice of markup - called a render fragment - and incorporate it directly into its output. This ChildContent lets a developer drop custom content between the component’s start and end tags without extra code. Render fragments are lighter than creating a separate component for every item in a list, so they reduce memory use and speed up page rendering. These capabilities encourage teams to package repeating patterns into shared components and to wrap third-party controls behind well-defined abstractions. The result is a codebase that stays consistent across developers, adapts quickly to design changes, and scales without unnecessary performance overhead. Building Forms with Validation in Blazor Blazor lets a development team build web forms with features out of the box.  Its form wrapper, EditForm, removes the need to hand-code submission targets - it automatically tracks which fields the user has touched, validates input, and reports problems in real time. The platform supplies ready-made controls - text boxes, check boxes, date and number pickers, file uploads, radio buttons, dropdowns, and components that display validation errors - so engineers focus on business rules, not low-level plumbing. Validation is driven by the Data Annotations attributes. By tagging model properties with declarations such as "Required" or "Range," developers gain automatic front-end and back-end checks without extra code. Blazor also adds CSS classes that indicate whether a field is valid, and these can be remapped to match the chosen design framework (for example, Bootstrap’s .is-valid and .is-invalid).  Teams can choose to update data on every keystroke, after a field loses focus, or under explicit programmatic control.  Blazor also protects unsaved work. A NavigationLock feature prevents accidental data loss when users, for example, refresh, or close the tab, ensuring they don’t discard work unintentionally. An accompanying helper component determines when the warning should appear and suppresses it once data is saved. The mechanism works seamlessly in interactive render modes and, with minor limitations, in static server-rendered pages. Finally, server-rendered forms can post data without relying on WebAssembly or persistent SignalR connections. Developers tag the form with a standard method="post" plus a name, and add an attribute to preserve scroll position after submission.  Individual fields marked as "permanent" keep their values between navigations, which streamlines common tasks such as repeated searches. In short, the framework now provides a pipeline for secure, validated data entry that is easy to style, easy to extend - all while keeping development effort low and future maintenance predictable. Creating an API in Blazor Blazor Server already keeps the code and its security checks on the server and does not need that extra layer.  Blazor WebAssembly, by contrast, runs entirely in the browser, so every request to read or change data must pass through a small REST service on the server.  The API exposes the three actions for every data type: GET retrieves data, POST creates new records, PUT updates existing ones - the server decides whether a record already exists, DELETE removes records. Any operation that changes or removes information is automatically locked behind authentication, while reads can stay open if desired.  Microsoft’s Minimal API syntax declares these endpoints in just a few lines, keeping the codebase small but still ready to grow.  In the browser, a WebAssembly client calls the same endpoints through an HttpClient that attaches the user’s access token and redirects to the sign-in page if the token is missing.  Because both server and client use the same interface, the rest of the application behaves identically whether it is hosted on the server or in the browser. Authentication and Authorization in Blazor Only authorized users should be able to change website content. ASP.NET Core supplies the authentication framework (cookie handling, token validation, role checks, etc.). Auth0 then acts as the external identity provider. When someone clicks Log in, the browser is redirected to Auth0. Auth0 confirms the person’s identity and returns a signed token that lists the user’s ID, email, and any roles such as Administrator. ASP.NET Core receives that token, sets a secure cookie, and from then on checks the cookie on every request. If the UI is running on the server (Blazor Server), the SignalR connection that streams screen updates carries the same cookie, so the server knows who is sending each action. If the UI has moved to the browser (Blazor WebAssembly), the browser includes the cookie with each call back to the server or to the API, so the same permissions apply. Because both hosting modes rely on the same cookie, every part of the site - server-rendered pages, browser-side components, and the API - enforces the same access rules without extra work. Content-management screens stay hidden unless the token lists the Administrator role; regular visitors see only the public content. The business gains protection of its content, removes the liability of password storage, delivers a friction-free sign-in experience, and preserves the flexibility to scale or rearchitect later without revisiting the authentication approach. Sharing Code and Resources in Blazor A single library of Blazor components, styles, and static assets can be built once and reused in any hosting model - server-side, WebAssembly, or a hybrid - so the same codebase can power both a public customer portal and an internal CRM without modification.  By packaging everything, including images and corporate styles, into that library, every product inherits the same look and behavior, and a change made in one place is rolled out everywhere immediately.  Because Blazor emits standard HTML, teams remain free to pick the styling approach that best fits their skills and brand guidelines - whether that is Bootstrap, Tailwind, SASS, or another tool - while the library mechanism keeps deployment as simple as approving a new NuGet version.  Component-scoped "isolated CSS" further guarantees that brand-critical styles cannot clash across projects, eliminating regression defects.  Role-based visibility controls improve security without extra code.  The benefits for the organization are faster delivery cycles, consistent customer experience, and the flexibility to shift hosting technologies or refresh branding with minimal engineering effort and no disruption to live systems. ASP.NET Core Blazor JavaScript interoperability Blazor lets development teams write full-stack web apps in C#, but it still leans on JavaScript for the handful of things browsers expose only through JS - updating the DOM at runtime, catching resize or scroll events, downloading files, reading local storage, or tapping advanced APIs such as Bluetooth. This interlanguage "interop" lets Blazor reach every corner of the modern browser. On the outbound side (.NET → JavaScript) developers have the modern approach - JavaScript Isolation - that treats each component’s script as a private ES module that Blazor loads automatically and exactly once. This keeps codebases tidy, eliminates manual script tags, and lets vendors offer drop-in components that just work. Inbound calls (JavaScript → .NET) are required when the browser fires events that C# must handle. Blazor exposes static methods or live object instances to JavaScript with one attribute, so a Bluetooth device event, for example, can flow straight into C# business logic. Disposal patterns are built in, preventing the memory leaks that plague long-running SPAs. For executives worried about technical debt, the guidance is: favor native Blazor components wherever possible - major vendors already deliver fully C# controls that hide their minimal JS under the hood. When a niche JavaScript library really is the only game in town, Blazor’s interop lets you wrap it behind a stable component façade so the rest of the app remains pure .NET. Finally, WebAssembly hosting amplifies these benefits. Because the .NET runtime itself lives inside the browser, interop no longer makes round trips to a server - the new JSHost / JSImport and JSExport APIs give near-native performance while keeping the developer experience symmetrical on both sides. Debugging ASP.NET Core Blazor apps Blazor, Microsoft’s web-UI framework, gives development teams an end-to-end way to find and fix problems quickly.  Whether the application runs on the server or in the browser, engineers can pause execution, inspect live data, and see errors the moment they occur - using the same Visual Studio tools they already know. That consistency shortens onboarding for new projects and keeps troubleshooting costs low. For WebAssembly deployments, the browser itself can also host a streamlined debugger, adding flexibility for support scenarios. Beyond traditional debugging, Blazor’s Hot Reload feature lets coders change a running application and watch the update appear almost instantly, usually without losing page state. This means faster feedback loops, fewer full rebuilds, and noticeably higher developer throughput. Taken together, these capabilities reduce time to market, shrink the risk of undetected defects reaching production, and reinforce Blazor’s fit inside a modern Microsoft stack - all outcomes that matter directly to schedule, quality, and budget. Testing Razor components in ASP.NET Core Blazor Automated tests give us a quick, reliable way to confirm that new code hasn’t broken anything, so development teams can move faster without manually checking each screen.  Traditional browser-based tests accomplish this by launching the full site in different browsers and devices, but that cycle - start a browser, run a test, shut it down - takes time.  With Blazor, the development team can avoid much of that overhead by using bUnit, a purpose-built testing framework that renders each component in memory, lets us inspect the output instantly, mocks browser calls, authentication, or JavaScript interactions. Setting up bUnit takes a few minutes: install a Visual Studio template, create a test project, and write tests in C# or Razor syntax.  If components rely on an API, you replace the live service with a simple mock that returns predictable data, making every test repeatable. One short test can confirm, for example, the home page lists exactly 20 posts. Another can verify that the login link switches to logout once a user is marked as authenticated.  Engineers can also validate that the code calls the expected JavaScript functions without running script in a browser.  For broader, end-to-end coverage, it's possible to add Playwright tests, but bUnit handles most day-to-day checks in seconds.  A free Visual Studio extension called Blazm streamlines common Blazor chores and generates starter tests.  The result: developers catch regressions early, sustain quality, and move on to deployment with confidence. Deploying ASP.NET Core Blazor apps  Deploying a Blazor application is about turning finished code into a service your customers can reach. The safest way to do that is through an automated pipeline - often called CI/CD - so the build that leaves source control is exactly the one that arrives in production.  Relying on a developer to publish from a local machine leaves you guessing whether the code is current or whether every recent fix made it in. With GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, Jenkins, or similar tools, the handoff is automatic and repeatable, and any test suite you already run for ASP.NET will run for Blazor without extra effort. Once the pipeline is in place, you simply need a host that can run ASP.NET Core - or you package the app as "self-contained," which ships the required .NET runtime along with your code. If you choose Blazor Server or the interactive mode that uses SignalR, be sure the hosting provider keeps WebSockets switched on, because that protocol carries the live connection to the user’s browser. If the app is a standalone Blazor WebAssembly build, you can drop it onto a static site service like Azure Static Web Apps or GitHub Pages and skip the server runtime entirely. For organizations that still run Internet Information Services, installing the .NET Hosting Bundle and enabling WebSockets is sufficient. A typical upgrade through Azure DevOps causes several seconds of visible downtime while SignalR reconnects, which most end users barely notice. Put an automated pipeline between source control and production, run the test suite every time, and deploy either to a cloud host that supports the right .NET version or as a self-contained package if it does not. With those pieces in place, the release process becomes predictable, fast, and easy to audit, letting your teams focus on new features. Angular, React & Blazor Blazor lets you modernize an existing website without shutting the old one down. Microsoft designed it to coexist alongside other frameworks, so you can move pages or features over gradually instead of rewriting everything at once. Teams gain flexibility - front-end developers can keep using Angular or React where they already excel, while new work can start in Blazor - this as a transition phase, running multiple stacks increases complexity, testing effort, and support costs. Many organizations run the old and new sites side by side behind a proxy until all functionality is rebuilt. Blazor’s key advantage is simplicity. It uses C# and Razor syntax on both client and server, so developers work in one language and avoid the heavy JavaScript toolchains that Angular and React require. A standard feature called "custom elements" turns any Blazor component into a normal browser tag, making it easy to drop a Blazor feature into an Angular, React, or traditional ASP.NET MVC page. For Angular or React, the component runs in WebAssembly entirely in the browser, for Razor Pages or MVC, you can choose WebAssembly or a server-hosted mode that keeps state on the server. Either way, a component can be moved later with only minor code changes. The same mechanism works in reverse: if a best-of-breed JavaScript control has no Blazor equivalent, it can be loaded as a web component and used from Blazor with minimal glue code. This opens the whole JavaScript ecosystem to a Blazor project without surrendering the single-language development model. Blazor gives enterprises a low-risk, incremental path from legacy web stacks to a modern, unified C# front end, reducing long-term tooling overhead while preserving the option to reuse proven JavaScript assets during the transition. Future of Web Development with ASP.NET Core & Blazor At Microsoft Build, the ASP.NET Core team outlined where the platform stands today and what is coming in .NET 10. More than two million developers now use ASP.NET Core every month, and it already powers Microsoft 365, Bing, Teams, Copilot, Xbox, and most Azure services. Benchmarks show it running roughly three times faster than Node’s Express and up to five times faster than Go’s Gin, so Microsoft continues to choose it for high-traffic, latency-sensitive workloads. The speakers stressed that ASP.NET Core slots neatly into Microsoft’s expanding AI stack. New libraries such as Microsoft.Extensions.AI, Evaluations, VectorData, Semantic Kernel, and the C# Model-Context-Protocol SDK sit on top of the framework, and turnkey project templates let teams add chat-style interfaces in minutes. For cloud-native composition, they presented .NET Aspire, an optional layer that injects health checks, OpenTelemetry, HTTPS, resiliency patterns, and service-to-service discovery.  Blazor is Microsoft’s flagship framework for building .NET web front-ends. The upcoming release makes it easier for an app to remember what a user was doing: developers simply tag the data that matters, and the framework saves it automatically when a session goes idle and restores it when the user returns. This boosts resilience without extra coding. The grid component gains more flexible row-level formatting and cleaner filters, and the connection between .NET and browser JavaScript is now straightforward, so teams can call browser features directly. Out-of-the-box templates include a customizable "reconnecting" screen, letting companies keep their branding even during brief outages. Finally, the test harness can spin up a full web server, allowing automated Playwright or Selenium tests to run against a production-like environment. Together, these changes lower risk, cut support effort and speed up delivery. The final release is scheduled for November 2025 and will be launched during .NET Conf 2025. How Belitsoft Can Help Belitsoft offers end-to-end engineering services for companies that want to build or modernize .NET products with Blazor.  A cross-functional team of solution architects, C# and .NET developers, UI/UX specialists, QA engineers, and DevOps professionals implements the plan in two-week sprints, shows incremental demos, and keeps code in a continuous integration pipeline so every commit is tested and deployable. For clients that already run ASP.NET MVC, Angular, or React, Belitsoft follows an incremental migration path. Legacy pages continue to operate while new Blazor components - packaged as standard web custom elements - replace them one by one. If a client’s priority is extra capacity rather than a full project, Belitsoft supplies dedicated or augmented staff. The company maintains a pool of more than two hundred engineers, so it can present candidate CVs, arrange interviews, and start work quickly. Engagement models cover single specialists, blended teams that embed into the customer’s organization, and standalone squads that own an entire feature set. All developers adhere to a mandatory code review workflow, write unit tests, integrate Playwright, and scan code to enforce security and quality gates.

What is Rapid Enterprise Software Development Rapid enterprise application development is an approach to software development that puts more emphasis on prototyping instead of advanced planning. It helps achieve a higher speed of development than the traditional engineering approach. The knowledge obtained from the rapid development process itself improves the look and feel of the final solution. We mainly use this method with the Time & Material model and agile methods.  ISVs' stakeholders want to see the value in the first days and weeks, without the budget blowing up on research, choosing the best frameworks, and gathering non-functional requirements (that could be very important -  but for the next steps).   Modern users are less patient than ever before. They are less interested in the nuts and bolts of the back-end coding of web apps and just want it to enable them to seamlessly achieve business results or accomplish essential tasks.  One of the best practices in rapid enterprise software development is starting with the UX first. If you don’t have a visually appealing, easy-to-use web/mobile app that delivers the best possible customer experience, then you are going to have less engagement, even if the software product code is stellar.  Your product owners identify the core capabilities and priorities based on the strategic alignment with the business needs. Then prototypes and designs are created to resonate with what the users look for.  Once you confirm you have the right approach after going through a user testing process, hand it off to our enterprise software development team. In this process, the design side helps ensure you understand what your customers need. On the other hand, the development team ensures the new product is robust enough to survive in a production environment. Advantages of Rapid Enterprise Software Development Rapid development provides the following benefits: Better delivery The rapid development team is not trying to build a grand supersystem. The elementary system is delivered during the first few weeks or even days after the project start. Then, every two weeks, other system modules with increasing functionality could be delivered.   Better quality Users get useful business functionality much earlier. The software focuses on business problems critical to end-users rather than technical problems that are interesting mainly to developers.  Risk reduction The earlier a problem can be discovered in the development life-cycle, the cheaper it is to address it.  Rapid development prevents creating too complex or time-consuming solutions that would require a radical rethinking of the entire system in the nearest future. Rapid Development Approach to App Modernization  Today, providing reliable services could mean meeting the uptime requirements, and giving the headroom to serve thousands of customers across the globe by handling thousands of API calls per minute, and scaling to millions of database reads per minute by using highly available, fault-tolerant data stores.  To fill in the gaps in enterprise systems, and deliver modern, powerful business applications in a short timeframe, our teams, as part of our application modernization services, often use rapid enterprise software development platforms. Such solutions provide built-in components and strong reporting tools to develop, test, and customize code as needed.  These platforms allow modernizing software portfolio by building complex applications for any device, browser, and the full range of OSs, after spinning up an industry standards-based development environment in just a few minutes. The rapid development approach avoids the time-consuming rewriting of legacy code and helps modernize systems by layering new product on top of the monolithic application and delivering it to users in a highly consumable way. Easy implementation of modernized apps into customers’ day-to-day activities is achieved by integration with already existing backends such as on-premise databases or any data sources, existing logic layers, 3rd-party applications, and cloud service providers. The infrastructure can be hosted in a private cloud or a public cloud, or be delivered on-premises. Common Scenarios for Seeking Rapid Development Partner Maybe you: undertake a complete digital transformation of your platform, focusing on completely reimagining the client’s digital experience. It is essential for you to work with newer technologies that are not familiar to your full-time employees. have an original idea for a new interface and want to fuse this unique concept with your industry knowledge to produce a new service.  have done quite a bit of legwork, creating plans and mock-ups to help define your vision, or have completed a prototype or a proof of concept in-house. worked with another vendor first, but it didn’t meet your expectations. The first version of your app has been developed but there are some significant issues. You made the decision not to staff up internally and started looking at companies that specialized in this kind of application development to extend your development capabilities.  There is not a large candidate pool in the US and you face challenges in how you’d identify rapid development talent and find partners to help you address the design, resource, and integration challenges. Opt to go with Belitsoft to develop a scalable, potentially widely distributed, solid, and reliable in its performance piece of software. Relaunch your web/mobile app with the new experience to see dramatic growth in the number of users on the platform, and a massive uptick in usage. Belitsoft’s Approach to Rapid Development Rapid Prototyping You don’t neccessarily jump into the engagement on the development side immediately. Use us on a small-scale project. For example, start from a design perspective to build confidence in our understanding of the solutions that you want to build and our ability to execute them. The initial MVP development and rolling out of the product through various soft launches could be the first major milestone. Come to us with a prototype (if it has been developed), and guide us through what you’ve done and what you want to do. That may include some code that you’ve developed, screenshots of your rudimentary platform, and customer research.  We take your plans and designs to the next level, mapping out a development strategy, cost estimate, and timeline. We are transparent about the cost and often give you several different solutions to choose from to keep the price low. Belitsoft’s design resources can improve your designs and simplify the interface or create a totally new and unique user interface. We understand that it's really important to ensure that different aspects of the app look or function in a certain way, so it could be challenging to design it if you aren’t an expert. We ask questions in order to figure out the best solution. We listen carefully to your different requirements and unique demands to craft designs and prototypes that answer your needs. We guide you through a design phase. We realize journey mapping, develop user personas in much greater detail, and create wireframes.  Rapid Project Management We provide a point of contact in charge of different aspects of the project. Your project manager is instrumental in orchestrating the project and keeping the team focused. We then develop the app in an iterative process using the agile methodology, organized on your favorite project management platform. You know where the project is on any day, and what to expect going to every meeting. To be always prepared we have internal stand-ups prior to our meetings to exclude any wasted time for the client. Once the transition into full-scale development, we can build a cloud-based app in Azure or AWS and release the product.  We can then move to continued production and engineering support. Work with us on sizeable enhancements to the product. You also can have us design and develop your marketing website.  Rapid Development Team Creation We can assign business analysts, flexible project managers, and designers to focus on graphics and visuals, backend developers to work on the database and backend, frontend developers, full-stack developers, system architects, information security experts, QA specialists, software team leads, and cloud professionals to set up dev and prod environments in the cloud.  We can provide several development teams deeply integrated with your teams. The team size may fluctuate. These people can rotate in depending on your needs. Some may come and go depending on the expertise you need. On the rare occasion, if you have a resource that doesn’t meet your expectations, we immediately respond to rectify the situation.  Real Business Cases of Rapid Development Cybersecurity ISV: Rapid Web Development & Testing to Maintain Customer Base and Brand Image Challenge: The cybersecurity enterprise built and managed multiple complex software products. However, to sell them, they needed to customize the software for each end customer quickly. In conditions when the in-house R&D team was still busy with products evolution, there were not enough time and specialists for product customization. Thus, the ISV started to delay software products delivery, losing not only income but also clients’ loyalty and brand image. Solution: Outsourcing web development to dedicated developers became the most viable solution for rapid web development. To start performing immediately, Belitsoft assigned our most reliable, senior-level specialists from the company talent pool. They formed a team core, set up communication with the in-house managers, and onboarded newcomers, using their valuable knowledgebase in the domain and project. Thus, the cybersecurity enterprise received at their disposal a well-thought team acting as the right hand to their R&D department. Up to now, Belitsoft has hired, onboarded, and managed over 100 developers and software testing specialists for the cybersecurity ISV. Our mutual work has allowed the business to deliver software products on time, ensuring both company reputation and a stable client base. Besides, the business saved 40% on development and testing thanks to outsourcing. CASE STUDY: Rapid web development and testing for Cybersecurity ISV to maintain the customer base and brand image Elearning ISV: Rapid Web Development to Scale Startup to Enterprise Challenge: The eLearning ISV needed a SharePoint Learning Management System that is smoothly integrated into Microsoft 365 & Teams. To develop such a specific software product, they needed specialists with technical expertise and skills in the eLearning domain.  Recruiting local US developers was both expensive (US developers have 40% higher salaries) and time-consuming (interviewing hundreds of applicants). Solution from our Sharepoint development company: Hiring a dedicated software development team became a go-to option for the ISV that helped:  bring top-level technical specialists and close skills gaps in the domain (Sharepoint and eLearning), start web development rapidly by bringing core specialists from Belitsoft’s own resources, save money in the long run (lower salaries, no need to create infrastructure), deliver the end product faster thanks to the scaling ability of a desiccated team. Outsourcing software development to Belitsoft saved for the ISV 40-50% of the development costs ($600,000+). The launch of the SharePoint LMS served as a trampoline for the startup to grow into the enterprise that is currently Microsoft Gold Partner and Microsoft Strategic Partner. The end software product has 5+ million users and is used on a long-term basis by JFK School of Business at Harvard, Florida Department of Agriculture, and other corporate, governmental, and educational organizations. CASE STUDY: Rapid web development to scale startup to enterprise HealthTech ISV: Rapid Software Customization to Target a New Market Segment Challenge: The HealthTech ISV had a custom-built software product that required customization for specific workflows of each healthcare organization that bought it. The task took 100% of the in-house resources.  Thus, when the company leadership realized that the legacy framework of their product held back the business growth (cannot be sold to organizations using macOS), they needed extra resources urgently to mitigate the lost opportunities.  Solution: To boost the sales volume by entering a new segment (macOS users), the software product required modernization to .NET Core, which gives compatibility with both Windows and macOS. Hiring a dedicated team is the best option when rapid web development is required. Such an approach brings the business multiple benefits, including experienced developers without time-consuming recruiting, budget savings due to cheaper resources, and urgent scaling on demand. As a result, app modernization took less than 3 months. During this period, the HealthTech ISV kept on delivering products to the current customer base and got the opportunity to target a new market segment. CASE STUDY: Rapid software modernization to target a new market segment Get free consultation from an expert in rapid enterprise development, management, and team creation to find a viable solution for your case that will help you both deliver better results in a short term and save the budget.

Transportation Management System for a Freight Management Business The major business challenges of freight management companies arise due to manual repetitive work that leads to human errors, requires much employees' time, and results in lower service quality level for end customers. The robust Transportation Management System (TMS) with rich API integrations automates the major freight management workflows by carrying out the following 7 functions: 1. Finding a carrier for a new load When a freight management company gets an order request from a customer to transfer goods, they start by searching for a carrier. To avoid a manual search, a TMS gets integrated with such carrier services as Trucker Tools, DAT, TruckStop, and others, to automatically post new load requests directly through the TMS in one click. 2. Signing agreements and an insurance package with a carrier After finding a carrier, a freight broker has to sign agreements and an insurance package with a carrier. The integration of the TMS with carrier onboarding services, such as MyCarrierPackets, allows signing insurance packets for carriers and then delivering them to a broker. The carrier is automatically assigned to a load (order) and can start working. The compliance of the carrier's profile (insurance, driving license data, etc.) is monitored through the integrated services without broker's manual checkups. 3. Freight shipping tracking and notifying a customer After signing the required documents, a carrier picks up freight at the agreed pick-up point to deliver it to the agreed destination. A broker tracks a truck location using GPS connection. A customer should also be notified about changes in a load status. For that, a TMS uses its integration with a carrier service, for example, Trucker Tools, to upload tracking information and send auto notifications to a customer about any updates on a regular basis. 4. Covering on-the-road expenses During transportation, a broker arranges a quick and convenient money transfer to cover driver's expenses on the road. A freight broker can issue EFS money codes for on-the-road expenses directly through the TMS. The integration with the money transfer system EFS simplifies advance payments to drivers, maintaining full visibility of all payment details in a carrier profile. 5. Preparing an invoice for a customer and a bill payment for a carrier After the freight delivery, a freight broker prepares an invoice for a customer (to receive money) and a bill payment for a carrier (to pay for transportation). The TMS gets integrated with accounting software, for example, QuickBooks, to automatically issue invoices and transfer documents and financial data between the Transportation Management System and the accounting software. 6. Preparing and resending backup documentation To close the deal, a freight management company gets all the backup documents from a carrier and sends them to a customer and to the company's accountants. Thanks to the integrated documents processing services, such as the AI-powered platform Hubtran, the TMS automatically processes invoices uploaded from the accounting software, bills customers, and manages collateral docs for every load. 7. Analyzing performance and profitability The owners of the freight management company analyze information about the profitability of carriers and customers, as well as brokers' performance. The custom TMS is able to gather and calculate the profitability of mutual work with every carrier and customer. It also evaluates the performance of every freight broker, and can calculate other KPIs by company's request. If you need a development team with years-long expertise in Logistics & Transportation, Belitsoft's experts can share and apply their knowledge in favor of your business. Why Build a Custom Transportation Management System? The array of ready-to-use logistics management systems allows selecting one and starting to use it right away. However, users of ready-made TMS solutions share that these products may lack simplicity and may have certain restrictions. Let's take just one example. Casey G, who works in the enterprise with 1000+ employees and uses Oracle TMS, experiences a series of issues: “The functionality is outdated. The pathways to get to specific areas where data is stored is not always clear or logical. Making changes sometimes involves exiting out of the software and starting from the beginning.” Together with avoiding such issues, creating a custom transportation management system is a go-to option for a transportation or logistics company if it: needs unique functionality, branding, or high integration capacity that will improve service level and productivity and will help business stand out of the competition; loves to get a user-friendly, highly intuitive, and easy-to-use product; prefers to have full control over the software and not to pay subscription fees to a third party; wants to have extra income by reselling a proprietary Transportation Management System; needs personalized ongoing support, maintenance, and updates to keep usability, performance, and security up to safety and efficiency standards. Let's partner to develop a Transportation Management System that will decrease your freight costs, optimizes your employees' time, and help avoid human errors. Just drop us a message for that.

How to Calculate Software Development Cost: Our Detailed Estimation Process Every project brings unique challenges. Relying solely on the Ballpark Estimation often yields rough, risk-prone estimates. While quick, we steer clear of this method. Why? Our aim is to offer you precise estimations, ensuring you can plan your budget effectively and mitigate project risks. You can contact me directly right now to discuss your project. Step 1: Detailed Requirements Gathering Clear and well-defined requirements are the cornerstone of accurate project costing. Typically, we commence with 1 to 3 complimentary meetings. During these interactions our business analyst (BA) works closely with the customer to grasp the idea and its intended product outcome. From this collaborative dialogue, a Proposal for Discovery Phase, along with estimates, is prepared, highlighting its projected duration. Once the proposal receives approval, we launch the Discovery Phase. Depending on project complexity, this phase usually spans between 40 to 160 hours. Drawing from our vast experience, this timeframe ensures a thorough yet efficient process of gathering. The main goal during this stage is to define the project's scope in detail. The outcome of this effort is that our Business Analyst crafts Vision and Scope document, which sets the stage for accurate cost estimation. Example of a Vision and Scope document Following this, the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) is created— a clear, structured table that serves as the blueprint for project cost estimation. An exemplar WBS table derived from the Vision and Scope Step 2: In-Depth Cost Estimation by Senior Specialists Upon gaining a comprehensive understanding of the product vision during the discovery phase, we transition to the cost estimation step led by a specialized team. This team functions like a SWAT unit, comprising senior-level experts. The core of such a SWAT team is a back-end developer with system architect experience and a front-end developer. Depending on the project's nuances, we may also involve a UX/UI designer, project manager, and business analyst. With the groundwork laid by the business analyst during the discovery phase, where the BA aids in risk mitigation, our SWAT team refines and finalizes the hours needed for each feature or piece of functionality. Their calculations draw from extensive experience with projects of similar complexity and scope. Though our methodology finds its origins in the three-point estimation from the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK guide), it’s been enhanced over nearly two decades of practical experience. We strive for a consistent 20% margin between optimistic and pessimistic cost projections. When risks are higher, this gap may expand. In such cases, we pair the optimistic value with a risk percentage, and the pessimistic value becomes their product. Whenever risks exceed our 20% target, we pinpoint the cause and suggest ways to mitigate it. Throughout this process, the project manager communicates with the client, spotlighting risks and presenting alternative trajectories. This collaborative approach ensures that clients remain informed and can make pivotal decisions with clarity. For clarity, here's a sample cost estimation by a front-end developer based on the WBS This meticulous approach to cost estimation extends to all specialists involved in the project. Step 3: Personal Client Demo To present the cost estimation results, Belitsoft team organizes a video call or a face-to-face meeting, depending on your location and preferences. This direct interaction lets us elucidate the reasoning behind every figure and discuss all associated risks. It also allows you to verify the expertise of our team and assess their grasp of your project. You're placed in the driver's seat from this point onwards. We prioritize clarity over complexity. Instead of inundating clients with intricate formulas, we ensure the entire cost estimation process is transparent and accessible. During the demo, we provide a consolidated table detailing rates and the final cost estimation. We incorporate an 'Agile coefficient,' set at 20%. This coefficient accounts for sprint planning, daily meetings, reporting, presenting demos, and incorporating your feedback. This approach guarantees you remain informed and actively involved, preventing any blind spots regarding the project's progress. The example of a final cost estimation table that includes hours, developers' rates, three-point estimation, and Agile coefficient Navigating High Cost Estimations If our cost projection seems steep, we usually recommend a phased development approach. The MVP Strategy The initiation with a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a beneficial method for startups and businesses. We help prioritize MVP features so that in a few months, you have a functional product to present to investors and gather initial user feedback. This approach not only aids in cost management but also provides valuable insights for further development. Learn more about MVP software development in our detailed post, where we explore feature selection and other essential considerations. Risk Management Our primary focus on risk management ensures final project cost aligns with initial optimistic estimates. This commitment reflects our dedication to transparency and trust. A Practical Scenario For instance, if tasked with developing a registration form with SMS-based two-factor authentication (2FA) and the client suggests an unfamiliar service provider with limited documentation, this raises potential risks. To address these, we propose: Switching to a more cost-effective email-based 2FA, generally more economical than its SMS counterpart. Using Twilio, a platform we're well-acquainted with, which offers comprehensive documentation. Both options are geared towards minimizing risks and delivering value. What You Receive at the Conclusion Comprehensive Documentation. Vision and Scope, as well as Work Breakdown Structure (WBS) documents, meticulously crafted in line with international best practices. Clear Estimations. A detailed breakdown of hours and corresponding USD rates for the project, coupled with a projected development timeline. Strategic Recommendations. Insights on segmenting the project into phases (MVP, 1.0, 2.0, etc.) for optimal execution. Technical Guidance. Expert advice on the ideal tech stack tailored to your project's unique demands. Team Composition. Proposals regarding the optimal size, scope, and roles of the delivery team for efficient project completion. Risk Management. Identification of potential risks, accompanied by actionable strategies to mitigate them. This ensures your budget and timeline remain consistent with initial projections. Our method ensures that its cost estimation will be both accurate and human-centric. Contact me to discuss your project.

