It is easy to get lost in a huge number of JavaScript frameworks, which is growing with time. There is a popular joke that you can say any word, and it will be the name of a JS app framework. But JS developers will hardly rely on this parameter to rate and choose a framework; they evaluate all the benefits and disadvantages to make a decision on what framework will fit their project requirements.
We prepared a review of JavaScript frameworks that are the most often used by experienced developers.
Top-5 JavaScript frameworks
Our top 5 of the most popular JavaScript frameworks include:
- React
- Vue
- Angular
- Ember
- Backbone
Actually, React, and Vue are JavaScript libraries that are used for the View layer. Backbone is based on the MVC template, but to simplify the explanation, we will also call them web app frameworks.
We chose these frameworks for two reasons:
- They support Web Components and allow for building custom HTML elements, which is important for modern (JavaScript ES 6) frameworks;
- They have their own ecosystem that includes various ready solutions for the connection with the backend, managing the application, routing, and other tasks of client-side development.
Let’s take a deeper look at our list of JavaScript frameworks.
React
React (or React.js) is an open-source JS library with a huge set of conceptions for developing user interfaces. React allows the implementation of a reactive approach and the functional paradigm of programming.
The usage of React implies that the developer knows:
- JSX (the syntax extension to JavaScript) for business logic realization,
- component-based architecture,
- Flux, architecture that implements the conception of unidirectional data flow for the connections between web application components.
For data transfer, a developer can also use special objects: state and props. The object state can pass data to a layout from a component, and props is passing data from a parent component to a child one.
React allows developers to choose among various tools for maximum convenience. For instance, developers can choose between state libraries and replace Flux with Fluxy, Fluxible, RefluxJS, Redux, or MobX; the same applies to HTTP-libraries: fetch API, jQuery AJAX, Axios, Superagent, etc.
Such a diversity of tools is both the main advantage and problem of React. It is hard to choose the most appropriate tool, and this process takes a lot of time. There is no single solution, and developers rely on their own conclusions and experience.
Despite the fact that React is the best (one and only) library for enterprise applications, developers can face some difficulties. It can slow down the efficiency of development: Adding the new function entails changes in the whole application.
Let’s see the ecosystem of React, which covers:
- React-library and React-DOM (programming interface for HTML and XML documents);
- React-router for providing the routing;
- markup language JSX;
- React Create App, the command-line interface for React setup;
- Axios and Redux, libraries for interactions with backend;
- special React tools for Chrome and Firefox browsers;
- React Native, a tool for developing Android and iOS mobile web applications.
Availability of many tools and an extensive ecosystem make React a good choice for building a modern user interface.
Angular (version 2 or higher)
The history of Angular origin is a story about a sea change. Let’s take a deeper look: Angular 1 was conceived as a Backbone competitor and lost its relevance by the time of the release of React. Now several projects still use Angular 1, because the transition to Angular 2 takes a lot of time. Angular 2 is very different from its forerunner and has another architecture, close to React.
Angular 2 moves on to the architecture of components, while Angular 1 meets the modification of the MVC architecture. This change makes Angular more flexible and modular. For example, the previous version made developers insert a link to the AngularJS library into the main HTML file. Now they can set up the needed modules to avoid @angular/forms or @angular/http if there is no plan to use it.
The process of web application development with the Angular looks like this:
- developers divide the application into several components with the child ones;
- every Angular component, in turn, is divided into three parts: the main file contains the business logic, two other files contain the layout and styles.
In addition to components, developers should use the dependency injection framework (something new as compared to the React), Angular services and directives (HTML attributes).
It means that Angular 2+ allows developers to build client-side web applications in a specific order (let’s remember plenty of choices of React and its flexibility).
Beyond that, developers without fail should use TypeScript to ensure the type safety of Angular applications. Add to this the time required to review Angular 2+ because the difference between Angular 1 and Angular 2 is too large.
The Angular 2+ ecosystem consists of:
- Programming languages based on JavaScript, TypeScript and CoffeeScript;
- Angular command-line interface used for the project set up;
- Library Zone.js valuable for the realization of the execution context;
- Rx and Observable pattern that allows async connection with server applications;
- Angular Universal, pre-rendering solution for server applications development;
- A Chrome extension for Angular applications debugging called Angular Augury;
- Special application for developing mobile applications for Android and iOS named NativeScript;
- A collection of modules for installing into Angular projects (@angular/platform-browser-dynamic, @angular/router, @angular/upgrade, @angular/common, @angular/compiler, @angular/core, @angular/forms, @angular/http, @angular/platform-browser).
By contrast with React, Angular 2+ is a full-fledged framework with related tools. Angular 2+ is a good solution for developers that don’t want to choose among various additional libraries of React.
Vue
The Vue library includes different solutions, borrowed from Angular and React. Let’s see what it means in detail.
Like React, Vue allows storing components logic and layouts in the same file with stylesheets. It also uses props and state objects for communication between its components.
Like Angular, Vue allows mixing HTML-layouts with JavaScript. To transfer values from component logic into templates, developers should use v-bind and v-if directives.
