If backend development is the backbone of an application, Frontend development is the face of the application. Few years earlier, websites and mobile apps were made of simple static text site with limited interactive features with other websites and apps, whatever innovation was used to done by minimal animation that hovered on the screen. This was the age of HTML and CSS.
But today, the evolution of JavaScript Frameworks has changed the scenario. Today’s mobile and web applications play videos, chat with users, fill out forms, interact with other apps, and do almost everything that makes it best for users to remain consistent in performance.
JavaScript is undisputedly the most renowned language used by developers that gives a high prestige among other frontend development tools.
Why JavaScript?
Used by Every Platform
JavaScript framework is used across a wide range of different platforms such as React, Angular, Node, Vue, and on Browser, Mobile, IoT, Desktop Apps and a lot more.
Best Foundational Language
Learning Java language means learning every language. It is the foundation of all other languages that is used today in modern development. So, once you learn JavaScript, you don’t have to put extra effort on learning other languages.
Manage Complexity
JavaScript is helpful in building complex websites like PayPal, Netflix, and LinkedIn.
Faster Deployment
JavaScript comes with the option of a feedback loop. As this is built on browser, it allows developers to run the code and get instant results making deployment faster.
For its ranging features, JavaScript has created its unique place in the web and app development. Developers can use JS in various different situations and different platforms without any hassle.
There are over 50 JS frameworks available in the market, which makes difficult to come to a conclusion as to which JS framework is best for frontend.
But with the advent of popularity and usage of trending JS frameworks, here we have come out which JS framework is best for frontend development in 2021.
Most Popular JS Frameworks for Front end Development
1. React.js
React.js is an open source front end JS library created by Facebook in 2011 and became open source in 2013. React has come out as the one of the biggest influential frameworks in the web development domain that is delivering a breakthrough transforming web applications with advanced features.
React comes with a component-based, fully functional and declarative programming style for developing highly interactive user interfaces for primarily single-page web applications. React gives fast performance to boost apps with the use of its Virtual DOM because it renders only those components that have changed instead of rendering the entire page.
React uses simpler JSX syntax instead of JavaScript, making it simple to use and easy to learn. For its useful development features, React has become the most used JS framework for frontend development. World’s big companies like PayPal, Netflix, Flipboard, WhatsApp, Airbnb
BBC are using React as their first choice for JS framework.
React is backed by Facebook and a large community of users and consistently being adopted by various industries. All of these makes React the top framework choice for 2021. However, as human is never perfect so its creation also would have some certain imperfections. Let’s take a look at its various advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages of using React
Reusable components: React’s component-based approach allows developers to import or reuse UI components.
Easy Integration: React provides easy integration with another front end and back-end framework such as PHP framework Laravel to work in tandem.
Simpler Syntax: React uses JSX JavaScript extension in the place of JavaScript that makes code easier to read and understand.
Virtual DOM: React gives a virtual representation (a copy of DOM called Virtual DOM or vDOM) to compare with the real DOM to only render components that have changed instead of rendering the entire page. This is the key to React’s fast performance.
Disadvantages of using React:
React is difficult to learn as compared to other frameworks like Vue.js.
React is often marked for poor documentation that cannot meet with new features.
React only works with the View Layer of the MVC Model giving limited options and to rely on other technologies to deal with Model and Controller Layers.
React is upgrading at a much faster pace which is causing difficulties for developers to be consistent with the learning cycle and maintain the knowledge with the updates.
Famous Websites Built with React
Airbnb, BBC, Facebook, Github, Medium, Instagram, Dropbox, Netflix, Salesforce, Shopify, Squarespace, Tesla, Twitter, WhatsApp.
2. Vue.js
If Angular.js and React.js ever had a child, it would like Vue.js. This framework has various similar features of Angular and React. Vue.js has been developed by Evan You- ex developer at Google.
Vue.js is an open source and lightweight front end JS framework used to build unique user interfaces and high-performance single page web applications with minimal efforts.
Vue has adopted most of its features from angular and react. One of the examples is that Vue gives a 2-way data binding as found in Virtual DOM in React and Angular.
This JS framework offers great flexibility features – developers can use it as an end-to-end full-fledged framework like Angular along with a view layer with state management similar to React.
Vue is simpler, dynamic, and progressive in functions that adapt to the developer’s needs. World’s notable companies like Apple, BMW, Adobe, Nintendo and Louise Vuitton are using Vue.
Advantages of Using Vue
Simple: The structure of Vue is simple and allows developers to code more with type less syntax. Vue utilizes a single file component system which means that for any given component, CSS, HTML, and JavaScript all work in a single file.
Built-in MVC: It has an in-built MVC that allows faster configuration.
Easy to learn: Vue does not ask developers to learn JSX or TypeScript like in the case of React and Angular. It eases to grasp HTML templates that do not enhance the code complexity.
Documentation: Vue is blessed with the best documentation among all other JS frameworks. Any beginner developer with basic knowledge of JavaScript can manage documentation in a couple of hours.
Disadvantages of using Vue.js
Small community of users: Unlike React and Angular which have large community of users, Vue does not enjoy the backup of a tech giant brand like Facebook and Google. On GitHub, Vue has 291 contributors which is far less than React’s 1.6k contributors.
Limited employment opportunities: No doubt, Vue is on the rise due to its unique features. But Vue is still on its cradle stage, evolving. Vue is mostly used in the Asian market especially in Chine but in western countries like in the USA, Vue’s popularity has not gained at a good extent.