Although both React and React Native are utilized for UI development, they are distinct technologies suitable for different use cases. React is specifically focused on creating user interfaces in web development, while React Native is tailored for building native mobile applications. Statistics React is the 2nd most popular web development technology with 50.58% worldwide using it according to Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023. It's gaining popularity with frequent updates and advancements. React Native ranks in the top 10 technologies for professional developers with 9.13% of votes in 2023. Famous applications using React and React Native What Is React? React, also known as ReactJS, is an open-source front-end JavaScript library that allows building user interfaces and native UI components. Facebook's dedicated team maintains React, which displays dynamic data declaratively using a component-based architecture. React views are pure functions that render data as markup. React components return markup, with a parent component extending the React Component class and calling the render function that holds state. This allows for direct manipulation of Document Object Model (DOM) elements. Its functionality relies on JSX preprocessing. JSX extends ECMAScript to pass attributes down a component tree, making data rendering simple with unidirectional flow. By treating views as functions, React enhances testability, including automated testing for client-side code. Example platform-specific code featuring React syntax. When to Choose React? React is great for building high-performance, interactive user interfaces for web applications. Use React when: You want to create a dynamic website with high-traffic. You are building a large-scale or fast-growing application. SEO is important for your application. Advantages of React Cost-effective development and faster time-to-market. React's component-based structure allows for code reuse, speeding up development and reducing costs. Improved performance. React utilizes a virtual DOM to optimize performance. It efficiently updates and renders processes, resulting in faster and more responsive applications. This leads to increased user engagement and retention. SEO benefits. Traditional web applications that use server-side rendering, such as React with frameworks like Next.js, offer distinct advantages in terms of search engine optimization (SEO). They tend to be more SEO-friendly compared to single-page applications or mobile apps. Future-proof technology. React is actively maintained by Meta, ensuring continuous development and its relevance in the future. Disadvantages of React Dependence on frameworks. While React is a robust library on its own, Real-world applications need more functionalities than React provides. Your team may need to invest extra time in identifying, learning, and integrating frameworks. Popular frameworks like Next.js, Remix, Gatsby, and Expo offer essential features like routing, data fetching, and HTML generation. They help manage complex issues such as code splitting and server-client network waterfalls, and generate HTML for faster load times. What Is React Native? Developed by Meta, React Native is a JavaScript framework for creating mobile apps that can run natively on iOS and Android. Using React components, which are reusable code bundles, React Native accesses platform APIs and describes the UI. These components correspond to views, the fundamental building blocks of the user interface in mobile development. At runtime, React Native creates Android and iOS views that closely resemble the look and feel of native apps. These views are known as Native Components. React Native provides a set of pre-built Core Components and also allows for the creation of custom components. Example code featuring React-Native syntax. When to Choose React Native? React Native creates native mobile apps with JS and React. Use React Native when: You're building mobile apps for iOS, Android, or both. You may need to use native device features that web apps cannot access. You are considering the MVP development rapidly for quick results. Advantages of React Native Cost-effective development and faster time-to-market. A single codebase in React Native eliminates the need for separate development teams and reduces costs. Simultaneous development for multiple platforms accelerates the process and speeds up your product launch. Native-like mobile UX/UI design. Platform-specific components in React Native create a smooth and immersive user experience on all devices and operating systems. Efficient maintenance and updates. Simultaneous updates with React Native ensure consistent functionality and efficient bug/security fixing across platforms. Disadvantages of React Native Dependency on JavaScript. React heavily relies on JavaScript, limiting options for interactive or multi-language projects. React Vs React Native: When to use which? The "React Native for Web" library allows for a single codebase for React and React Native apps. React Native for Web renders compatible JavaScript code using React DOM in a browser. This enables integration and rendering consistency on multiple platforms. Project requirements determine whether to use React or React Native, as both have their unique strengths and suitability depending on the project. Evaluate your needs and compare the platforms to make an informed decision. Should I start with React or React Native App: 3 Business Scenarios Choosing between React and React Native development for web and mobile apps requires a skilled and proficient team. At Belitsoft, React developers are experts in both React and React Native mobile app development. By leveraging their technical expertise and domain knowledge, you can save time and costs when expanding from web to mobile and vice versa. No need for additional hiring and onboarding of new specialists. Let's explore various scenarios your business might encounter: 1. Scalable, Dynamic Web App Technology Choice: React How we do it: A client approached Belitsoft to develop an educational social network for children. We selected React to create a scalable and dynamic web platform with interactive user interfaces. The web development process involved the following steps: We prepare the necessary environment for React development, including the installation of Node.js and npm. We select the appropriate framework based on the client's requirements. Our team crafts custom React web components tailored to the application's needs, ensuring a dynamic and interactive user interface. Then we manage component states and lifecycles to ensure smooth UX and optimal performance. We handle data passing, fetch data, and ensure smooth integration with APIs and backend services. We implement routing for multi-view applications using standard libraries like react-router-dom or use the capabilities of the previously selected framework. The developers use styling using the client's preferred method, usually traditional CSS, CSS Modules, or styled-components. We conduct thorough testing using frameworks like Jest and utilities like the react-testing-library. Finally, we handle the build and deployment of the React application, delivering a production-ready application that can be deployed to a static server. CASE STUDY: React-based web educational and social platform for children 2. Building a Mobile App for Android and iOS Technology Choice: React Native How we do it: A US startup founder hired Belitsoft to develop a sports mobile app with limited time and budget. To meet the client's needs for both Android and iOS apps, we selected React Native as the technology choice. We set up the development environment for React Native, including the installation of Node.js, npm, and the Expo CLI. We use the Expo CLI to initiate your project, setting up a robust foundation for your mobile application. Our React team develops custom React Native components to ensure a dynamic and interactive user interface. We handle data passing with props and fetch data as required, integrating with APIs or backend services as needed. We use react-navigation (or other standard libraries) to implement routing for multi-view applications. Our team applies styling using the StyleSheet component provided by React Native. We use libraries like Jest and utilities like the react-native-testing-library to ensure your application works as expected. Finally, we deploy the React Native application, ensuring the delivery of a standalone application that can be easily distributed through the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. CASE STUDY: React Native sports mobile app 3. Expanding an existing web app to a mobile version through React to React Native migration Technology Choice: ReactJS and React Native How we do it: A US startup founder requested Belitsoft’s expertise to create a groundbreaking marketplace app that connects farmers and laborers. The client's requirement was to initially develop a web platform and then transition to a mobile version within a short timeframe. To meet these needs, we chose React for web development and React Native for the mobile version. Our approach allows the client to save both the budget and time through the following strategies: Develop both solutions involving the same developers If you have a React app, use React Native to build your new product. In case of React to React Native migration, we boost time-to-market and reduce costs by using the expertise of the existing developers. Build a new software product separately, even if you already have a React app. Belitsoft creates new architecture for each software product to ensure functionality, scalability, and clean code. We don't reuse native code, components, or styling. However, we apply some best practices like reusing business logic or applying WebView component. Reuse business logic We often reuse business logic from your existing app in a new app, including state management (with Redux or MobX) and utility functions, and any other non-UI JavaScript code. Reusing business logic for React to React Native migration involves the following steps: Identifying the reusable business logic components Extracting the business logic into separate modules or files Creating a shared codebase or library for the logic Building platform-specific UI components in the React Native app Implementing platform-specific APIs for the business logic Testing and verifying the shared logic in the React Native app Launch a mobile version urgently using Web View Component. Suppose you have a web application and urgently need to launch a mobile version. Our React web development team implements the WebView component, which is essentially a mini-browser that you can insert right into your React Native application. It's a fitting solution for buying time for full-scale native mobile app development. For that, we adhere to the following flow: Setting up the project structure. We establish a project structure that includes specific directories for React Native components and WebView HTML files and scripts. Creating an HTML file. We create separate HTML files for iOS and Android to cater to the differences in script loading. Developing a JS script. We develop a JavaScript script to manage communication between WebView and React Native, ensuring seamless data transfer. Loading WebView. Utilizing the react-native-webview-bridge component, we load the WebView in your React Native component, enabling it to send and receive messages from the WebView. Adapting production environment. We adapt the process for a production environment, adding the WebView directory to the project bundle in Xcode and loading HTML files using a filesystem URI. Simplify code sharing using MonoRepo as a development strategy Monorepo (monolithic repository) is a strategy that stores code for mobile and web apps in one repository for simplified code sharing, dependency management, and development workflow. In short, the React to React Native migration using MonoRepo looks the following way: The developers create a single repository for all projects, with a directory structure for individual and shared code. We set up development tools, including a monorepo-supporting package manager, build tools, and testing tools. The React team develops features, making cross-project changes as needed in a single commit. And leverage the monorepo to share code, creating shared libraries or components. Then, we run tests, build, and deploy web and mobile apps, using monorepo tools. Finally, we use the monorepo for comprehensive code reviews, viewing all changes in the same commit history. CASE STUDY: Web and mobile apps built on React and React Native for the US agricultural startup Difference between React and React Native Feature React React Native Platform Web Android, IOS, Web Open Source Yes Yes User Interface HTML + CSS Native Components(iOS, Android, Web) Architecture Virtual DOM Virtual DOM + Bridge + Native implementation Animations CSS Animations Native Animations Styling CSS JS Stylesheets Installation Process React React Native React can be easily integrated into an HTML page using the script tag. Simply add the React library and React DOM library to your HTML file. To work with larger projects, it is recommended to use a bundler like Next.js, create-react-app, or Gatsby. These tools often come pre-configured with Webpack, which bundles your application into a single file. To develop native apps using React Native, you'll need a development environment such as Android Studio for Android or Xcode for iOS. Additionally, you'll need to install tools like Node, the React Native CLI, and JSDK Watchman. Once installed, you can create a new project using the React Native Command Line Interface and run it on a mobile emulator or your own devices. Efficiency React React Native React JS is ideal to create an exceptional user interface. One of its standout features is the ability to execute code on the client-side while rendering on the server-side. React Native provides reusable native iOS and Android components, ensuring a consistent look, feel, functionality, and speed of a native application. React Native developers can also seamlessly integrate native code, such as Java, Swift, and Objective-C, into the framework to achieve a customized appearance and enhance the app's unique features. Technology Background React React Native To become proficient in React, all you need is a solid understanding of JavaScript. By gaining knowledge of JavaScript and familiarizing yourself with React's technical documentation, you can quickly become a skilled React developer. React Native utilizes the power of React.js. However, it's important to note that React Native combines Java, Objective-C, Objective-C++, and C++ code. To successfully develop React Native apps, proficiency in these languages is essential. Feasibility React React Native React combines HTML and JavaScript technologies to address challenges associated with CSS development. By integrating CSS within React, issues like global namespace and variable/scope isolation are effectively eliminated. This approach simplifies CSS development and enhances code organization for improved efficiency. With React Native, you can seamlessly incorporate iOS and Android native app components into your existing app code. If your hybrid app is built using frameworks like Ionic and Cordova, you can efficiently reuse the Ionic-based code by integrating it as a plugin. Navigation React React Native When developing an application with React.js, it's important to be familiar with the react-router library, which enables navigation based on click events. With the release of React Router v5, the useHistory hook has become a valuable feature in the framework. This hook allows easy access to the history instance, facilitating seamless navigation within your application. React Native does not support the use of react-router. However, React Native provides its own unique library called Navigator to handle transitions between different screens within an app. Additionally, there is another library called React Native Navigation available, which offers precise native platform navigation for both Android and iOS platforms. These libraries ensure smooth and seamless navigation experiences in React Native mobile applications. Storage React React Native In React, data can be stored and managed using local storage. The data stored in local storage has no expiry date, meaning it remains persistent even if the browser window is closed. The default data storage solution is AsyncStorage. This allows for storing data locally within the app. On the iOS platform, AsyncStorage is supported by native code, storing small values in a specific format and larger values in individual files. On the Android platform, AsyncStorage utilizes either RocksDB or SQLite, depending on their availability. Search Engine-friendly React React Native React JS offers a range of tools and libraries specifically designed to optimize your app for SEO purposes. These tools enable you to enhance the visibility of your app and improve its discoverability by search engines. When it comes to React Native, SEO is not directly impacted by the framework itself. The responsibility for optimizing SEO lies with the developers when building native user interfaces. How are React and React Native similar? ReactJS and React Native share several similarities as popular choices for building user interfaces. Declarative syntax. ReactJS and React Native employ declarative syntax, enabling developers to write code that is easy to read and understand. Component reusability. Both frameworks facilitate the creation of reusable components, which can be utilized throughout an application, enhancing code efficiency and maintainability. Virtual DOM. ReactJS and React Native utilize a virtual DOM, a lightweight copy of the actual DOM, to optimize performance by batching updates and minimizing unnecessary rendering. Open-source nature. ReactJS and React Native are open-source frameworks, meaning they can be used freely without incurring licensing costs, making them accessible options for developers. Rich ecosystems. Both frameworks boast extensive ecosystems with a wide range of plugins and tools, offering developers ample resources to enhance their development workflow and add desired functionalities. React vs. React Native depends on your project's specifics. Using both technologies results in scalable web and native mobile apps for iOS and Android. Our React developers possess the technical expertise and domain knowledge to efficiently build your product within your desired timeline and budget. Let's discuss your project. Frequently Asked Questions

Belitsoft provides custom software development services for SaaS companies. We have experience in creating both lead capture forms to collect leads on landing pages and chatbots from scratch. Recently, we have developed a chat-bot that adapts automatically its design and “call to action” phrases to a webpage’s design and content. Belitsoft also provides customization of ready-for-use third-party commercial or open source solutions, including designing conversational interfaces. Customization is required very often because ready-for-use solutions may not be fit with your company requirements. Just compare a form and a chatbot. Source: space10-community.github.io/conversational-form/ The ideal timeframe for responding to a new lead is within the first five minutes, according to research from InsideSales.com and Harvard Business Review. Respond in ten minutes instead of five? You’re looking at a 400% decrease in your odds of qualifying a lead. Most companies lose leads. Lead Response Survey. Source: blog.drift.com A chatbot seems to be the single solution to handle this. A chatbot can respond within the first five minutes. A chatbot works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Chatbots can answer to an unlimited amount of users at the same time. You will need less employees to answer to all the questions manually. Perfecto Mobile Replaced Traditional Live Chat With a Chatbot The company Perfecto Mobile is a SAAS product that offers suites targeting at functional, automation and performance testing respectively. The total funding amount is $84,900,000 since launch. Results The chatbot on the Perfecto Mobile's SaaS product website grew their conversion rate from 6% to 20%. That works out to nearly 4x increase in conversion rate overall. Perfecto Mobile's chatbot Process Chris Willis, ex-Chief Marketing Officer at Perfecto Mobile, was interested in being able to filter out the noise that’s associated with traditional live chat. He needed something that would let his sales development reps (SDRs) focus on having conversations with just those people who were likely to buy. "We were sitting at about a 6% conversion of our web traffic, which is about the industry standard. But what we wanted to do was increase the overall conversion rate of traffic because our traffic was pretty good," said Willis. After six months of using the chatbot, that number climbed to 20%. Chris also discovered that by letting leads “skip the form” and chat in real-time, he could reduce the time it took a lead to move through the sales funnel. "Leads that come in through chat tend to have a higher velocity. So you’re able to solve the problem or meet the needs of the request in real-time. So you think in terms of somebody coming to a website, and having a question, and filling in a contact us form. And they’ll hear back in 24 hours, or two days…that problem might not be there anymore. If they’re able to initiate a conversation, so skip the form, and have a conversation in real-time, we’re seeing that move very quickly," said Willis.  Chris then gave an example of just how quickly the sales process can move when you’re selling in real-time with the chatbot. Here’s a summary: An anonymous visitor came to the Perfecto Mobile website and started a conversation via the chatbot. Based on IP address, the conversation was routed to an SDR. The anonymous visitor turned out to be someone from a major sports brand and they wanted to meet in-person with a sales rep. During that conversation, the SDR called the sales rep and gave him all the info. Two days later that sales rep was standing in that major sports brand’s offices in New York. Drift Replaced Web Form With a Chatbot The company Drift is a SaaS-based messaging app for sales and customer success teams. Total Funding Amount: $47,000,000. Results The chatbot on the Drift's SaaS product website added 15% more leads to the top of Drift's funnel. Leads from the chatbot close more quickly: 3 days from conversation to demo. Process Erik Devaney, Brand Marketer at Drift, said that bots are integral to their sales & marketing process.  They use bots for: routing chats to the right department (e.g. sales, support), as well as to the right sales rep based on territory. responding to questions that they already have answers for in their help desk. qualifing leads in real-time, 24/7, even when all of their sales reps are asleep. They just take the questions their sales reps are already asking and turn them into a script. The chatbot pops up in the corner of their pricing page and asks, “What brought you here to check out Drift?” before continuing with a couple more qualifying questions. "Of the people who click on that message, 63%  end up starting a conversation with one of their sales reps. For comparison, the benchmark email click rate from MailChimp data ranges from 2% to 3%," said Devaney. RapidMiner Replaced Traditional Live Chat With a Chatbot The company RapidMiner is a SaaS platform for a predictive analysis. It extracts the needed data and displays results in a way that users can easily determine trends and future outcomes. The total funding amount is $36,000,000 since launch. Results The chatbot on the RapidMiner's SaaS product website now conducts about a thousand chats per month. It resolves about two-thirds of customer inquiries; those that it cannot, it routes to humans. In addition to Chief Marketing Officer, who is monitoring the tool’s interactions, two co-op college students support the inquiries part-time. Rapidminer's chatbot Process Like many software companies, RapidMiner offers free trials, and Tom Wentworth, Chief Marketing Officer at RapidMiner, was struggling to serve the approximately 60,000 users who come to the company’s site each month for the free trial. Many of the visitors using RapidMiner’s software, and needing help, are not paying anything for the service. So, how could Wentworth help them in a cost-effective way? The company had a popular chat feature on its site, but its salesforce was overwhelmed — and spending a great deal of time — sorting through the chat sessions to find potential customers. It was like looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. Wentworth approached a friend who suggested he try a chat tool, which would ask a visitor initiating a chat, “What brought you to RapidMiner today?” The visitor would respond, and the chatbot would provide one of seven potential follow-up answers. For example, a visitor might say, “I need help,” and the chatbot would send him or her to the support section of the website. Wentworth started small, running the tool on a few of RapidMiner’s smaller web pages to test how helpful it was. In less than two weeks, he had deployed it on every page. Every day, Wentworth reviews conversations people have had with the chatbot. “I’ve learned things about my visitors that no other analytics system would show,” said Wentworth. “We’ve learned about new use cases, and we’ve learned about product problems.”

Angular, React, and Vue.js are the popular front-end frameworks for companies of any size and domain. Each brings valuable features to the table, making the task of choosing one a complex one. How then can you determine the most fitting framework for your application? Often, it's not a mere technological choice, it's rather a mixture of factors including: Team experience. Evaluate if your in-house team is familiar and proficient with the new technology. Talent availability. In case you have no in-house team or need to augment your staff, assess the availability of skilled developers who are well-versed in the chosen frontend framework to ensure that you can hire the necessary resources for your project. Project complexity and specifics. Even though all the frameworks are great, each of them is ideal for certain cases: React is the best fit for highly customizable web apps with complex, interactive UIs, Vue.js is the perfect match for creating single-page, dynamic web applications that take the best of both React and Angular, Angular is an ideal solution for enterprise-level, easily scalable web apps with a rich feature set. Need help in identifying which framework aligns best with your business objectives? Talk to Belitsoft's front-end development experts. React is the Best for Cross-Platform Development React is a front-end JavaScript framework, the best suitable for designing cross-platform web applications that are highly customizable, replete with complex and interactive user interfaces. React is maintained by Meta and a vast community. This is one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks used by many industry-leading companies, such as Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Netflix, PayPal, DropBox, Airbnb, Uber, and BBC. ✅ High scalability and customization. The modular structure of React allows developers to swiftly assemble various pre-built components, fostering convenient customization and scalability. This results in substantial time and cost savings throughout the web application development process. ✅ Flexibility in choosing development tools. React is more of a library than a framework, which means it gives you more flexibility to choose the tools, libraries, and architecture for your project. This is different from Angular or Vue.js, which come with a defined set of rules and patterns. ✅ Code reusability. When developing React applications, the presence of reusable components significantly reduces complexity and coding effort. ✅ Efficient performance. React uses a virtual DOM (Document Object Model) that helps to handle large databases. This eliminates the reliance on traditional DOM methods, optimizing performance and resulting in faster and more efficient operations. ✅ Simplified creation of mobile apps. You can benefit from using the same React-based approach to build native mobile applications with React Native. The seamless migration of components from React to React Native allows validating the UI on mobile devices and making the necessary adjustments to optimize mobile-friendliness. This simplifies the development process and accelerates time-to-market. ✅ Predictability and ease of debugging. Since the data flows in one direction (one-way binding), it's easier to track the changes happening in your application. This also provides a clear understanding of the data flow and decreases data corruption risk. ❌ Fast-paced updates. The React ecosystem is evolving too rapidly. This means developers need to constantly learn and adapt to new ways of doing familiar things, which might decrease productivity. ❌ Requires more expertise from developers. The flexibility of React can also be a disadvantage for some teams. It requires you to make more architectural decisions, which might not be ideal for less experienced developers. Besides, React uses JSX (JavaScript XML) which is a syntax extension for JavaScript. It might require more expertise from developers. Denis V. , React developer at Belitsoft (3+ years of experience with React): "React is the best option if a client requires both web and mobile applications. These are completely different types of applications, however, they can be developed by hiring just one development team instead of two. That significantly reduces the development time and cost. React is ideal for cross-platform development thanks to React Native or even for building VR apps using React-VR.One of the main advantages of React is the performance of React-based apps thanks to the virtual DOM. DOM manipulations are the core of modern interactive web pages. They are extremely resource-intensive JavaScript operations, but React speeds them up using the virtual DOM. Facebook team is working on async rendering to make React-based apps even faster.When comparing React vs Vue vs Angular, it's important to remember that React is a library, while the other two are frameworks. It means that React as a library offers the opportunity to choose what architecture and additional libraries to use, for example, Redux or Mobx, while frameworks force you to use a certain structure in your code, making you use things the way this framework intends. Yes, React developers need to write a large amount of the boilerplate code to follow best practices for building highly scalable and reusable apps. However, there are many professional boilerplates for React, for example, this one. OUR CASE STUDY: React-based web app for the US startup Looking to boost your web app? Our skilled React developers are ready to help! We'll turn your vision into a robust, user-friendly application. Contact us today! Vue.js is the Best for Lightweight, Intuitive Apps Vue.js is an open-source JavaScript Framework used mainly for building dynamic Single Page Applications (SPA). Vue.js features two crucial aspects of its rivals: Angular's two-way data binding and React's virtual DOM. Vue stands out with its flexibility and lightweight nature, making it a unique framework in its own right. ✅ Swiftness and simplicity. Vue's code is concise and straightforward, significantly reducing the lines of code. This makes Vue.js a lightweight framework, ensuring swift download and startup times. This efficiency enables developers to create applications and templates in a time-efficient manner. ✅ Impressive performance. Third-party simulations indicate that Vue.js outperforms Angular and performs on par with React when it comes to manipulating rows and columns in tables. This advantage stems from Vue's utilization of a virtual DOM, enabling efficient operations. Vue's DOM is also lighter compared to the one used by React, contributing to its impressive performance in this context. ✅ Intuitive debugging. In Vue, debugging runs parallel to the coding process, allowing developers, including juniors, to easily debug their code by visualizing the UI as they write it. This feature enhances the debugging experience and facilitates error resolution. ❌ Ecosystem. Vue.js has a limited ecosystem, which means it may not function effectively in older versions of operating systems and web browsers. ❌ Support and trust. Frameworks like Angular and React benefit from the backing of industry giants Google and Facebook, which inherently instills trust among users. However, Vue generally lacks the same level of trust and credibility among audiences. OUR CASE STUDY: Vue.js-based enterprise software for global technology company Our Vue.js developers, armed with comprehensive knowledge and vast experience in frontend development, stands ready to turn your concepts into a dynamic, user-friendly application. Reach out to us today to discuss details! Angular is the Best for Large, Scalable Apps Angular is a TypeScript-based framework, that has replaced a former Angular JS version. Angular JS to Angular migration became vital due to the end of its life and brought multiple benefits. Angular is often preferred by enterprises that require high scalability for their large and constantly growing software. Major companies such as Google, Microsoft Office, Samsung, PayPal, Wix, and Forbes place their reliance on Angular. ✅ Rich functionality. Angular offers a plethora of well-integrated libraries and a suite of developer tools that facilitate the development and scalability of projects. With these resources at their disposal, front-end developers can create robust and powerful applications to meet your requirements effectively and reduce app development costs. ✅ Enterprise-level security. The Angular front-end development framework incorporates built-in safety measures to protect against common vulnerabilities and attacks, including cross-site scripting attacks, malware, and viruses. ✅ Ease to maintain and debug. Maintaining Angular code is typically a straightforward task, thanks to its use of TypeScript. TypeScript aids developers in identifying faulty code during the typing phase itself, facilitating an efficient debugging process. Additionally, Angular imports dependencies, including external code repositories, to streamline app testing. ✅ Smooth scalability and customization. Working on an Angular project as a team offers excellent scalability and customization possibilities, as minor changes made by any team member do not require updating the entire project structure. Furthermore, the code base in Angular maintains high consistency and readability, enhancing project efficiency. ✅ Code reusability. The clean and consistent code of Angular significantly aids in reducing both costs and time-to-market. The code can be reused multiple times without causing any confusion. ❌ Performance. Angular may underperform when dealing with complex and dynamic applications due to its real DOM usage and heavy reliance on third-party libraries. ❌ Verbosity and complexity. Angular is often considered verbose and complex, requiring a lot of code even for simple applications, which can increase development time. ❌ Migration issues. Major updates in Angular often come with breaking changes, making it hard for developers to migrate their existing applications. OUR CASE STUDY: Angular-based BI project for the US hospitality domain Use the over 17 years of front-end development expertise of our Angular developers. Utilizing industry best practices, our team is committed to building a web application that prioritizes customer engagement and satisfaction. Let's work together to create an exceptional web experience for your users. React vs Angular vs Vue: Architecture React React has a simple architecture based on components. These components are like building blocks that you use to create your website or app. Each component represents a part of the user interface (UI), like a button or a form. Each component has its own logic and controls its own rendering, or how it appears on the screen. You can reuse these components wherever you want in your app, which makes your code more organized and easier to manage. React also uses a "virtual DOM" to keep your app running fast. When a component changes, React first updates a virtual representation of the webpage, figures out the most efficient way to make these changes in the real webpage, and then makes those changes. This smart way of updating the webpage is a big part of why React apps feel so smooth and responsive. Vue.js The structure of Vue.js is simple, with all elements designed as self-contained and reusable components. One neat thing about Vue.js is that it keeps your data (the info your app handles) tied to your components. When the data changes, the component knows it needs to update how it looks on the screen. This feature is called "reactive", and it's part of what makes Vue.js easy to use. Vue.js also uses a virtual DOM, just like React. This means that when a component needs to update, Vue.js first figures out the most efficient way to make the change on a virtual model of the webpage, and then it updates the real webpage. This smart process helps keep your app running quickly and smoothly. Angular Angular uses a structure based on modules, components, and services. In Angular, you bundle these components into modules, which help you organize your code better. Each module can be a feature of your app, like a user profile or a shopping cart. Services are where you put code that you want to share across different components. Lastly, Angular uses "directives" to let you add special behavior to elements in your webpage, and "dependency injection" to make it easier to share code and data between different parts of your app. In a nutshell, Angular provides a well-organized structure for creating complex web applications by dividing them into manageable and reusable components, modules, and services. React vs Angular vs Vue: Popularity React, Angular, and Vue.js are often referred to as the "Big Three" frameworks and libraries because they have come to dominate the field in terms of popularity, community support, and adoption by major companies. The search trends tend to favor Angular and React over their younger competitor. Google Trends Results All three frameworks are widely represented on GitHub, with React leading the pack. React: GitHub Stars 181K / Fork 36.9k / Contributors 1538/ Used By 8.8 Million Users Angular: GitHub Stars 79.2K / Fork 20.8k / Contributors 1528 / Used By 2.1 Million Users Vue.js: GitHub Stars 193K / Fork 31.3k / Contributors 404 According to the StackOverflow survey, React and Angular are among the most popular frameworks professional developers use.  React vs Angular vs Vue: Performance In terms of speed, the members of the Big Three are very close. Source: https://www.stefankrause.net/js-frameworks-benchmark7/table.html Source: https://www.stefankrause.net/js-frameworks-benchmark7/table.html As they are technically similar, the actual speed of your project will depend on the skill of the developers. Rever Case Study: Migrating Angular app to Vue.js Luis Elizondo is the Director of Engineering at REVER SaaS Company that develops Idea Management Software, named Rever Score. He does back-end and front-end Web development in this Silicon Valley-based company, founded in 2015 by people that blended their experiences in Toyota, Google, Airbus, Apple, Eurocopter, Rackspace, Procter & Gamble, and a handful of tech startups. They are using Node.js / Express on the backend, vanilla Node.js with no framework for some microservices, and Python for other microservices. Everything runs inside a Docker container. In August 2017, Rever released a new version of their web client using Vue.js. Before that, they were using Angular 2 beta 9. Why did they use beta technology in their products? It was a decision recommended and implemented by the outsourcing company. Their line of thought was something along the lines of "the final Angular version will be ready by the time we finish the product, and we will update every time there's a new beta release"", and they did, for a time, until they realized it was time-consuming and added no real value. In the end, it took them 8 weeks to write the project with the Vue.js JavaScript framework. This was a medium size project from Elizondo's point of view. During that process, they were also rewriting the whole API because there were architectural mistakes on the first version. Elizondo says that he has done extensive research before making a decision to switch their technology stack. ReactJS vs AngularJS vs VueJS. Source: medium.com/reverdev/why-we-moved-from-angular-2-to-vue-js-and-why-we-didnt-choose-react-ef807d9f416 Why we ditched Angular: "I want to focus on the points, the upgrade process, and Typescript. Upgrade to Angular 2. This was not easy because there were many versions we needed to upgrade, doing this while having critical bugs was not an option since we didn’t know what things were broken because of the upgrade and what things were broken because they were already broken. Solve the critical bugs first and then upgrade. Again, not easy because I didn't have all the necessary experience in Angular 2 and the documentation was upgraded. Try solving a bug that is happening on beta9 but you don't know when it was solved or even reported with documentation that refers to Angular 2.0.0 and you´ll know what I mean. This is not Angular's fault, this was just our context. Rewrite the whole thing and redesign the UI in the process. This is the road we took, it was the easiest solution for us, too many things were failing for us to attempt to fix them. We could have done it in Angular 2 as well, or we could experiment if we had other options. We did and I do not regret it. Typescript is good, however, it was not adding real value to our medium size project. It avoids some kinds of bugs, but not all, and we had plenty, probably because of the lack of experience from the outsourcing company. We wanted to avoid that as our team grows, there's something beautiful in watching a new team member being productive after a few hours with Vuej.js, something we felt that we would not achieve with Typescript. Vue.js solves the problems that we had, I'm not saying it will solve yours, and that's why we moved, with our context, the business needs, the timing, and the available resources, I would make the same decision again because it solved our problems. The reason why we ended up using Vue was coding speed and a small learning curve, but those things pay off later, when new developers come to the project they can start being productive in a matter of hours, not days. Why we're not using Angular 4 is because it didn't exist when we made the decision to move to Vue.js". This article accepted some critics in the comments section. Francesco Belladonna, a web developer with Full-Stack experience (JavaScript, HTML, CSS, AngularJS, Redux Ruby on Rails) at Predictable Revenue (Canada) writes: "I feel like we are missing some very important points here. We are comparing a framework (again) with a view library. Not only that, but you are also comparing the speed of prototyping between the two. I could tell you that based on that comparison, you would choose Vue without writing a single line of code. A framework is meant to give you a speed boost at the start of your new product and give consistency later on. However, when developing any kind of SaaS what you really care about is how hard is to maintain such software, as in speed on fixing bugs, implement new features, refactor. React comes with just the view layer, and you are "forced" to take decisions by yourself. I'm surprised people keep listing this as a downside: it is probably the most valuable thing React delivers: freedom of choice. Feel like React setup is complex? Cool, grab one of the many available boilerplates and use one of those, Vue is just doing the same for you. While I like the overall article, I think the author failed on checking the long-term gains of one lib over the other. The more you grow, the less you want a framework, and the more you want freedom of choice. And a bigger community. That being said, this article does one thing really well: scared me a lot regarding Angular2 (or 4 for what is worth), confirming my feeling that it's a framework that came with a lot of issues (I come from Angular1 1 background)". Dennis Brandt, a Senior Programmer / Team leader (Angular, AngularJS, NodeJS, Socket.io) at MyBit BV (the Netherlands) writes: "My team and I use Angular since August 2016, we waited until there was a stable release before even looking at it. We also compared Vue, React, Angular, and even AngularJS (the first version of Angular). Took into account what we needed from the web development frameworks/libraries and the project itself, the scale, and the intended lifespan. "For us, Angular was the clear winner as it provides what we needed, but this doesn't mean we will use Angular for every project. We look at it from the scope and requirements perspective." Learning the syntax of a specific template or language is a breeze for any developer worth his/her paycheck and for me and my team has never been a reason to do or not do something. For us Typescript actually made things easier, the compiler already checks for mistakes, unit testing is simple and as it's a superset of JavaScript (ES6/7) it was almost too easy to pick up. Good that you did the research to figure out what was best for you, the team and the project, but if I can say one thing that I hope you'll keep in mind; Never choose a progressive framework or library because it's familiar or easier. Choose what best fits the requirement of the project at hand." Alex Jover Morales, a Full Stack Engineer (VueJS; Redux; Webpack; Karma, mocha, chai; NodeJS; PHP, Lumen, etc.) at Coosto (The Netherlands) writes: "I worked with the three last year (Angular, Vue, React, in that order), and although my preference goes as well for Vue.js. I'd like to clarify some things in an objective way: What I see about TypeScript in this article usually comes from people that never got into it. Creating an object in TypeScript is as easy as in JavaScript. And it offers lots of stuff, but you need to give it a bit of time (not much really). Once you get there, you don't want to go back, and that's applicable to Vue as well. In fact, I love to combine Vue and TypeScript, even recorded a course. People that come from Angular (especially 1.x) find easier to get into Vue.js, since it shares most of DSL. What takes a while is to learn new practices and patterns of Component architecture. Once you know them, it's really easy to get into both Vue or React. Of course, Angular 2+ takes much more. Personally, the easiest for me was React due to knowing already all the stuff, just needed to go to another syntax, and JSX is literally JS and HTML. Vuex or Redux - they're almost the same. I agree Vuex seems easier, especially because it doesn't need to be immutable (what it's less clean on the other hand), but they're almost the same thing with different names. What is true, lots of things are easier in Vue, for example, lazy loading + code splitting, and the DSL itself. Although, React makes composition easier since it's just JS with almost no framework context. I'm not making an opposite statement, just clarifying there is no silver bullet. They all offer mostly the same, and some find it easy/better with one, others with the other. The best thing is always to analyze and choose what's best for the project/team." 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Developers support integration of the UI into your backend web application with Java, .Net, or PHP. Enhance your existing solution with modern tools and technologies - contact us. How to Hire Dedicated Front-end Developers through Belitsoft Submit your request to us. We sign an NDA. Schedule a call with us to discuss project details To find out your goals, technical requirements, and team dynamics, the director of engineering will work with you. Engineering experts will partner with you, so no general recruiters or HR reps will contact you. Within days, we may introduce you to the right candidate for your project Get a front-end specialist from the pool of pre-screened, high-caliber front-end developers ready to join your project shortly. Based on your project requirements, we evaluate the coder's soft and hard skills and provide you with an assortment of best front-end developer CVs. After that you may take time to select the relevant candidate and schedule an interview. 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Get a personalized quote for your project Skills to look for in Dedicated Front-end Developers In searching for dedicated front-end developers, it is important to look for individuals with experience in designing and developing front-ends for complex web solutions. Essential skills and qualities to screen for include: Familiarity with various front-end frameworks like React, Vue.js, and Angular. They can choose the proper framework. Ability to use asynchronous JavaScript for non-blocking communication with the server and seamless updates to the webpage. Proficiency in coding best practices, including XML, SAAS, CSS3, HTML5, and JavaScript, and adhering to SEO and WCAG2 guidelines. Knowledge of network security, including SSL certificates and HTTPS protocols. Writing code that is well-commented, split into focused units, and easily maintainable. Ability to write clean, modular, and scalable code, as well as experience with code review practices and performance optimization. Familiarity with code quality metrics such as Maintainability Index and Cyclomatic Complexity. Familiarity with code version control tools like Git, enabling efficient management of the web development process. Proficiency in testing, including familiarity with TDD, BDD, and unit testing tools like Jest and Enzyme. Implementing unit testing and conducting thorough code reviews for quality assurance. Staying updated with the latest UI design standards and trends in web development. Development with cross-browser and cross-platform compatibility in mind. Knowledge of responsive design and related principles, allowing them to create cross-platform websites that function efficiently on mobile devices and computers. Strong collaboration skills, as front-end developers frequently work with UI designers, web designers, and back-end developers.