There are several moments why Vue is more convenient than React and Angular.
We remember about the Redux library that belongs to React. When the React&Redux application becomes bigger, developers should make changes in various files instead of simply working with functions. Vue has a lightweight tool for state management, Flux-like library.
By contrast with Angular with its complicated structure and lots of limitations, Vue seems more simple and less restricted.
With Vue, developers don’t need to learn additional JavaScript sets, such as TypeScript or JSX.
Vue also has a drawback: it is less popular than Angular and React, so it doesn’t have a lot of ready solutions. If there are no appropriate solutions, developers can create such a solution by themselves.
VueJS ecosystem includes:
- Vue-library;
- Vue, the components loader;
- Vuex, a separate library for state application management (similar to the conception of Flux);
- Special Vue.js dev tools for Chrome and Firefox browsers;
- Axios and Vue-resource for connection between Vue and server;
- js, web application framework for developing the backend application (an analogue of Angular Universal);
- js, the library for mobile application development.
The simplicity of this framework can be its advantage and drawback at the same time. It is not as complicated as React, and not as restricted as Angular, but it is exactly what the development of the enterprise-level applications requires.
Ember
Despite Ember being one of the oldest JavaScript frameworks, it is still actual and a source of inspiration for a lot of new JavaScript frameworks (for instance, Ember router is the prototype of the idea of the Vue library). Ember is used for web-interface development of complicated frontend applications and acts as a standard MVC JavaScript framework.
Ember possesses a tricky architecture that includes components, adapters, controllers, addons, utils, helpers, templates, servers, routers, and models.
Every part of Ember architecture has its purpose, for example:
- helpers are used for data processing before its rendering on the screen;
- components are applied for web application logic storing;
- also, there are buttons for managing the view in components.
Ember command-line interface is the hallmark of this framework. It allows the creation of new projects with a ready setup, automatic generation of the components, controllers and different project files, and installation of external dependencies. This feature influenced the creation of the Angular command-line interface.
Let’s take a look at the Ember ecosystem:
- js and Ember Data (a data management library);
- Ember server, a built-in framework for environments development;
- Handlebars, a template engine for Ember applications;
- QUnit framework for JavaScript testing;
- Ember CLI, command-line interface;
- Ember Inspector, a development tool for Chrome and Firefox;
- Ember Observer, storage for different addons.
Ember framework is the Angular competitor and a good choice for complicated frontend applications development. There is a popular view that Ember is the analogue of the Ruby-on-Rails for browser.
Backbone
The Backbone framework represents the MVC architecture, in particular, MV architecture, because the View also works as the Controller.
Unlike other JavaScript frameworks, Backbone aims to bring in simplicity and prevent problems with performance. There are no built-in cycles or two-way data binding as in Angular. The Backbone Underscore library covers a lot of functions for cross-browser work with JavaScript.
Backbone architecture includes several basic tools:
- View contains the logic for rendering data, as the Controller in MVC does. Developers can synchronize the View and the Model so that changes in the Model affect the View. Also, the View can use an external template system, Mustaches or Underscore.js.
- Model allows developers to streamline data, make changes in data with set/get methods, validate data and listen to events.
- Collection is needed if the application works with different types of users. In this case, every type of user has a separate model. These models can be iterated in Backbone arrays.
- Events is the class that helps implement and use different types of events (custom and inbuilt). With Backbone.Events, developers can mix and trigger events with models, collections, routers, and views.
- Router links URLs with different components of the application.
- Backbone Rest. With the help of this tool, developers can synchronize frontend and backend processes for example, to request model’s data and collections from the server.
Backbone architecture entails the usage of additional tools (JavaScript libraries) in case of complicated frontend application development. This process is needed because the View layer can’t render itself into a document object model. In that way, developers use Marionette, Thorax, Chaplin, and other libraries. The usage of ready-made solutions with well-structured architecture allows developers to work with Backbone more effectively.
Let’s consider the BackboneJS ecosystem:
- Backbone library includes events, models, collections, router, and views. If developers use the Marionette library, they don’t need to use Backbone views.
- js is a library with a lot of helpful functions for building cross-browser JavaScrip.
- Underscore, Mustache, and jQuery are template engines for the Backbone basic templates.
- BackPlug is an online repository with a lot of ready Backbone plugins.
- Backbone generator is a command-line interface for Backbone applications development.
- Marionette, Thorax, and Chaplin, and JavaScript are libraries for developing Backbone applications with complicated architecture.
The usage of Backbone requires a sound understanding of the work of the MVC template and applying additional tools (Marionette, Thorax, Chaplin, Mustache, Handlebars, etc). The backbone framework has a simple and clear structure that will be enough for SPA development.
Each of the JavaScript frameworks reviewed above is actual, has its own advantages, and a complete ecosystem. Angular and React have support from Google and a great number of users; Backbone provides clear architecture; Vue is proud of its simplicity; and Ember allows for developing a complete solution for client-side applications.
There is no clear and definitive answer to what is the best JavaScript framework. Developers should always stay on top of new frameworks and updates to create cutting-edge frontend applications.