Famous Websites Built with Vue
Apple Swift UI, BMW, Gitlab, Trivago, Upwork, Zoom.
3. Angular.js
The most important advantage of Angular framework is that it has the ability to build powerful web applications.
Today, Angular is among the most secure front end JavaScript frameworks for building enterprise-scale application out of the box. Angular.js is a full-fledged JavaScript framework that comes with a package of business benefits li with amazing features like rapid production of code, two-way data binding, easy testing of app part.
Developed by Google, Angular is being used by more than a million websites including Google itself, Forbes, IBM, Microsoft and more.
Advantages of Using Angular
Component based structure: It facilitates easy reusability. Components can be used again and again throughout the app enhancing code readability and maintenance.
Server performance: Angular supports tons of features to ensure faster server performance.
Third-party integrations: Angular offers great collections of third-party integration to further enhance the web applications.
Massive community support: Being supported by Google, Angular enjoys a large community of developers with over 1.1k contributors on GitHub.
Disadvantages of Using Angular
TypeScript: To use Angular, you are required to use TypeScript that creates a big learning challenge to new developers.
Heavyweight: Angular is not a lightweight framework like React and Vue, it is extremely large in size.
Steep Learning Curve: Angular has a steep learning curve that asks developers to have a though knowledge of MVC to master.
Poor SEO: Angular struggles with SEO because of its accessibility issues associated with search engine crawlers.
Famous Websites Built with Angular
Google, Freelancer, Forbes, IBM, Udacity, YouTube, Walmart, iStock.
4. Node.js
Node.js has become the top server-side JavaScript framework in recent time. The concept behind Node.js is utilizing event driven I/O to enable efficiency and lightweight at the time of development of data intensive and real time apps.
Node.js helps in developing fast and scalable network applications, because it is capable of handling huge number of connections. This JS framework is equipped with presence of all the tools that you require to build great web application.
Advantages of Using Node.js
The non-blocking IO ecosystem allows developers to manage multiple requests simultaneously.
Node.js has a large and active community with the availability of ready-made solutions and code packages in GitHub.
Node.js is the most popular server-side JavaScript frameworks. It lets you create every element of the app from the scratch.
Disadvantages of Using Node.js
Developers find issues with Node API instability.It does not support multi-threaded programming.
5. Ember.js
Ember.js is an open-source JavaScript framework used to build scalable enterprise-scale and single page web applications. Ember is popular for its usage in designing complex websites like Heroku, LinkedIn, Kickstarter. This framework is ideal for front end development to build complex web apps, string-based templating system along with a much faster boot time.
Advantages of Using Ember
APIs: It gives a simple mechanism to work with APIs.
Ember CLI: The Ember Command Line tool boosts development process by creating components and controllers using automatic generation.
Documentation Support: It comes with detailed documentation along with tutorials and guides to help developers to get stared easily.
Inspection Tool: This is an Inspector development tool extension for Chrome and Firefox allowing you monitor and edit applications in real-time.
Disadvantages of using Ember
Steep Learning Curve: New developers may find Ember difficult to learn as compared to Vue and React.
Ember is mostly preferred for complex large-scale applications, not for small and simple apps.
Not much popular: Ember is struggling to gain the popularity over the last few years and failing to attract new developers.
Famous Websites Built with Ember
GroupOn, Heroku, LinkedIn, Skylight, TED, Yahoo.
6. Svelte.js
Svelte.js is an open-source front end JS framework written in TypeScript.
Svelte unlike Vue or React does not offer virtual DOM. Instead, you can create components boilerplate-free in simple CSS, HTML, and JavaScript code. It doesn’t require high browsing processing. As a result, apps built with Svelte are lightweight and give excellent performance.
Advantages of Using Svelte
Components based model: It follows the same component-based model as React or Vue.
Smaller Size: It has no bulky JavaScript framework runtime overhead that makes compilation process easy and simple.
SEO- Svelte is SEO friendly.
Disadvantages of Using Svelte
Lack of tooling: Svelte is not preferred due to its poor immature tooling for debugging applications.
Limited Users: It has small community of users and resources.
Other Popular Frameworks for Front end Development
Meteor.js
Meteor.js is an open-source server-side JavaScript framework that allows Swift front end development of the end-to-end we, mobile, and desktop applications. Its modular structure, libraries and packages are used at good pace. This JavaScript framework is written using Node.js providing faster prototyping and produces cross-platform code.
Mithril.js
Mithril a client-side JS framework for developing single page applications. It has a series of similar features as React.js. It gives you hierarchical MVC elements and multiple safe-by-default templates along with DOM differences that can go into checking of high-performance rendering.
This JS framework is equipped with two additional impressive features for front end development- URL Routing and Customizable Data Binding.
Polymer.js
It is an open-source JavaScript library to build web applications using web components. Polymer.js is a lightweight framework designed to enable developers to take complete advantage of the web components.
This framework works best when you need to integrate your app with other framework & platforms and to work with JavaScript standards.
Backbone.js
Backbone.js is among the famous JavaScript frameworks in the developers’ community. This is a lightweight JS library that enables developers to develop client-side applications. Backbone.js is based on the Model-View-Presenter application design model and equipped with a a RESTful JSON interface.
The framework comes with usability modules that are easy to understand and simple to learn. Beckbone.js has been developed on the idea that server-side functionalities flow via APIs because it reduces the number of codes that should be composed for achieving the complex features of advance web app framework.
