Learning web development is hard for beginners who can easily become lost in the sheer amount of available information. Different technologies, languages, and terminology can confuse newbies and make them lose the sense of what’s essential and what’s suited for higher expertise levels. Opting for the best books on web development as your comprehensive guides is a way to start your journey into the field. Moreover, professionals can also draw some in-depth insights, practical solutions, and useful methodologies from the more advanced specialized literature to polish their skills.
In this article, we’ll present you with a list of impactful web development books that assist both beginners and seasoned developers to gain more understanding of fundamental and cutting-edge technologies.
Best books for web development in 2024
Look through our chart of best books to learn web development. Here you can find some basic information about the exemplars.
| Name | Author | Year and Edition | Level | Price on Amazon | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites | John Duckett | 2011,1st | Beginner | Hardcover – starts at $20.70;Paperback – starts at $13.31 | Amazon: 4.7;Goodreads: 4.3 |
| Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship | Robert C. Martin | 2008, 1st | Beginner and intermediate | Kindle Edition – starts at $29.99;Paperback – starts at $34.99 | Amazon: 4.7;Goodreads: 4.3 |
| Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript: With jQuery, CSS & HTML5 | Robin Nixon | 2021, 6th | Beginner and intermediate | Kindle Edition – starts at $14.75;Paperback – starts at $20.81 | Amazon: 4.6 |
| You Don't Know JS Yet: Get Started | Kyle Simpson | 2020, 2nd | Beginner | Kindle Edition – starts at $18.95;Paperback – starts at $25.20 | Amazon: 4.6;Goodreads: 4.3 |
| JavaScript: The Definitive Guide: Master the World’s Most-Used Programming Language | David Flanagan | 2020, 7th | Beginner and intermediate | Kindle Edition – starts at $17.60;Paperback – starts at $39.92 | Amazon: 4.7;Goodreads: 4.1 |
| The Full Stack Developer: Your Essential Guide to the Everyday Skills Expected of a Modern Full Stack Web Developer | Chris Northwood | 2018, 1st | Beginner and intermediate | Kindle Edition – starts at $13.50;Paperback – starts at $32.23 | Amazon: 4.2;Goodreads: 3.8 |
| The Joy of PHP: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Interactive Web Applications with PHP and MySQL | Alan Forbes | 2020, 6th | Beginner | Kindle Edition – free with Unlimited;Paperback – starts at $9.68 | Amazon: 4.0; |
| Python Programming: An Introduction To Computer Science | John Zelle | 2016, 3rd | Beginner | Paperback – starts at $27.89 | Amazon: 4.6; |
| Full Stack Web Development For Beginners: Learn Ecommerce Web Development Using HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, JavaScript, MySQL, and PHP | Riaz Ahmed | 2021 | Beginner | Paperback – starts at $34.99 | Amazon: 4.5;Goodreads: 4.0 |
| Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming | Eric Matthes | 2023, 3rd | Beginner | Kindle Edition – starts at $26.99;Paperback – starts at $31.75;Spiral-bound – $40.99 | Amazon: 4.8;Goodreads: 4.3 |
| Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics | Jennifer Robbins | 2018, 5th | Beginner | Kindle Edition – starts at $13.20;Paperback – starts at $31.43 | Amazon: 4.6;Goodreads: 4.0 |
| Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability | Steve Krug | 2013, 3rd | Beginner | Kindle Edition – starts at $19.79;Paperback – starts at $29.98 | Amazon: 4.6;Goodreads: 4.0 |
| Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS | Ben Frain | 2022. 4th | Beginner and intermediate | Kindle Edition – starts at $22.39;Paperback – starts at $34.08 | Amazon: 4.6 |
| CSS Secrets: Better Solutions to Everyday Web Design Problems | Lea Verou | 2015, 1st edition | Intermediate and advanced | Kindle Edition – starts at $10.09;Paperback – starts at $9.98 | Amazon: 4.6;Goodreads: 4.5 |
| The Art of Micro Frontends: Build websites using compositional UIs that grow naturally as your application scales | Florian Rappl | 2021 | Intermediate and advanced | Kindle Edition – starts at $18.49;Paperback – starts at $39.00 | Amazon: 4.3;Goodreads: 4.0 |
| ASP.NET Core and Vue.js: Build real-world, scalable, full-stack applications using Vue.js 3, TypeScript, .NET 5, and Azure | Devlin Basilan Duldulao | 2021. 1st | Advanced | Kindle Edition – starts at $29.99;Paperback – starts at $44.99 | Amazon: 4.2;Goodreads: 4.0 |
| Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja | John Resig, Bear Bibeault, Josip Maras | 2016, 2nd | Intermediate and advanced | eTextbook– $34.99;Paperback – starts at $24.67 | Amazon: 4.5;Goodreads: 4.2 |
| Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems | Sam Newman | 2021, 2nd | Intermediate and advanced | Kindle Edition – starts at $30.65;Paperback – starts at $50 | Amazon: 4.7;Goodreads: 4.2 |
| Distributed Systems with Node.js: Building Enterprise-Ready Backend Services | Thomas Hunter II | 2020. 1st | Advanced | Kindle Edition – starts at $30.87;Paperback – starts at $24.25 | Amazon: 4.5;Goodreads: 3.9 |
| Fluent Python: Clear, Concise, and Effective Programming | Luciano Ramalho | 2022, 2nd | Intermediate and advanced | Kindle Edition – starts at $17.60;Paperback – starts at $35.91 | Amazon: 4.8;Goodreads: 4.6 |
| Java: The Complete Reference, Twelfth Edition | Herbert Schildt | 2021, 12th | Intermediate and advanced | Kindle Edition – starts at $39.99;Paperback – starts at $43.29 | Amazon: 4.6;Goodreads: 4.0 |
21 best web development books
Explore our list of the top books on web development to find the one that will help you either to start the journey in this career path or deepen your knowledge and skills. To make things easier for you, we’ve divided the list into a few categories:
- books for beginners that offer the top of entry-level handbooks and guides with front-end, back-end, or general programming focus;
- useful literature for novice web designers;
- advanced books for experienced front-end devs;
- professional literature for seasoned back-end developers.
Web development books for beginners
It’s especially hard for beginners to find a guide that will effortlessly introduce them to the professional sphere in general or more specified topics in it. The crucial characteristics of a perfect beginner web development book are comprehensibility, availability of visual aids, and correspondence with the stated level. Here we’ve gathered the best publications that fit all these qualities and are highly appreciated by readers.
HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites
HTML and CSS: Design and Build Websites is one of John Duckett’s best-seller books that is perfectly suited for complete programming beginners and even non-tech professions like online content editors or ecommerce marketers. In general, the main benefit of this top-notch web development book is that, regardless of your background, you can read and comprehend its topics without any previous experience. Even though the book was published over a decade ago, it’s still relevant as a fulfilling introduction to the fundamentals of HTML5 and CSS3. The author explains them in a way that is easy for everyone to understand and makes use of information graphics and representative examples to deliver the subjects in an approachable and straightforward manner.
Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship
Many developers regard this book as a timeless resource that helps both beginners and those who are past this stage in honing their coding skills. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship isn’t particularly tied to web development. Insteasd, it provides best practices focused on the quality of code produced by devs in general. This best book for web development is divided into 3 parts. The first outlines the guidelines, conventions, and methods for creating clean code. Several increasingly difficult case studies make up the second section. Every case study is an exercise in code cleanup aimed at practicing the transformation of a faulty code base into an effective one. The payoff is found in the third section, which is a single chapter with a list of heuristics and code smells discovered during the case study creation process.
Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript: With jQuery, CSS & HTML5
The fourth edition of the wildly successful web development book Learning PHP, MySQL & JavaScript: With jQuery, CSS & HTML5 is aimed at providing readers with a comprehensive guide to full-stack development approach. It covers both front-end (JavaScript, CSS, HTML5) and back-end (PHP, MySQL) technologies to create a holistic information presentation for readers. Whether you are a novice in the field or a practicing dev seeking to expand your expertise, anyone who wants to study the foundations of Web 2.0 technology will gain a solid foundation in all of the essential technologies.
You Don't Know JS Yet: Get Started
The second edition of the You Don't Know JS series is listed as the best-selling books for web developers globally. The first volume in the new edition series, Get Started, is the ideal place to begin your quest for mastering JavaScript. It provides an overview of the language, providing a plan for your learning as well as relevant practices and examples. This book gives beginners a foundational understanding of JS and a thorough preparation for higher-level concepts. The author, Kyle Simpson, also has another JS-focused publication as a part of the series that covers more advanced topics.
