Top 10 Programming Languages to Build REST APIs in 2024 (2024)

In today's digital landscape, REST APIs enable communication between various software applications and services. As businesses strive to create seamless and interconnected digital experiences, the demand for robust and efficient REST APIs grows. In 2024, developers have many programming languages to choose from when building REST APIs. Each language offers unique strengths and benefits, catering to project requirements and developer preferences.

Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting your coding journey, understanding the strengths and capabilities of each programming language can help you make informed decisions when embarking on API development projects. In this guide, we'll explore the top 10 programming languages that dominate REST API development in 2024. We will highlight their key features, use cases, and advantages. By the end of this overview, you'll have a clearer understanding of which language best aligns with your project requirements and development goals.

10 Best Programming Languages for REST API Development

REST APIs play a crucial role in modern web development by adhering to the REST architectural style, emphasizing scalability and statelessness. Further, the ability to handle requests independently facilitates a more intuitive and efficient interaction between client-side and server-side systems. The importance of REST APIs can't be overstated, as they are integral to building scalable, high-performing web applications that can support a wide range of client devices, including browsers, mobile apps, and other web-based applications.

1. Python

Python is a high-level, general-purpose programming language known for its simple syntax. It is known for its readability, simplicity, and maintainability. The clean syntax allows API developers to focus on core logic rather than juggling complex language constructs.

• REST API Development Suitability: Python's versatility and simplicity make it an excellent choice for REST API development. With frameworks like Flask and Django, Python provides robust tools for building RESTful APIs quickly and efficiently. Its rich ecosystem of libraries and packages simplifies tasks such as data serialization, validation, and authentication, streamlining the development process.Beyond this, Python excels in horizontal scaling, meaning you can easily add more servers to distribute the workload of your API as it grows. Also, Python's readability and ease of learning contribute to faster development cycles and maintenance of REST APIs, making it a preferred language for developers worldwide.
• Popularity & Community: Python enjoys immense popularity in the industry due to its application in varied areas, such as web development, data science, artificial intelligence, and more. It offers a vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks designed explicitly for REST API development.Beyond the pre-built components for specific tasks, there is a large online community with plenty of other resources, such as educational tutorials and forums dedicated to building REST APIs using Python. Thus, finding quick solutions and learning about the best practices are convenient.
• Use Cases: One of the reasons that Python is an ideal programming language for building REST APIs is its versatility. One of the widespread use cases is building web services that provide data or functionalities to other applications.Due to Python's modular nature, it is apt for building microservices that work together to form a more extensive application. Besides this, Python is ideal for building Data APIs that expose and manage data, allowing other applications to interact with databases.

Why Use Python to Build REST APIs?

• Readability: Clean and concise syntax for easy readability, maintenance, and understanding.
• Performance: Good performance with optimization options for specific needs.
• Scalability: Ideal for horizontal scaling to accommodate increasing traffic to distribute workload.
• Extensive Ecosystem: A vast ecosystem of Libraries, frameworks, and pre-built components.
• Strong Community: Abundant resources online and strong community support for easy workability.

2. JavaScript (with Node.js)

With the rise of Node.js, JavaScript has become a powerful backend language. With clean syntax, JavaScript is relatively easy to learn. The codebase familiarity can drastically reduce development period and context switching for full-stack developers who can use the same language on both the front and back end.

• REST API Development Suitability: Node.js, the JavaScript runtime environment, handles a high volume of concurrent requests efficiently. This gives it an edge over other programming languages. Node.js can handle multiple connections simultaneously without creating new threads for each request.This is due to its non-blocking, event-driven architecture, which makes it ideal for real-time application and REST API development with high traffic volume. Just like Python, Node.js applications excel in horizontal scaling. Popular Node.js frameworks like Express.js are designed to streamline this process.
• Popularity & Community: JavaScript has been the most commonly-used programming language in 2023, eleven years in a row (Stackoverflow). Popular frameworks like Express.js and Hapi.js are available, providing a robust foundation for REST API development. Thus, Node.js has a thriving ecosystem of open-source libraries and frameworks for building REST APIs. These offer routing, middleware, data serialization functionalities, and more, reducing development time and effort. Besides this, there is a large online community with extensive online resources, tutorials, and forums catering to building REST APIs with Node.js.
• Use Cases: The popularity of Node.js for building REST APIs can be estimated from the fact that Netflix deploys it due to its high performance and scalability. Beyond this, JavaScript's lightweight nature and Node.js's event-driven architecture make them ideal for microservices, real-time and single-page applications.