1. SAAS COMPANY INVISION InVision is a web-based prototyping tool for web & app designers. It has raised a total of $134.1M in funding since launch. Header Footer 2. SAAS COMPANY SENDGRID Sendgrid is a cloud-based email app which works both for transactional email and marketing email campaigns.  It has raised a total of $80.36M in funding since launch. Header Footer 3. SAAS COMPANY LEVER Lever is a recruiting platform for human resource specialists. It has raised a total of $72.8M in funding since launch. Header Footer 4. SAAS COMPANY PERISCOPE DATA Periscope Data is a data analysis platform for data scientists. It has raised a total of $34.5M in funding since launch. Header Footer 5. SAAS COMPANY BENCH Bench is a bookkeeping app for small businesses. It has raised a total of $32.85M in funding since launch. Header Footer 6. SAAS COMPANY PIPEDRIVE Pipedrive is a CRM for sales pros. It has raised a total of $31.7M in funding since launch. Header Footer 7. SAAS COMPANY FOND Fond is a suite of employee engagement apps for companies strengthening their employer brands. It has raised a total of $25.85M in funding since launch. Header Footer 8. SAAS COMPANY LEADGENIUS LeadGenius is a lead generation app for enterprise marketing and sales leaders. It has raised a total of $20M in funding since launch. Header Footer 9. SAAS COMPANY RECURLY Recurly is a subscription billing management app for companies. It has raised a total of $19.6M in funding since launch. Header Footer 10. SAAS COMPANY INDINERO inDinero provides accounting software for small business owners. It has raised a total of $9.92M in funding since launch. Header Footer 11. SAAS COMPANY MARVEL Marvel is a is a prototyping and collaboration tool for software designers. It has raised a total of $7.98M in funding since launch. Header Footer 12. SAAS COMPANY PROVEN Proven is a hiring tool and job board app for hiring managers. It has raised a total of $4.79M in funding since launch. Header Footer 13. SAAS COMPANY ADESPRESSO AdEspresso is an app for creating, analyzing and optimizing Facebook Ads for businesses and marketers. It has raised a total of $3.2M in funding since launch and was acquired by Hootsuite. Header Footer 14. SAAS COMPANY UNBOUNCE Unbounce is a landing page builder app for marketers. It grew to over 15.6 million USD in annual recurring revenue (2016). Header Footer 15. SAAS COMPANY BUFFER Buffer is a social media scheduling app for marketers, businesses, and corporations. Today it has more than $1M/month in recurring revenue (2016). Header Footer 16. SAAS COMPANY ZAPIER Zapier is a web automation app for busy people who know their time is better spent selling, marketing, or coding.  Now, it has close to $7M in annual revenue (2016). Header Footer 17. SAAS COMPANY GROOVE Groove is a web-based help desk software for small businesses.  Today, it's recurring revenue is more than $5M / year (2016). Header Footer 18. SAAS COMPANY HUBSTAFF Hubstaff is a web-based time tracking application for remote teams. Today, it has $2,4M ARR. Header Footer 19. SAAS COMPANY CHARGIFY Chargify is a recurring billing app for SaaS companies. Today, it has $1.7M live paying subscriptions. Header Footer 20. SAAS COMPANY OLARK Olark is a live chat software for sales, marketing, and customer support on your website. Today, this app is used by 12 000 paying customers worldwide. Header Footer The professionally designed website is an excellent way to promote your brand online. Belitsoft provides full-cycle SaaS development services: from gathering requirements to web design and product development. Our SaaS web designers are always trying to stay ahead of the game. Hire us to get the web design that will sell your SaaS product.

We empower health-tech product companies with our specialized healthcare software development services. Our SaaS developers provide tailor-made solutions to streamline your operations, enhance patient care, and drive innovation. Whether you need custom software or intuitive mobile health applications, we can help elevate your offerings in the health-tech market. Get a free quote from our experts. FLATIRON HEALTH Flatiron Health was established in 2012 to change the way cancer care providers collect their medical files. The company supplies cancer-treatment centers with tools used by doctors for tracking patients’ progress and finding out what heals and what doesn’t. Flatiron’s software allows medical cases to be shared with researches to provide supplementary data. One of the key points was when a co-founder’s 7-year-old cousin was detected with Leukemia. However, the boy was misdiagnosed twice and got four bone-marrow transplants. Because of the incompetence and mistreatment of medical issues Turner discovered a big gap in how patients data was being analyzed to treat cancer patients. ‘He's a wonder kid. He made it! He's done great. But his dad asked me [...] "A few hundred kids get this every year. What drugs do they get, and do they work? I can't find any information.’ Nat Turner, Co-Founder at Flatiron Health Having investigated the oncology industry, Turner and his business partner Zach Weinberg noticed that most oncologists were deprived of the basic data analysis tools that other specialists used daily. Their platform enables institutions to track their compliance with national cancer care guidelines, strengthen documentation, and select eligible patients to clinical trials online. The company has raised $313M in total funding. In February 2018, Flatiron Health was acquired by a pharma giant Roche for $1.9 billion. ‘As a leading technology company in oncology, Flatiron Health is best positioned to provide the technology and data analytics infrastructure needed not only for Roche, but for oncology research and development efforts across the entire industry. A key principle of this is to preserve Flatiron’s autonomy and their ability to continue providing their services to all existing and future partners.’ Roche Pharmaceuticals CEO Daniel O’Day ZOCDOC Zocdoc has operated since 2007, providing an online medical care scheduling service. The company’s solution helps patients find nearby doctors in their region, browse their reviews and book appointments. The network offers 1800+ types of medical procedures in 50+ specialties. Forbes states that more than 5 million people use Zocdoc services each month across 2.000 cities, representing 40 percent of the U.S. population. Users can run Android, iOS and web app, as well as access Spanish-language version. In 2012 the company launched Zocdoc Check-in allowing patients to fill out paperwork online. The company has been involved in the B2B market since 2014, having developed a premium product that businesses can implement as part of a corporate wellness program. Booking is 100% free for patients. However, the healthcare providers who partner with Zocdoc pay a subscription fee for the services. Zocdoc has raised $223M in venture capital from investors. CLASSPASS ClassPass was founded in 2013 after Payal Kadakia, Founder and Executive Chairman, strived to find ballroom dancing lessons after work in NYC. Following many attempts of searching, she got an idea to create a kind of search engine and reservation system for fitness classes. With over 9.000 partners in 50 cities, ClassPass allows accessing the world’s largest network of fitness studios and gyms. The platform has a community of 250.000+ members enabling to choose the most appropriate type of physical activity, including yoga, dance or strength training. The membership pricing depends on the location and number of classes users want to take. Besides, ClassPass provides at-home workout experience. The company has a library of 101 lessons and launched live-streaming video workouts (available for an additional fee). ‘At ClassPass we’re flexing our technical capabilities to push the future of fitness [...] We’ve leveraged our unparalleled data assets and reviews to create one-of-a-kind, live programming anchored in heart rate training that’s unlike anything else on the market.’ Fritz Lanman, ClassPass CEO ClassPass has raised $154M in total funding invested by Google Ventures, Thrive Capital, and General Catalyst. The company is recognized as one а the Forbes’ Next-Billion Dollar Startups 2016 and ranked number two on the Deloitte Fast 500 North America list. As at 2018, ClassPass was nominated in Best Mobile Sites and Apps: Health and Fitness category for the 22nd Annual Webby Awards. TALKSPACE Talkspace is an online messaging therapy provider. The company developed a network of licensed therapists available for consultations via web or mobile environment. All communication between the therapists and their clients abide by strict professional codes of customer confidentiality. The company guarantees the content is encrypted and securely stored. Founded in 2012 with a mission to counter mental illness and make therapy more available to millions in need, their Unlimited Messaging Therapy has been used by more than 500.000 people. Talkspace profits from subscriptions that are automatically charged on a monthly basis. Besides, the company has raised $59M in total funding. Need SaaS development services experienced in secttor? Hire our dedicared team! THRIVE GLOBAL ‘Seventy percent of U.S. employees–and 96 percent of senior leaders–say they feel burned out. The numbers are similar the world over. And we actually know how to stop it–by changing the way we work and live.’ Arianna Huffington, Founder and CEO at Thrive Global Created in 2016, Thrive Global is focused on health and wellness information. The startup describes itself as a “corporate and consumer well-being and productivity platform”. In less than one year, it has formed partnerships with industry-leading giants by offering companies and their employees sustainable workflow-enhancing solutions. To date, Thrive Global has about 30 clients, such as JPMorgan, SAP, and Hilton. As of 2017, the company has raised $37M in total funding. Thrive’s business model lies in serving corporate clients who use it for health and wellness education. They organize wellness seminars, workshops, and online courses for companies in industries like banking and consulting. Thrive Global website features stories from business leaders and celebrities, advice from medical professionals, and content from industry thought leaders as well as average users who have something valuable to tell. The company also generates revenue through sponsorship and courses. For instance, they launched Thrive Library of eCourses on LinkedIn Learning in 2017. All classes use scientifically proven methods to decrease burnout and improve overall productivity and wellness. Partnering with Samsung, the company created a Thrive app that allows customers to block all notifications, calls, and texts. It also gives feedback about how much time users spend on other apps. In addition they offer a vacation email tool, called Thrive Away, that automatically deletes new letters while users are away. The app also lets senders know when they will be back in the office. ‘Technology is an incredible servant but a terrible master. What is a 'like'? A 'like' is the most superficial indication that someone cares for you. It takes a second to like a picture. People become obsessed with how many likes their picture gets and they come back for that. These are all tools that play on our own needs for validation and hook us. And the only way to counter that is to treat them as tools and not masters’ Huffington CALL9 Call9 is an alternative to calling 911 implemented in Skilled Nursing Facilities. It specializes in reducing unnecessary visits to emergency rooms by people who address 911 most frequently. Thus, in an emergency context, SNF nurses or patient’s aids use the Call9 app to connect with an on-call emergency room doctor via video chat. If the nursing home employees can help the patient themselves, the doctor will give detailed instructions regarding what to do and prescribe the needed medication. However, they will send an ambulance if it’s truly a critical condition. Dr. Timothy Peck, founder of Call9, took an unusual step to push his startup forward. He moved into a nursing home in Long Island and lived in the conference room for three months in 2015. In return for housing, Peck dealt with the sickest patients and communicated with the nursing home staff to better understand their needs. He tried to find opportunities for residents to get necessary care without visiting a high-cost emergency room. Peck adapted a medical cart system to handle telemedicine consultations and developed an iOS app to reach Call9 health care. The company also offers special equipment, like portable electrocardiographs. The software decreases ambulance calling by over 50% for patients in SNF by bringing the emergency department to the bedside. Call9 makes money on charging a subscription fee. The company has raised $34 million in venture capital financing from investors like Y Combinator and Western Technology Investment. CAREDOX CareDox is a pediatric healthcare technology provider. Founded in 2010, the company is aimed at transforming the health delivery system in the US K-12 institutions. To date, the technology has covered students in more than 4.000 schools. ‘K through 12 schools manage healthcare for more than 50 million kids nationwide, making them the largest healthcare delivery system in this country. Yet, they are highly fragmented and disconnected from traditional care settings. We have a huge opportunity and responsibility to improve pediatric care by digitally connecting the real care team — school nurses, parents, pediatricians — around the child, wherever they are.’ Hesky Kutscher, CEO of CareDox CareDox connects schools with the healthcare ecosystem to deliver free health solutions to families and institutions. They include: The Healthy Schools Program enables in-school vaccinations, annual adolescent check-ups, and chronic disease management. The Digital Health Platform also provides HIPAA and FERPA-compliant digital health charting. The platform lets school nurses control charts and chronic diseases, connect to state immunization registry, approve student health enrollment forms, and let parents know about important health visits. The company has raised $32.6M in total funding. PAGER Pager company provides patient navigation and telehealth services. They developed a machine learning chat app to help users decide if they should see a real doctor. The platform gathers clinical and insurance claims data to provide a personalized solution. Consequently, patients are connected with proper healthcare options, can have a video chat with a doctor or call him home. ‘By focusing on the needs of a more sustainable healthcare model in America, the Pager technology allows for enhanced methods of connecting patients to doctors remotely, which in turn allows for cost efficiencies and higher patient satisfaction rates.’ Chief Medical Officer at Pager, Aran Ron Pager is available in select areas on New York, Florida, and Texas. For patients, pricing depends on the type of visit, coverage, and fees. The app sends notifications if additional services and costs are necessary. Founded in 2014, Pager has received $29.6 million in funding. AICURE AiCure was founded in 2010 to revolutionize patient monitoring. The company developed a mobile visual recognition platform combined with machine learning and predictive analytics. AiCure app is compatible with any mobile device with a camera. The tool identifies the patient’s face and the medication they take and confirms ingestion. The company guarantees it doesn’t record video or take photos. The technology just uses the camera coupled with imagine recognition to confirm users has taken their meds. Then the data is shared with the care provider or pharmaceutical company organizing a clinical trial. In addition, AiCure offers motivation tools to promote adherence. ‘Ultimately medication adherence is a really complex problem. There are many reasons why patients don’t take their medication, ranging from education to cost, to lack of connection with a physician. [...] We’ve addressed this problem by using a technology that people already have, are comfortable with and is eminently scalable and flexible.’ AiCure CEO Adam Hanina AiСure has been around since 2010 and raised $27.3M in total funding from leading institutional investors and the National Institutes of Health. NOOM Noom was started in 2010 offering a weight loss and fitness app. In 2013, when the company has reached more than 47M customers worldwide, Noom developed the first mobile diabetes prevention software recognized by CDC. The solution combines artificial intelligence with dedicated coaches to promote healthy behavior. The business model is funded by the different purchase options, the price of which depends on the duration. Noom venture-capital investment amounted to $26M as of 2018. HAPPIFY Happify was created in 2012 to help users think positively and feel happy. The company offers 60+ games and activities to play for a few minutes each day forcing to make a habit of thinking positively. Happify partners with employers to help them motivate workers and meet their emotional needs. The program starts by asking questions relating personal information, then recommends some tracks to perform. Each track contains brief quizzes and games that guide users to seeing more positive aspects of their daily life. Every couple of weeks, Happify quizzes users to measure their happiness and shows their progress on the different happiness skills. ‘Scientists actually have a very clear definition of happiness. It’s a combination of two things: first, “positive emotions, how you feel about a given experience. We’re sitting down in a room. Are we enjoying it? Are we suffering?” And, second, “over-all life satisfaction.’ Ofer Leidner, Co-Founder of Happify In 2014, the New York Times called Happify “perhaps the most sophisticated positive vibes app available now”. It’s free to download and use, but requires paid subscription to access its full range of activities. The company also attracts investment having raised $25.5M in total funding. NOMAD HEALTH Nomad represents itself as a marketplace for clinical jobs. The company offers a free network for doctors and nurses to find freelance and clinical permanent jobs without agency recruiters. By removing third-party recruiters, Nomad offers flexible solution for medical professionals. The platform enables specialists and companies to communicate directly online and digitizes processes for employment, insurance, and payments. ‘We built this company to return medicine to its roots. Nomad eliminates the chaotic and inelegant healthcare staffing system of yesterday and replaces it with a simple, modern platform that just works.’ Nomad Co-Founder & CEO Alexi Nazem Founded in 2015 by a team of doctors and leading technologists, Nomad has raised $16M in total funding. The company is already partnering with more than 10 of the US-based top providers of telemedicine. ONEDROP One Drop is a diabetes management platform enabling patients to keep a running log of their personal insulin levels. Today, the company offers monthly subscription services to provide unlimited blood glucose testing supplies and 24/7 live in-app support from diabetes experts. Their solution includes the award-winning One Drop Mobile App for Android and iOS devices, as well as One Drop Experts in-app coaching service. The company also offers One Drop Chrome blood glucose monitor, and supplies subscription services One Drop Premium/Plus. The mobile app is integrated with various digital health tracking services, including Apple Health and Google Fit. ‘I started One Drop because when I found out I had diabetes, I was shocked at how behind the times diabetes care was. [...] I wanted to do something about it and work with an amazing team to bring the quantified self-movement, internet of things, big data, and mobile computing to people with diabetes in a simple, fully integrated solution.’ Jeff Dachis, CEO & Founder of One Drop The American Diabetes Association recognizes One Drop as meeting the National Standards for Diabetes Self-Management Education and Support (DSMES). To date, the company has raised $14.1M in total funding. CREDSIMPLE CredSimple is a NCQA-certified Credential Verification Organization (CVO). The company enables healthcare organizations to reduce credentialing turnaround time and maintain client data up-to-date. Credentialing is a process that reviews doctor’s qualification and career history. It must be completed upon the hire of a new specialist and regularly afterwards following the standards set forth by regulatory and accreditation organizations. The process generally takes three months to complete during which the doctor can’t see patients or perform surgery. By bringing the entire process online, CredSimple has been able to reduce the verification process to a couple of weeks. The company is backed healthcare experts and B2B SaaS focused venture funds having invested $8.9M for 2018. DOCTOR.COM Established in 2012, Doctor.com is a cloud-based platform purpose-built for medical practitioners. The software enables healthcare staff to manage their master profiles, book appointments online and build the reputation through reviews and sentiments expressed by their patients. To date, the platform has been used by 200+ US hospitals and 20.000+ private practices to improve their digital presence, attract more patients and enhance their trust. ‘[Today] we’re, sort of, a single unified solution to help healthcare providers better optimize and better modernize every step of the patient journey along the way. rom the patient choosing the right provider, through having a convenient experience getting booked, through having really easy modern communications around their visit, we’re collecting feedback and using it to go back and reinforce that initial discovery.’ Andrei Zimiles, CEO of Doctor.com Doctor.com offer free and paid subscriptions to end users as well as health professionals. The cost to implement the platform can range from $3.000 to $10.000 annually for private practices, and from $20.000 to $2 million per a year for hospitals. Doctor.com has raised $8M in funding. PROOFPILOT ProofPilot manages a research platform enabling users to design and share studies like clinical trials. In 2013, ProofPilot developed from the consulting firm Cyclogram started by Matthew Amsden in 2005. ‘I got into the research industry when I began working on HIV prevention studies doing recruiting, marketing and participant engagement. I became increasingly frustrated that insightful health and social innovations were getting lost because it was too expensive to test whether it really worked. I knew there had to be a more efficient way to do research studies, so my colleagues and I created ProofPilot to bring forth a renaissance in evidence-based knowledge that can make a measurable impact on personal and societal health.’ Amsden Early ProofPilot’s versions supported studies in the US, Brazil and Peru. The platform has been used by organizations and institutions like The Huffington Post, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), NYC Health, and AIDS Clinical Trials Group (ACTG). The platform is split into three parts. The first enables users to design research studies. This process is based in a microinteraction, allows using study templates and fill in the blanks to create a study. The second is participant experience involving the study launching and automatic reviewing by specialists. Finally, the study is available for customers via mobile devices and desktop computers. By the end of 2016, ProofPilot raised $1.9M in venture funding by CueBall Capital, Brooklyn Bridge Ventures and BR Ventures. COACHCARE CoachCare (previously Selvera) offers professional weight management program. The software helps users manage their daily nutrition and physical activity and provides one-on-one expert counseling. CoachCare offers a patient mobile app, clinical dashboard, and connected proprietary trackers to monitor user’s progress. Their technology can play a key role in addressing a predisposed issue like obesity before it becomes critical. ‘The desire to focus my career on health and wellness started early; I saw family members battle obesity and chronic diseases and conditions, including diabetes, cancer, high cholesterol, and hypertension — many of which could have been prevented with a healthy diet and more exercise.’ Andrew Zengilowski, CEO and Co-Founder of CoachCare The idea for CoachCare was born after reviewing the commercial weight management market. According to the results, more than 150 million Americans fight obesity. Some of them couldn’t find a proper weight management tool that demonstrated long-term success. So Zengilowski decided to partner with healthcare professionals and certified nutritionists to develop a user-friendly solution. The early CoachCare results indicate that, on average, users lost one and a half pounds per week. To date, CoachCare software is used by over 3.000 clinics across the U.S. and Canada. The company profits from paid subscriptions, while also receiving funding from venture companies ($1M as for 2018). HEALTHWIZ HealthWiz offers an analytics and data platform for the healthcare industry. Their API provides data on 1M+ doctors, including contact information and quality ratings, as well as pricing for digital health solutions and insurance. ‘We started HealthWiz when my mom was having joint pain all over and was struggling to find a doctor. Finally, she went to one who referred her to another, who referred her to another, who referred her to another. Six months and three thousand dollars spent later, she still didn't know what was wrong. After countless tests and x-rays, she couldn't find a doctor who could help.’ Nate Maslak, Co-founder  and CEO of HealthWiz After witnessed how hard it can be to find and receive high-quality and affordable care, Maslak decided to develop a solution to solve the issue. The company chose a business model based on paid subscriptions. HealthWiz has raised $120K in total funding since its establishment in 2016. TWIAGE Twiage provides an award-winning cloud-based platform for hospitals and emergency departments (EDs). The company’s communication and triage platform allows accelerating care coordination and streamlining handoffs while reducing EMS turnaround times and improving patient satisfaction. Twiage helps clients manage resources like catch labs, operating rooms, and hospital beds. Twiage app for Google Glass enables paramedics to immediately alert doctors about sick patients, share critical data, and provide GPS-tracking allowing hospitals to accelerate patient care in crucial moment. Founded in 2014, the company has raised 60K in total funding. EUMOTUS Established in 2015 out of the Harvard innovation lab, EuMotus works on optimizing human body motion. They developed a biometrics analysis platform and tools to better understand functional movement and prevent injuries. BodyWatch is offered as a subscription service used by Physical Therapy professionals to monitor and map a person’s movements in 3D. The technology includes the use of cameras with infrared sensors instead of electrodes or markers. Articles you might be interested in: Top Online Education SaaS Companies from New York Top Healthcare Mobile Apps using React Native Python in Healthcare

Contact us to learn how our Laravel consultants and programmers could help you with Laravel Development including Wordpress to Laravel Migration or Integration Wordpress Blog with Laravel. When developers propose using a modern MVC framework (such as Laravel) over a CMS (such as WordPress), non-tech stakeholders are sometimes unsure whether it is the right choice. Prebuilt CMS might seem a money/time saver and a more obvious tool to accomplish their business tasks. However, when is it really better to use a CMS rather than a typical modern framework for custom software development? Advantages of Wordpress WordPress, as the most popular CMS, is often a good first choice for the project. Of course, it is not fit for everyone. Generally speaking, WordPress is usually the no.1 choice if: The project falls under the category of content-based portals such as blogs/newspapers.  The market has available WordPress plugins with the necessary quality/security and functionality to suit software requirements. The founder of the startup wants to test the market and to create the first version of the website fast/cheap with a stripped-down functionality. In this case, WordPress can be useful as a prototype and platform for a minimal viable product. Some non-tech managers believe WordPress is better than any frameworks because WordPress as a pre-built CMS has a great admin panel (user-friendly interface), so each non-tech staff member can update the website without developers. The truth is that if it's necessary to have a WordPress-like admin panel, then it will be developed easily with a framework. It is also easy to find a Laravel developer - the market is quite wide. As Jake Goldman, the owner of WordPress-centric digital agency 10up (California), puts in his blog: “Pushing WordPress to a client in the face of clearly better-suited alternative is, from my perspective, tantamount to professional malpractice.” Security vulnerabilities of Wordpress When making a decision on the use of WordPress, security vulnerabilities of the WordPress core and plugins should be considered. Just get a quick overview of the widely known cases: Over 1 million WordPress sites may be affected by a flaw in WP Super Cache plugin 50,000 sites hacked through WordPress plug-in vulnerability Websites running WordPress hacked to display money-making ads for hackers Hackers Grab 800,000 Banking Credentials My client's site was hacked and I do not have a backup of his WP site. He's been calling me for 3 days but could not answer. What can I tell him? Security vulnerabilities of WordPress mean that it is important to constantly update the WordPress core and plugins (which implies hidden costs). Well-developed Laravel-based websites are more secure and do not need constant updates. Laravel uses custom code and has built-in functions for encryption and protecting against common vulnerabilities. Moreover, Laravel is fully compatible with PHP 7. This newest version of the language makes web applications faster and more secure. And it requires fewer servers to handle the same amount of requests per second, which reduces hosting expenses. At the same time, most of the themes and plugins of WordPress are not fully compatible with PHP 7. Moving WordPress website from PHP 5 to PHP 7 can also be a time-consuming endeavor. Limits of Wordpress There are limits of customization that come with any system built with WordPress CMS. If the WordPress-based project grows (more registered users, more operations per second, etc.), at some point there is no choice but to re-create it with a framework (such as Laravel) or to migrate the website to the Laravel framework. We gathered some frequent cases: Gizamo: «Asking a web developer to modify a CMS can significantly increase developmental costs. It may also create complications in core functionalities, such as updating, theming, etc. And, it can require a darn good programmer, depending on the platform (which will further increase the costs)». Developer: «I have been developing with WordPress for a while now. I have been using WordPress outside of its element and been developing web application that aren't necessarily blogs. I loved all the functions they have, and the security it provides.  But I'm starting to work with more complex applications, applications that are starting to not fit in the WordPress model. I need to find a framework that's similar to WordPress in the developmental aspect. I just need a powerful framework that is lightweight and well documented. So I need a framework that can handle user management, template engine, security updates, and has good documentation for development». Ekaitzastiz: «I have done a lot of things with WordPress: custom themes, widgets, plugins... And for news web and blog web portfolio, it was enough. However, Laravel is a framework that can be used to do exactly what you want and how you want; you can do a custom backend, a REST API, a SPA app, an intranet, a CRM... Big effort is needed in WordPress to do big changes like that. WordPress is not as customizable as an app that you build from scratch with a custom design and focusing on your needs. It's not as flexible when changing anything. Moreover, very important, is the weakness of most plugins and widgets in WordPress: they aren't tested with PHPUnit, or aren't build applying TDD». Masiorama: «After months developing and using WordPress-based solutions for my clients I noticed that the start of every single project was very fast (easy to install, lots of materials available for free or cheap) and satisfactory enough, but the hell arrived each time there were some more-than-little modifications (logic and design). Using a framework with a pattern like MVC (I use Yii) may be more difficult at the beginning, but to write, debug, and organize your code is far more fluid and satisfactory, on the long run. Even a module (CMS) can be easily extended or rewritten with lesser effort than packed CMS solutions like WordPress». Steven Richardson: «I just built the whole thing in Laravel, including the blog. I got my app response time down to 35ms with a total page load time of 1.02s from the original 4.3s.  I believe if you can build something that will perform faster, even on a mobile connection over a bloated CMS then build it. Your readers and users will thank you for it». Milan Lesichkov: «I have moved several slow WordPress sites to Laravel. Speed improvement is about 700%. 10s (WordPress) - 1.5 s. (Laravel)». Gravy: «I am moving my website from WordPress to Laravel as the website has moved away from being a blog and requires more enterprise and custom functionality. The website has outgrown WordPress». Raffworks: «I decided to consider moving away from WordPress and into using a lightweight framework for building my sites and web apps. I went for CodeIgniter 2.1.3, but got a surprise insight into Laravel as I was doing so, and have decided to go for that instead». Milan Lesichkov: «My experience starting with WP and moving it later to Laravel was a nightmare. I have moved many web sites away from WordPress to Laravel. The benefits are great security, speed improvements, full flexibility of what can be done, development speed, great model layer for working with databases, and many more. So my advice, stay away from WordPress. It was meant to be a simple blogging engine that is “hacked” to do much more. Everything in WordPress is a “hack” but most of all, the database. The “blog post” is a post, “image” is a post, “page” is a post and what-ever-you-think-of is a post. All additional data is added in metas, which have to be joined multiple times to get related data. Once your database grows even just a little bit, it gets slow as a turtle. Development speed. It takes me 5–10 times less time to do the same features with Laravel than WordPress. Every time you develop for WordPress you have to “hack” something to get it working. With Laravel it’s all modular and reusable. For instance, what if you want to have a blog on your website? Well it took me about 2 days to do a blogging module for Laravel—fully flexible, that can be added anywhere, reused many times after this». Why Laravel Development with a framework is a bit expensive in the first investment and cheaper in the long run compared with WordPress development and customization. Maybe it does make sense to invest in proper custom architecture with Laravel or another suitable framework from the outset? Development of a web application is a mix of common and creative tasks. Good developers like to do all this common work (repeating from project to project) in as little time as possible (without loss of quality) before starting to write custom functions much sooner. Web frameworks are tools that make it easier to solve common tasks quickly with the aim to focus faster on own application logic (creative tasks). Not all frameworks are able to solve each of the described problems equally well. The best web frameworks such as Laravel help developers to do it and this means that Laravel-based development will make software delivery timely and cost-effective. Besides, Laravel is scalable and it is not a problem finding new developers as this framework is very popular.  Tasks that usually take hours and hundreds of lines of code to write, can be done with Laravel framework in a few minutes with pre-built functions. For example, basic authentication (including social login integration), cache (to improve performance), form validation (to ensure that user has provided necessary and properly formatted information), and etc. are already implemented in a new installation of Laravel. Development becomes easier, faster, and efficient! Writing unit tests is usually very time-consuming, however, it’s definitely worth the spent time because software testing provides clients with information about the quality of the product or service. Fortunately, Laravel testing is already integrated into the framework! Laravel community is very friendly and helpful, and documentation is detailed: developer doesn’t need to spend much time researching best practices in developing and maintaining web applications and making decisions on how to implement everything properly. Unlike Symfony or Zend framework, developers can find many code snippets, tutorials, courses about Laravel. With October CMS based on Laravel PHP Framework, the process of building absolutely anything from simple promotional sites to high-powered web applications becomes even easier. October CMS now is a go-to platform for many developers and clients. It has been installed more than 100 thousand times.