JavaScript: The Definitive Guide
Another web development best book directed at JavaScript is JavaScript: The Definitive Guide which can assist both beginners and intermediate-level users of the language. The author, David Flanagan, expands on the matter of JavaScript language and its APIs used for server-side (Node.js) and client-side (web browser) development. The main goal of this book is to provide definitive documentation of the JavaScript language as well as practical scenarios in examples to ensure that readers understand the application principles of the provided best practices.
The Full Stack Developer: Your Essential Guide to the Everyday Skills Expected of a Modern Full Stack Web Developer
The Full Stack Developer provides a fundamental understanding of the diverse range of talents required in a contemporary software development team and acknowledges abilities beyond the technical. This best web development book covers the principles and base knowledge of contemporary web development. From a developer's perspective, you will also gain knowledge of the fundamentals of subjects like UX, project management, QA, and product management, necessary to support a developer new to agile or full-stack working.
The Joy of PHP: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Interactive Web Applications with PHP and MySQL
This is the best book to learn web development on a server-side with the use of PHP programming. To help even the most inexperienced learner, the author of The Joy of PHP begins with some basic HTML before walking through PHP step-by-step. Beginning with the basics, readers build on their knowledge through a sequence of well-designed, enjoyable exercises integrated into each new session. It is not the goal of this book to cover every aspect of PHP. It does, however, aim at transforming learners from novices who don't even know what PHP is to experts who understand the benefits of building dynamic websites.
Python Programming: An Introduction To Computer Science
This book is intended to serve as the main web development textbook for a first-year college-level computing course. It adopts a more conventional methodology, underlining design, programming, and problem-solving as the fundamentals of computer science. In this book, Python is used to demonstrate fundamental design and programming concepts applicable to any language or computing environment. Overall, Python Programming can serve as an excellent introduction not just to the language in question but to development in general.
Full Stack Web Development For Beginners: Learn Ecommerce Web Development Using HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, JavaScript, MySQL, and PHP
Those who wish to learn how to construct full-stack web applications yet are complete newbies should read this best web development book. You need to know the fundamentals of HTML5, CSS3, Bootstrap, JavaScript, MySQL, and PHP to create moderately complex data-driven online applications and become a successful full-stack web developer. This guide grants you a comprehensible explanation of full-stack development. The author overviews all of the aforementioned technologies in detail since there is a lot to learn about each of them.
Python Crash Course: A Hands-On, Project-Based Introduction to Programming
Yet another Python-focus best book for learning web development is Python Crash Course, Second Edition. Its main purpose is to teach beginners about back-end programming, game development, and producing data visualizations. Readers start with fundamental ideas like variables, lists, classes, and loops before moving on to creating interactive programs and best practices for code testing. The author also included in the book the aid of enjoyable skill-building activities for each topic as well as representative examples in the form of existing projects that show the application of theoretical aspects in practice.
Website design books for beginners
Web design is an integral part of the development process which is a requirement to master. Here, you can find some most frequently recommended web design books that introduce the topic on a beginner level.
Learning Web Design: A Beginner's Guide to HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Web Graphics
Learning Web Design is one of the best website design books for beginners that helps to discover how to utilize the newest methods, industry best practices, and current online standards, such as CSS3 and HTML5. Every chapter includes activities to help readers pick up new skills and quick tests to make sure you grasp the main ideas. Whether you're a novice or brushing up on current skills, students and professionals of all backgrounds and skill levels will find this extensively revised edition useful.
Don't Make Me Think, Revisited: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Steve Krug's book Don't Make Me Think is a great guide for anyone who works on developing digital products to grasp the basics of usability. The revised edition provides updated and helpful guidelines for web and mobile usability, which were originally designed to aid web designers in understanding the fundamentals of information design and easy navigation. Many designers and developers love this book because it is brief and memorable, and it includes numerous examples of well- and poorly-designed real-world projects. Making self-explanatory designs that don’t require any unnecessary mental work is the main concept behind all of the guidelines covered in this top web design book.
Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS
One of the most thorough and best-selling web design books on the newest HTML5 and CSS tools and methods for responsive web design, one of the leading web development trends, has been released last year. Responsive Web Design with HTML5 and CSS, Forth Edition, which is written in an approachable tone, covers all the most recent advancements and enhancements in responsive web design, such as increased user accessibility, changeable fonts and font loading, CSS Scroll Snap, and more. The goal is to let beginners and designers with some experience know about the basics and advancements of responsive web design and how to put each strategy into practice.
Best front-end development books for professionals
Discover the best books for front-end development that can aid you as a professional in upgrading your skills and knowledge.