Why Use JavaScript to Build REST APIs?

• Shared Language: Front-end and Back-end developers can use the same language, improving REST API development time and speed.
• Performance: Node.js is known for excellent performance in handling high volumes of concurrent traffic.
• Scalability: Node.js is ideal for applications that scale horizontally to accommodate increasing traffic.
• Rich Ecosystem: There are dedicated frameworks and extensive libraries that make REST API development easy.
• Large Community: A large, active online community to provides extensive support and resources.

3. Java

Known for its “write once, run anywhere” (WORA) policy, Java is a statically typed, compiled language. Since 1995, Java has been known for its robust and versatile capabilities in building REST APIs, backed by its platform independence and extensive library ecosystem.

• REST API Development Suitability: Java's suitability for REST API development is based on its powerful frameworks, such as Spring Boot. It provides a comprehensive platform for developing scalable web applications, including RESTful services with minimal configuration.Beyond this, Java enables enterprise-grade features and stability to handle high traffic and mission-critical business logic. Apart from this, Java boasts an extensive ecosystem of third-party libraries, adding almost any functionality imaginable. Java also features static typing to help prevent runtime errors.
• Popularity & Community: Java enjoys one of the largest and most active online communities for developers. This means developers have access to a wealth of knowledge, tools, and libraries, supporting them in every step of the REST API development.This benefits any developer significantly by enabling them to get started quickly by leveraging proven solutions. Finding skilled Java developers is also easier than finding other new languages.
• Use Cases: Java's string focus on scalability, security, and robust frameworks make it an ideal choice for building enterprise-level APIs. Thus, Java is apt for handling high traffic while integrating with complex backend systems and critical business operations.Popular online streaming platform Netflix uses Java, which serves billions of requests daily across its global streaming services. Due to Java's modularity and versatility, it is also apt for building microservices. Apart from this, projects with existing Java codebases can seamlessly integrate new API layers.

Why Use Java to Build REST APIs?

• Exceptional Performance: Java is known for its exceptional performance, which is better than Python and more balanced than Node.js.
• Scalability: Java offers excellent horizontal scalability to distribute the workload of your API as it grows.
• Enterprise-Grade Feature: Java offers a rich set of dedicated features to build large-scale enterprise applications.
• Mature Ecosystem: Java features a vast and mature ecosystem of libraries and frameworks for building REST APIs.
• Large Online Community: Finding solutions, staying up-to-date with the latest trends, and following best practices are easy with a strong online community.

4. C#

C# is an object-oriented programming language developed by Microsoft as part of its .NET framework. It combines the power and flexibility of C++ and the simplicity of Visual Basics. Its strength lies in its rich ecosystem of libraries and robust development environment.

• REST API Development Suitability: C# leverages ASP.NET Core Web API, offering a comprehensive set of functionalities for routing, serialization, data access, and more that streamlines the REST API development process. Besides the vast library collection, C# integrates seamlessly with .NET tools and technologies.C# static typing helps prevent runtime errors by catching mismatches during compilation. Further, C# uses Just-in-Time (JIT) compilation, which translates code into machine code at runtime. This has a significant advantage over the interpreted languages as it enables computationally intensive tasks within API.
• Popularity & Community: C# boasts a large active community, especially among developers who make enterprise-level APIs and Windows-based applications. This is due to Microsoft's strong backing and integration into the .NET ecosystem.Apart from this, C# has been around for a while now. This results in many online resources, tutorials, and forums dedicated to language and API development.
• Use Cases: C# is an ideal choice for building enterprise-level APIs that need to handle high traffic and support complex business logic. It is also apt for projects that require integration with existing .NET codebase.It is no surprise that Microsoft uses C# within its services. For instance, the Azure cloud platform offers REST APIs developed in C# for various cloud services.

Why Use C# to Build REST APIs?

