How is this web development ranking decided?

Mechanically. The 20 approved web development listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.

Is this list re-ordered for students?

No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

How much does web development software cost?

Across the 20 web development tools listed here, paid plans start between $7 and $2,000 a month, with a median entry price of $19. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $5,000 a month (MySQL). 16 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.

What is the cheapest web development software?

11 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, npm has the lowest published entry price at $7 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.

Is there free web development software?

Yes, 16 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 11 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.

How is web development software usually billed?

open-source (7), freemium (5), free (3), quote (1), counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not.

What does web development software actually cover?

The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are backend (4), development (4), javascript (4), infrastructure (2), open source (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under web development may overlap on very little.

How many pricing tiers do web development tools offer?

9 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 2 tiers. 3 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.

How many web development tools are listed on Softwr?

20 approved web development listings appear on this page, including .NET, Apache HTTP Server, Astro, Bolt.new. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/web-development, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Web Development · ranked shortlist

Best Web Development software for Students in 2026

20 approved web development listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.

Tools ranked: 20
Entry price range: $7-$2,000
Publish a $0 plan: 16 of 20

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.

Where the ratings come from

No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.

What the pool is

Approved web development listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the web development category page.

The ranking

Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.

#1
.
.NET
Highest rated here
Free, cross-platform, open source developer platform
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
.NET breakdown Compare with Apache HTTP Server
#2
Apache HTTP Server
The world's most used web server software
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
web-server, apache, Open Source, infrastructure
Apache HTTP Server breakdown Compare with Astro
#3
Astro
Web framework for content-driven sites shipping minimal JavaScript by default
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
Astro breakdown Compare with Bolt.new
#4
Bolt.new
Prompt, run, edit, and deploy full-stack web apps
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $20 a month.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
2 tiers
Tags
ai, full-stack, prototyping, web-development
Bolt.new breakdown Compare with Carrd
#5
Carrd
Ultra-affordable one-page site builder.
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $19 a month.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
2 tiers
Carrd breakdown Compare with Django
#6
Django
The web framework for perfectionists with deadlines
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
free
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
Python, web-framework, django, backend
Django breakdown Compare with Express.js
#7
E
Express.js
Fast, unopinionated, minimalist web framework for Node.js
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
quote
Express.js breakdown Compare with FastAPI
#8
F
FastAPI
A modern, fast, high-performance web framework for building APIs with Python
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
FastAPI breakdown Compare with Flask
#9
Flask
A lightweight WSGI web application framework
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
free
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
Python, micro-framework, flask, web-development
Flask breakdown Compare with Laravel
#10
Laravel
The PHP framework for web artisans
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $12 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $39.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
php, web-framework, laravel, backend
Laravel breakdown Compare with MySQL
#11
MySQL
The world's most popular open source database
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $2,000 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $5,000.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
database, sql, Open Source, MySQL
MySQL breakdown Compare with NestJS
#12
N
NestJS
A progressive Node.js framework for efficient, reliable and scalable server-side apps
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
NestJS breakdown Compare with Next.js
#13
Next.js
The React framework for the web
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
React, framework, nextjs, ssr
Next.js breakdown Compare with Nginx
#14
Nginx
High-performance web server and reverse proxy
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
Model not published
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
web-server, proxy, load-balancer, nginx
Nginx breakdown Compare with Node.js
#15
Node.js
JavaScript runtime built on Chrome's V8 JavaScript engine
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
Billing
Model not published
Tags
JavaScript, runtime, backend, server
Node.js breakdown Compare with npm
#16
npm
Package manager for JavaScript
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $7 a month.
Billing
freemium
Published tiers
3 tiers
Tags
package-manager, JavaScript, Node.js, npm
npm breakdown Compare with Nuxt
#17
N
Nuxt
The Full-Stack Vue Framework
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
Nuxt breakdown Compare with PHP
#18
P
PHP
A popular general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited to web development
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
PHP breakdown Compare with React
#19
React
A JavaScript library for building user interfaces
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
free
Published tiers
1 tier
Tags
JavaScript, frontend, React, ui-library
React breakdown Compare with Ruby on Rails
#20
R
Ruby on Rails
A full-stack framework for building web applications
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
Billing
open-source
Ruby on Rails breakdown

What web development software costs

Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.

Cheapest paid plan: $7npm
Median entry price: $19across 5 priced
Dearest entry price: $2,000MySQL
Publish a $0 plan: 16of 20

Paid web development plans in this set start anywhere from $7 a month for npm to $2,000 for MySQL. The median entry price across the 5 tools that publish one is $19, half of them start below that figure and half above it.

Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is MySQL's at $5,000 a month, 2.5× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.

16 of 20 publish a $0 plan, and 11 of those charge nothing at all.

npm pricing MySQL pricing MySQL plans

How these vendors bill

The billing model each of the 20 web development listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.

open-source: 7
freemium: 5
free: 3
quote: 1

What “Web Development” covers in practice

The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.

backend4
development4
JavaScript4
infrastructure2
Open Source2
Python2
React2
web-development2
web-framework2
web-server2

Carried by a single tool: ai, django, full-stack, laravel, mvc, Node.js, php, server. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.

How to choose between them

Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.

Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them

16 of 20 web development tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with community support, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.

Read the spread before you read the features

$7 to $2,000 is a $1,993 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $2,000 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.

Check which tier you actually land on

3 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 2 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, community support, advanced security, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.

The billing model matters more than the headline number

This category splits across 4 billing models: open-source on 7 listings, freemium on 5, and 2 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.

Compare web development tools directly

Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.

Go straight to the numbers

Build your own comparison See the shortlist instead

Questions people ask about web development software

Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.

How is this web development ranking decided?: Mechanically. The 20 approved web development listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
Is this list re-ordered for students?: No, and it would be dishonest to imply otherwise. The catalogue records no data about which team sizes or roles each tool suits, so the ranking is the same published-rating order as the unsegmented list. What the students framing changes is which of the figures below matter most. Students want the $0 column. Anything on this page with a published free plan or an open-source licence is usable without a purchase decision at all.
How much does web development software cost?: Across the 20 web development tools listed here, paid plans start between $7 and $2,000 a month, with a median entry price of $19. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $5,000 a month (MySQL). 16 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.
What is the cheapest web development software?: 11 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, npm has the lowest published entry price at $7 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
Is there free web development software?: Yes, 16 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 11 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
How is web development software usually billed?: open-source (7), freemium (5), free (3), quote (1), counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not.
What does web development software actually cover?: The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are backend (4), development (4), javascript (4), infrastructure (2), open source (2). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under web development may overlap on very little.
How many pricing tiers do web development tools offer?: 9 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 2 tiers. 3 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
How many web development tools are listed on Softwr?: 20 approved web development listings appear on this page, including .NET, Apache HTTP Server, Astro, Bolt.new. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/web-development, which ranks the same set by published rating.

Keep reading

Neighbouring categories

Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.

How this ranking is derived

The sort key

Where the ratings come from

What the pool is

The ranking

.NET

Apache HTTP Server

Astro

Bolt.new

Carrd

Django

Express.js

FastAPI

Flask

Laravel

MySQL

NestJS

Next.js

Nginx

Node.js

npm

Nuxt

PHP

React

Ruby on Rails