I'm a fan of the following architecture: DB <==> Business Logic <==> API <==> JS Services Layer (common functionality + api handling) <==> JS display logic <==

I'm a fan of the following architecture: DB <==> Business Logic <==> API <==> JS Services Layer (common functionality + api handling) <==> JS display logic <==> html/css It forms a communication pipeline with very distinct layers, as opposed to a backend that mixes business logic with display logic instead of using an API. Many Frameworks implement this paradigm, and its fairly easy to roll by hand. Model View View-Model works will on the frontend- your JS code can consider anything coming from the API to be a model, the services layer can transform it into the View Model, and the display logic updates the view.