Contact us to learn how our Laravel consultants and programmers could help you with Laravel Development. Laravel framework is very popular for custom software development. It is the Most Starred PHP Framework on Github: more than 56 000 developers from all over the world (mostly from the USA) greatly appreciate robust features of this platform. Why is Laravel so popular? It gives the right tools to help build websites and web apps faster, more stable and very easy to maintain. Authentication and Authorization Systems Each owner of the web application needs to ensure that users are who they claim to be and thus prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to secured/paid resources. Laravel benefit #1: Laravel makes implementing authentication very simple. Almost everything is configured out-of-the-box. Laravel also provides a simple way to organize authorization logic and control access to resources. Integration with Mail Services Mail service can be used to send notifications to users’ emails after various events. It’s hard to imagine a modern web application, for example, lacking even a simple email notification to a new user about their successful registration on the website. Laravel benefit #2. Laravel provides a clean, simple API over the popular SwiftMailer library. Laravel also provides drivers for SMTP, Mailgun, Mandrill, SparkPost, Amazon SES, PHP's “mail” function, and “sendmail”, allowing an application to quickly get started sending mail through a local or cloud-based service. In addition to support for sending email, Laravel provides support for sending notifications across a variety of delivery channels, including SMS (via Nexmo) and Slack. Integration with Tools for Making Web Applications Faster It is important not just to create an application but also to create a fast application, which will result in accelerating revenue. Integration with so-called caching backend is often one of the main steps taken to improve a web application performance. Laravel benefit #3. Laravel supports popular cache backends like Memcached and Redis out-of-the-box. By default, Laravel is configured to use the file cache driver, which stores cached objects in the file system. For larger applications, it is better to use an in-memory cache such as Memcached or APC. However, with Laravel it is even possible to configure multiple cache configurations.. Fixing the Most Common Technical Vulnerabilities Security vulnerabilities go hand-in-hand with the development of any web application. American non-profit organization, The OWASP Foundation, describes the most critical web application security vulnerabilities: SQL injection, cross-site request forgery, cross-site scripting, etc. The developer must not forget and be able to fix all of them before delivery. Laravel benefit #4. Laravel helps to secure the web application by protecting it against the most serious security risks: SQL injection, cross-site request forgery, and cross-site scripting. Laravel itself is secure. We can tell you first hand that the codebase is fanatically guarded, and that the code has been vetted by several people. Configuration Error and Exception Handling The way a software application handles errors can have a big impact on user satisfaction and usability of the application. Data-entry forms are one of the most common places where errors are identified and presented after users click a Submit Button. If something does not work because of the user doing something wrong, he/she should be notified about it in the convenient form. If user’s action cannot be completed because the user submitted incorrect data, it should be reported to him/her in an informative error message. Without proper error handling, the user may decide that the problem is in the application (it is out of service) and move away from the application forever. Nobody wants to lose their customers or to disappoint them. Laravel benefit #5. Error and exception handling is already configured for any new Laravel-based project. In addition, Laravel is integrated with the Monolog logging library, which provides support for a variety of powerful log handlers. Automation of Testing Work Without testing and verifying what the developer has created, how can anyone (including the developer) be sure that the software will perform without any crashes, bugs, errors and in accordance with the initial application requirements? Automation testing is less time-consuming and in many cases more exact than manual testing. Laravel benefit #6. Laravel is built with testing in mind. In fact, support for testing with PHPUnit is included out-of-the-box and a phpunit.xml file is already setup for the application. The framework also ships with convenient helper methods allowing for expressive testing of the applications. It provides easy ways for simulating basic behavior of users (making requests to the application and examining the output, for example, clicking links, filling out forms). URL Routing Configuration Users will utilize a web application by clicking or typing links. They will hope to see the desired content, for example, an article, a contact form, a product description etc. If there is no URL routing, the web application will never understand what the user wants to see and may show a blank page or an error page instead. Laravel benefit #7. All Laravel routes are defined in the app/Http/routes.php file, which is automatically loaded by the framework. The most basic Laravel routes simply accept a URI and a Closure, providing a very simple and expressive method of defining routes. Separation of “Business Logic Code” from “Presentation Code” Such separation enables Html Layout Designers (less costly staff) to change the appearance of a web page easily without interacting with Developers (more expensive stuff). Possible bug fixes and feature requests would be done by developers faster (read as “cost-effectively”) if all programming code of the web application has the appropriate separation at the early stage of the development. Laravel benefit #8. Laravel is an MVC framework, so separation is already done.  See the figure: the full MVC request cycle in a Laravel 5 application. Image source: selftaughtcoders.com/from-idea-to-launch/lesson-17/laravel-5-mvc-application-in-10-minutes/ Message Queue System (Delayed Delivery) Configuration It's not just about simple email messages, but about a lot of forms of communication between different parts of the application or between different applications. The more traffic a web application gets, the more requests it must handle per second, the bigger the risk will be that hosting this application will be very expensive (especially, cloud hosting) or that the web server will stop working with data loss. No stakeholder likes to appear in situations such as this. To prevent it, developers may decide to use the message queue system at the start of project development among other techniques for load balancing, increasing application's speed and keeping data integrity. Laravel benefit #9. The Laravel queue service provides a unified API across a variety of different queue backends. Queues allow you to defer the processing of a time-consuming task, such as sending an e-mail, until a later time, which drastically speeds up web requests to your application. Scheduling Tasks Configuration and Management Whether it is necessary to send out emails to the subscribers each morning or automatic cleanup of the database tables at the end of the day (to make the application faster and to reduce the cost of hosting), any web app needs a task scheduling mechanism to take care of the tasks, when it’s time. Laravel benefit #10. In the past, developers have generated a Cron entry for each task they need to schedule. However, this is a headache. Such task schedule is no longer in source control, and developers must SSH into the server to add the Cron entries. The Laravel command scheduler allows for the fluent and expressive defining of command schedule within Laravel itself, and only a single Cron entry is needed on the server. How Fast are Laravel-based Web Applications? Web application should run as quickly as possible. Amazon found that every 100ms of latency cost them 1% in sales. Google found that extra .5 seconds in search page generation time dropped traffic by 20%. Broker can lose $4 million in revenues per millisecond if his electronic trading platform is 5 milliseconds behind the competition! It is important not just to develop web application but to develop fast web application, which will result in accelerating revenue. Is Laravel fast enough to use it for custom software development? As a rule, caching is the way to increase application performance by storing in the filesystem or in memory results of such expensive operations as requests to the database server. The most common way of explaining the power of cache is via analogy. ‘Caching is like storing milk in the home refrigerator, so you don't have to go to the store (or the farm) every time you need it.’ CEO of Brightidea, San Francisco Bay Area, the USA Laravel PHP Framework provides wonderful built-in tool to keep the Laravel applications fast – so called cache drivers. How does caching work in Laravel? After customers enter an URL of your application into browser, the physical server, where your application is hosted, will receive a request, process it (in a lot of cases, by making requests to the database server), and send back a response. A large number of complex requests to the database server is one of the most resource-intensive operations. Imagine that 1,000+ Internet users visit your website simultaneously and make requests to the database server! You should have very expensive equipment to handle them all as fast as possible.  It’s much more efficient to transfer the most requested pages once, cache them and then serve future requests directly from the cache. Laravel supports popular cache backends like Memcached and Redis out of the box. By default, Laravel is configured to use the file cache driver, which stores cached objects in the filesystem. For larger applications, it is better to use an in-memory cache such as Memcached or APC. However, with Laravel it is even possible to configure multiple cache configurations for the same driver. ‘I have moved several slow WordPress sites to Laravel. Speed improvement is about 700%. 10s (WordPress) - 1.5 s. (Laravel).’ Milan Lesichkov How much faster can caching make Laravel applications? The performance can be improved twice just by using cache! Awesome enough, right? Check out also this package  to optimize your site automatically which results on a 35%+ optimization. Avaiable filters: Inlines small external CSS files; Removes unnecessary attributes in HTML tags; Injects tags in the HEAD to enable the browser to do DNS prefetching; Removes unnecessary quotes in HTML tags; Removes unnecessary prefixes from URLs; Removes unnecessary whitespace in HTML; Removes HTML comments. Tips to optimize web application perfomance Besides this, our developers know that there are some other technics to boost speed of the php-based application. Known fact that page loading speed is an essential factor for any site. Users are not willing to wait for long pages response and in the worst cases they can leave your site. Search Engines reduce page rank of your site when the speed is too slow; this results in fewer visitors from Search Engines. And, yes, as the site administrator you’ll feel irritation, if you have to wait a long time while managing your site, knowing that this process can be accelerated. All the ways to speed up your site are divided into two basic methods: website software optimization and server software/hardware optimization. Recently Belitsoft PHP department developed several highly loaded PHP based websites and we want to share some techniques that allowed us to speed up sites, developed using the following languages/technologies/tools: PHP, MySQL Percona Server, JavaScript HTML5, CSS3, Apache, Nginx, FastCGI, APC. Using the outlined methods in this article, you’ll be able to speed up your PHP-based website quickly and effectively regardless of its platform. Tips to optimize web application perfomance SQL requests optimization Long processing of database queries is often the cause of slow pages loading. Often the reason for this is incorrectness of queries writing, lack of competent tables indexing, bulky and too complex requests and etc. At this stage it is necessary to catch all requests that carried out more than 2 seconds and directed to database more often. You can handle with too long requests by using correct index settings in tables and writing less bulky requests with all recommended SQL rules. System caching data received from the database is the most effective way for most repeated queries. It works as follows - if one of the visitors sent the query to database which returns some data then this info will be taken from the cache if the same query will be done even from the other user. Thereby the load on the database is decreasing and the page load time increases. Decreasing image size You can often notice slideshow elements on the main page of websites, where you find 5-7 images, 300KB each. As a result, we got somewhere around 2MB, which are downloaded from the server to user's browser. Also, if the website is a shop and contains more than a thousand of products, and each of these products has 2-3 pictures (200-300Kb) on page, then all of the images need full load time, which ultimately increases pages load time. In this case I propose: As far as possible, keep the pictures in JPG, instead of PNG format. Some would say that quality will be lost, but sometimes it is not even eye noticeable, and with a large number of pictures - that gives the result. With a help of special programs, change image compression degree. Thus reducing the image quality by 10-15% gives a weighty image size reduction and visually you cannot see the difference. Tip: Instead of point 1 and 2 you can check any of your website URLs with Page Speed Tools as it reports how many bytes would be saved by optimizing the page's images. It is also possible to compress images "on fly" when receiving them from server to browser. GZIP allows you to make it easily after site connection and perform this task very efficiently. Caching After these procedures, it is desirable to use one of the >data caching systems. This allows to store the received data from server in browser cache for some time. This method allows not taking data from server after reloaded page and using cached data from your browser. It also reduces servers’ load and reduces page load time. Source code optimization In fact, it is one of the most important methods and maybe one of the most labor-intensive. Initially correctly built system foundation gives reliability, faultiness and speed of operations. Every developer knows about it, but often neglects this approach. The developers should initially use object-oriented programming paradigm to obey Model-View-Controller and etc., since it becomes truisms for most modern web-development software. In this early stage of software architecture any errors would entail substantial labor costs in future. Experts in Belitsoft Company have broad experience in developing fault-tolerant source code, which flexibly scaled and modified for the unique requirements of any customer. At the same time, software speed remains fast and customer retains its ability to improve the system without system redeveloping from scratch. We want to mention fast methods of source code optimization, which gives the results in a short period of time: 1. Asynchronous javascript loading This method is used when you have on page: Yandex and / or Google metrics or similar software that collects all visitor statistics from all of your pages. Online chat that uses JavaScript. Various «share options» (share buttons: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin and others) that uses JavaScript. Often, such JavaScript is loaded before the main visual elements on page and main visual elements are not showing till JavaScript finishes its work. Since JavaScript takes some time to load not a significant visual content, it might seem that whole page is loading slowly. In such cases you need to use asynchronous javascript loading: At first, page is loading visual objects (page layouts, styles, text, images), which is about 90-95% of total visual content on page; JavaScript is fully loaded in the "background” only after the first point. As a result, we receive a user-friendly page as almost all content on the page will be shown without delay for the end user. 2. Correction of HTML, CSS, Javascript errors In order to detect such errors use online W3C-Validator, which analyzes any site, indicates such errors and explains what kind of mistake is this and how to fix it. This method allows you quickly remove obvious errors and thus in most cases it helps to speed up the process of page loading. It also helps search engines to be more loyal to your website, which means the increase of site rating. 3. Reduction of page elements If you load a page with a certain category products, then similar products and images will be displayed in this list. For example, you display 20-40 goods on pagination list, which means that the exact numbers of images are loading too. In most cases, page visitor cannot see all of the 20-40 items at the same time. To view them all, he needs to use the mouse scrolling. It follows that the initial loading of 20-40 images takes a lot of time. And the visitor is bored to wait until these 20-40 pictures will be loaded on page. Possible solutions: Load 6-12 elements for each category. In most cases, this is the exact number of elements on a page; Remove the following type of pagination: «>»; Load 6-9 new items as far as you scrolling the mouse; Put a vertical arrow to the lower right corner in order to return to the head of page. As a result, this method allows you to download partly data on page, according to users’ needs, reducing the load on server and free up system resources to use on other tasks. Tips to optimize server software\hardware perfomance NGINX web server installation instead / or in parallel with the Apache web server This gives enormous increase of performance, which helps to reduce the time for inquiry process more effectively. With simultaneous use of Nginx and Apache, it is possible to divide the load between two systems. Percona server installation Percona Server is a replacement for standard MySQL. Percona stands out for improved performance and scalability. Advanced functionality allows you to gather various statistics, analyze the problems and find optimal solutions. Percona is free; it also allows accelerating the inquiry process in database for a short period of time, thereby to reduce page load time. Fastcgi installation Configure this interface on the side of the server increases the speed of the executable scripts. APC installation After installation it allows to cache executable PHP scripts, which also reduces load on web server and decrease page load time. Optimization of system logs There is a history log created on server after all system manipulations and if someone is making changes to the system. This history is accumulated in logs: FTP logs, MySQL logs, web server logs, SMTP server logs and etc. In fact, any software installed on the server can create a list of such logs. But all of these logs are extremely important, as in case of any system failures or unauthorized access by third parties, system administrator will always be able to understand causes and recover system. Logs constantly reduce servers’ disk space that could lead to unpredictable expenses on additional free disk space. Also server creates a special system file (paging file) that is filled during peak hours, when RAM is not enough for server to handle all requests. This system file is always reserve several GB of disk space and can be increased «on fly». So if logs "eat up" the remnants of disk space, the system file cannot increase and as a result the site is very slow, and sometimes it even freezes. There is only one way out except buying a lot of disk space: Set up continued, automatic backup of current log; Backup process should be scheduled on a low load time (usually at night); Periodically move backup of old logs from the current site server to another location to help not to overload disk space; After that, overwrite the old logs with new one on schedule. Tariff plan change and server upgrade If you have used all of the methods above and still want to speed up site response you should update servers’ hardware: Processor power, RAM increase; Placement of web server, server database and file storage on different servers; Master and Slave modes organization on web server side. The first mode takes the main load and sends the rest to the second one; Use "cloud" storage to speed up page load when loading the heavy content (images, video, sounds, etc.) from the closest server. All of these options (or combinations) will also have a positive impact on site responsiveness and will allow to sustain at least ten thousands visitors at the same day. Built With Laravel Both well-established companies and startups are using Laravel Development. The framework is robust and versatile, which is appreciated by business owners on many levels. Take a look at examples of great Laravel-based projects. #1. STARTUPS.CO STARTUPS.CO is a startup launch platform built with Laravel to help emerging companies find customers, press, funding, and mentors. The platform tracks 825,000 startups and provides access to 13+ million registered users. It serves customers in the United States and internationally. Startups.co is based in Powell, Ohio. Fundable.com, a subdivision of  startups.co is also built with Laravel. It is a crowdfunding platform that offers rewards-based and equity-based campaigns for small businesses. Fundable has helped arrange $150 million in funding for startups through its platform. Zirtual.com, another part of startups.co is also built with Laravel. It provides dedicated US-based virtual assistants for busy entrepreneurs, professionals, and small teams to perform in-person tasks; legal, accounting or HR; full-time customer support; team/staff management, etc. #2. Toyotahalloffame.com Fantasy football is an interactive online competition for 30+ million players in the U.S. and Canada. Toyota and Yahoo are bringing the average fantasy footballer a chance to be inducted into a fantasy hall of fame. This Laravel website is set up to nominate hall-of-famers. #3. RV.CAMPINGWORLD.COM RV.CAMPINGWORLD.COM is a Laravel-based web application of the American corporation Camping World, which specializes in selling parts and service for recreational vehicles (RVs) and camping supplies. This Laravel website helps users in selling or buying RVs online and making requests for services (diagnostic, repair, maintenance, warranty, collision, and installation). #4. GLOBALDIETARYDATABASE.ORG GLOBALDIETARYDATABASE.ORG is a data collection Laravel web application created for the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. It has since attracted media attention and was endorsed by Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The aim of this project is to collect diet and nutrition data from hundreds of government health ministries, academic institutions, and NGOs around the world. When this data is compared with disease databases, they can establish correlations between diets and health outcomes. This Laravel web app automatically tracks and maintains the status of all data and communications. #5. EXPLOREGEORGIA.ORG EXPLOREGEORGIA.ORG is an official Laravel-based state’s tourism website of the Georgia Department of Economic Development (the United States). This innovative and engaging web app uses practical planning tools to motivate travelers to make a trip to the state. Georgia Explorer Trip Planner offers potential visitors a playful way to explore the entire site and plan their dream vacation or weekend. All aspects of the travel decision-making process for the consumer have been taken into consideration – from inspiration to trip planning to booking to sharing via social media. The site provides greater exposure for the state’s thousands of tourism industry partners. More than 16,000 Georgia restaurants can be searched and filtered based on location, cuisine or type of establishment. The similar affiliate websites are Marketgeorgia.org and Tourgeorgiafilm.com, which also use Laravel framework. #6. CEENTA.COM CEENTA.COM is a complex corporate Laravel-based website of an American Medical Group, Charlotte Eye Ear Nose & Throat Associates (CEENTA) located in North Carolina. CEENTA is the region’s premier provider of the eye, ear, nose, and throat care for adults and pediatric patients for more than 90 years. In addition to otolaryngology and ophthalmology, the group’s complete services include audiology, allergy, clinical research, contact lenses, on-site surgical facilities, facial plastic surgery, sleep medicine and full-service optical shops. #7. INVICTAWATCH.COM INVICTAWATCH.COM is a complex corporate website built with Laravel of an American watch company Invicta Watch Group (previously founded in 1837 in Switzerland). The website has e-commerce features such as online product catalog with images, videos and descriptions. #8. RATEMYAPPRENTICESHIP.CO.UK RATEMYAPPRENTICESHIP.CO.UK is a Laravel-based web application, which is aimed to provide young people in Great Britain with relevant information about Apprenticeships and School Leaver Programmes as well as other relevant opportunities such as Sponsored Degree Programmes, Gap Year Programmes, Traineeships and work experience. An apprenticeship is a real job with a mix of on-the-job and off-the-job training during which a specific set of skills and qualifications is taught that will be useful in future jobs. It usually takes between one and four years and can be done in a variety of industries, including accountancy, finance advice, engineering, retail, law and social care. In addition to training and education, an apprenticeship provides the apprentice with work experience and an income. RateMyApprenticeship.co.uk belongs to the UK Company RMP Enterprise (based in Westminster). #9. FOX47.COM FOX47.COM is an official news website of Fox-affiliated television station WMSN-TV that covers society, sports, weather and traffic for the Wisconsin Capital Region. #10. BONAPPETOUR.COM BONAPPETOUR.COM is a community marketplace (Airbnb-style social restaurant) built with Laravel framework that connects travelers with local home chefs for a unique home-dining experience. On this website, travelers can find dinners available in the cities they are visiting (in over 75 cities around the world). Each dining experience features a menu prepared by the home chef (there are more than 500 verified hosts), a description of the host and reviews by previous guests (if any). Travelers can message the host if they want to. Once both the traveler and the host have confirmed the arrangement, the traveler should make payment via the website.  Bonappetour was founded in 2013 in Singapore. #11. YULAIR.COM YULAIR.COM is probably a website for Canadians to search for the best airfare to/from the country. This multilingual web application is built with Laravel framework. A team of experts scours the web for the cheapest flights leaving from different local airports and posts them on this website. Visitors can then search the site or get email alerts. Yulair averages 100,000 unique monthly visitors and has a social media following of over 80,000. #12. LARACASTS.COM LARACASTS.COM is a well-known e-learning Laravel-based website that specializes in teaching subscribers PHP framework, Laravel, and other related technologies. It updates daily, specifically for working web developers. The majority of beginner-level content is free to everyone. And a monthly $9 charge gives developers access to the entire catalog of videos. Laracasts is based in the USA and has a social media following of over 25,000 on Twitter and 10,000+ on Facebook.

Contact us to learn how our Laravel consultants and programmers could help you with Laravel Microservices. Figure. Example of Microservices Architecture. Differences between Laravel and Lumen Lumen microframework is a lightweight version of Laravel full-stack framework. Lumen use the Laravel syntax and components, and can be 'upgrade' easily to Laravel. Lumen is a more specialized (and stripped-down) framework designed for Microservices and API development. So, some of the features in Laravel such as HTTP sessions, cookies, and templating are not needed and Lumen takes them away, keeping what's essential - routing, logging, caching, queues, validation, error handling and a couple of others. As Taylor Otwell, the main creator and maintainer of the Laravel and Lumen frameworks, underlined in his interview: “Lumen opts for maximum speed. The actual Lumen framework repository is probably only a dozen files or so. The rest is made up of the Illuminate components. This allowed me to flesh out the features of the framework very quickly, though it did take me three or four iterations to find a solution that was really, really fast while still providing very powerful features”. Taylor Otwell also talked about one more key difference: «The entire bootstrap process is also located basically in a single file, which is less configurable overall than full-stack Laravel, but for small microservices and APIs that are mainly interested in speed it's a good trade-off». Additionally, Lumen uses a faster router than Laravel (FastRoute instead of Symfony’s) and many features are disabled by default in Lumen in comparison with Laravel, for example, Facades, Dotenv environment files, Eloquent and so on. Microservices need to possess the ability to read and write to a database, must be secured, be built with the so-called message-driven approach, and have the ability to provide reports. Modern microframeworks make these tasks as trivial as possible. Lumen is the perfect solution for building microservices. It utilizes all benefits of Laravel framework including security, easy database configuration (MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, and SQL Server), queue service configuration, integration with reporting tools and so on. Lumen microservices architecture example Let’s imagine a standard web page on an ecommerce website. To pull together the various parts of that website, we might need several microservices. One of them might display the details about the product being offered for sale. Another might show the price and stock level. And we’ll probably be showing shopping cart contents too, which may be another microservice. If the shopping cart service is unavailable, we’re probably in a lot of trouble, but we could still show the web page with the listing. Perhaps we just hide the shopping cart or replace it with an icon saying “Will Be Back Soon!” or replace the part of the UI containing the cart control with a phone number for placing an order. RESTful API Development with Lumen (Laravel) Microframework API is an approach that allows different applications or different parts of a single application to share data among each other by special programming commands. By default, an application has no use for APIs if it is not defined by software requirements. When a customer orders an API creation from us and they want to go with Laravel Development then we usually suggest the use of Lumen. When is it necessary to develop an API for the application and why do we choose Lumen for this? For any API service, speed is very important, because if it is not able to serve a lot of requests per second fast, the business perspectives of using the API will be much reduced. As we considered earlier, API development can be done using fast microframeworks like Lumen, which is one of the fastest PHP micro-frameworks available. Lumen microframework can be used to build an API for a web application to integrate it with a mobile application. Simple example: a mobile bookstore application offers a search feature, where the user can look for books by author name. The mobile application needs to use an API, which should be provided by a bookstore web service, to get data about authors and books. Lumen microframework can be used to build an API for integrating different microservices within a large service/application (core project). For example, a core web application helps to order stuff from local, offline stores/partners. Each of these stores/services come with their own APIs. The right development approach is to create a microservice, which will call the APIs of the partners and provide its own API to transfer data received from partners to the core web application. The most popular open source APIs created using Lumen are located on github.com. Which tool to use – a full-stack framework like Laravel or a microframework like Lumen – depends on software requirements and developer competence/experience. Top-notch developers teach: “Use microframework if you are comfortable with making all of your own architecture decisions and full-stack framework if not”. Since large web application can be built based on microservice architecture approach, this means that projects must not be just micro or small to use the microframework. When it is a good idea to use microservices According to the software requirements, each web project is reduced to one of the following types: Development of an application from scratch; Rebuilding (or refactoring) a legacy application; Adding new functionality to an existing application. ‘Microservices architectural approach can be used in each of these cases. But often it is used for refactoring (rewriting) a legacy application from monolith into microservices.’ Basically, there are 4 main reasons for it: The application is getting so big that developers need a lot of time to understand it, and therefore organizational/project scaling issues are arising; The application consists of different parts with independent and very different update&release frequencies; There is a necessity to dynamically scale specific parts of the system up and down, independently from the other parts; Different parts of the system have specific domain or technical requirements that force developers to use a programming language/framework which is different than the common programming language of the team.  Business perspectives of microservice architecture Protect from failure. In a monolithic service, if the service fails, everything stops working. With a monolithic system, we can run on multiple machines to reduce our chances of failure, but with microservices, we can build systems that can handle the total failure of services. Since services can fail at any time, it's important to be able to detect the issue quickly and, if possible, automatically restore working order. Microservice applications put a lot of emphasis on real-time monitoring, checking both architectural elements (how many requests per second is the database getting) and business-relevant metrics (such as how many orders per minute are received). Semantic monitoring can provide an early warning system of something going wrong that triggers development teams to follow up and investigate. This is one of the main reasons why organizations like Amazon and Netflix use these architectures—to ensure they remove as many impediments to getting software out the door as possible. Scalability. A change made to a small part of the monolithic application (scaling), requires scaling of the entire application rather than parts of it which in turn requires greater resources (hidden costs of building the monolithic application). In contrast, microservices are independently scalable. With microservices, developers can make a change to a single service and deploy it (moving from test server to production server) independently of the rest of the system. Decreasing team size and their productivity. Microservices help developers minimize the number of people working on each codebase to hit the sweet spot of team size and productivity. Project managers can also shift ownership of services between teams to keep people working on one service collocated. When services are isolated from each other,  much less coordination is needed between service owners. The less coordination needed between teams,  the more autonomy those teams have, as they are able to operate and evolve their services more freely. Figure. Microservices Architecture is sometimes the best technological solution for business. Source: martinfowler.com/microservices/#what Examples of projects with microservices architecture We used Laravel microservices to create insurance calculator for Insly Company to speed up the quote calculation for brokers who also use this SaaS system. With microservices, it is easy to test API calls and create documentation for new functionality. Gilt, an online fashion retailer, started in 2007 as a monolithic application, but by 2009 Gilt’s system was unable to cope with the load being placed on it. By splitting out core parts of its system, Gilt was able to better deal with its traffic spikes, and today has over 450 microservices, each running on a separate machine. The Guardian website is another example of an application that was designed and built as a monolith, but has been evolving in a microservice direction. The monolith still is the core of the website, but they prefer to add new features by building microservices that use the monolith's API. This approach is particularly handy for features that are inherently temporary, such as specialized pages to handle a sporting event. Such a part of the website can quickly be put together using rapid development languages, and removed once the event is over. Similar approaches are used at a financial institution where new services are added for a market opportunity and discarded after a few months or even weeks. Other examples include Amazon, Netflix, Google, Ebay, the UK Government Digital Service, realestate.com.au, Soundcloud, Forward, and comparethemarket.com. Google Maps is an example of a cloud based web application that shares its own functionality through APIs for free, but with some limits, after exceeding which this API functionality becomes paid. Some other great companies such as Ebay provide APIs that help entrepreneurs to make money by integrating their web, desktop or mobile applications with the eBay API platform. As ProgrammableWeb editor-in-chief, David Berlind puts in his blog: ‘For those who understand the potential of APIs, there could be millions of dollars to be made, or saved.’  Differences between full-stack and micro web frameworks for building microservices A web framework is a tool for solving common software development problems fast (read as “cost-effectively”). Web frameworks are divided into full-stack frameworks and microframeworks.  Web frameworks “allows developers to save time by re-using generic modules in order to focus on other areas”. As an example, a framework will keep the developer from having to spend 2 or 3 days creating an authentication form (which is not a specific task). The time that is saved can be dedicated to more specific components as well as to the corresponding unit tests; giving the solid, sustainable and high-quality code. Another example: when working in teams, things can get ugly when it comes to choosing options for libraries and tools. Usually, each member of the team will try to push her/his preferred options. Nevertheless, if the team is using a framework, it can simply use the default options and avoid discussions. A full-stack framework is a framework that attempts to provide nearly everything — from web serving to database management right down to HTML generation — that a developer could possibly need to build an application. It likely includes components that may not be needed by the majority of applications, but having them available makes it easier to integrate new features. A microframework is a framework that attempts to provide only the components that are absolutely necessary for a developer to build an application; or it may focus on providing the functionality of one particular area very efficiently. Microframeworks often tend to be better-suited for smaller applications or for applications with specific purposes for which the framework was designed. In the case of web application frameworks, a microframework may be specifically designed for building the so-called APIs for another service or application. Microframeworks often need to be extended with additional components in order to make them provide more functionality. Source: digitalcommons.uri.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1632&context=theses A microframework is a collection of bare necessities required to build a web application. Typically, a microframework facilitates receiving an HTTP request, routing the HTTP request to the appropriate controller, dispatching the controller, and returning an HTTP response. Some microframeworks take this a few steps forward and also provide additional tools to manipulate the HTTP response (HTTP caching, status updates, redirects, and so on) as well as a middleware implementation. Many developers are familiar with larger full-stack frameworks like Laravel or Symfony. These excellent frameworks have a larger codebase, more "kitchen-sink" functionality, but also require more time to learn them. For some projects, both Laravel and Symfony are great tools. For other projects that do not require additional features, microframeworks are a more appropriate tool for the job.

