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Best Front-End Frameworks for Web Development

Published: 24/06/2021 Categories: Uncategorized Leave a comment

In its latest report Stack Overflow has ranked JavaScript as the first most popular and used Front-End programming language again. It’s been holding its top position in this category for 8 years in a row and it’s not a surprise. JavaScript is continuously improving and it offers software developers a wide range of tools and Frameworks that allow building robust and effective apps quickly and easily.

So, in this article we will look into new JavaScript tech, and discover the best Front-End Frameworks at this moment that can boost your Web Development productivity. Before it, we will try to give a summary about what we call a Front-End Framework.

What is a Front-End Framework ?

Frontend frameworks are the pioneer blocks of the software development process. But there are so many options to choose when it comes to building visually appealing apps that rank high on user experience. To help you out, we have curated a list of the best frontend frameworks of 2021 for you. Let’s check them out!

#1 ReactJS

ReactJS is one of the topmost, simplest Frameworks to learn. It was developed at Facebook to fix code maintainability issues due to the constant addition of features in the app.

An open-source framework now, ReactJS stands out because of its virtual Document Object Model (DOM), which offers its exceptional functionality. An ideal framework for those who anticipate high traffic and need a stable platform to handle it.

It’s GitHub stars: 27.6K and 5.8K Forks, gives also a better view about it’s Popularity and strength.

We recommend using it for projects that involve building Single-Page Web Applications and PWAs.

Some Key Features of ReactJS are:

  • It uses virtual DOMs by creating an in-memory cache in the data structure, calculating differences, and efficiently updating the DOM in the browser.
  • React code includes components that need to render a specific element in the DOM with the help of the React DOM library.
  • It uses lifecycle methods such as render and component DidMount to allow code execution at specific points during the lifetime of an entity.
  • Due to its selective rendering, app performance is increased.
  • It supports JavaScript XML (JSX) which combines both JS and HTML.

#2 Angular

You cannot have a list of the best Front-End Development Frameworks without Angular. Angular is the only Framework that is based on TypeScript on this list. Officially launched in 2016, Angular was developed by Google to bridge the gap between the increasing demands of technology and conventional concepts that showed results.

The versatility of the framework is the major factor behind Angular’s success. It introduces some of the best elements, such as two-way data binding dependency injection, directives, MVC, CLI, typescript support, etc.

Looking at GitHub, we found that it has 74K stars and 19.4K forks. Big Companies that use it are Google, PayPal, HBO, Nike, Upwork, Sony and more.

Because Angular is a complete Front-End Framework, it augments the performance of browser-based applications by dynamically updating the contents in no time since it uses two-way data binding. So, we recommend using it for enterprise based applications and dynamic web apps.

Compared to ReactJS, Angular is not easy to learn. Though there is innumerable documentation available, they are either too complex or confusing to read.

#3 Vuejs

One of the most popular Front-end frameworks nowadays, Vue is a simple and straightforward Framework. It is good at removing the complexities that Angular developers face. It is smaller in size and offers two major advantages – visual DOM and component-based and it is also a 2-way binding.

Vue is versatile, and it helps you with multiple tasks. From building Web applications and mobile apps to progressive web applications, it can handle both simple and dynamic processes with ease.

Though it is built to optimize app performance and tackle complexities, it is not widely popular among market giants. However, Alibaba, 9gag, Reuters and Xiaomi are users of this Framework. Vue continues to grow in terms of adoptions despite fewer takers from Silicon Valley.

Take a look at it’s GitHub, Vuejs hit 29.4K GitHub forks and 185K GitHub stars.

Some of its Key Features are:

  • Single-file elements
  • Virtual DOM rendering and performance.
  • Two-way data binding
  • Robust tooling ecosystem
  • Integration abilities & flexibility

#4 jQuery

Introduced in 2006, jQuery is one of the earliest Front-End Frameworks. Despite its launch date, what makes it stand out is its relevance even in today’s tech world. Not only does jQuery offer simplicity and ease to use, but it also minimizes the need to write extensive JavaScript codes.