• Strong Performance: C# rivals other Programming languages and outperforms many due to the combination of static typing & JIT.
• Type Safety and Maintainability: Static typing prevents runtime errors and improves code maintainability, especially for large API projects.
• Integration with ASP.NET: C# offers seamless integration with ASP.NET, a robust web development framework from Microsoft.
• Rich Ecosystem: C# benefits from a large ecosystem of open-source and commercial libraries, adding functionalities for specific tasks.
• Large Active Community: An extensive online community makes it easier for developers to surpass common hurdles and follow best practices.

5. Go

Golang, commonly known as Go, is a statically typed, compiled language developed by Google. It was created to meet the needs of modern software development, emphasizing simplicity, high performance, and efficient concurrency management. Its strength lies in fast execution and ease of deployment.

• REST API Development Suitability: Go is apt for building high-performing REST APIs due to its built-in support for concurrent execution and lightweight nature. Go offers fine-grained control over memory allocation and deallocation through its garbage collector. It allows for handling high volumes with minimal latency.The built-in tools for parallelism further enhance this; features like goroutine and channels break down tasks into smaller units executed in parallel. By leveraging concurrency, developers can ensure their APIs perform well as their user base expands. Other features like static typing, developer-focused experience, and readability make it a suitable language for REST API development.
• Popularity & Community: Although Go is relatively young compared to other mature languages, its community is rapidly growing. It has gained popularity for backend development, including REST APIs supported by an enthusiastic community that values its efficiency and simplicity.Its adoption is strong in areas that require exceptional performance; thus, joining a community that understands the specific challenge will enable building a high-performing REST API.
• Use Cases: Go is perfect for building REST APIs when you expect high traffic with a large user base that needs to process a significant amount of data. Go's ability to handle high concurrency and low latency makes it ideal for building real-time applications that require fast and responsive communication.Further, its speed, simplicity, and concurrency combine to make it ideal for building microservices. Companies like Twitch and Uber use Go extensively for their backend services, including REST APIs.

Why Use GO to Build REST APIs?

• Exceptional Performance: Go offers strong performance, fast response times, and efficient handling of requests for your APIs.
• Simplicity and Readability: Go is known for simplicity, prioritizing clean and concise syntax with a strong focus on readability.
• Built-in Concurrency: Go handles concurrent requests efficiently, making it ideal for building highly scalable and responsive APIs.
• Standard Library: Go provides a rich standard library that offers many functionalities needed for building REST APIs out of the box.
• Growing Ecosystem: Go has a rapidly growing ecosystem of libraries and frameworks for building REST APIs.

6. PHP

PHP has been a popular choice for web development since its creation in 1995. It is known for its ease of use and integration with HTML. PHP powers a significant portion of the internet, including content management systems like WordPress.

• REST API Development Suitability: The wide adoption of PHP, boasting a vast, mature ecosystem of libraries and frameworks, makes it suitable for building REST APIs for simple and complex projects. Frameworks such as Laravel and Symfony offer extensive routing, security, and data handling features.PHP facilitates the rapid development of scalable web services. The PHP Package Manager offers a vast collection of third-party libraries and frameworks, further enriching the feature set. Finally, PHP integrates well with various technologies commonly used in backend development.
• Popularity & Community: PHP enjoys widespread use and a vast, active community. Finding skilled PHP developers is more accessible than most languages. There are extensive resources, tutorials, and established best practices to make it easy for developers to work with the language, leveraging proven solutions to bypass hurdles easily. This is an excellent advantage for building and maintaining APIs, especially for a large project.
• Use Cases: Using PHP's versatility, developers can build basic APIs with minimal overhead, making it suitable for smaller projects. When leveraging frameworks like Laravel, PHP can also handle complex API development. This is evident from the fact that WordPress, the world's most popular CMS, utilizes PHP extensively and offers REST API support for interacting with its platform.

Why Use PHP to Build REST APIs?

• Ease of Use & Learning: PHP is beginner-friendly with a relatively easy-to-learn syntax, potentially accelerating development.
• Cost-effectiveness: It is ideal for projects with a small budget due to a large pool of developers and plenty of open-source frameworks.
• Rich Ecosystem: One of the most significant advantages of PHP is an array of open-source frameworks for building REST APIs.
• Large Community: A massive online community makes it easier for developers to find solutions and learn from different sources.
• Adequate Performance: PHP can perform well for many APIs, especially with frameworks like Lumen.