What Is Node.js? ‘Node.js extends the creative potential of people with web development experience, enabling a new generation of developers to create servers, command-line tools, desktop apps, and even robots.’ Github.com Node.js enables backend development across multiple platforms with its open-source JavaScript runtime environment. Node.js primarily allows JavaScript code execution outside of web browsers. It also facilitates efficient input/output device interactions through APIs and the ability to connect with third-party libraries that use other programming languages. Node.js empowers developers to build real-time applications, chat apps, scalable mobile apps, and perform embedded programming. It achieves exceptional runtime performance thanks to engines like V8 that compile JavaScript into native machine code before execution, rather than interpreting it line-by-line. The power of Node.js lies in its capability of processing multiple concurrent requests to and from the web server (I/O). It accomplishes this through executing all requests on a singular thread, thereby facilitating thousands of simultaneous connections. This feature enables Node.js to offer incredibly swift and efficient performance, making it ideal for backend development. Node.js has become a popular choice for building large media services due to its simplicity, fast speed, cost-efficiency, and JavaScript-based nature. However, Node.js is not only applicable to these scenarios. Developers employ its versatile JavaScript-based technology in various fields, such as embedded systems, eCommerce, and the Internet of Things (IoT). Frameworks: Express.js, Sails.js, and Partial.js, etc. What Is Java? ‘Today, Java not only permeates the Internet but also is the invisible force behind many of the applications and devices that power our day-to-day lives.’ http://www.oracle.com Dedicated Java developers have used this platform-independent software programming language for over 27 years and it remains a prominent language in the industry. Java has gone through tremendous transformation and currently holds a vast part of the modern IT world owing to its dependability, protection, and steadiness. It is remarkably versatile and convenient, with the capacity to function on many operating systems and devices. Initially designed to enhance TV interactivity, Java support for concurrent computing, networks, and GUIs has garnered a large developer community. A great variety of industries use Java programming, including Fintech, eCommerce, industrial automation, and big data solutions. Java applies in different areas, including science, banking, online marketing, social media, and data analytics. Java has a plethora of libraries and frameworks that help developers in their work. The technology is continually growing with the support of an active developer community, incorporating new features that expand its potential and make it even more robust in newer versions. Frameworks: Spring, Struts, JSF, Tapestry etc. Pros and Cons of Node.js ✅ Scalability. One of Node.js's prime benefits is scalability. Its asynchronous nature makes it ideal for building interactive, real-time apps, and it can readily scale with expanding business needs. Implementing microservices and leveraging clustering capabilities further boosts scalability. ✅ Cost-efficiency due to full-stack development. Node.js is praised for its cost-effectiveness as it uses JavaScript for both server-side and client-side, reducing the need for additional programmers and expenses. This facilitates effective collaboration among developers and mitigates misunderstandings in Node.js projects. ✅ Quicker time to market. Leveraging full-stack development allows companies to reduce time-to-market, leading to faster availability of their products and services, thus enhancing customer satisfaction. ✅ Multi-platform development support. Node.js is a versatile tool that enables efficient application development across various operating systems and devices, making it an excellent choice for multi-platform development. ✅ Efficiency and lightweight. Being an event-driven environment, Node.js is lightweight and powerful, ideal for data-intensive real-time applications. ✅ Caching possibility. Node.js allows developers to utilize caching, storing frequently accessed data locally for quick retrieval. This feature boosts performance and reduces server load, especially beneficial for high-traffic websites. ✅ High speed of adoption. Developers favor Node.js due to its foundational use of JavaScript, a familiar programming language that's easy to use. Known for its outstanding performance and rapid speed, Node.js is a preferred technology among many developers. ✅ Large and active community. Node.js has a thriving community, where members actively support each other, share ideas, knowledge, and inspiration. ❌ Security issues. Due to the lack of robust native libraries, Node.js developers must depend on third-party tools, which could compromise security. ❌ Inadequate documentation for beginners. Novice developers might find the Node.js documentation lacking, desiring more detailed instructions to meet their needs. Pros and Cons of Java ✅ Great IDEs. Java tools offer more advanced capabilities for editing and operating on running source code. Java developers have access to powerful integrated development environments (IDEs) such as Eclipse, NetBeans, and IntelliJ with a wide range of debugging and server tools. ✅ Easy to adapt. Java is known for its ease of use and simplicity, making it accessible to developers of all skill levels. ✅ Simple syntax. Developers find it easy to read and understand Java's syntax because they often describe it as being very similar to human language. ✅ Bottom-up security. Built-in language security features enforced by the Java compiler and virtual machine make Java one of the most trustworthy languages for enterprise, financial, scientific and web development. ✅ Platform-agnostic nature. Its platform-agnosticism makes Java a crucial feature, offering developers the flexibility to use the same code on different platforms. Java's Virtual Machine can load, verify, and execute Java code, to ensure its accuracy and security in multiple operating systems. ✅ Robustness. ‘Robust code’ means that your program considers the code handles all the possibilities of an error. Java has a strong memory allocation and an automatic garbage collection mechanism. It provides a powerful exception-handling and type-checking structure as compared to other programming languages (e.g. JavaScript and Python). ✅ Integrations. Java is great at integration - there are specifications and implementations for incorporating many kinds of systems that you're likely to run into in an "enterprise" environment. ✅ Cost-efficiency. Developing Java applications requires minimal financial investments. ✅ Portability. The versatility of Java is an asset, as it offers high compatibility across various devices and platforms. ✅ Remote debugging support. Java offers a notable benefit of remote app fixing. Utilizing the Java enterprise stack, developers can leverage advanced servers, leading to improved telemetric activities. ✅ Active and large community. Developers can rely on the Java user community for help. ✅ Stability. Java has a significant advantage in terms of its high steadiness, which is maintained by frequent updates and improvements that work to eliminate any errors present in the language. ❌ Need for large memory space. Java experts have developed advanced libraries for converting data into Java objects, which can be a complex and resource-intensive process. However, Java requires a substantial amount of memory, and its use may negatively affect performance. ❌ Periods of low performance. A common concern among developers is the performance of Java, as it can consume a significant amount of memory. If proper backup facilities are not in place, data storage can become an issue. Complex concurrency can lead to abstractions instead of threads, complicating development. ❌ Poor GUI builder. Some developers suggest that other languages, such as Python, may offer better options for GUI builder. Complexity and verbosity are common criticisms of Java coding. Key Differences: Node.js vs. Java Performance Node.js Node.js's no-buffering feature outputs data in chunks, resulting in faster runtime. Java Java is a high-performance language, but it might be slower due to its use of compilers. We can see Java's ability to collect garbage as both a benefit and a disadvantage. We’ll observe Node.js and Java efficiency through this benchmark: Java shows itself well: it spends rather less time on handling requests than Node.js. Verdict: Both Scalability Node.js Node.js is a robust platform for building scalable applications that can handle high traffic. The non-blocking input and output system and an event-driven architecture enable it to manage multiple requests simultaneously. Furthermore, Node.js incorporates an event-loop system which permits the server to process a considerable number of requests productively, resulting in increased scalability and efficiency. Node.js takes advantage of a distributed system for greater scalability and efficiency. Java Java is a widely used language for developing enterprise applications, renowned for its superior performance and scalability. To get the best results, developers must use the proper techniques when adding computing resources like RAM and CPUs. Java offers several scaling options, including vertical and horizontal scaling, as well as solutions for the single point of failure issue. Moreover, Java's architecture is highly adaptable, capable of meeting a wide range of application requirements. Through the utilization of external applications, Java may increase its scalability, which it may lack natively. Verdict: Node.js Security Node.js Node.js is vulnerable to security risks, such as the absence of default error handling, which can be a significant safety issue. Moreover, the JavaScript environment used in Node.js is susceptible to attacks like npm phishing and denial-of-service attacks on servers. The JavaScript environment, including Node.js, is prone to Denial of Service (DoS) cyberattacks as a result of protection flaws in third-party npm packages. Java Java is famous for its robust security features, and most of its weak points originate from integration issues rather than inherent flaws in the language design. To further improve safety, developers can use TypeScript, a popular statically typed implementation for languages like Java. This helps prevent type-related errors, while bytecode verification in Java checks all code before running, ensuring an additional layer of protection. Verdict: Java I/O Communication Model IO is decrypted as an Input/Output communication model. Basically, it describes entering or displaying the data and refers to the data itself entered or shown by the computer. There are two types of I/O calls: blocking and non-blocking. Blocking IO means that a thread cannot do anything more until the IO is fully received. While a thread assists an IO request, the non-blocking IO allows it to handle the others, with no waiting for implementation of each (if needed, the request is queued straight away and processed later). Basically, it looks like that: In synchronous I/O, a thread assists a request and enters a wait state until it completes this request. A synchronous type allows a thread to continue processing another request until the operation is complete and decreases the time of implementation. Node.js Node apps are asynchronous and non-blocking. Making synchronous and blocked frameworks, such as ASP.NET and Django asynchronous, will take extra energy. Compared to the others, no additional action needs to be taken with Node.js. Java Java communication is of a blocking nature. The developer here will expect every IO request or start a thread per request. While non-blocking he can send off multiple requests. In current Java versions, both synchronous and asynchronous processes are available (depending on the method, class, and object being called). Verdict: Node.js Single vs Multi-threaded Node.js Node.js is single-threaded, which means that we have one thread to deal with all requests. Once a request arrives, that thread is used to handle it. No need to wait on a database query to return the data. While a database is executing our query, that single thread will serve another request. When the database finishes its job, it puts a message in the Event Queue. Node is continuously monitoring this queue, and after it finds the event, just takes it out and processes it. This kind of architecture makes Node ideal for I/O-intensive apps that include a lot of disk or network access, therefore we can serve more clients, without the need of throwing more hardware. And that is why Node applications are highly scalable. However, a downside to this is that while one client is being serviced, the others have to wait. For that reason, Node shouldn’t be used for CPU-intensive applications (video encoding, image manipulation service etc.). Java On the other hand, Java is multithreaded , which means that they may perform simultaneously several tasks within a program. Whereas other languages require operating system-particular procedures in order to enable multithreading, Java has made multithreaded programming integration smooth. Basically, multithreading helps applications to perform better. So, for large-scale projects that involve concurrency, Java is highly recommended whereas Node.js does not handle the thread and Java does. This is the weakest point of the JS environment. Verdict: Java Speed of coding Node.js A widespread opinion is that Node.js coding is more swift than Java. Note that project type and team size can affect coding speed. Java It often considers the Java programming language requiring more time to write code compared to other languages. However, the actual duration may vary based on various factors, such as the complexity of the project and the number of Java developers involved. Verdict: Node.js Cost of development Factors such as complexity, management, and drawbacks can complicate cost estimation. Getting multiple quotes from various businesses is beneficial to an in-depth perspective of the likely cost. This approach can help ensure that all costs are accounted for, enabling you to make informed decisions about your project budget. Node.js The typical annual salary for a Node.js developer in the United States is over $120k. Java The average annual pay for Java developers in the USA has exceeded $117k. Verdict: Varies Database support Node.js Node.js works well with different databases, including NoSQL and relational databases. This makes it a great fit for NoSQL databases, as it supports storage of data in JSON objects, which complements Node.js' JavaScript-based backends. Node.js also has a dedicated library for object data modeling with MongoDB, which enhances code readability and flexibility, leading to improved developer productivity. Java Popular databases used with Java include MySQL, SQLite, and PostgreSQL. For simpler projects, Java has built-in databases that developers and programmers can use. Additionally, JDBC-enabled databases can address the challenges of relational databases. Verdict: Both Community Node.js Node.js and Java have large and active communities of developers. As Node.js is a more recent technology, its user base is comparatively smaller. Node.js The ability for Node to increase the range of JavaScript and development became clear and led to a rise in popularity. According to StackOverflow, the global usage of this environment breaks the records: The rate ascended from 8% to 26% in four years, and is still going up. The number of countries that accept programming as a key factor for advancement is still on the rise. And the USA, are currently one of the most progressive “employers” in the world: Companies that use Node.js, by the revenue: Node.js only started reaping the benefits of the overall excitement. And there’s a reason: JavaScript became more versatile, Node itself is rather simple in use, novice-friendly and has an extensive “support” for developers (libraries, community etc.). Java Java has been around longer than Node.js, and as a result, it has a larger community of developers. Java has been here over 20 years and is still in demand: Programming may be compared to what is happening in the fashion industry: certain languages may decline in popularity, while others have experienced a surge. People want their new tools to be more simple and omnipresent. And that is the answer why so many people got hooked on Java in the late 90s. The narrative has not changed a great deal; Java is still a language that can be employed on various platforms and for diverse ends. See what countries Java has successfully inhabited: Even-so, the market is ever-evolving. Such giants as C and C++ are not utilized the way they used to be 20 years back. The stability, security, and reliability of Java is why modern IT companies give it a thumbs up. The following TIOBE index graph displayed the total attitude: Verdict: Both Microservices compatibility Node.js The Node.js platform has strong compatibility with code and service modules. Java Java frameworks, such as Spring Boot and Annotation Syntax, offer exceptional compatibility, making it well-suited for the microservice architecture. Verdict: Both Documentation Node.js The Node.js documentation page provides a comprehensive guide to the language, including detailed API reference documentation, information on ES6 features, and helpful guides to assist developers in using Node.js effectively. Java Java's documentation is a comprehensive and invaluable asset for developers regardless of their experience. This language is abundant in information, from commonplace to more specialized features. This gives developers a thorough comprehension of the language and its potential. Verdict: Both Easiness to learn Node.js Its syntax and JavaScript interpretation make Node.js easier to learn, especially for those familiar with JavaScript. It provides a better coding experience and simplified coding syntax, making it an appealing choice for constructing efficient and scalable applications. Java Compared to Node.js, Java has a more complex ecosystem and can require more time and effort to learn. Despite the difficulty in learning Java, it is achievable with commitment and effort. Even with its complex nature, Java remains a popular and powerful language for developing a wide range of applications. Verdict: Node.js Deciding on Node.js or Java When to use Node.js Node extricated JavaScript from web browsers and revealed itself as a flexible tool that is highly esteemed by the prominent companies listed above. Node.js provides developers with the opportunity to take advantage of JavaScript for both their frontend and backend development. Maximize the benefits of JavaScript for development: Fast and scalable server-side apps Small-size projects Real-time applications Programming tools (npm, bower, jspm, etc) Desktop applications Android apps E-commerce Online marketplaces Big data projects (Crawlers, parsers, and data collection) Message servers and event broadcasting (Chats, Games, Interactive) Streaming When to use Java ‘When web companies grow up, they turn into Java shops.’ James Governor Java is usually more practical for backend development because of its restricted frontend capabilities frequently requiring extra frameworks to create contemporary interfaces. Java has a broad application in tech, government, finance, healthcare, insurance, education, manufacturing, defense etc. 90% of Fortune 500 companies use Java for their backend architecture. Yet, because of its speed and scalability, many startups facing rapid growth use Java to power their tools as well. According to iDataLabs, companies that use Java are: 70% small ($1000M). Java is well-suited for: Complex web applications Enterprise software Highly concurrent applications Android apps E-commerce Financial apps with high-level security features Big data projects Social media Messaging The Internet of Things (IoT) APIs Scientific applications Node.js vs Java: What They Have in Common Popularity. Java and Node.js both have thriving developer communities that are constantly creating libraries and specialized content. The Java community is more established and versatile, with both beginners and professionals benefiting from a quick resolution of community issues. Easy testing. Java and Node.js are both capable of performing well in testing. However, Java follows a more standardized approach, while Node.js is known for its flexibility and adaptability. High developers’ salaries. According to Glassdoor, the average salary for both Java and Node.js programmers in the US is more than $100k. Despite the challenge of accurately evaluating the cost because of the various factors that influence the estimations, such as project complexity, management, and limitations, these experts are highly sought after and generously compensated. What Top Companies Choose: Node.js vs Java Node.js Netflix leverages Node.js to provide a fast, scalable, and modular application, resulting in a 70% decrease in application load times. LinkedIn, a social network with over 675 million members from over 200 countries, has employed a Node.js server-side mobile app, which is renowned for its speed, low memory usage, and speedy processing capabilities, giving it an advantage over Ruby on Rails. Uber, a leading player in on-demand ride-hailing, serves more than 900 cities and 85+ countries. Uber was the pioneer in utilizing Node.js to build its advanced matching system. Incorporation of backend technologies enabled Uber to boost app performance, data processing, and operational efficiency. PayPal initially used Java to construct its platform, but Node.js was ultimately selected to run its backend due to its efficiency in executing quick and convenient transactions. Node.js also offers robust support for over 200 markets and more than 100 currencies, making it a sound choice compared to Java for backend technology. Java Twitter, a popular social networking platform known for its microblogging features, has used Java for its development. In addition, Twitter has employed Java to create Android apps and to streamline user activities and usage. Spotify, one of the most popular music streaming platforms, enables users to stream music from a vast selection of artists, tracks, and albums. Java is one of the programming languages used in the development of this well-known app. Java has made the development process simpler and more efficient. Mini Opera is a highly popular Java application because of its fast information retrieval. Its reduced size allows for web pages to be loaded quickly, even in slow internet connections. Furthermore, it simplifies images to improve the user's experience. LinkedIn employs Java for several applications in the construction of the most popular online professional and career-based platform, including messaging, link recognition and conversion in texts, and more. Will Node.js Replace Java? Node.js and Java are both relevant technologies with their own strengths and weaknesses. It seems unlikely that either will completely replace the other. The decision to use one or the other depends on the specific needs of the project and the preferences of the developers involved. While Node.js has gained popularity in recent years, it remains to be seen if it will become more widely adopted than Java in the future. Don't guess which technology to use for your project. Get advice from our expert to turn your idea into secure and scalable software.

A dedicated web development team is a collaboration model that utilizes an outsourced workforce for long-term projects. This model is the most effective way to outsource. When you select and hire dedicated web developers, the vendor will assemble a group of professionals who are tailored to meet your business objectives. The dedicated development team resembles an in-house team hiring model, but it eliminates the need to manage tax, social benefits, and HR issues. Additionally, when you hire dedicated web developers, it allows you to focus on more critical business matters while the outsourced team handles other tasks. Check out how our dedicated web developers fill urgent need for senior developers to customize the Client's core software product for end customers. Find Out More Web Development Case Studies Dedicated Front-End Developers Get your website/applications user-friendly and enjoyable to use. Our world-class remote engineering talents create interactive web UIs using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to interact with your data models. Our senior dedicated developers are pre-screened across skills in frameworks like React, Vue.js, and Angular. You’ll get a responsive design that looks, feels, and works great, regardless of the device, and has a competitive user interface that functions seamlessly across multiple platforms. Dedicated Back-End Developers Get reliable backend technology experts to help guide you through the web development process, and create business logic to manipulate data received from the client side. Revamp and upgrade your web app’s entire backend including purchase flow, payment processing, backend data repository, and more. Hire developers skilled in an MVC design pattern, who understand how to protect your apps. We provide high-caliber dedicated backend developers with an in-depth understanding of SQL Server, MySQL, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Redis, Azure Cosmos DB and other databases. By choosing to hire dedicated Java developers or specialists in other backend technologies like .NET, you gain access to professionals who create crucial business logic for managing data from client-side interfaces, such as web pages or mobile apps. Their skillset extends to include managing the purchase flow, payment processing, backend data repositories, and more. Our API developers are experienced in decomposing monolith into microservices, creating RESTful services, deploying, and updating web applications from GitHub. Typical Structure of a Dedicated Web Development Team Business Analyst The main duty of a business analyst is to comprehend the business necessities and convert them into technical specifications that the development team can utilize to construct the web application. They are also vital in ensuring that the final output aligns with the business stakeholders' needs and adheres to the overall business strategy.  They are accountable for identifying business needs, examining business processes, and proposing improvements. Recommendations can include changes to the web application, to the way the project is managed, or even to the way the business operates overall. UX/UI designer Hiring a UX/UI designer for a web development project is crucial for its success. They design the user interface and user experience, conduct user research to meet their needs and preferences, and create wireframes, prototypes and mockups for the development team. They also ensure that the design is feasible and within budget and time constraints. A good UX/UI design leads to higher user satisfaction, increased conversion rate and improved business reputation. Tech Lead A tech lead ensures the technical aspects of the project are executed successfully. They are responsible for the overall technical direction, design, and implementation of the web project, as well as mentoring and guiding the web development team. Project Manager Hiring a project manager for web development is essential for ensuring the success of the project. They coordinate the development team, ensuring tasks are completed on time and within budget. They also identify and mitigate risks, manage resources, and ensure the final product meets client requirements and exceeds expectations. Without a project manager (third-party or your own), the project may not be completed on time and within budget. Investing in a project manager is a wise decision that will pay off in the long run. Quality Assurance testers Quality Assurance testers play a critical role in guaranteeing that the web application functions correctly and conforms to the set quality standards. Their responsibilities include testing the web application to ensure that it is free of errors and bugs and that it meets the specifications and requirements. Additionally, they conduct compatibility testing to ensure that the application runs smoothly on various devices and browsers. QA testers use different tools and techniques to perform functional, integration, system, and acceptance testing to detect and report any issues or bugs. They also collaborate with the development team to identify, prioritize and resolve defects promptly. DevOps engineers DevOps engineers are responsible for making sure that the application is deployed without any issues, always available and working properly. They constantly monitoring its performance and fixing any problems that arise. DevOps engineers rely on tools such as version control systems, containerization platforms, and infrastructure as code. When to Hire Dedicated Web Developers If budget constraints are preventing your company from scaling the web project, either through hiring more in-house developers or keeping up with product growth. If your team is unable to complete the scope of work in a timely and efficient manner due to a lack of web development resources. If your developers do not possess the necessary expertise to implement new features and scale the web application. Types of Dedicated Web Development Team Models Large team of dedicated web developers to expand the development department's capabilities for a long-term scope of work. Such team may consist of 4-6 web developers and more, with project management on your side. Small team of dedicated web developers to overcome specific challenges. Typically, 1-2 web developers are enough as team extension resources. The project management is on your side. Project-based dedicated web development team is suitable for startup founders or product managers. Belistsoft acts as a technology partner to develop the product from scratch, take care of future support, and scaling. The management takes place on our side. What the Process of Hiring a Dedicated Developer Looks Like You send us a request with the initial information about your web project, including the desired functionality. We schedule an introductory call, and if necessary, sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) before discussing the project in detail and introducing you to our web development company. We present you with a list of CVs of the most suitable members for your team. You shortlist the experienced candidates who are the best fit for the project. You have a technical conversation with our shortlisted candidates, usually with your CTO or in-house team. We repeat the search and interview process until you find the right candidate. Once satisfied with the candidate, we finalize all necessary documents, team models, and the dedicated web developer joins your project. Why Hire Dedicated Web Developers from Belitsoft Senior-level web developers without recruiting burden Belitsoft takes care of the burdensome recruitment process, including HR, payroll, accounting, local management, and the whole infrastructure, saving time and money.  To find the talents that fit your project best, our HR specialists search for candidates both within our proper talent pool and on the job market. By running multiple interviews, we shortlist only the best ones from whom our clients choose the professionals they prefer.  Competence in multiple web development tasks Belitsoft has completed over 200 web projects, from websites to complex enterprise platforms and apps, with 70 of these projects being particularly large and demanding, each requiring over 2000 man-hours. Now, our teams apply this hands-on experience to build many types of software, including CRM, ERP, LMS, EHR, BI solutions,  IoT solutions, etc. Belitsoft can also guarantee fast and high-quality results due to years of working in various knowledge domains, with the majority of projects in  eLearning, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Data Privacy and Security, Financial and Banking, Logistics and Transportation, Agriculture, Sports, etc Fair and clear pricing We always suggest various pricing models to choose from, including a dedicated team model for large projects that require a flexible time frame, budget, and control over the development process.  Our pricing is structured to provide long-term benefits for projects lasting 12+ months. The dedicated web developers work at a fixed monthly cost, with no hidden expenses. The final monthly fee is determined after all project requirements and needed developer profiles are agreed upon.  Full control and easy management Our clients get full control and easy management of projects. We keep business stakeholders informed of progress, development schedules, and deliverables at all times.  The development process is transparent, allowing our clients to monitor the team's activity without requiring constant attention. We use various project management tools such as Jira, Trello, Taskworld, Worksection, and Fusioo to track the team's progress. Regular meetings are scheduled for the business’s top managers to review what the team has accomplished and their plans for the upcoming days, as well as any issues that may have arisen.  Adaptability and 100% focus on the project The dedicated web development team can be adjusted at any stage of the project to meet changing requirements, budget, or market performance, allowing for adaptability and full focus on the project.  The ability to increase or decrease the number of dedicated web developers, or provide bonuses or salary increases to high-performing individuals, ensures that a business owner gets the most value for investment and sets the foundation for a long-term, mutually beneficial partnership. We can find the perfect dedicated web developer for you. Don't waste time searching for the right web developer, let us handle it for you! Contact us today to get started.

A Canadian body shop enterprise owner and our client in combination (let’s name her S.) provides auto repair software. Being on the market for over 30 years she could no longer stand the current level of the body shop system and came to Belitsoft with an idea. It was an intention to create a software that surpasses any other system ever existed anywhere in Canada. And just because car service entrepreneurs used something similar to fossil Excel, it seemed simple. But not so fast. The problem we were targeting to was the lack of flexibility. The brand new product was expected to be simple, versatile and yet affordable. The main requirement was to develop a complex software that is capable of performing as MSO (multi shop operator). But still combined with a few more details. This miraculous body shop software was supposed to have… well, has now: Functions of ERP systems, and a CRM; SaaS (Software as a Service) model; It integrated all the systems and software habitual for Canada or required for body shops to operate effectively, respond quickly and be permanently available for the customer’s side; It is multi featured and affordable+scalable both for large body shops with branches scattered all over Canada and small local ones. How have we made this? Let’s see. From 2k15 up till now. The team: does the size matter? The story begins back in 2015 and still goes on. Many brave and faithful warriors were indulgently cut off without the slightest loyalty of the queen... But who loves to start the movie from the middle? There were three of them: a Chinese duo and a Canadian lady. However, soon the plate was flooded with wrong ambitions and she remained alone. Beautiful and sharp as a sword, S. with her followers took the reins of the project. Since the August 2015 till January of 2016, the development had been done by the one and only Andrew Primus. But for how long could he hold the project? Nobody knows. However, before it all gone out of control it was agreed to find more people to translate the queen’s vision into reality. Since then the team has expanded rapidly. In December Alexander Secundus and Eugene Tertius were interviewed and successfully hired. From that day on, the future of the project was on the shoulders of Atlas split into 3 human beings. The deadline was set: 8 months for viable results. At this point, the count of three still wasn’t enough. Summer welcomed another two developers which shared the fate of the team until the harvest season swept away. 2k16. “If the landslide isn't stopped, it will bury real jazz.” In October the project, at last, snagged a tester. The team greets Michael Viscum. Closer to Winter the clocks went backwards. From November to December we’ve lost two of the team. In August of 2016, Alexander Secundus, one of the mighty old-timers, laid down his weapons leaving the total number of three troops. The queen had a counselor, Peabody, who was a supportive link between the customers, the staff, and the queen. He worked nights for over a half a year and suddenly decided to try himself at something new. Peabody asked developers for tasks but was rejected. So he made his own. The queen had some expectations of all the action, however… Royal hopes soon have shrunk. The development straw didn’t fit the counselor’s mouth and just sucked him up (BelItsoft guys had to clean up all the mess left afterward). 2k17. The year with a smell of curry September of 2016 brought life to the fading team. The need for a mobile app led us to the forest nation where we pulled out two brilliant mobile developers: Nikita Pix and Eugene Vir. These elves made the excellent job and disappeared before the sunlight touched Himalayan peaks. The created mobile application is totally usable all across Canada, provides a full range of services from BodyshopConnect, takes photos and sends the info directly to the users’ accounts. October 2017. Her highness S. asked for a tech support in the modern lands of White Ruthenia. In January two Snow Maidens, the representatives of English and French sides appeared. However, their presence fades away in Spring. The feeling of “mistesting” was hanging around. So, in April of 2018 the team grew by another tester Sergei. He was joined by two more support ladies and a missing developer. Cheap & numerous vs European quality. At some moment S. realized that she needs a cover-up. Cheap and fast but with the same benefits as us. Guys from Pune agreed to help and attend the project development. We embraced our differences and were ready for the challenge. Well, it was the longest three weeks in history… First of all, those guys worked in shifts. Eight hours of the day a person worked on the task for S. Not a minute longer - there is another shift waiting to use the computer. 24/7 development - thumbs up! Exciting, huh? Secondly, the results were riddled with mistakes. Our guys had to postpone their own tasks to fix the newcomers’. It naturally increased the total development time. S. once asked why Andrew started doing less. All we had to do is to show how much he reviewed and fixed. In two days, when the results finally reached our tester, Michael, the volcano erupted. He literally overdosed, so in 7 minutes all the tasks done by our “helpers” were returned for fixing. Again. It was a special form of delight to behold this circus. However, the queen didn’t share our enthusiasm of seeing how far the degree of idiocy may go. She picked up the jaw and kicked those dunces off the project. The ambush in the shelter The middleman problem. The conversation with S., the queen, hadn’t been held directly. As was told before, she had a counselor who did his best to interpret the royal preferences. However, the measurements of the “best” start fading once you realize how poor the carrier is. The original plan wasn’t thought out: human factor crept in and the dearest counselor disappeared in July of 2016. At the time of Peabody’s exile, Michael becomes fluent in royal language so he talks the talk when the queen needs the info, and the team is seeking for a feedback. Everyone is satisfied. The internal interaction. Pinging IT guys is a “great idea” that visits many customers: “How long? Oh, you can do it faster!”. In such cases, the team can wish you to “Do it yourself”, sprout some wings and flutter away. We overcame this showing the reason for the time frames. The queen once visited prospective clientele and decided to show them the freshest we had. She wanted to do it on Tuesday. We were scheduled to release on Thursday. Developers warned her that the code is raw and nothing is going to work. However, as it always happens to royal family, warnings have all gone unheard. As the result, the demonstration flopped and she had to apologize to both clients and the team. The lesson is this: heed the conclusions. Your budget and project scales. Carefully planned budget is important. But it should be flexible. IT project is a mix of the original request, customer’s vision, developers’ capabilities, and ongoing preferences and adjustments. Easy to see that the last aspect is spreading far beyond the original plan. Some time afterwards your project may expand. The growth of ambitions should be backed by the financial support. Otherwise, the progress is stuck. You’re lucky if you had a chance to grab people who are ready to learn the extra skills. For this project, our team became a bunch of versatile pros that together pull the whole project up. Project birth. The notes of the midwife “That was a tough 9-months period with over two years of adjustments and testing…” This system itself is a multi-layered mountain. On top we have label functions (franchise); MSO on the slopes, and single body shops in the bottom. The question was where to start this mountain. If you want something to be done right, do it yourself. The ways are: from the top to the bottom or vice versa. The difference is that if starting from labels, it’d be easier to think through details and MSO finer points, and the bottom will be done “in seconds”. But, we should have been ready for years of constant development before the final release. ‘That was a tough 9-months period with over two years of adjustments and testing…’ Andrew Primus On the other hand, “the bottom up” approach allows selling the results in months. Getting feedback and money in several months looks much prettier. The pitfall is that the troubles with MSO and other more complicated elements from the top appear as soon as you complete the bottom. And because the peak didn’t exist at the time, you haven’t even thought about it. So, what was chosen at the beginning: When it become clear that several years with nothing in hands don’t satisfy the royal heads, the development gone from the bottom up. After it was done and the team was ready to conquer the middle slopes, they faced challenges. It was the time when the queen shared the throne. The counselor made his best trying to interpret everything S. wanted. But humans are humans with their own way of thought. So, Peabody rephrased the royal vision to the ground leaving only a few blue-green brushstrokes of the original “Ninth wave”. The deadline was clear - 8 months. We managed to create everything the counselor described. And the moment our queen looked at the results, she realized how she screwed up. “Peabody’s creation” was plain, poor and didn’t work at all. Chinese whispers did the job: everything went head over heels. And that’s where the “sweat & beauty” phase of birth started. Seeing how 8 months were blown in the Black Hole of Nothing, the queen was blood and thunder. She took the control of the situation and changed the approach. So, we had an extra time to fix everything according to the direct conversations with S. Because we wanted to have something to offer promptly, the new approach worked. It took us a few months to release a demo version and give it to people for a try. The team was blessed with the constant feedback and suggestions from the first users. As Michael said, “The feedback you get from the real workers [end users] is more valuable comparing to the testers and developers’ who don’t fully understand the scope of application.” In the end, alongside the development we had a flow of requirements from the customers and additions from S. The underbelly of the beast First, ongoing requirements and adjustments delayed the finish line taking more time to develop. Next. With the “bottom-to-the-top” approach we faced the problem: the relations between the inner elements of the system became too close that led to the co-dependency. Any adjustments in one place would impact the other links of the chain. This blunder is still on the menu, though not as pronounced as it used to be in the beginning. “I need it yesterday”. Good way of motivation that could cost you quality. Software development, especially of complex and extensive platforms with ongoing support, requires time and good specialists on top of your deep understanding of what should be done. Yes, you have to learn how to tell what you want. But the pitfall is deeper. After you find a good team and gave them a proper guide into the future product, the next step will be to hurry. You want a reward. You’ve made 10 steps towards the goal, so why doesn’t the goal make its own 10, right? In a rush, you are not able to explain your vision properly and listen to the response from the team. Skills you pay for matter, save a great deal of time and give you peace of mind. But remember the importance of communication with the ones who translate your ideas into reality. S. trusted the communication to Peabody and it cost her 8 months and additional time for us to fix everything. Multi Shop Operator: another stairway to Heaven and a highway to Hell MSO is a piece of a management system that is used to subordinate several body shops under the one corporate guidance. In short, it allows a fast spreading of changes in the whole network of body shops simultaneously, tracking stats, quality and income etc. It covers body shop networks of unlimited sizes, synchronize their management routine but leaves a freedom to perform individually. The trick is that Multi Shop Operator is a unique piece of software. So, the team had to develop it from scratch basing on the queen’s vision alone (that was ludicrously misreported at the beginning). And because the start was from the bottom up many aspects weren’t thought out properly. However, based on the feedback and development process issues, we solved the quiz in a few months so now it’s widely used. Current approach Peabody with the chinese whispers are gone. Since S. took the reins the real work started. Structure. Every week our team receives emails with an extensive tasks list, detailed instructions given individually to each developer, and the additional information about new adjustments. Regularity. During our 1-week sprints, we have 3 precious overlapping working hours in touch with S. At these times our boys left office at 8 PM while S. and her team came to see what’s going on at 9 AM in Canada. Well, 180 minutes never were as fruitful as those. Testing. S. surprises the team with new ideas like a wind down in the subterranean caves of Afghanistan. So, in search of stability (better life), our team used manual and automated testing. Well, that feels way better: now we prevent even the slightest change from turning into a weak spot. Moreover, the testing allows S. to track the news about her creation. The Team. After everything was settled down, the team started to dwindle. And, to calmly meet the budget, Michael and Andrew were asked to fill the gaps. Michael, QA tester, became a tech support lead and project manager. Andrew, like Neo from “Matrix”, catches up and implements tasks with the speed of a bullet, plus helps novices to get in this mix. Now (with all respect) they may be called Genetically Modified Swiss Army Knives, just because of the resulting versatility. 2k18. Ready for the growth? Time passed and the software value moves on upwards: 3rd party apps integration. The system turned into a huge blanket that covers multiple systems and gathers modern software Canada is accustomed to. A support team provides services in both French and English. Current integration supports around 12 different systems. Including Cloud accounts, Google etc., so that the info exchange goes seamlessly. The repair process is fully automated and does not require a direct presence. In the mobile version, you choose the body shop, the type of service, take photos of the damage and upload them to your own account. The system is almost everywhere, gradually conquering the hearts of Canadian body shops. At the moment it handles over 200 body shops, including more than 40 from the CSN network.