Thanks to its existence for years, there is a considerable jQuery community for the solutions.

Fundamentally a library, jQuery is used to manipulate CSS and DOM and to optimize the functionality and interactivity of a website.

Though we weren’t able to build mobile apps with jQuery, recent developments in jQuery Mobile, the usage boundaries have been expanded. What’s more, the recent development in this framework enables Developers to build native mobile applications with its HTML5-based UI system–jQuery Mobile. Besides, jQuery is browser-friendly and supports any browser you intend to use.

jQuery’s Key Features are:

  • Simple and easy: It has a predefined method using which you can perform any task easily compared to JavaScript. And it is easy to learn.
  • Lightweight: It is a very lightweight library – about 19KB in size ( Minified and gzipped ).
  • CSS manipulation: It has a predefined css() method for manipulate style for any Html elements.
  • Html manipulation: The jQuery made it easy to select DOM elements, traverse them and modifying their content.
  • Cross browser support: It supports all modern web-browsers including IE-6.
  • Event handling: It supports event handling like click mouse button.
  • JavaScript Library: It is a JavaScript library.
  • AJAX Support: It supports AJAX, you can develop a responsive and feature-rich site using AJAX technology.
  • Built-in Animation: It has a predefined method “animate()” for creating custom animation on web-page.

#5 EmberJS

EmberJS is one of the most used frontend frameworks; it is somehow similar to AngularJS.

It is an opinionated open-source JavaScript Framework used to create scalable enterprise-scale single page web applications. Unlike other frameworks that we have discussed until now, ember is based on the Model-View-ViewModel (MVVW) architecture pattern.It allows you to fix bugs, improve performance, and as well deprecation.

Using this framework, you are just not allowed to form a new app with ready-to-use setups, but you are also entitled to create controllers, components, and project files employing automatic generation.

Even though EmberJS is one of the older Front-End JavaScript Frameworks compared to ReactJS, Vue, and Svelte, it still packs a punch and has a big user base with major companies like – Microsoft, LinkedIn, Netflix, Twitch, etc among its clients.

Some of its Features are:

  • Handlebars template engine
  • QUnit testing framework
  • CLI tool for quick prototyping
  • Bug Fixing

#6 Svelte.js

The 6th place in our list of best JavaScript Frameworks in the Front-End category goes to Svelte.js. Svelte.js is an open-source component-based Front-End JavaScript Framework written in Typescript. It was created by ex-Guardian Front-End Developer Rich Harris. Svelte was first launched in 2016 and has ever since witnessed an absolute explosion in popularity.

Many developers consider Svelte to be a truly game-changing and revolutionary idea that fundamentally changes the way we code web applications and are tipping Svelte to dethrone ReactJS as the most popular front-end framework in the world.

Svelte, unlike ReactJS or Vue, has no virtual DOM. Instead, you build components boilerplate-free in simple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript code. Svelte Compiler then compiles this code into small framework-free vanilla JavaScript modules during build time and surgically updates the DOM when the state changes. So unlike other traditional frameworks like ReactJS or Vue, Svelte does not require high browser processing.

As a result, apps built with Svelte are lightning-fast with excellent performance. Other major advantages include zero client-side dependencies, absence of complex state management libraries, including Svelte can boast big names like Godaddy, Razorpay, 1password, New York Times as its clients.

The Svelte.js framework is best suitable for small app projects and with a small team. Because it doesn’t have a bigger support community, it is better not to use it for complex projects.

Conclusion

Using the topmost Frontend JavaScript Frameworks mentioned here are highly suggested as they are accelerating up the frontend development process. But all you require is to focus on picking the frontend framework that suits your current or upcoming business project needs.

The best part is, almost all the frameworks can be learned with little effort, even if someone’s at the beginner level.