7. Ruby

Released in 1995, Ruby is a dynamic, interpreted language known for its elegant syntax focusing on developer happiness. Its strength lies in the simplicity and readability of the code. It has been lauded for making programming more enjoyable.

• REST API Development Suitability: Ruby, with its focus on clean syntax and vast ecosystem of ready-made libraries and frameworks like Ruby on Rails (Rails), makes it extremely easy to do rapid prototyping and iterative development.Everyday development tasks already have pre-defined solutions, such as reducing boilerplate code and allowing developers to focus on the unique logic of their APIs. Further, features like metaprogramming and dynamic typing can make writing code concise and expressive. This is taken to another level with the wide range of third-party gems.
• Popularity & Community: Ruby has been around for a long time and thus enjoys strong, large, and active community support for developers to find resources, follow best practices,, and find solutions to hurdles easily. Building REST APIs is a natural extension of Ruby, with a strong focus on web development. Developers will find a wealth of resources and experience around API design to aid all projects.
• Use Cases: Ruby is excellent for validating ideas and getting early user feedback, as it excels in getting basic functionalities up and running quickly. It is ideal for smaller or less complex APIs with the rapid development speed and functionalities offered by Ruby and Rails. Basecamp, a project management tool developed by the creators of Ruby on Rails, is an excellent example of its capabilities.

Why Use Ruby to Build REST APIs?

• Readability & Maintainability: Ruby has a clean, concise syntax that prioritizes readability, ensuring the maintainability of complex APIs.
• Productive Ecosystem with Rails: The Ruby on Rails framework (Rails) offers a robust and comprehensive foundation for building REST APIs.
• Flexibility & Customization: Even though Rails offers a structured approach, Ruby is a flexible language that can fit specific project needs.
• Testing & Debugging: Ruby offers a rich set of testing tools and libraries to ensure code quality and reduce the risk of bugs in production.
• Large Community: A large, active community makes it easier for developers to work with the language, gain knowledge, and find solutions.

8. Swift

Swift is a compiled programming language developed by Apple for iOS, macOS, watchOS, and tvOS app development. Swift is the successor of Objective-C. It was introduced in 2014 as a safer, faster, and more expressive language than its predecessor. It offers modern language features, such as optional and generics.

• REST API Development Suitability: It offers a familiar development environment and potential for code reuse. Thus, it will drastically improve development efficiency for teams already invested in Swift. With frameworks like Vapor, Swift's use in building REST APIs for applications within the Apple ecosystem is growing. Vapor offers robust tools for server-side Swift applications like elegant syntax, asynchronous processing, and strong type safety.
• Popularity & Community: Swift is already known among iOS developers, but its popularity is rising among those exploring its server-side capabilities. Swift features a wealth of resources and support that is ever-growing to help developers leverage its benefits in new areas.
• Use Cases: Swift is ideal for Projects involving iOS apps and backend services. This means building server-side functionalities specifically to support iOS apps.Companies deeply integrated into the iOS ecosystem, such as Airbnb and LinkedIn, use Swift extensively for their apps and are beginning to explore its potential for server-side applications, including REST APIs.

Why Use Swift to Build REST APIs?

• Native Integration with Apple Technologies: Swift integrates seamlessly with Apple's server-side frameworks like Vapor and Kitura.
• Type Safety and Security: Swift is a type-safe language, enforcing stricter code structure and helping prevent runtime errors.
• Modern Language Features: Swift is a modern language that benefits from features like closures, generics, and optional.
• Shared Codebase with iOS: Swift offers to share some code for projects involving iOS applications and backend APIs.
• Excellent performance: Swift is known for its excellent performance due to its modern design and efficient memory management.

9. Kotlin

Kotlin is a modern language developed by JetBrains in 2011 and was officially supported by Google for Android development in 2017. It is a statically typed language that runs on the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). It can also be compiled into JavaScript or native code as it is designed to be fully interoperable with Java.

