The 9 most important web development trends for 2019

Web development is a rapidly evolving field. Innovation and out-of-the-box thinking constantly create new solutions that make life easier for both developers and users.

However, this constant evolving comes with a price. Namely, you have to pay attention to anything happening anywhere in the industry, all the time. And with a field as vast and rich as web development, paying attention to everything is humanly impossible.

Luckily, major developments tend to group themselves into trends. A groundbreaking solution results in many adopters and followers who customize the new development, creating various side-solutions and thus contributing to the trend.

If you want to keep up with what’s happening in web development, it’s definitely worth looking at major trends that define the industry for the foreseeable future. Namely, 2019.

1. Smarter chatbots

Chatbots will continue their victory march this year as well. It’s easy to see why businesses and users alike flock to the affordable and convenient customer service option that chatbots provide. However, 2019 will see the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) in the realm of chatbots as well.

When chatbots fail, they usually do so in an epic manner. The internet is a goldmine of memes of chatbot conversations gone horribly wrong.

But even without eye-rolling fails, customers can quickly grow tired of unresponsive and unhelpful chatbots. Luckily, with the help of AI, chatbots can become more intelligent and help customers with their advanced issues as well. Intelligent chatbots can protect companies from a lot of embarrassment while saving both time and money.

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2. Progressive web apps

Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) bring all the advantages of apps to the web. Full screen display (without the url-bar, side margins, etc.) and push notifications help create a native app-like experience for users.

Companies like Alibaba, Twitter, and Lancome go for the maximum convenience and seamless user experience PWAs provide. According to a recent study, using PWAs can contribute to an increase in conversions, download speed, and performance.

And just like a good app, PWAs can work offline as well, ensuring businesses can stay in touch with customers even without a web connection.

3. Motion UI

Motion User Interfaces can create small yet powerful animations and transitions that help catch a viewer’s attention, engage them with the site, and enhance their overall user experience. They can bring a website to life without clogging it with flashy, large, and mostly pointless animation.

Due to their size, Motion UI animations load quickly and don’t hinder users in getting to know the content. Animation created this way is highly customizable for any design or purpose and has a beneficial effect on conversion.

4. Single page sites

Single page websites continue to be hot in web development. No wonder: the simple design and easy navigation guide users to the information they need without getting sidetracked or lost in a maze of menu options. In addition, these sites load fast and easily.

For businesses, single page sites can save time and money with their low-key design and hosting needs. The simple look lends an elegant and timeless image to any business, while the ease of use increases conversion. As an additional bonus, single page websites work really well on mobile devices.

5. Static website generators

No, we didn’t post a 20-year-old article by mistake. Static websites, dinosaurs from the early days of the web, are making a comeback.

While dynamic websites are interactive and usually more pleasing to the eye, they also load slower, require a lot more work to create and maintain, and are easier to hack. And even in the era of interactivity and enhanced user experience, there are websites that serve the main purpose of displaying text.

What’s the point of going to all this trouble when the result is just a few paragraphs? On the other hand, who wants to start coding in HTML again?

Luckily, businesses can get the best of both worlds. Static site generators provide fast, easy, and low-cost options for creating safe and user-friendly websites that may even feature some dynamic content. Static sites are a viable option for businesses that need to combine a relatively high amount of text with a low need for interactivity.

6. API first

APIs are not new under the sun. In short, an application programming interface (API) allows two or more apps to communicate with each other. There are various ways an API can be essential for web development.

For example, APIs allow mass payments to be sent with just a click, or facilitate communication or even integration between two or more apps.

Until now, web developers tended to create APIs for a specific app, meaning that once the app was done, back-end developers got started on designing the API. That seems to be changing.

With the massive demand for interconnected devices and apps, the API first approach was born. Just like the name suggests, this means that developers create the API first, before the app itself.

Building a new app on top of the already designed API saves time and money for web developers.

Developers content


7. Push notifications

Push notifications help increase conversion and can be an effective retargeting and customer retention tool. Since the number of websites featuring push notification rises, so does the pressure on web developers to create and offer them to their clients.

As push notifications take their rightful place in the marketing mix, this trend will most likely continue well into 2019 and beyond.

8. Rising use of mobile

The number of smartphone users is projected to grow to 2.71 billion in 2019. This means that websites need to be mobile-optimized to allow people to view them on any device.

While this is not a new phenomenon, the rising use of mobile devices puts more pressure on businesses to optimize their sites. As mobile commerce (or mcommerce) is projected to increase to 44.7% of all US ecommerce in 2019, businesses that ignore mobile can lose a serious chunk of their revenue.

The use of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) is a great way to increase load speed on any website on mobile devices and diminish the number of users bored with waiting abandoning a site.

9. Voice-search

What’s easier than typing? Talking. No wonder users have taken to voice-search like ducks to water. 44% of American adults use Siri, Alexa, or another voice-search tool on a daily basis. By 2020, it’s projected that 50% of all searches will be voice-search.

This has serious implications for both web development and marketing. For example, SEO needs to be adjusted to accommodate voice-search, and the feature has to be enabled on millions of websites.


2019 will be an exciting year for web development. Many trends from previous years will continue to grow and interact with each other, morphing into new trends and defining the digital world.


Karen Cavanagh

I tried to rate this article a 5 but I inadvertently clicked the first star. I deserves a 5!!!! What fabulous advice to companies and their web developers. I loved looking at the new trends and how it might apply to my business and those of my clients.

Lili Török

Thank you for your comment! I’m very glad you found the article helpful. If there’s a topic you’d like to read more about, let me know.