CSS Secrets: Better Solutions to Everyday Web Design Problems
In this top-notch front-end development book, the author offers 47 undocumented strategies and tips to assist intermediate-to-advanced CSS developers in coming up with engaging solutions to a variety of common web design issues. Instead of emphasizing design, CSS Secrets teaches how to use code to solve issues. With this practical guide, readers can learn how to tackle almost any CSS challenge with an analytical method to produce standards-compliant, adaptable, and maintainable code.
The Art of Micro Frontends: Build websites using compositional UIs that grow naturally as your application scales
This simple-to-follow web development guide will walk you through the many patterns available for developing a micro frontend solution, complete with projects, practical demonstrations, and self-assessment questions. The book begins with the most basic micro frontend architectures and moves to fully dynamic solutions that provide maximum scalability with faster release cycles, than static approaches. After reading The Art of Micro Frontends, you will be able to determine how to implement micro frontends to ensure scalability for your user interface (UI).
ASP.NET Core and Vue.js: Build real-world, scalable, full-stack applications using Vue.js 3, TypeScript, .NET 5, and Azure
ASP.NET Core 5 and Vue.js is one of the best books to learn web development comprehensively on more advanced levels. The book is meant for working .NET developers who are short on time and prefer to quickly create a clean architecture using well-known libraries; the subjects covered are not in-depth. By the time you finish reading this book, you will know how to create a business-grade full-stack online application, leverage popular npm packages for Vue.js and NuGet packages for ASP.NET Core, and use GitHub Actions to deploy ASP.NET Core and Vue.js to Azure App Service.
Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja
Secrets of the JavaScript Ninja, Second Edition is a among the top web development books for practicing devs. It is full of practical examples to clearly demonstrate each essential idea and method. Learn how to grasp important JavaScript ideas like functions, closures, objects, prototypes, and promises with this fully updated edition. It covers APIs like timers, events, and the DOM. You'll learn best practices from the viewpoint of knowledgeable JavaScript practitioners, including testing and cross-browser programming.
Advanced back-end web developer books
Experienced back-end developers can also make use of professional literature to enrich their knowledge and skills. Here, you can find some of the most appreciated web development textbooks and guides on the topic.
Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems
This updated second edition of Buiding Microservices approaches the subjects you should think about from a broad perspective when developing, overseeing, and growing microservices architectures. The author, Sam Newman, provides a solid foundation in the principles for everyone, from developers and architects to testers and IT operators, with concise examples and useful guidance. This back-end development book explores the most recent methods for creating, integrating, testing, and launching self-governing services. The included case studies demonstrate how businesses use these designs to their fullest potential today.
Distributed Systems with Node.js: Building Enterprise-Ready Backend Services
With the support of the biggest package repository globally, Node's enterprise presence is anticipated to continue expanding. This fact naturally grows the interest in this technology and the emergence of professional literature like Distributed Systems with Node.js. The author, Author Thomas Hunter II, demonstrates in this practical guide to web development that Node.js can create observable, scalable, and robust services with the same ease as more conventional corporate platforms. It will be the task of intermediate to advanced Node.js developers to integrate application code with a variety of tools from every tier of a contemporary service stack.
Fluent Python: Clear, Concise, and Effective Programming
This top back-end web development book will teach Python programmers what they need to know to become fluent in Python 3. By utilizing its finest concepts, the revised version of this practical manual aims to teach readers how to develop efficient, contemporary Python 3 code. Python's fundamental features and libraries are also covered in detail by the author of Fluent Python, Luciano Ramalho. This practical tutorial will teach you how to take advantage of Python's greatest features to develop efficient, idiomatic code.
Java: The Complete Reference, Twelfth Edition
Java: The Complete Reference, Twelfth Edition, has been fully updated for Java SE 17. It provides instructions on how to create, compile, debug, and execute Java programs. Herb Schildt, a best-selling author, covers all aspects of the Java language, including syntax, keywords, and basic programming concepts in this one of the best web developer books. Important components of the Java API library, including I/O, the Collections Framework, the stream library, and the concurrency utilities, are also covered.
Conclusion
We hope that this selection of the best books for web development learning will improve your expertise and general understanding. Whether you're an experienced developer or a novice, each option seeks to close a certain gap. Please, feel free to recommend your top books in the comments that you believe are worth more attention and that can have an influence on someone’s career. You can also find more valuable information on our web development blog.