• REST API Development Suitability: One of the biggest strengths of Kotlin that makes it suitable for REST API development is its interoperability with Java. It allows developers to leverage the vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks, including those for building REST APIs, such as Spring Boot and Ktor.Modern APIs need to handle numerous concurrent requests. Kotlin excels in this area with its lightweight coroutines. These tools and Kotlin's language features enable developers to build scalable Rest APIs.
• Popularity & Community: Kotlin enjoys immense popularity, especially among Android developers, due to its efficiency and developer-friendly features. It has a rich and growing ecosystem of libraries and frameworks designed explicitly for Kotlin development. It is still under active development, meaning Kotlin constantly improves based on community feedback.
• Use Cases: Kotlin is ideal for building microservices that communicate seamlessly through REST APIs due to its interoperability with Java, concurrency, and integration with Spring.It is also apt for projects with existing Java code to build modern APIs without rewriting everything. Many Android apps like Trello and Coursera benefit from seamless integration with existing Java-based APIs.

Why Use Kotlin to Build REST APIs?

• Effortless Java Integration: Kotlin leverages existing Java libraries and frameworks, reducing boilerplate code with concise syntax.
• Modern & Scalable: Kotlin excels at handling concurrent requests efficiently, making it ideal for real-time API expecting high traffic.
• Developer-Friendly: Kotlin boats clean syntax and features null safety by design, leading to more robust and reliable APIs.
• Built for Concurrency: It handles concurrent requests efficiently with lightweight coroutines, providing a structured approach.
• Strong Ecosystem: Kotlin benefits from Spring Bot integration and a rapidly growing community for support and resources.

10. Rust

Built by Mozilla and released in 2010, Rust is a systems programming language that offers syntax similar to C++. However, it emphasizes speed, memory safety, and parallelism to prevent memory errors.

• REST API Development Suitability: Rust is increasingly used to build high-performing REST APIs with frameworks like Actix Web and Rocket. Its strengths include zero-abstractions, guaranteed memory safety, and a rich type system for making performance-critical applications where safety and efficiency are paramount.These frameworks use Rust's performance and safety features to create fast and secure web services capable of handling high traffic volumes without the common pitfalls of memory leaks and concurrency issues.
• Popularity & Community: While not traditionally associated with web development, Rust has become popular in recent years due to its performance without compromise. Its growing developer community contributes to an ever-expanding ecosystem of libraries and frameworks to build REST APIs.The only hiccup is its steep learning curve and less-than-simple syntax, which can be challenging for newcomers, making it difficult to find skilled developers.
• Use Cases: Rust is an ideal choice for building REST APIs for projects with a large user base needing to process a significant amount of data. Due to Rust's performance and scalability, it is apt for building REST APIs for micro-services that focus on speed, safety, and concurrency.Rust's memory safety and performance make it a compelling choice for Fintech, handling financial transactions and sensitive data. Some famous examples of REST APIs utilizing Rust include Dropbox and Coursera.

Why Use Rust to Build REST APIs?

• Blazing Performance: Rust excels on raw speed, making it ideal for high-performance APIs requiring massive volumes.
• Excellent memory Safety: Rust enforces memory safety at compile time, preventing memory leaks and crashes.
• Modern Language: Rust is a relatively new language with a rapidly growing ecosystem of libraries and frameworks.
• Easy Concurrency: Rust has powerful concurrency features, like channels and ownership transfer, enabling highly scalable & responsive APIs.
• Future-proof: Rust is constantly evolving with a strong focus on performance, safety, and developer experience.

Conclusion

The landscape of programming languages for building REST APIs in 2024 offers a diverse array of options, each with its strengths and use cases. From established languages like JavaScript and Python to emerging ones like Go and Rust, developers have many choices to match their project requirements and preferences. While JavaScript continues to dominate the web development scene with its versatility and wide adoption, Python stands out for its simplicity and rich ecosystem, making it a preferred choice for many developers.

However, newer languages like Go and Rust are gaining attention for their performance and concurrency capabilities, promising exciting possibilities for the future of REST API development. Ultimately, the choice of programming language depends on factors such as project complexity, performance requirements, and developer expertise. There's no one-size-fits-all solution but a spectrum of options to explore and use for building innovative and scalable REST APIs.