Web application is a collection of scripts The definition from the article "Penetration Testing for Web Applications (Part One)" (Jody Melbourne and David Jorm via Symantec). "A Web application is an application, generally comprised of a collection of scripts, that reside on a Web server and interact with databases or other sources of dynamic content. They are fast becoming ubiquitous as they allow service providers and their clients to share and manipulate information in an (often) platform-independent manner via the infrastructure of the Internet. Some examples of Web applications include search engines, Webmail, shopping carts and portal systems. Web applications typically interact with the user via FORM elements and GET or POST variables (even a 'Click Here' button is usually a FORM submission). With GET variables, the inputs to the application can be seen within the URL itself, however, with POST requests it is often necessary to study the source of form-input pages (or capture and decode valid requests) in order to determine the users inputs". An example HTTP request that might be provided to a typical Web application. Every element of this request can potentially be used by the Web application processing the request. The REQUEST-URI identifies the unit of code that will be invoked along with the query string: a separated list of &variable=value pairs defining input parameters. This is the main form of Web applications input. The Session-ID header provides a token identifying the client's established session as a primitive form of authentication. The Host header is used to distinguish between virtual hosts sharing the same IP address and will typically be parsed by the Web server, but is, in theory, within the domain of the Web application. Web application is a software application The definition below is from the article "Web Application Scanners: Definitions and Functions" (Proceedings of Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences). "The Web Application Security Consortium (WASC) defines a web application as “a software application, executed by a web server, which responds to dynamic web page requests over HTTP.” A web application is comprised of a collection of scripts, which reside on a web server and interact with databases or other sources of dynamic content. Using the infrastructure of the Internet, web applications allow service providers and clients to share and manipulate information in a platform-independent manner. The technologies used to build web applications include PHP, Active Server Pages (ASP), Perl, Common Gateway Interface (CGI), Java Server Pages (JSP), JavaScript, VBScript, etc. Some of the broad categories of web application technologies are communication protocols, formats, server-side and client-side scripting languages, browser plug-ins, and web server API. A web application has a distributed n-tiered architecture. Typically, there is a client (web browser), a web server, an application server (or several application servers), and a persistence (database) server". A simplified view of a web application There may be a firewall between web client and web server. Source: samate.nist.gov/docs/wa_paper.pdf Web application is a program The definition below is from the article "Java Technologies for Web Applications" (Oracle Technology Network). "Web applications are programs that run on more than one computer and communicate through a network or server. Specifically, web applications are accessed with a web browser and are popular because of the ease of using the browser as a user client. For the enterprise, the ability to update and maintain web applications without deploying and installing software on potentially thousands of client computers is a key reason for their popularity. Web applications are used for webmail, online retail sales, discussion boards, weblogs, online banking, and more. One web application can be accessed and used by millions of people. Web applications are made up of many parts and often contain mini-programs, some of which have user interfaces, and some of which do not require a graphical user interface (GUI) at all. In addition, web applications frequently require an additional markup or scripting language, such as HTML, CSS, or JavaScript programming language.  A web application can be as simple as a page that shows the current date and time or as complex as a set of pages on which you can look up and book the most convenient flight, hotels, and car rentals for your next vacation".

Python Source: https://pixabay.com/ ‘A programming language changes the world.’ Python.org According to Wikipedia, Python was released in 1991 as a high-level language for general-purpose programming. But it actually dates back to 1989. The interest around Python began to rise only around 2000, and today Python is loved for its highly readable code. That is why many programmers believe it's the easiest language to get started with. Why is that? Well, the story starts decades ago. In the 90s, if you wanted a managed, Object Oriented language, there was surprisingly little choice. C# and Java didn't exist, nor did Ruby. We had a sloppy Perl and TCL that had OOP only as an extra feature. Above all, lots of languages were Windows-only like Delphi or Visual Basic. In the meantime, C++ was frightening to beginners, and Smalltalk always felt like a nice idea, but not something you actually wrote software with. And here we go, Python seemed better than everything else what was out there. Java was around since 1995, but it seemed too 'corporate'. In 2000 C# was coming out, but it was, again, Windows only. Source: https://www.reddit.com Today Python is one of the most important and popular languages in the world and is still gaining our attention. Java Source: https://bgr.com/ ‘Java is arguably the most popular programming language as 90% of the Fortune 500 companies heavily use it. Its famous slogan “write once, run anywhere” captures one of the keys that makes Java so valuable — its powerful Java Virtual Machine (JVM), which makes it cross-platform compatible.’ Alexander Petkov, Medium.freecodecamp.org It was 1995 and C++ was the language of choice for building large-scale software systems. It was a powerful object-oriented language, the successor of widely used C. But not only was C++ powerful, it was also quite complicated. Here’s the point where Java was released. Java is a high-level object-oriented language. Initially conceived and developed in 1991 under the name OAK, it was designed for handheld devices and set-top boxes, but due to some circumstances the name was changed to Java and modified the target to the then evolving World Wide Web. So, at the moment, Java is one of the most widely-used languages for developing and delivering content on the web plus developing enterprises applications and Android apps. An estimated 9 million developers use it and more than 3 billion mobile phones run it. #1: History: long ride vs short bite Both languages were developed relatively at the same time, in 1991. But started to draw attention in quite different periods: Java wasn’t really itself back then, and Python just started to open his little pixel-eyes. Nevertheless, they both are actively engaged in making improvements and perfecting the current results: Python. Since the popularity reached a peak, it had given rise to long discussions. Source: https://octoverse.github.com/ 15 most popular languages according to GitHub in 2017 So the answer to “How did Python transform itself into one of the most popular languages?” is still in demand. A few things  had happened that shifted the attitude towards Python and made it more viable as a web development language: FastCGI came, and then WSGI (before that, you had to run Python scripts as ordinary Common Gateway Interface, which wasn’t fast enough). So instead of creating a new process for each request, FastCGI uses permanent processes to handle a series of requests. It increases the speed of implementation and reduces time on development. Prominent universities began using Python in their curriculum, teaching algorithm and other classes (e.g. University of Oxford, Harvard, Binghamton University, Carnegie Mellon University, New York University Polytechnic School of Engineering etc.). Visible developers and standards developers, such as Joe Gregorio and Mark Pilgrim were both using Python to implement the prototypes of the Atom protocol. During that time, Python was stable and has implemented features such as Unicode support, a new Garbage Collector, generators and functional methods, etc. A huge step was applying the Django framework - it’s fast, secure and makes the code clean and easy to write. And Google, of course. It was the main reason why Python had risen so tremendously in literally several years. Google adopted Python back in 2006. They’ve used it as a top-tier implementation language for many platforms and applications since. By reinvesting in development of the language they perfected it and built up the trust. Source: https://stackoverflow.blog/ Java. ‘Java code may never dominate all computers or all platforms, but it is as close to a lingua franca as there is.’ Peter Wayner, InfoWorld. Java is the one that always has been there. It was developed at Sun Microsystems in 1991, and released in 1995. The first ten years were packed with intensive adoption and explosive growth. The developers managed to create something simpler than C++ which equals its performance capabilities. Over time, Sun has released three major versions of Java: 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2. Version 1.2 seems to finally bring Java into the prime time, in particular where user interface tools are concerned. A couple of years later J2SE 1.3 added something new, including the Hotspot JVM, a new version of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), the sound API and improved debugging. Java core was simple and powerful compared to what they had back there. The role of JVM was crucial. It broke the limitations of that time and significantly drew attention to the Sun’s flagship. Then there were libraries. A huge impact was made, just because from now on developers shifted their focus from struggles with the infrastructure to the application itself. This aspect made Java even more popular than it used to be. Source: StackOverflow Survey 2018 Source: StackOverflow Survey 2018 In 2002, version 1.4 added new tools in the language. And then in 2004, J2SE 5.0 was released, known internally as 1.5. From this point forward Java would be known as Java 5, Java 6, Java 7, and Java 8 and so on. Unfortunately, several years ago Sun Microsystems had ceased to exist being swallowed by the Oracle on January 27, 2010. In the end, Java’s still expected to be everywhere, whether it is a web, desktop or mobile devices. It’s gradually expanding the influence on the whole of modern programming industry. TIOBE index for August 2018 #2:  Functionality Static & Compiled vs Dynamic & Interpreted Static and Dynamic typing: The main idea here is when the types of variables are checked. Statically typed languages define the type of a variable at compile time. In short, types are checked before run-time. For some languages, this means that the programmer must specify what type each variable is (Java, C, C++). The main advantage here is that all kinds of checking can be done by the compiler, and therefore a lot of trivial bugs are caught at a very early stage. Dynamically typed languages are checking types on the fly, during execution. This means that a programmer writes a little quicker because he does not have to specify types every time. Languages that support this type are Perl, Ruby, and Python. Most scripting languages have this feature as there is no compiler to do static type-checking anyway, but you may find yourself searching for a bug that is due to the interpreter misinterpreting the type of a variable. Dynamic typing Static typing Comparison of Dynamic vs. Static Typing in Programming: Dynamic typing associates a type with the value of a variable at runtime, while static typing enforces type checks at compile-time Supporting dynamic typing is an important reason why programmers can be more productive with Python. They simply don’t have to deal with the overhead of Java’s static typing. In the meantime, BECAUSE it is dynamic, there are many design restrictions that are reported by some Python developers and the need to search for bugs every time the code has an error (in static typing the compiler makes it for you). It also requires more testing time, and the errors show up when the applications are finally run. The visible difference looks like that: Java Python Source: https://www.quora.com Interpreted and compiled languages: Python is an interpreted language. In an interpreted language most of its implementations execute the code directly and freely, without previously compiling a program into machine-language instructions. So, while a compiled language after the implementation has ready-to-go instructions for the device you use, in the interpreted language an interpreter interprets the original code every time the program runs. Javacan be either interpreted or compiled. As a compiled language, it has its implementations executed by compilers (translators that generate machine code from source code). Java, C/C++, Assembler, COBOL and many others are translated by running the source code through a compiler. This results in very efficient code that can be executed any number of times. The overhead for the translation is incurred just once when the source is compiled; thereafter, it need only be loaded and executed. Interpreted languages, in contrast, must be parsed, interpreted, and executed each time the program runs, thereby greatly adding to the cost of running the program. Advantages and disadvantages: Interpreted languages: Pros: Good when it comes to the projects with time restrictions on development Ease of future changes to the program Are generally more suited to ad hoc requests, rather than predefined (fixing, editing happens on-the-go) Easier to use (errors are immediately displayed and corrected by a user until the program is able to be executed) Smaller executable package size comparing with a compiled source code Cons: Higher execution costs - more time required for the implementation The interpreted program must be translated every time it is executed Less efficient than compiled programs Interpreters can be 2 to 10 times slower than compilers (they have to translate the same statements over and over again) Compiled languages: Pros: Optimized for the target hardware Fast execution Optimizing compilers may increase speed and decrease the size of a file. Compilers ensure that static variables can be created so that providing less probability of runtime errors Security (the compiled version of a code is not clear and cannot be read this makes application hard for reverse engineering). Cons: Require a compiler (developers need to spend the time to install additional software before they start working on a project) Editing + deploying the code is sometimes much slower than interpreters Performance Python executes with the help of an interpreter instead of the compiler, which causes it to slow down because compilation and execution help it to work normally. On the other hand, it can be seen that it is fast for many web applications too. Python is one of the slowest popular languages around. If you do the same amount of work as a JavaScript program, python takes upwards of 10x the processing, e.g. upwards of 1000x the processing to do the same amount of work as Java or C#): Source: https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/ The full benchmark of Python vs Java fastest programs (and some more languages) is available here. The speed isn’t Python strong suit. In contrast, Java is faster - high-level languages are expected to act on a high velocity and be genuinely effective, as represented in the graph below: Source: https://medium.freecodecamp.org/ As you can see, the program written in different languages runs consuming a different amount of time. E.g. Python handled this test for 694 secs, comparing to Java that required only 6 seconds. #3: Application Python. ‘Python was so friendly and versatile to begin with that it became viral.’ By Toni Alatalo on Quora.com The most basic use case for Python is as a scripting and automation language. Python isn’t just a replacement for shell scripts or batch files; it is also used to automate interactions with web browsers or application GUIs (Graphical User Interface). Python is also used for system operations, web development, machine learning, server and administrative tools, deployment, scientific modeling and much more. Source: https://stackoverflow.blog/ But, surprisingly, many developers don’t pick up Python as their primary language. Because it’s so easy to use and learn, they choose it as a second or third language. Java is a cross-platform language that is applied in many fields including: Healthcare Finances Government Science Education Transportation, etc. Moreover, Java is highly portable as it must be executed through a cross-platform compatible Java Virtual Machine (JVM). That is why it’ is easily applied on a wide range of hardware devices like television sets, VCRs, toasters and many other devices. Java was, is and will be successfully applied in many domains including, first of all, enterprise and Android applications, experimental stuff, web development and desktop. It won’t be first forever, but shining in its element. Source: http://codingnomads.co/ #4: Ease of use There are two schools of thought about language complexity. One school believes that in order for a programming language to be fully “expressive,” you need an abundance of sophisticated features. Even if these features make the language much bigger, more complex, and much more difficult to learn. Examples include C++, D, Scala, Vala, Rust, and JavaScript. The other school believes in minimalism, in keeping the language small, simple, easy to learn, and easy to use. Examples include Smalltalk, Scheme, Forth, Go, Pascal, and Oberon. Python. Python allows programmers to code faster with less effort. Above all, due to its simplicity and usability, Python is a great language to learn first. But, here comes a disadvantage: while Python lovers become so accustomed to its features and its extensive libraries, they face problem in learning or working on other programming languages. Python experts may see even the requirements of adding curly braces or semicolons as an onerous task. However, because ease of use and fast learning made their contribution, Python drew attention in the late 90s and up to present days. And the output you get is that Python requires less effort compared to other giants, such as C++, Java or even Javascript. Collections described in both languages: Source: https://python-scripts.com/ Java. Java’s simplicity, comparing to its predecessors, also explains the position of Java as one of the most popular programming languages in the world. Add a huge ecosystem packed with libraries and frameworks, a super-optimized JVM runtime, and you have the formula for a killer language. Anyways, nobody refers to Java as the most simple language that is readable for kids. See the example below: “Hello world” written in Java and Python: Source: https://python-scripts.com/ Null in both languages: Source: https://python-scripts.com/ Working with files in Java and Python: Source: https://python-scripts.com/ Java can’t be classified as one of the complex and difficult ones. However, this language is not a piece of cake so you’ve got to make an effort to become totally comfortable with it.   Conclusion The famous guy who created C++ said once: ‘There are only two kinds of programming languages: those people always b*tch about and those nobody uses.’ Bjarne Stroustrup Today, Python is popular because it's easy to get started with, has a lot of libraries and frameworks available, and if you're OK with dynamic types, it's a decent enough language. On the other hand, we have Java. A top-notch language that is applied literally everywhere. A unique set of standard libraries doesn’t concede in any place. The virtual machine that performs greatly on any platform, sturdy garbage collection and the overall ecosystem itself define Java as a beautiful creation that will be in the forefront for a long time. Make your choice that is based on your specific experience and remember, that both Python and Java are worthy to be on top. So, do these programming languages really need to fight? Well, the thing is, they were created for particular purposes and can be successfully implemented in different domains showing unique performance.

Responsive and adaptive websites Responsive websites, like any other, consist of a set of interconnected HTML pages that can be opened via any browser. The difference is, they are designed to adapt to the way the content is rendered on a variety of screen sizes with the help of CSS media queries. The idea is to provide a user with a perfect experience regardless of the device they access the website. It saves the need to resize anything manually to view content. One should not confuse responsive and adaptive websites. The latter term is used to name a website that leverages different layouts designed for a certain set of screen sizes. It means that a developer should bear in mind all the possible existing size and resolution options. If the website does not support one of them, it will not be displayed decently. Meanwhile, the former type implies that there is only one layout that is “fluid” and adapts automatically the way it is optimal for the given screen. The animation demonstrates the basic difference between the two. Responsive web design is above, adaptive below. Source: css-tricks.com While both ideas have their right to exist, a responsive website approach is recommended by Google. The history of website adapting its layout to the browser viewpoint width parameters can be traced back to 2001 and Audi.com. The term “responsive web design” itself was coined in 2010 by Ethan Marcotte.  Mashable called 2013 “the year of responsive web design”.   But it was not until 2015 when the “responsive” idea was reinforced by Google. The company announced that it will adjust its search mechanisms to promote the rankings of mobile-friendly pages. The concept was even dubbed Mobilegeddon. Google believes that the measure will lead to better user experience, since “the desktop version of a site might be difficult to view and use on a mobile device”. Google also states, that “61% of users are unlikely to return to a mobile site that they had trouble accessing from their phone, and 40% go to a competitor’s.” Statista claims, that 52.5 % of all website traffic worldwide in 2018 is generated through mobile phones. Percentage of all global web pages served to mobile phones from 2009 to 2018 Thus, well-designed mobile experience is no more a matter of preference, but an apparent need for businesses. Mobile apps One of the pivotal moments that gave rise for mobile apps was a 2007 Steve Jobs Keynote Speech, where the concept of the first iPhone was unveiled. A year later, on July 10, 2008, Apple launched the first ever Apple App Store with 500 apps. A few months later, on 22 October 2008, Android Market ( Google play since 2012) with 50 apps showed up. The word “app” was named as “Word of the Year” by the American Dialect Society for 2010. After almost a decade, apps hold a predominant position when it comes to the share of mobile time. More than 80% of mobile minutes worldwide are spent on apps. There are three main options for creating a mobile app: native, hybrid and cross-platform. A native mobile app is coded in a specific programming language for each targeted platform, such as Objective C and Swift for iOS or Java, Kotlin and C/C++ for Android. Hybrid mobile apps are designed for multiple operating systems. They are written using web technologies (like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML5) and then wrapped into a mobile app with WebView to run on each platform. The most popular frameworks for hybrid app development are PhoneGap, Cordova, and Ionic. Like the hybrid, cross-platform mobile apps are aimed at running on different platforms. However, they do not wield HTML and CSS and talk directly to the mobile OS. Mobile application development is one of Belitsoft’s top priorities. Learn more about why you should choose us for your next mobile app. Do you want to reach a broader audience? Typically, the first move one is likely to do when coming across an unfamiliar brand is google it. While both apps and responsive websites can appear in search results, a responsive website is made for both mobile and desktop browsers and allows to capture a broader audience. Moreover, one generally tends to explore an unfamiliar brand via a website first. The reason is a user does not have to download or install it, thus they should not allocate some treasured mobile storage for an app of a brand they do not know. ‘Mobile web is an acquisition channel, and may be first time people are experiencing our company. Once they have a strong relationship with the brand, we use the app to create personalized experiences that cater to the customer.’ Director of mobile, large US office supply retailer To earn users’ loyalty to the brand, companies cook up all kinds of bonus systems. For example, Starbucks Rewards app enables its users to receive stars for purchases that add up to some free food and drinks later. That is, mobile websites are a good choice for establishing initial awareness and engagement. However, for more personalized customer-user interactions and retention, it is better to go with an app. Another advantage of a responsive website is that it can be accessed via any device regardless of the OS it is based on. The only thing to bear in mind is HTML5 compatibility. In fact, all of the big-league browsers like Internet Explorer, Edge, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, Safari for IOS and Android-optimized browsers support HTML5, but some features vary from browser to browser. What about time and resources? Responsive website development will have a much lower price tag and time needed than a native mobile app build up. The reason is that instead of one responsive website you have to develop at least two apps from scratch (one for Android and one for iOS) and hire a development team for each version. This, in turn, entails two times more work and resources while bug fixing and adding new features. It also makes maintenance cost higher. Yet, responsive websites can’t provide a full-scale mobile experience (more on it below) and you still have to pay for domain and hosting. However, if you still do want an app, but do not have resources and time for native apps development, you may consider going hybrid or cross-platform. Both approaches require building only one app for all platforms, which means shorter development time (including later updates and new features integration) and efficient maintenance. For example, Ionic 2 code is nearly 100% reusable. Such apps will run seamlessly regardless of the OS. Though some UI components still need to be adjusted to the target platform requirements. React Native and Xamarin allow to retain approximately 90% and up to 96% of code respectively. Read more about how Ionic 2, React Native and Xamarin compare in our blog. By the way, to distribute your apps in market stores it is also necessary to pay the registration fee. The price is one-time 25$ to Google Play and annual 99$ for the Apple Developer Program or 299 USD for the Apple Developer Enterprise Program to App Store. Are you going to update a lot? A website requires fewer efforts and costs for its maintaining compared to mobile apps. For example, you only have to edit your website once and the upgrades will be immediately active across all kinds of devices. Meanwhile, editing a native mobile app is a more knotty procedure. After an upgraded version for each OS type is prepared, it should be approved by the marketplaces. On average, it takes from 24 hours for 50% of apps to 48 hours for over 90% of apps to be reviewed on App Store. What for Google Play, it suggests waiting for at least 24 hours for an update to appear before contacting its support team. Besides, an end-user either has to set automatic updates on or upgrade an app manually after each update to get the changes. Since hybrid apps leverage HTML5, you get an ability to update an app without asking a user to upgrade it on their device. It allows for easier app management by enabling developers to implement updates and fix bugs as needed. In addition, there is no waiting time to get the update approved. Cross-platform apps built with React Native can also benefit from the Over-the-Air update feature. However, for some significant upgrades like adding new features, it is recommended to send out an app to an app store for review. What industry are you aiming at? User’s choice of a means for accessing the Internet largely depends on a type of activity they want to engage in. IAB conducted a Global mobile experience study, where they divided mobile activities into 3 groups: functionality, entertainment, and communications. Consumers tend to use mobile web for utility-directed tasks like searching, booking, and purchasing products. When entertainment and communications come into play, mobile apps are, for the most part, a far more favored alternative. Another research further proves the idea that things like communication, weather, games, music, photo and video, physical activity tracking, and daily management are better off as an app. Imagine that if it were not for an Instagram app, you should open a mobile browser, log in and only then could you see that awesome picture of a friend. All this instead of simple tap on the app’s icon. ‘Though responsive design is much better than having to ‘pinch-and-zoom’, it isn’t an optimized experience for mobile visitors. At its core, responsive design makes the desktop experience look good on mobile, but it doesn’t address the specific needs of mobile visitors.’ Talia Wolf, listed among influential voices in conversion optimization Do you need offline mode? Responsive websites require a constant Internet connection. Of course, you can save a certain webpage for offline reading both on iOS and Android, but for anything else you need to stay online. Apps can work both online and offline. While it may not be such an issue for the “first world” countries, it makes a difference for developing states. So when your users must have access to an app’s data anytime and anywhere, better go with an app. Some examples of apps that provide offline functionality are: Google Maps, that offers offline access to maps and turn-by-turn navigation. However, it's necessary to download the area of interest from Google Maps in advance to use it offline. Spotify - a music streaming app, Premium version of which allows users to enjoy their music offline. A variety of dictionaries like Merriam Webster, Dictionary.com, and WordWeb to name a few. Take a look at our mobile app portfolio to see some examples of apps with offline mode. Do you need mobile native features? Mobile devices earned their popularity not just because they fit in the pocket, but also because they are stuffed with such features as Bluetooth, camera, GPS, contact list, speech recognition and many more. Since native mobile apps are designed specifically for each target platform, they can immediately access all device-specific features. It is also feasible to leverage required mobile functionality in hybrid apps with the help of PhoneGap or Cordova. Cross-platform React Native apps can also access native functionality using native modules. Mobile internet browsers are helping to bridge the gap between an app and a website. However, the user experience may depend on the OS and browser one chooses. While both iOS Safari and Android Chrome can support geolocation, they still lack geofencing functionality. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Geofencing integrated into mobile apps is a powerful tool for mobile marketers to boost engagement. It enables triggering push notifications every time a user enters a certain location. The idea is to drive interaction by targeting the right people in the right places and at the right time. According to a Global Market Insights report, the geofencing market size was estimated at over 200 million in 2016 with a CAGR of over 28% from 2017 to 2024. Walmart was one of the first retailers to introduce geofencing in its app with a “Store Mode”. ‘When you enter the store with the mobile app, say you're in Store Mode, you can search the store, and it can also give you the local ad for the store you're in so you know what's on sale in that store. We were one of the first retailers to do that.’ Ojonimi Bako, director of innovation for Walmart Labs By the way, not every mobile browser even supports push notifications. Android/Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS/Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today It means that even if your iPhone or iPad has a browser like Chrome installed, you still will not be able to receives pushes on your device. Android browsers, however, favor the feature. Why does it matter? Leanplum says, that promotional push notifications lead to an almost tenfold increase in purchases and 16 % more money spend with your brand. Neither iOS Safari nor Android Chrome browser won’t be useful if one wants to embrace NFC. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today The technology is widely implemented in the mobile payment industry. Apps like Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or MasterCard PayPass are vivid specimens. Yet NFC is not only about payments. For example, InstaWifi app allows to easily share WiFi login information through NFC tag or QR code. EndlessID is a great idea of NFC implementation in healthcare. The app enables sharing of medical and emergency contact information, ensuring the safety of your loved ones. BelitSoft has extensive expertise in healthcare solutions development. Write to us to get a free quote! A responsive website can also strip you of access to contacts, SMS sharing, task scheduling, and wake lock. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today To crown it all, with iOS websites one also will not be able to enjoy the features like speech recognition, VR, AR, fullscreen mode, access to battery status and some others. Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today Android Chrome. Source: https://whatwebcando.today IOS Safari. Source: https://whatwebcando.today What about Progressive Web Apps? Introduced in 2015 by Google, Progressive web apps (PWAs) are roughly defined as a website that looks and behaves as if it is a mobile app. PWAs are built to take advantage of native mobile device features, without requiring the end user to visit an app store, make a purchase and download software locally. Instead, a PWA can be located with a search engine query and accessed immediately through a browser. There is no need to write different code for each platform - one app will do it all. However, its functionality may be still limited by browsers. For example, Firefox adds icon badges to a PWA’s home screen image, while Chrome still does not. Apple, though neglecting PWAs for a long time, has also finally introduced its main components - Service Workers and Web App Manifest - to Safari 11.1. It allows Safari-run PWAs to work offline and be pinned to the home screen, providing more native-like experience. Yet, Apple, unlike others, still does not allow its PWA users to get web push notifications. Brands like Twitter, Forbes, Washington Post, Flipkart Lite and Aliexpress have successfully implemented a new app-style and are reaping the rewards. For example, Aliexpress PWA resulted in a 74% increase in time spent per session and 104% conversion rate growth for new customers. With its PWA, Forbes saw a 43% increase in sessions per user compared to the previous mobile site, and engagement was up 100%. Twitter designed its PWA with the focus on instant loading, user engagement, and lower data consumption. It helped reduce a size app from 23.5MB Android version to only 600KB of PWA. By this, Twitter aims at covering a broader audience, including those of emerging markets. As a result, the number of pages viewed per session increased by 65% and the bounce rate decreased by 20%. Conclusion Choosing between a responsive website and a mobile app is not a black-and-white issue. The decision should be made based on your business’ goals and resources. While apps generally provide a more personalized experience, going responsive can attract a broader audience and save a lot of money. Besides, a mobile approach can reasonably include both options.

What is Java Java is an object-oriented statically-typed programming language and computing platform. It was released by Sun Microsystems in 1995 (later acquired by Oracle Corporation). Today, most major elements of Java are accessible as open source, and those that do not mostly have open replacements for them. Sun, the original developers of Java, placed much of it under the GNU General Public Licence in 2006. Java is employed in the development of Android apps, server apps, web apps, websites, embedded systems.  It is especially popular in financial software development. What is Kotlin Kotlin is a statically typed programming language that targets the JVM, Android, JavaScript, and Native. Kotlin is open source developed under the Apache 2.0 license. The source code is available on GitHub. The language combines both object-oriented and functional programming features. You can use it in both OO and FP fashion, or blend elements of the two. Kotlin boasts the support of all major Java IDEs including IntelliJ IDEA (the brainchild of JetBrains), Android Studio, Eclipse, and NetBeans. It can be used for most kind of apps, be it server-side, client-side web or Android. Kotlin/Native, that is currently in the pipeline, will provide support for other platforms such as embedded systems, macOS, and iOS. Java to Kotlin story Although Kotlin v1.0 was released only on February 15, 2016, the history of this programming language dates back to 2011. Kotlin was created by JetBrains out of their practical needs. The company had 70% of its products build on Java but started to realize its shortcomings - mainly excessive verbosity. They wanted a language that would be Java-compatible since rewriting everything into a completely new language seemed a no-go option. They started experimenting with Scala but were not satisfied. That is when the concept of a new language, Kotlin, was born. Another motivation behind Kotlin is fairly straightforward: ‘We expect Kotlin to drive the sales of IntelliJ IDEA.’ Dmitry Jemerov, one of the Kotlin blog contributors Java vs Kotlin: Market situation The influence of Java on the development world is huge, which is backed up by the reputable Tiobe Index. As of July 2019, Java has maintained its number one spot compared to July 2018. Kotlin, though still a young language, has made it to the top 50 of the rankings, setting down at number 43. Google  I/O 2017 conference was marked by the promotion of Kotlin to the ranks of its “first-class” programming languages for Android app development. It joined the good old Java and C++. The announcement has fueled up the interest over Kotlin, causing the spectacular growth in its popularity. Source: realm.io ‘Android developers have an official guarantee that the language will be supported, which will lead to further adoption of Kotlin.’ Andrey Breslav, the lead language designer of Kotlin at JetBrains Square, Pinterest, Basecamp, Netflix, Amazon, Uber, Trello, and Twitter have already declared their conversion to Kotlin. AppBrain offers the following numbers for the share of Kotlin apps in Google Play as of July 30, 2019. Java vs Kotlin: Painless transition Kotlin was designed with a strong focus on its interoperability with its elder sibling Java. It means you can translate any Java code into Kotlin or vice versa without changes in their operability. There may be certain features for which you’d prefer Kotlin or some, where Java seems a better option and it’s ok. Since both Kotlin and Java codes compile to JVM bytecode, end users will not be able to tell where the one ends and the other continues. ‘One of the key focuses of Kotlin has been interoperability and seamless support for mixed Java+Kotlin projects.’ Andrey Breslav in his blog post Java vs Kotlin: Verbosity The verbosity of Java has long been its major shortcoming and a source of frustration for the developers. Kotlin is designed to reduce the number of boilerplate code one needs to write.   Source:quiita.com Kotlin conciseness helps to increase a cut in the lines of code by approximately 40 %, according to JetBrains. Real tests show that after converting “App Lock” app from Java into Kotlin, the number of code lines reduces by 30% (from 12,371 lines of Java, to 8,564 lines of Kotlin).   Kotlin also provides a heap of nice-to-use features that Java does not have, like: Extensions, that help to extend a class functionality; Coroutines, aimed at avoiding thread blocking, thus minimizing the risk of errors; Null-safety, that ensures no null references occur, thus reducing the risk of an app going faulty and more. As a result, a more robust and safe code can be written with fewer efforts. The time needed for the amount of the output generation and bugs fixing cuts down. ‘Kotlin isn't revolutionary (with the possible exception of its null-handling) but feels like a very careful amalgamation of some of the best features of other languages. Its approach is very pragmatic and emphasizes interoperability with Java and a lack of surprise.’ Rob Fletcher, a senior software developer at Netflix Mobile app development (Android and iOS) is one of our specialties. Let us know how we can help. Java vs Kotlin: Android Studio 3.0 Support Java implementation in Android ecosystem seems to lag behind the demands of the developers’ community. Though the latest version of Java is SE 10, Android Studio 3.0 and later supports Java 7 and only some of Java 8 features. Thus, developers that are denied the opportunity to embrace the full potential of the latest versions are starting to shift more towards Kotlin. Bearing in mind that Android Studio is based on the JetBrains’ IntelliJ IDEA, it is easy to predict its excellent support for Kotlin. ‘For Android developers, Kotlin support is a chance to use a modern and powerful language, helping solve common headaches such as runtime exceptions and source code verbosity.’ Maxim Shafirov, JetBrains’ CEO, commented in his blog post Java vs Kotlin: Adoption Costs Kotlin is open source, thus you can bring it into play for free. You can start exploring the language simply by translating it via Java-to-Kotlin converter.  Kotlin is compatible with all Java libraries and frameworks, even those that rely on annotation processing. It also perfectly integrates into building tools like Gradle, Maven, Ant, or Kobalt. All you need is to install a Kotlin plugin. ‘Kotlin is easy to get started with and can be gradually introduced into existing projects, which means that your existing skills and technology investments are preserved.’ JetBrains' CEO Maxim Shafirov However, though similar, at their core Java and Kotlin are two different languages. The latter is currently a new language, that means that there is no established equivalent to the sources like Effective Java for best programming practices. So there will be a learning curve for your in-house team to master the Kotlin tricks. Java vs Kotlin: Community support Java is a programming player with more than 2 decades of history. It naturally leads to the unfathomable number of Java projects implemented and an impressive community it gathered. At the time of writing, there were 801,248 repository results for "Java" query at GitHub. The larger the community is, the more likely that someone has already left tips on the issue you are searching for. This, in its turn, makes the development process in a language more easy and enjoyable. Despite the fact Kotlin is gaining more and more traction, its community is still small compared to Java’s. GitHub gave us only 33,182 "Kotlin" tagged results. Therefore, there are few tools to pump up the skills and not so many Kotlin experts to ask (at the time of writing there were 361 job results for "Android Kotlin Developer" www.indeed.com compared to only 2 resumes). Java vs Kotlin: Performance & compile time JetBrains claims that a Kotlin application runs as fast as an equivalent Java one, thanks to very similar bytecode structure. Yet, Kotlin's support for inline functions allows code using lambdas to run even faster than the same code written in Java. The tests conducted show that Java compiles 10-15 % faster for clean builds. However, for incremental compilation, Kotlin shows identical to Java or even slightly better results. Decreased compile time means less unproductive time for a developer. Conclusion Kotlin is not a complete revolution, but rather a pragmatic enhancement of Java. They resemble each other in structure and can peacefully coexist within one project. But because Kotlin is a fresh start to some extent, it adds a variety of state-of-the-art features. Java, however, is like a friend that stood the test of time.

InVision SaaS Tech Stack The Invision design collaboration tool has over 3 million users at companies like Airbnb, Disney, and Nike. InVision SaaS primarily uses Golang, NodeJS, Javascript, Angular, React as well as Ruby, Objective-C (the information is from the official Github's account, their engineering blog, employee's profiles on LinkedIn, and jobs' requirements). They also have Machine Learning team that uses Python. As of December 2017, they are looking for a Lead Full Stack Engineer who "will contribute to an environment" of InVision's products with the help of the "new web standards and frameworks like ES6, React, MongoDB, Node.js, Go, and Docker" and will "build small, robust backend API services in GoLang that need to perform under load". Among requirements - "solid professional experience in one of the following backend languages: Java, Ruby, Python, PHP". InVision is also looking for a Senior Engineering Manager who's familiar with the technologies "range from single-page Javascript applications to backend API servers to iOS and Android mobile applications", a Lead Full Stack JavaScript Engineer, who has a "strong proficiency in vanilla Javascript — you don’t need a framework to get things done", a Senior Software Engineer with "3+ years of experience designing and building native mobile applications in Android (Java and/or Kotlin)", and a Software Engineering Manager who "will get to work with the latest tech, including WebGL, and Kubernetes".  According to Joshua Siok, a Principal Software Engineer at InVisionApp Inc, he has "contributed to almost every aspect of our primary application as well as several NodeJS services. I daily code in languages such as ColdFusion, JavaScript (AngularJS, jQuery, NodeJS), CSS (LESS), and T-SQL". According to Boaz Ruck, a Software Engineer at InVisionApp Inc, he has "automated a Nodejs data-migrator as multiple Kubernete's jobs" and is "working on a new data-migrator (Golang) designed to support private cloud and a micro-service architecture".  According to Cristoffer Gallardo, a Site Reliability Engineer at InVisionApp Inc, his responsibilities include "server configuration management of 600+ servers", he also "used AWS Auto-scaling groups to provision nodes under certain criteria, worked with teammates on implementing and moving our micro-services to Docker containers, and worked on using Kubernetes to manage the clusters". Basecamp SaaS Tech Stack The Basecamp project management tool helped over 285,000 companies in 2013 alone. Ruby on Rails is the heart and soul of Basecamp. David Heinemeier Hansson, Basecamp CTO, the creator of Ruby on Rails web framework, shared a job opportunity for a Rails programmer: "As an experienced Rails developer, you should be intimately familiar with the framework, with Ruby, and with the stables of full-stack web development: HTTP, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, SQL. It’s a bonus if you’re broadly familiar with other languages as well — we write our iOS app in Swift, our Android app in Kotlin, and have tooling written in Go — but your main work will be Ruby". Hubstaff SaaS Tech Stack The Hubstaff suite of tools for managing remote teams is actively used by over 8,000 agencies, freelancers, website owners and virtual teams all over the world. Hubstaff SaaS primarily uses Ruby on Rails, but also a C++ (for IOS). They are looking for a full-time Ruby on Rails Software Engineer to "assist with the ongoing development of our platform, assist with scaling the service to keep up with our fast growth. Requirements: Ruby on Rails, JavaScript, jQuery, SQL, Git, Postgres & MySQL. Bonus: Heroku, Docker, AWS services, React & Redux, AngularJS, Vue.js; service workers architecture; advanced SQL (query optimization, locking, etc.)". GrooveHQ SaaS Tech Stack GrooveHQ is a support ticket system (help desk software) used by 6,000 teams. GrooveHQ SaaS primarily uses Rails, Javascript and React. They are looking for a senior full-stack developer who "need to know Ruby (with and without Rails), Javascript, Git, React. Bonus points - a PWA or GraphQL". According to Marcin Bunsch, Senior Software Developer at GrooveHQ, his projects at Groove include "revamping the search solution utilizing Elasticsearch; building the infrastructure monitoring stack using InfluxDB, Telegraf and Grafana; rebuilding the Groove widget to a HTML5 powered, API-backed embedded web app; integrating the Groove widget with Olark; building a web-based mobile app, which was Progressive Web Application powered by webpack, React and Redux; building a GraphQL app acting as an entrypoint to the Groove API, used by the web-based mobile app". According to Gaston Morixe, Software Engineer at GrooveHQ, his experience at the company includeв using "React, React Native, GraphQL, Rails, iOS, and docker". ConvertKit SaaS Tech Stack ConvertKit email marketing platform for publishers has more than 14,000 paying customers who sent over 2.3 billion emails (as of June 2017). ConvertKit SaaS primarily uses Rails, MySQL, Redis and Sidekiq to get the job done. As of December 2017, they are looking for a senior Rails engineer, who "loves pragmatic OO design for its long-term cost benefits, and testing" with requirements such as "significant full-stack Rails experience and preferably scaling a Rails app for rapid growth. Strong Javascript experience, specifically with ES6, Webpack and React or Angular".

Edtech SaaS Startups Udemy (San Francisco, CA 94107, USA) offers web-app (and, additionally mobile apps for iOS and Android) where tutors are able to create a course and teach students. For companies, Udemy for Business offers subscription access, the price of which varies by the number of users.The company was founded in 2010 and has raised $173 million in funding since that time.  Other SaaS Startups Donorbox (Arlington, VA 22204, USA) is a fundraising software for nonprofits to get recurring revenue. According to their website, more than 35,000 nonprofits across 40+ countries use the platform, and over $700M in donations from 60,000+ fundraising campaigns were raised. InVision SaaS company (New York, NY 10010, USA) offers a web-based prototyping tool that allows designers to create interactive mockups for web and mobile projects. InVision has raised a total of $134,100,000 (2017) in funding since it was launched in 2011. Hubstaff SaaS company (Fishers, IN 46037, USA) offers a web-based time tracking application designed to manage the workflows and productivity of your remote teams (with screenshots, online timesheet, internet monitor & app usage). Hubstaff was launched in August of 2013 and today its Annual Run Rate is more than $3,000,000 (2017). Basecamp (ex 37signals) SaaS company (Chicago, IL 60607, USA) offers a project management web app like JIRA. Basecamp application was firstly launched by the company in 2004. Forbes says Basecamp’s revenue was $25,000,000 in May 2017. Olark SaaS company (Ann Arbor, MI 48104, USA) offers a live chat software for your website to answer your customers’ questions in real-time. Founded in 2009, Olark has today 12,000 paying customers (2017).  Chargify SaaS company (San Antonio, TX 78205, USA) offers an app that dictates to your SaaS-based website’s payment processor which customer needs to be billed and when (it also includes additional tools to manage the entire subscription lifecycle). Chargify launched its business in 2009 and today (2017) it has more than 1,700,000 live paying subscriptions. Zapier SaaS company (Sunnyvale, CA 94086, USA) offers a web app that can create connections to automatically push data from one app to another (it works with more than 700 apps), using triggers and actions. You even can build SaaS prototypes using Zapier. Zapier was founded in October 2011, today it is on a $20 million annualized run rate (2017). Buffer SaaS company (San Francisco, CA 94107, USA) offers a web / mobile software application, designed to manage accounts in social networks. Buffer was launched in late 2010, and today it has more than $10,760,000 annual recurring revenue (2016). Groove SaaS company (Newport, RI 02840, USA) offers a  is a web-based social customer support platform that helps companies manage customer support across all types of channels – email, web, livechat, mobile, Twitter, Facebook and more. Founded in 2011, GrooveHQ earns today more than $5,000,000 year in recurring revenue (2016). ConvertKit SaaS company (Boise, ID 83714, USA) offers a web-based application that guides bloggers step-by-step through the process of building their email list, automating their communication, and, ultimately, selling products to that list. It then provides detailed analytics about who’s buying, what lead sources are performing best. Founded in 2013, ConvertKit makes today $480,000 month in recurring revenue (2017). Sendgrid SaaS company (Denver, CO 80202, USA) offers a cloud-based email app for anyone that needs to send email, whether it's transactional email or marketing emails and campaigns. Founded in 2009, Sendgrid has now $100 million in annual revenue (2017).  Drift (Boston, MA 02116, USA) is a SaaS-based messaging app for sales and customer success teams. Total Funding Amount: $47,000,000. RapidMiner (Boston, MA 02108, USA) is a SaaS platform for a predictive analysis. It extracts the needed data and displays results in a way that users can easily determine trends and future outcomes. The total funding amount is $36,000,000 since launch. Perfecto Mobile (Burlington, MA 01803, USA) is a SAAS product that offers suites targeting at functional, automation and performance testing respectively. The total funding amount is $84,900,000 since launch. THE FURTHER READING The way to get profitable SaaS startup idea; SaaS Technology Stack; Use MVP-first approach for SaaS startup development; Manage a remote SaaS development team effectively; SaaS website design inspiration;

PHP is among the most popular programming languages, according to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2017 (36,625 responses primarily from the USA) What is PHP Officially, PHP is a scripting language that is especially suited for web development (server-side scripting), but experienced PHP developer can also use it for command line scripting and writing desktop applications). PHP is also an interpreter of PHP code to the operating system (like Linux or Windows) installed on the server. You need three things to make a PHP-based application work: the PHP parser (CGI or server module), a web server and a web browser; you need to run the web server, with a connected PHP installation. To execute PHP code on the server, one needs to install PHP package or Facebook HHVM package.  As a part of the real-world web applications, PHP code should work in conjunction with a web server. PHP has a built-in web server but it is not recommended for use on a production hardware server. As a rule, developers use Apache web server, Nginx web server or any other servers that support FastCGI or CGI protocols. PHP 7 review: Upgrading For Performance Reasons PHP 7 is based on the PHPNG engine (or Zend Engine 3.0) that speeds up PHP applications more than the previous PHP interpreter (Zend Engine 2.0). Thanks to PHPNG, your apps see up to 2x faster performance and 50% better memory consumption than PHP 5.6, allowing you to serve more concurrent users without adding any additional hardware. This means that your server returns pages to your users twice as fast. It also means that a single server can handle twice as many requests and you could need half as many servers in order to serve the same number of customers at the same speed as they did before. It has an impact in terms of real-world dollars. The Zend Performance Team ran performance benchmarks on popular PHP apps to compare PHP 5.6, PHP 7, and HHVM 3.7.  For most real-world applications such as eCommerce and CMS platforms, PHP 7 offers a significant performance boost. With execution time more than twice as fast compared to PHP 5.6 and 30 percent lower memory consumption, servers running PHP 7 are able to serve up to three times as many Magento requests as those running PHP 5.6. Drupal 8 runs 72 percent faster and WordPress only executes 25M CPU instructions on a PHP 7 runtime compared to just under 100M to do the same job on older PHP versions. Zend Performance team also tested how various PHP frameworks perform under PHP 7. Source: zend.com/en/resources/php7_infographic With PHP 7, possible differences in performance is already not an issue when one compares “Node.js” technology with “PHP” technology. Big Companies Who Use PHP7 Etsy is a popular PHP-based online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods that has been in operation since 2005 (29 million items listed on its website, 54 million registered users, among them 1.4 million active sellers, and 19.8 million active buyers). Initially, it was written in PHP 5, and later, was switched to HHVM (Virtual Machine for PHP). After migration to PHP 7, Etsy was significantly better from such perspectives as the memory and system/user CPU usage, homepage/listing delivery speed and number of hosting servers.  Tumblr is a popular PHP-based microblogging and social networking website that has been in operation since 2007 (the website has about 555 million monthly visitors and hosts over 320.5 million blogs). Up until the end of August 2016, Tumblr has upgraded its servers and web app’s code from PHP 5 to PHP 7. As it has been reported, almost immediately Tumblr’ developers saw the latency drop by half, and the CPU load on the servers decrease by at least 50%, often more. Not only did their servers start serving pages twice as fast, they are also doing it using half the amount of CPU resources. Badoo is a popular PHP-based dating social network that operates in 180 countries since 2006 (331 million users). Initially, it was written in PHP 4, and was later switched to mainly PHP 5. Up until the start of 2016, an app server cluster at Badoo consists of a bit more than 600 servers. After migration to PHP 7, by cutting CPU usage in half, Badoo freed up around 300 servers ($100,000 a year in hosting cost savings) and got a visual performance boost at the same time (overall response time improved by about 40%)! PHP 7 review: Upgrading For Security Reasons Each released branch of PHP is fully supported for two years from its initial stable release. During this period, bugs and security issues that have been reported are fixed and are released in regular point releases. After this two year period of active support, each branch is then supported for an additional year for critical security issues only. Releases during this period are made on an as-needed basis: there may be multiple point releases, or none, depending on the number of reports. Once the three years of support are complete, the branch reaches its end of life and is no longer supported. Millions of PHP applications (up to 86 percent according to W3Techs data) are relying on unsupported versions that expose the business to a multitude of well-documented security vulnerabilities. PHP 7 offers better security improvements compared to PHP 5, including a filtered un-serialized function and a set of functions to easily get cryptographically secure random numbers. We should keep in mind that we have to advice our clients to upgrade PHP distribution on an operational server. And, of course, new PHP-based web applications should be developed with the newest versions of PHP. Scalar type declarations and return type declarations improve the quality of PHP-based applications and save money for customers PHP 7 also introduced new features: scalar type declarations and return type declarations. These features make the maintenance of large pieces of code significantly easier by multiple developers and writing more robust tests. For the owner of the large PHP-based application, it means more quality with less money spent in a long-term perspective for his custom. Specifying the data type available in PHP 7 has a number of advantages, which are the additional arguments of switching from PHP5 to PHP7. Scalar type and return type declarations in PHP 7 makes it easier to test the application and helps to find hidden and not so evident bugs, which can cause great problems in future. It makes it easier for programmers in the team to understand the code if the data type of the functions is specified. In the absence of the explicit declaration, developers will have to follow the function to see what type of argument the function is expecting (time-consuming operations leading to the hidden costs). PHP standard deviation “type juggling” in PHP 5 can lead to the loss of data without any notification. For example, in a financial system, this is absolutely unacceptable (See EXAMPLE 1). Type declarations produce an error in such cases. Type declarations in PHP 7 remove the burden of writing functions that check the data type of arguments before processing (time-consuming operations leading to the hidden costs). We found it is quite useful to share thoughts of different developers about the benefits of using scalar type declaration and return type declaration, which goes with PHP7. Uncover bugs and inconsistencies Ondrej Mirtes: We started adding that declare(strict_types=1) to the files in our codebase on the day we deployed PHP 7 to our servers and it has already uncovered a lot of bugs and inconsistencies, most often passing different parameters than was intended to invoked functions and methods. Control things that legacy code did not allow Joseluis Laso: Until PHP 5.x we could only "pseudo-declare" these types using PHPdoc or comments, but those are declarations that do not have any implication at runtime. With this new form of declaration, we can write more robust applications by detecting early programming mistakes caused by passing values of the wrong types to and from functions. I want to forget the past years that I had to use my intuition to figure out what types of arguments a function expects or what I can expect as a return value. Every day I write hundreds of lines of PHP code and try to apply the best practices that I know: PSR, naming conventions, and programming principles. Years ago, I embraced Symfony as my professional development framework. Instantly, I felt fine using it because it allows me to control things that legacy code does not. For me, a developer that uses PHP on a daily basis and sees Java as a reference for OOP languages, this is great progress for PHP. Type safety Anthony Ferrara: If you declare function foo(int $abc) and pass in a non-integer, it will raise an error. There are tons of advantages to this approach. You get type safety. This means that you can finally statically analyze code! You can detect bugs where you accidentally take a string from one function and pass it as an integer to another. With static analysis, you can be told that “Hey, it looks like you're using a string where you're expecting a number. This might not do what you expect, we suggest either changing the type from a string, or doing some validation first”. Easy static analysis Larry Garfield: Explicitly specifying the types in a language-parser-accessible way also opens the doors to more powerful tooling. Programs — either PHP itself or a 3rd party analysis tool — can examine the source code to find possible optimizations or bugs based on the type. We can tell just by looking at the function signatures that it’s wrong, without looking at the code inside. This means a program can figure that out, too, and warn us before we even try running it. And because a program can keep track of a lot more moving parts than we can it could scan the entire code base and find bugs caused by incompatible types in different parts of the program… all without ever executing it! This process is called “static analysis”, and it is an incredibly powerful way to evaluate programs to locate and fix errors. The quicker you will discover problems - the faster you can develop Mathias Beke: The more you use type declarations, the less time you will have to spend debugging your code. The most useful advantage of type checking is that you don’t need to manually check for Null values being passed to functions or returned by functions. PHP type declarations encode the pre- and post-condition you have to implement manually, otherwise. So the more typed functions you have, the quicker you will discover problems, and the faster you can develop! Especially when developing with others, you want strong preconditions, so the callee is more restricted in what he may pass to your function. Having stronger post-condition restricts what you can return, and makes it easier for the callee.

According to the “Developer Survey Results 2016”, which was conducted by STACKOVERFLOW, among over fifty thousand developers from all over the world, PHP is more widely used back-end technology compared to Node.js among back-end developers. Source: stackoverflow.com/research/developer-survey-2016 PHP 7 vs Node.JS: Terminology differences PHP is a programming language. Node.js is not a programming language, it is rather an interpreter of Javascript code (due to the Google Chrome V8 engine) to the operating system installed on the server. But Node.js is more than just that because it is extended with the libuv library that focuses on asynchronous I/O. To execute JavaScript code on the server, one needs a Node.js installer. PHP cannot work without a web server. Node.js has built-in tools for creating servers, hence it can work without the help of external servers. However, as a rule, Nginx server is used as a reverse proxy before Node.js server on a production hardware server. PHP was created in 1994, Apache – in 1995, Javascript – in 1995, Nginx – in 2002, and Node.js – in 2009.  Let’s take a look at the history of creating Node.js and reasons for its development. PHP 7 vs Node.JS: Behind Node.JS creation As everybody can see from the first presentation of Node.js in 2009, Ryan Dahl, the creator of Node.js, criticized: The limited possibilities of the most popular web server in 2009, Apache HTTP Server to handle a lot of concurrent connections (up to 10,000 or more); The most common way of creating code (sequential programming), when code either blocked the entire process or implied multiple execution stacks (read as “more hardware and software”, more money) in the case of simultaneous connections. As Ryan Dahl noted, Node.js and Javascript were able to solve this problem at that time at no extra cost: Node.js provides a purely evented, non-blocking infrastructure to script highly concurrent programs. Javascript is designed specifically to be used with an event loop: anonymous functions, closures; only one callback at a time; I/O through DOM event callbacks. The culture of JavaScript is already geared towards evented programming. Ryan Dahl‘s presentation was regaled with ovations. One of the most common web applications' performance problems was resolved! No additional hardware! No additional monthly hosting costs! The only strict requirement was retraining programmers to teach them using event loops, callbacks, and non-blocking I/O. The disadvantages of being single-threaded: your code will run in single thread only and so you can’t do anything complicated. If your code needs to process data for each request and it’s going to take just 10 milliseconds and there are 1000 concurrent connections, it will take 10 seconds to finish all of them. It’s pretty bad response time, isn’t it? Some large companies expressed interest in the implementation of Node.js into their live project. As was reported, the transition from Rails to Node.js improved the scalability of LinkedIn’s mobile backend infrastructure. There’s been a lot of talk about PayPal moving from Java to Node.js for an application platform. ‘Node.js is not the best server side system ever’ admitted Ryan Dahl in his interview (2017) PHP 7 vs Node.JS Perfomance In 2015, PHP 7 with new long-expected features was introduced.  PHP 7 is based on the PHPNG engine that speeds up PHP applications more than the previous PHP interpreter (Zend Engine 2.0). Thanks to PHPNG, your apps see up to 2x faster performance and 50% better memory consumption than PHP 5.6 Source: zend.com/en/resources/php7_infographic With PHP 7, possible differences in performance are already not an issue when one compares Node.js with PHP. But even earlier, in 2013, Phil Sturgeon made a test and concluded: ‘PHP is not sucking as bad as some people would expect. Removing the blocking PHP approach (because obviously, it's slow) and running just the other three scripts [PHP 5.5.5 + ReactPHP + phpQuery] looks like this [take a look on the image below]. Look, they're the same. At this point, it is just a network test. The speed between the two systems for handling this specific task is essentially identical.’ Need Node.js or PHP developers? Hire a dedicated team! PHP 7 VS NODE.JS: PHP is alive and has learnt its lessons from Node.JS to be stronger than before A lot has changed since 2009. The WebSocket protocol was standardized in 2011 and NGINX server started to support it. PHP programmers have learned to use event loops, callbacks, and non-blocking I/O with ReactPHP. So, today’s experienced developers can choose what tool to use for any particular project. What do they take into account when considering what tool to use? Andrey M., a software developer at Belitsoft Company (10 years of experience with PHP, 1 year – with Node.js): For some tasks, Node.js may be faster than the “standard” webserver with PHP because it runs as a single thread with non-blocking IO for each connection, hence there is no memory overrun. Due to this, Node.js is useful when there is a need to process data in real-time (chats, games, video, big data streams without logic). However, Node.js can also be used for creating CMSs, e-commerce, and other web applications, which are usually developed using PHP. Node.js is also able to perform high-load tasks, but these tasks should be moved away from the main thread using appropriate tools such as callbacks, workers etc. On the other hand, tasks for which Node.js is an excellent choice can be performed using PHP. For example, ReactPHP enables developers to write PHP-based socket server to process requests constantly as well as Node.js does it (yes, Node.js is faster, but the fact is that PHP can also do it). The same thing with Workers (the classes responsible for running asynchronous jobs and synchronizing their results) or Amp (libraries that are used for writing non-blocking asynchronous code). Hence, it is easy to create long running processes using PHP. Additionally, there are a lot of tools for supporting and managing these processes (such as supervisord). Finally, Node.js can be used as complement to the PHP (or to another programming language) with the aim of reducing load on a server and performing program (or, as one can say, PHP can be used as complement to Node.js :))) For example, the first version of a website was built in PHP and then the client asked to develop a real-time system that gets data from stock data systems. I would prefer to develop that real-time system as a separate application using Node.js (and then integrate it into the PHP-based application). So, the same tasks may be performed either with PHP or with Node.js. The question "what tool to use" is a question of personal preferences. I use Node.js for tasks involving big data flows and PHP for tasks involving complex logic, high-load tasks, for dealing with external utilities, applications, and OS. PHP has a lot of different libraries, frameworks, and it is more standardized than Node.js (however, Node.js is not far behind and continues to gain momentum). In general, I think it is a good idea not to counterpose them, but use them cooperatively. Sergey K., a software developer at Belitsoft Company, participant and award winner of various hackathons (8 years of experience with PHP, 1 year – with Node.js): Comparatively low entry barrier for writing PHP code means there are many PHP specialists on the market, hence, it is pretty easy to find developers for PHP-based projects. Due to age factor, PHP has more production-ready modules, frameworks, and CMSs. It means if a client needs a product and there are ready solutions in PHP, then it is better to use PHP because it will be cost effective. I think the entry barrier for writing Node.js code is higher. Node.js uses JavaScript, but it does not mean that any front-end developer can easily start writing back-end using JavaScript. And it does not mean that any front-end developer can use the same code snippets both on the front-end and back-end. PHP and Node.js are tools that can very often be used interchangeably for the same tasks. However, Node.js is often used for real-time applications, web sockets and workers (especially, persistent workers), and rarely for high-load tasks and computation. From the scalability perspective, there are no big differences between PHP and Node.js, it is more important to consider the project’s architecture. It is always interesting to hear what other experienced developers think. Here is what we have gathered from the web. PHP 7 vs Node.JS: Some opinions from the Web Jonathan: We are planning to run a large-scale E-commerce marketplace (eventually a pool of websites, one for each country) and we are trying to decide on whether to use PHP + Apache Stack or go with Node.js. We plan to get 5000 peak simultaneous connections for our "product search" function. What would you suggest? Thomas Hunter (a Senior Node.js Engineer): I'd lean towards PHP as you're probably not going to benefit from any real-time communication, shared data between different users, etc. Also, if Node crashes, it could cause a lot of trouble, especially since most of what you are doing is transactional, but if one PHP execution fails, it's much less dangerous. There's also a lot of PHP eCommerce applications and libraries out there already that you could make use of. Azat Mardan: There are many better alternatives to PHP, e.g., Ruby on Rails and Django, however, nothing is as approachable as Node.js. I worked with many technologies including Ruby on Rails, Python, Java/J2EE, VB, ASP, Perl and of course PHP. However, my focus during the past couple of years has been dedicated solely to Node.js and front-end JavaScript frameworks like Backbone.js. So my opinion might be biased. Juan (a developer with experience on Node.js, PHP, and Ruby): I developed an amazing and faster webRTC solution using Node.js and an astounding video portal using PHP that receives 1, 5 million visits every day; however I don’t think that I can achieve these projects’ goals by interchanging those technologies. Laurens: I still doubt whether to use Node.js or native PHP sockets. Wouldn’t it make more sense to use default PHP instead of Node.js? As far as I know, Node.js is limited and barely has support for a good MYSQL connection, isn’t PHP more optimized for this? I know that Apache is slower than Node.js, but for what kind of application is it better to use Node.js? I do not have any idea of Node.js advantages over PHP Socket, perhaps the speed, but I will be using Nginx. Gonzalo Ayuso (an experienced web architect and web developer): WebSockets with Rachet (PHP) works fine. I started to play with socket.io (node.js) some time ago and now I’m very comfortable with it. I haven’t done any in-depth benchmark to choose one or another, indeed. Socket.io for example, has a very fail-over system to work with old browsers (it works even with IE6), but Rachet works fine with newer ones. As you said, to perform traditional SQL operations is a bit of a nightmare using node. This is mainly because of the functional nature of js (OK js is not a fully functional programming, but it’s very close). I don’t have this problem because I always rely on backend server (PHP for me) and I only use node.js for the strictly real-time operations. My node.js servers for WebSockets are just a proxy and all the logic is bypass to the backend. Anyway, if you choose PHP or node.js for WebSockets you must take into account that you will need to handle two different servers. That’s means share authorization layer and things like that. Since WordPress.com has moved to Node.JS, do you think Laravel will also look towards that option even though PHP 7 is here? Dayle Rees (a Laravel Framework contributor and developer): For a long time PHP was the butt of many language jokes, but I honestly feel that it’s becoming not only a popular language but a powerful one. PHP7 is great. The speed boost is one thing, but having optional support for full type hinting is a game changer. We’ve also got modern tools like Laravel and Composer, breathing new life into the language and its supporting community. With this in mind, I think it’s unlikely that Laravel will move from PHP. I think it’s more likely to gain further integration with front-end tools to provide a complete application building platform. That’s where I see it heading in terms of future expansion. I’m sure Node will continue to excel when dealing with microservices and threaded applications. Contact us and get a free quote on your PHP or Node.js project!

Being a professional developer is more than just coding, it means more concern about delivering a usable product in a limited timeframe. Our developer’s team was among awardees of the international Clean & Health Tech Hackathon. The team has built the MVP of the Telegram Bot for weight control (iFoodyBot). Microsoft supported their project and granted the team with $23,000 in the form of Microsoft BizPark services. Telegram is a cloud-based messaging service “with a focus on speed and security”. Telegram Bots (chatbots) are applications that run inside Telegram to provide simple and factual information, such as weather forecast for the coming weekend, current traffic conditions, definition for a new word etc. on-demand. The purpose of a chatbot is to emulate a human while serving human informational needs. iFoodyBot was built with Node.js and MongoDB. It can count calories and provide recommendations according to user’s weight control goals. A user sends messages to the iFoodyBot with the information about what he/she was eating during the day, the chatbot counts those calories and informs how much calories one needs to consume in order to lose, maintain or gain weight. For example, there are about 46 calories for 100g of unsweetened apple juice (data of the United States Department of Agriculture), and user plans a 2,000-calorie diet (the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recommendations). iFoodyBot understands the message in Telegram “I drink a cup of apple juice” as if a user has already consumed 128.8 calories from 2,000 (1 cup is 248g). iFoodyBot is able not just to memorize all of the eaten food or determine how much calories does each of them contain but also reminds the user to keep daily track of everything eaten and provides statistical data per week/month. Before any further communication with iFoodyBot, the Telegram users should add it to their contact list as usual. Vocabulary MVP is a minimal version of the product with a minimum set of features that is enough to deploy and test the key hypothesis to solve problems of this product potential customers. A hackathon is a short time, for example, two days event where software programmers and other specialists come together to create value for business and society by building a new software product. BizSpark is a Microsoft three-year program that supports IT projects by providing necessary resources such as free access to cloud services, software, and support to design, develop, test products and distribute them on the Internet. 

"My programming career started when I was working on the Ruby on Rails website for a snowboard company. I guess I liked how Ruby made development so much more, I guess, you could express your ideas more clearly in Ruby. And that was interesting at the time. And I think Rails was impressive in that. It gave this new structure, and probably, it wasn’t new, but I think Rails popularized the structure of model view controller. I started going to Ruby conferences in Germany, where people were talking about this new paradigm of model view controller. And one of the guys there was Chris Neukirchen if I’m pronouncing that correctly. And he developed this project called Rack, which was a simplified abstraction of a web server. So, it turned a web server into a single-function interface, where you get a request, and then you return a response." That, combined with some freelance work that I was doing on Nginx Module, for Engineyard, got me thinking about how… let me step back a second. In Nginx, everything is asynchronous. So, when you build a module for it, you have to be very careful to be non-blocking. And yeah, I think the combination of Chris Neukirchen’s rack plus how Nginx structured its web server with non-blocking IO, led me to start thinking about how those two things could be combined. So, those two pieces that kind of simplified web server interface, which was Rack, and the asynchronous part, which was Nginx, I had been thinking about. And then Chrome was released in December 2008. And along with that was the V8 Javascript interpreter. I shouldn’t say, interpreter. It’s a jitted run-time. So, when V8 came out, I started poking around with it, and it looked fascinating and clean, and fast, and suddenly, I clicked that: oh! Javascript is single-threaded, and everybody is already doing non-blocking. I’m using my fingers to do air quotes, but like in the web browser, people are already making non-blocking requests when they make AJAX request and stuff. ‘And I thought: oh, wow! I think JavaScript plus asynchronous IO plus some HTTP server stuff would be a cool thing. And I was so excited about that idea that I just worked on it non-stop for the next four years.’ I think Node was an idea waiting to happen and had I not done it; somebody else would have.  I haven’t worked on Node myself since like, 2012, or 2013. And Node, of course, is a big project at this point. When it first came out, I went around and gave a bunch of talks, trying to convince people that they should. That maybe we were doing I/O wrong and that maybe if we did everything in a non-blocking way, that we would solve a lot of the difficulties with programming. Like, perhaps we could forget about threads entirely and only use process abstractions and serialized communications. But within a single process, we could handle many, many requests by being completely asynchronous. ‘I believe strongly in this idea at the time, but over the past couple of years, I think that’s probably not the end-all and be-all idea for programming. In particular, when Go came out.’ Well, I think Go came out a long time ago, but when I first started hearing about Go, which was around 2012. They had a very nice runtime that had proper green threads and easy to use abstractions around that. That I think makes blocking I/O – again, blocking I/O in quotes, because it’s all in green threads at the interface of… between Go and the operating system, I think it is all non-blocking I/O. But the interface that they present to the user is blocking, and I think that that’s a nicer programming model. And you can think through what you’re doing in many situations more easily if it’s blocking. You know, if you have a bunch of following actions, it’s nice to be able to say: do thing A, wait for a response, maybe error out. Do thing B, wait for a response, error out. And in Node, that’s harder, because you have to jump into another function call. I believe strongly in this idea at the time, but over the past couple of years, I think that’s probably not the end-all and be-all idea for programming. In particular, when Go came out. ‘Yeah, I think it’s… for a particular class of application, which is like, if you’re building a server, I can’t imagine using anything other than Go.’ That said, I think Node’s non-blocking paradigm worked out well for JavaScript, where you don’t have threads. And I think that a lot of the problems with kind of the call-back soup problem, where you have to jump into many anonymous functions to complete what you’re doing has been alleviated these days, with the async keyword, the async feature that’s in Javascript now. So, kind of the newer versions of Javascript has made this easier. That said, I think Node is not the best system to build a massive server web. I would use Go for that. And honestly, that’s the reason why I left Node. It was the realization that: oh, actually, this is not the best server-side system ever. ‘I think where Node has shined, weirdly, on the client side. So, doing kind of scripting around building websites. So, Browserify, for example. Kind of bundles up client-side Javascript. So, you can have all this server-side processing of client-side Javascript. And then, you know, maybe small servers to… maybe little development servers, and here and there, maybe some real servers serving live traffic. Node can be useful, or it can be the right choice for it. But if you’re building a massively distributed DNS server, I would not choose Node.’ So, there were several people, that were trying to get the server side JavaScript thing going.  The thing is that they were all doing blocking I/O, and that didn’t jive with how Javascript is structured because you don’t have threads. And so, if you’re doing blocking I/O, you literally can’t serve requests. Like, you’re doing one at a time, and that’s just never going to work. That, plus the fact that I like, sat down and made the HTTP server work well. So, I had a demo where you could… I had an HTTP server, and then a raw TCP server. And I made those things work well so that people could sit down and build a website without going through too much hassle. And honestly, building a web server is not the easiest thing, and I think a lot of these systems kind of left to their community to make that, and thus, nobody did. Because there is nothing to use the system with. I think it’s important that when you release a software framework, or maybe any software, that you have a demo that people can sit down and use immediately. And that was one of the things that went right with Node; it was that people could download it and use the web server directly. I think we take for granted how easy it is to switch between languages. I mean, even if you know another language, making that context, which is pretty difficult. And there’s a lot of people who are very familiar with Javascript. And giving them these tools to be able to use it in other contexts excites people. You suddenly can do it a lot more than you were able to do before. I had been working on Node for four years. And I had gotten to the point where I wanted it. I never wanted Node to be a massive API. I wanted it to be this kind of small, compact, core that people could build modules on top of. And there was a couple of the main things that… key features that I wanted to support. So, extension modules were added early on; we got all the networking libraries worked out, HTTP, UDP, TCP, we could access all the file systems. And then, kind of a big chunk, which was maybe a year of work with like, five people, was putting it to Windows and doing that properly. And that we wanted to use Windows abstractions for asynchronous IO, which is their IO completion ports. And so, that required rewriting the core library, which, the result of that was the libuv library. We had released on Windows. And you know, it was kind of at the point where it’s like: ok. I mean, this is what I had intended to create, and I’m pleased I got the chance to follow through with it. And of course, there’s going to be, you know, an infinite amount of bugs to fix for the rest of my life, but… you see, there are enough people involved to that. I don’t need to do that necessarily, and I would like to do other things. So, that plus the fact that Go came out, and I didn’t see Node as being the ultimate solution to servers.  Node is used by hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people at this point, and I think it’s certainly exceeded any expectation of what I thought would happen with it. Yeah, it’s cool."

1. Fully Remote SaaS Company INVISION Clark Valberg (a software developer) launched his SaaS startup Invision in 2011. Today, InVision is a fully remote company with the team members in 19 countries and nearly 100 cities (175 employees). It included in the Forbes’ list of best cloud companies in the world. Clark Valberg: “Every day, every department has a 45-minute "scrum" style meeting. The meeting is always at the same time. Each employee briefly describes three things: what he/she's working on now, what he/she's working on next, and what his/her biggest constraint is. The daily scrums help teammates build collaborative chemistry and continuity. Which means, instead of being off on their own all day, remote employees have at least one real-time interaction with colleagues. Between scrums, they use communications software like Slack and Trello to assist each other and address whatever constraints arise”. Futher Reading https://www.invisionapp.com/company https://www.invisionapp.com/blog/category/invision/ https://www.invisionapp.com/blog/how-invision-uses-slack-power-culture-communication/ https://zapier.com/blog/invision-remote-support/ https://www.americaninno.com/boston/invision-ryan-burke-on-managing-a-remote-sales-team/ https://www.inc.com/ilan-mochari/virtual-remote-employees-holiday-party.html https://www.google.by/search?q=site%3Ainvisionapp.com%2Fblog+remote 2. Fully Remote SaaS Company HUBSTAFF Hubstaff SaaS company was started by Dave Nevogt (a non-tech founder) as 100% remote in 2012. Today, 25 employees are working in 9 countries. Dave Nevogt: “After three years and $2.53 million in revenue since launching Hubstaff in 2013, I can honestly say that the decision to build a remote team has been the single biggest factor in our success. We personally invest time to find the right team member and then work with that person usually for several years. Hiring involves thorough research and extensive communication with candidates. You might have to go through 500 resumes to find the right person. When we’re in hiring mode, I may end up spending 80% of my time on it.  The challenges of remote Work: 1. You Have to Monitor Virtual Teams More Closely. 2. Sometimes, Remote Workers Don’t Have Time for You. 3. Virtual Teams sometimes have a Lower Commitment Level.  Why do we think remote is better for startups? 1. Larger Pool of Talent (biggest reason). 2. Virtual Teams Save Money (a close second). Cost-efficient quality could make the difference between success and failure for a startup. 3. Virtual Teams are Flexible. 4. Virtual Teams Offer Freedom. 5. Hiring and Onboarding is Easier. 6. We Hate Wasting Time”. The flowchart below comes from HUBSTAFF's “No Excuses” guide to remote management and outlines the progression of a task, from assignment to completion. Futher Reading http://blog.hubstaff.com/about/ https://blog.hubstaff.com/remote-project-management/ http://blog.hubstaff.com/managing-virtual-teams/ http://blog.hubstaff.com/grow/ http://blog.hubstaff.com/remote/ http://blog.hubstaff.com/virtual-teams/ 3. Remote SaaS Company BASECAMP Basecamp SaaS company was founded in 1999. Its CEO Jason Fried (a non-tech founder) started out with 3 people, and today,  they’re a company of about 50 people spread out across 32 different cities around the world. Their headquarters is in Chicago, but everyone at Basecamp is free to live and work wherever they want. Jason Fried: “Instead of asking a remote worker "what did you do today?", you can now just say: "Show me what you did today." As a manager, you can directly evaluate the work - the thing you're paying this person for - and ignore all the stuff that doesn't actually matter.” Futher Reading https://basecamp.com/about https://basecamp.com/about/team https://37signals.com/remote https://m.signalvnoise.com/how-we-set-up-our-work-cbce3d3d9cae https://m.signalvnoise.com/8-things-remote-ceos-do-differently-115f34dc24b1 4. Fully Remote SaaS Company OLARK Ben Congleton (a software developer) and his friends built Olark app in 2009. Today Olark SaaS company is a 100% remote team of 40 people that spans three continents. Ben Congleton: “When you’re building a remote team, you need to be very good at communication and, in particular, written communication.  One way that we do that at Olark is everyone on the team goes through customer service training. Everyone has a shared experience of being customer service, understanding our product, talking directly to our customers, and working with people they wouldn’t normally work with, which also prevents a little bit of siloing. The other thing that we do is we try to add accountability so you’re accountable to your team like the people you’re working with on a day-to-day basis”. Futher Reading https://www.olark.com/about https://blog.olark.com/olark-the-first-three-years https://blog.olark.com/gurus-guide-keep-a-remote-team-united https://blog.olark.com/what-is-the-olark-retreat https://www.pivotaltracker.com/blog/build-happy-productive-remote-team/ 5. Fully Remote SaaS Company CHARGIFY David Hauser (a non-tech founder) launched his SaaS startup Chargify in 2009. Chargify has been a 100% remote team since inception.  Lance Walley: “Our 100% remote team works really well together. We use online tools to stay in constant contact with each other, and we meet 2–3 times a year. But our remote structure makes the following hire/fire traits even more important. Hire people with these traits: Doers, Finishers, Sharpness, Humility, Good Work Habits, Enjoys Learning, Optimism, Interested, Nice, Humorous Friends & Relatives (just be careful). Fire (or beware of) people with these traits: Bullies, Prima Donnas, Liars, Pessimists, People who think everyone else (or the world) is bad, Gossip Conduits”. Futher Reading https://www.chargify.com/about-us/ https://www.chargify.com/blog/remote-work-tips/ https://www.chargify.com/blog/13-tools-that-connect-our-remote-team/ https://www.chargify.com/blog/how-to-effectively-organize-a-remote-team-meetup/ 6. Fully Remote SaaS Company ZAPIER Mike Knoop (a software developer) along with two other cofounders launched their SaaS startup company Zapier in 2011. Now, Zapier’s 100% remote team of 100 people live and works in 13 countries. Wade Foster: “We've found there are three important ingredients to making remote work: 1. Team (Hire Doers, Hire people you can trust, Trust the people you hire, Hire people who can write, Hire people who are ok without a social workplace); 2. Tools (Slack, Async, Trello, GitHub, LastPass Enterprise, Google Docs & Hackpad, GoToMeeting, HelloSign); 3. Process (Everyone does support, A culture of shipping, Weekly Hangouts, Pair Buddies, Monthly One-on-Ones, A culture of accountability, Building culture in person, Automate anything that can be automated).” Futher Reading https://zapier.com/about/ https://zapier.com/blog/survival-guide-to-remote-work/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/how-manage-remote-team/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/how-build-culture-remote-team/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/how-to-hire-remote-team/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/remote-employee-evaluation/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/team-communication-tools/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/remote-team-communication/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/run-a-remote-meeting/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/how-run-company-retreat-remote-team/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/remote-office-photos/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/remote-work-productivity/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/best-work-environment-productivity/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/remote-work-time-shift/ https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/avoid-work-burnout/ 7. Fully Remote SaaS Company BUFFER Joel Gascoigne (a software developer) launched his SaaS startup company Buffer in October 2010. After growing to 50 people, it became a fully distributed team without an office.  Joel Gascoigne: “We've been remote from the beginning, and we have recently launched and grown a new product (Respond) to around $15k MRR with a small fully remote team of 4 people. Meeting in person regularly is a key for bonding and longer term productivity as a result. That said, I fully believe it is possible to create great culture, collaborate effectively and have fun while working remotely. You certainly have to change the way you work to make it happen, so that is perhaps a barrier when you're used to working in the same place. You can't be remote and try to work in the same way, but once you make the leap and change the way you work, it can be awesome. Obviously a bunch of long-term benefits for the company and for the team, too”. Futher Reading https://buffer.com/about http://joel.is/5-varieties-of-remote-working/ https://open.buffer.com/no-office/ https://open.buffer.com/?s=remote 8. Fully Remote SaaS Company GROOVE Alex Turnbull (a non-tech founder) launched his SaaS startup company Groove in 2011. He hired an agency to build the first iteration of the product. After that, he began building out his own team: first, with part-time contractors, and then he hired those who fit best as full-time employees. Today, Groove consists of 100% remote team (across 9 time zones). Alex Turnbull: “After nearly five years of learning ⁠— and often, stumbling ⁠— there are three key “wins” that help our remote team stay productive and connected across nine different time zones: 1) Have One Time Where Everybody Meets, 2) Get Asynchronous Communication Right, 3) Encourage Water Cooler Chatter. I’m sharing the tools that our remote team uses every single day. 1) Slack ⁠— our headquarters. 2) Zoom ⁠— video calls and screen sharing. 3) Groove ⁠— customer support collaboration. 4) World Time Buddy - know what time it is anywhere in the world. 5) Trello ⁠— staying on the top of things. 6) Teamweek - tracking high-level team tasks. 7) Google Drive - keeping content and other company docs in one place. 8) Music Streaming Apps ⁠— the service that divides our team.” Futher Reading https://www.groovehq.com/about https://www.groovehq.com/blog/remote-team-tools https://www.groovehq.com/blog/remote-work-across-time-zones https://www.groovehq.com/blog/how-to-optimize-remote-team-meetings https://www.groovehq.com/blog/being-committed-to-remote-work https://www.groovehq.com/blog/most-common-questions-about-remote-work https://www.google.com/search?q=site:groovehq.com+remote 9. Fully Remote SaaS Company GHOST Ghost(PRO) is a hosting platform like Wordpress for hosting open source Ghost-based blogs. Ghost was founded by John O'Nolan (a product designer) in April 2013 after a very successful Kickstarter campaign. Today, Ghost(PRO) SaaS product is developed and maintained by a fully remote team of 8 peoples (5 continents).  Ghost’s Annual Run Rate was $780,528 (on June 2017). John O'Nolan: "Be careful how you hire. Remote work is not for everyone, it relies on self-motivated individuals who are capable of getting things done without the need to be supervised". Futher Reading https://ghost.org/about/ https://blog.ghost.org/distributed-team-tools/ http://pajamas.io/john-onolan-ghost/ 10. Fully Remote SaaS Company CONVERTKIT Nathan Barry (an app designer) launched his SaaS platform Convertkit in 2013. Today’s ConvertKit consists of 22 team members across 17 cities. Nathan Barry: “Running a remote team isn’t for everyone, and even in-person teams use a lot of these tools and procedures (Slack, Baremetrics, Intercom, Zoom, Base CRM, Internal trainings, Daily standups) to organize their businesses. And we certainly don’t believe we have all of the answers either. We know that as we grow and evolve, we’ll continue to learn new ways of operating and how we could run more efficiently — continuing to work smarter and not harder. Futher Reading https://convertkit.com/about/ https://medium.com/work-in-public-by-convertkit/7-ways-we-share-useful-data-within-a-remote-team-5339421a8b1 THE BOTTOM LINE Belitsoft created 14+ remote teams of developers for our happy clients who hired them over 7 years ago and still work with them today.  Since May 2016, Belitsoft has been successfully providing a team of remote software developers for Insly SaaS (a global insurance software development company (1.6M+ EUR  in revenues in 2016) with a team of dedicated insurance and IT professionals working in London, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Warsaw and California, USA) - check out this case study.

#1. I don't need to write comments, my code is self-documenting Glyn Williams, Game Developer, CTO at Binary Planets Ltd (Crewe, Cheshire, England): I find myself writing comments in order add more detail and improve things. I imagine my future-self looking at the code, and being puzzled.  So I mainly write comments to assist my future self.  Worst. Complex, opaque code without comments. Better. Complex, opaque code with comments (most real world programmers live here). Better. Simple, transparent code with comments. Best. Code so hygenic that comments are utterly un-necessary. ‘You should use comments. Because most of us live in the first three categories. The fourth is aspirational.’ Use comments when the intention of the code is not obvious. Use comments when how the execution proceeds is not obvious. Use comments when the context of when to call a method is not obvious. And not just short little crappy one-line comments either.  Some of this stuff needs a paragraph of well-written English prose to describe. #2. This code I'm inheriting is crap. I'll have to write it from scratch Vladimir Ilievski, Artificial Intelligence Intern at Philip Morris International  (Lausanne Area, Switzerland): "This is the best comment in source code that I have ever encountered". #3. This is just a temporary hack - I'll come back and fix it later John Miller, Engineering manager at Microsoft (Greater Seattle Area, Washington): "You’ll never ‘fix it later’ so do it right. The mistake I’ve made many times is throwing something together with the intention of fixing it before I ship. Then one fire after another springs up, and the code ships in hideous shape. Write it the right way the first time". #4. Slow is bad (premature optimization is right) Robert Zubek, Game Developer, Founder at SomaSim (Greater Chicago Area, Illinois): "1. Optimization reduces flexibility. It's one of the classic tradeoffs of computer science: you can usually buy more speed by sacrificing space (memory, cache, etc) or generality (more task-specific system, etc). So it's a bad idea to do it too early, when you don't yet know which parts of the codebase need to remain general and extensible, and which can be hard-wired for specific use cases. 2. Optimization should be based on evidence, not speculation. In many non-trivial systems, you won't know which parts need the most speed-up, until you have a system running live in a production environment, under a real-world load. Especially when this is a novel system that you haven't built before, it's easy to make incorrect assumptions about what needs optimizing. ‘And this ties to the previous point - if you optimize for the wrong thing, you not only spent valuable time, but you also needlessly reduced future flexibility and extensibility.’ #5. I will be great programmer if I create great code Mike Coutermarsh, Software Engineer at Product Hunt (San Francisco, California): "Whether you solve a problem with a thousand lines of C or five lines of Ruby doesn’t really matter. As developers, we place a lot of value in how good we are at writing code. But that’s only a small piece of the puzzle. Your programming skills are very important. But all that time you spend on becoming a good developer can be magnified if you also learn how to create business value with your skills. A lot of developers keep to themselves or stay secluded in the “engineering cave”. This limits your perspective. For the first couple years of my career, I spent all my time at my desk coding. If I had to talk to someone in the business, I primarily used email. I seldomly talked to them in person or even picked up the phone. I ate lunch at my desk, just so I could write more code. I thought I was doing great work. But in reality I wasn’t. My performance reviews were average and other developers were getting put on the best projects. Even though I was writing a lot of “great” code, my work wasn’t creating much value for the business. I spent too much time on small technical details instead of the big picture. ‘I was lucky to learn this from a mentor super early in my career: “Learn how to solve problems that make companies a lot of money”.  Once I started spending time with Product, Marketing & Finance, my career began to take off as a developer.’ So, what’s the best way to be a great programmer? Get outside of the “engineering cave” and learn how business works. 80–20 rule is everything! Remember, you’re aiming for the biggest impact, with the least effort Leverage your technical skills to solve problems that provide huge value". #6. Agile is a bullshit that does not work Brian Knapp, Senior Software Engineer at Procore Technologies (Carpinteria, CA): "Agile is about responding quickly to change. Actually I can write that better: "Agile is about contextual change". That is to say, the purpose of agile is to change quickly to meet the current context you are working in. That can be the market you are in and the demands of your customers. It also means you must change to effectively use the resources at your disposal. In a truly agile world, nothing is sacred. You do what makes the most sense in your context to achieve whatever the goal is. You can never get to a perfect system. You can only change and get better within your context".   James Grenning, Software Consultant, one of the original authors of the Agile Manifesto: "Engineers! With Agile the delivery cycle is fundamentally changed. Have you changed how you develop software? Are you a senior developer, programming the same way you did that first year out of school? Do you have 10 years experience, repeating the same Debug Later Cycle? Have you read any books on iterative development, Test-Driven Development, and Extreme Programming, Design? Have you read any books on development at all? Alas, few hands are raised. The cadence of delivery is changed, so must your practices change. Why is there so much pressure in your two week iterations? “The stories we are told to do are so huge there is no way to get the work done with any quality. The PO says they are priority one. We have to do what the PO says, right? No documentation; no thought; just do it! That’s Agile! Right?” No, that’s not Agile, but that is a demoralizing way to work.  FURTHER READING The way to get startup ideas is not to try to think of startup ideas. It's to look for problems, preferably problems you have yourself. Solving the problem that frustrates you - may be one of the best ways of finding an idea for your startup. Look at these software developers who acted accordingly before they found success.

Data types in PHP All programs in all programming languages are composed of two concepts: data and operations on that data. Each programming language has certain predefined data types that can be recognized by its interpreter/compiler. A data type (or type) is a set of values and operations predefined for those values. PHP interpreter supports such data types as Boolean, integer, float, and string (which are commonly known as scalar data types), compound data types (array and object), and special data types (resource and NULL). There are different operations with data types available in PHP, including “type declarations” and “type juggling”.< Type declaration in PHP Type declaration is a statement in a code that requires the interpreter to check if a passed or returned value matches a certain type. If the given value is not of the expected type, then an error is generated. Type declarations (type hints) were in PHP 5, but in PHP 5 we could declare only non-scalar data types and could not declare return types (values that will be returned from a function or a method).< PHP 7 type juggling for scalar types How does PHP interpreter understand which data type it must deal with in each particular case when it is not clearly declared? PHP is a dynamically typed language, so it does the so-called «type juggling» wherever possible. «Type juggling» is a process of automatic determination of data type of a variable by PHP interpreter based on a set of predefined rules. Type juggling comes with potential loss of data in PHP5 without any notices. The problem of potential data loss due to type juggling was fixed in PHP 7 with scalar type declarations . EXAMPLE 1.1 (PHP5) < ?php $a='x'; // string $b=2; //integer function FunctionName ($a, $b){ return $a * $b; } echo FunctionName ($a, $b); ?> RESULT: 0 (data loss due to the type juggling and absence of scalar type declaration in PHP5) EXAMPLE 1.2 (PHP5) RESULT: 3 (integer) data loss without Noticesp EXAMPLE 1.3 (PHP7) RESULT: Warning: A non-numeric value encountered on line 5 (data loss with Notices) RESULT: PHP 7 new feature “scalar type declarations” Scalar type declarations have been a top requested feature in PHP for a very long time. There has been a long-standing debate regarding the correct way to implement them. What is scalar type declaration in PHP 7? Scalar type declaration means the statement to a function to accept arguments (parameters) or return values only of the given scalar data type (int, float, string or bool). To specify a scalar type declaration, the name of the scalar data type should be added before the parameter name.  function FunctionName (int $a, int $b){ return $a + $b; } In the above example, before calling this function, the PHP 7 interpreter will check if $a or $b variables are integers. If they are not, then the PHP 7 interpreter generates a special PHP 7 TypeError exception. EXAMPLE 2.1 (PHP7) RESULT: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to FunctionName() must be of the type integer, string given. EXAMPLE 2.2 (PHP7) ?php // weak mode $a=1; // integer $b=2; //integer function FunctionName (int $a, int $b){ return $a + $b; } echo FunctionName ($a, $b); ?> RESULT: 3 (integer) EXAMPLE 2.3 (PHP7) ?php // weak mode $a='1'; // integer due to the type juggling $b=2; //integer function FunctionName (int $a, int $b){ return $a + $b; } echo FunctionName ($a, $b); ?> RESULT: 3 (integer) EXAMPLE 2.4 (PHP7) ?php // weak mode $a='1text'; // integer due to the type juggling $b=2; //integer function FunctionName (int $a, int $b){ return $a + $b; } echo FunctionName ($a, $b); ?> RESULT: PHP Notice: A non well formed numeric value encountered on line 5 RESULT: 3 (integer) EXAMPLE 2.5 (PHP7) RESULT: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to FunctionName() must be of the type integer, string given PHP 7’ new feature “strict mode” By default, all PHP 7 files are in weak type-checking mode (as it was in previous versions of PHP interpreter). A new declare() directive is added, strict_types, which takes either 1 or 0. If 1, strict type-checking mode is used for function calls and return statements in this file. The nice thing about the possibility of using different modes is that you don’t have to worry if one library uses a strict mode and another does not - scalar type declarations only work in the file with the function call. EXAMPLE 3.1 (PHP7) ?php declare(strict_types=1); // strict mode $a='1'; // string $b=2; //integer function FunctionName (int $a, int $b){ return $a + $b; } echo FunctionName ($a, $b); ?> RESULT: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Argument 1 passed to FunctionName() must be of the type integer, string given PHP 7 new feature “return type declarations” What is return type declarations in PHP7? Return type declaration is specifying the expected data types of the result that a function or a class method should return. Due to return type declaration, PHP, for example, can convert the integer result into a string before returning the result of the function. EXAMPLE 4.1 (PHP7) ?php //weak mode $a='1'; //  string $b=2; // integer function FunctionName ($a, $b) : string  { return $a.$b; } echo FunctionName ($a, $b); ?> RESULT: 12 (string due to the type juggling) EXAMPLE 4.2 (PHP7) RESULT: PHP Fatal error: Uncaught TypeError: Return value of FunctionName() must be of the type string, integer returned Backward compatibility with PHP5 intepreter Code with scalar type declarations or return type declarations will not work with PHP 5 interpreter. EXAMPLE 5 (PHP5) ?php declare(strict_types=1); $a=1; // integer $b=2; //integer function FunctionName (int $a, int $b){ return $a + $b; } echo FunctionName ($a, $b); ?> RESULT: Warning: Unsupported declare 'strict_types' Catchable fatal error: Argument 1 passed to FunctionName() must be an instance of int, integer given

I believe that schedules are necessary, but managers and programmers need to understand that people sometimes are failed with deadlines and there is no big tragedy. Sometimes circumstances, not people are the reason of failed deadlines. It’s useful to meet deadlines for the things you are doing, however there are some nuances in case of programming. How deadlines can be helpful Due to schedules you can plan your future work. If we plan to finish our work on the item “X” during 2 months, then we know that after 3 months we’ll be able to release a new version of software. Schedules are very helpful with rationalization and optimization: if we know that Peter will finalize the item “X” in 2 months, and Bob will make it in 2 days, then it is easier to sort out who is busier. If tomorrow we will find a bug with medium importance, so we can rationally weigh up the situation and assign this bug fix to Bob, because he’ll be free in 2 days. Schedules can also act as an additional method of task specification. Programmer can maneuver under the influence of schedules, somewhere he will be more diligent but somewhere he will not. And that is good, ‘cause the ultimate speed of software development will grow due to such maneuvers. How shedules influence on software development Unfortunately, programming is a difficult thing and even the experts sometimes cannot calculate right schedules in advance. In addition, majority of programmers estimate the duration of development in too optimistic way. So often experts don’t meet the prescribed deadlines. It turns out that programmer need to put a lot of emotions and efforts in order to complete some task on time. The programmer can designate unreasonably optimistic deadlines under managers’ pressure. Even worse, when managers are trying to set up deadlines to programmers. Deadlines are some kind of punitive, reproaches managers’ tools in the eyes of many programmers. This can be the reason of emotional discomfort. Reduced effectiveness due to low emotional level is the main problem. When the programmer realized that he cannot finish the task in time, then he’ll try to increase zeal and concentration. But however this might lead to the following: Reduced programmers’ operational agility. If he knows that he’s falling behind, than he’ll take a passive role in working process. He stops helping the beginners and choose every first decision which comes to his mind, when you need to discuss some future architecture. If there are few people are working on overdue task, it’s likely that each of them will try to decline the responsibility for project, as they will not have enough time to take the initiative and coordinate the overall interaction. The programmer, just like any other person gets tired. If on the average he writes 500 lines of code, and he creates beautiful code, then under the pressure of deadlines he begins to write 750 lines of code. But it will not last forever, as he will start to write ugly code and sooner or later returns to his 500 lines of beautiful code. And right after this overdue task he’ll rollback to negative results with 250 lines of code. In the end, the programmer will think: "What is my fault? Why must I put extra effort into work? Just because of incorrect terms estimation? ". Because of these thoughts people start to loose motivation too quickly. How to solve the situation? As usual, truth is somewhere near between manager and programmer. From managers’ side it is necessary to: Let your programmer to designate his own terms. If I see that programmer feels pressure from my side, then I’ll try to dispose this pressure, because I don’t need the programmer, who designates wrong terms when he sees me. Watch over terms validity. If programmer replies to my question: «It will be ready in 1 month», then it’s better to demonstrate plan for that, how he’s going to arrange his work into substeps, how quickly he’s going to finish each of them. Adjust understanding between programmers. If this is done then: Programmer won’t feel himself depressed if he can’t finish his task on time. He turns to his manager with the following question: «I have no time to finish … what should we do? Can we assign the additional resources to this task or just carry over?». Programmer will be more sincere with manager, as he won’t feel sense of guilt. In programmers’ eyes deadlines are stop being as punitive tool. Look after honesty and fairness in group. There are always programmers who try to gain benefits in a roundabout way. Such programmers should be excluded from team, as they undermine morality. From programmers’ side it is necessary to: Adjust understanding with manager too. Programmer doesn’t want to come to the manager and say "I have no time to ...", and to fear that manager finds him lazy. Evaluate logically the amount of work. Moral and summary There are no right or wrong in the situation. If the quality or speed of software development falls due deadline policy in company, then both are guilty. Using schedules is necessary and convenient. But it seems to me that schedules should be soft, as employees should understand that sometimes it is better not to meet deadline, rather than write low-quality code or to exhaust themselves emotionally. We are not clairvoyants and the schedules sometimes can be inaccurate, so you need to understand that sometimes schedules can be adjusted if there are good reasons for this and better to discuss such reasons long before deadlines.