What are JavaScript Frameworks? Understanding Most Popular Frameworks

JavaScript Frameworks are essential for modern web development, it helps developers to create dynamic and responsive single-page applications. They provide a structured way to develop front-end web projects, making it easier and more efficient to do tasks like Document Object Model (DOM), event handling, or state management.

In the modern age of web development, where applications have grown in complexity JavaScript frameworks are a godsend as they allow developers to create features and not reproduce breadbasket functionalities. There is a framework for every kind of project, from the more traditional frameworks like Angular or React.js to newer and lighter alternatives such as Svelte and Mithril. JavaScript frameworks are a game changer for developers who want to build scalable, maintainable, and high-performance applications.

In this blog, we will understand what JavaScript Frameworks are, their key features and types along with a deep dive into some of the most popular JS frameworks being used today. In the end, you will understand why and how to use these tools in your website development workflow.

What are JavaScript Frameworks?

JavaScript frameworks are pre-written JavaScript code libraries that you can use for standard and reusable functions, such as coding a complex web application with ease. A framework gives you a way to organize your code and make use of best design practices. 
It also makes the development process easier by solving common problems that are included in most web applications, for instance, data manipulation or updating DOM. JavaScript frameworks have helped developers concentrate on building new features and functionalities rather than reinventing the wheel.

JavaScript is one of the most popular programming languages for web development. As Single Page Applications (SPAs) grew in popularity and more front-end functionality was moved towards the user side, JavaScript frameworks have become a key part of modern web development. Web components establish a solid base for creating more scalable, maintainable, and interactive web applications. This ensures consistency across the development stage and reduces bugs & errors.

What Do JavaScript Frameworks Do?

JavaScript frameworks are making development easy by making the development process simple. Frameworks use a set of functionalities and tools that make it easy to handle common tasks like:

• DOM Manipulation: JavaSricpt frameworks help to ease the complexity associated with direct manipulation of the Document Object Model (DOM) which is necessary for rendering or updating contents on a web page asynchronously.
• Event Handling: JavaScript frameworks provide a way to handle user events (such as clicks, keypresses, or form submissions) in an ergonomic and consistent manner.
• State Management: It is the process of managing and synchronizing the data, especially in large-scale applications. Frameworks provide a state management system to handle complex state logic and to maintain consistency and performance.
• Routing: Frameworks are capable of providing routing capabilities that allow developers to change views or navigate between pages without having to reload the page. Routing solutions that come with frameworks also allow developers to map URLs to specific components.
• AJAX Handling: Asynchronous JavaScript + XML (AJAX) is a technology developed by Google that allows the developer to control HTTP requests between clients and servers. It makes a cleaner way to `GET` requests and render the data so this is more than likely handled through some kind of node.js framework.
• Component-Based Architecture: Many modern JavaScript libraries and frameworks advocate for component-based architecture, which enables developers to create UI components that are encapsulated and contain both logic and presentation.

Types of JavaScript Frameworks

JavaScript Frameworks can be broadly categorized into three types:

Full-Featured Frameworks

Full-featured frameworks have everything you need to make any complex web application. They range from state management, routing, templating, and form validation, often exhibiting the Model-View-Controller (MVC) or Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architectural patterns. These are suitable 100% for larger scales of applications that need a basic and hard structure with more functionality.

Examples of full-featured JavaScript frameworks:

• Angular
• Ember.js
• Vue.js

Component Libraries

Component libraries focus on providing reusable UI components, as opposed to an entire development framework, like full-featured frameworks. They provide a set of ready-to-use components that developers can use to create the interface for their applications. This is great for projects that need a uniform appearance or require quick UI development.

Examples of Component Libraries:

• React
• Preact
• Vue.js (can also be considered a component library due to its flexibility)

Micro-Frameworks

The micro-frameworks are simplistic and lightweight and have only what is “necessary” to develop web applications. These toolkits are very simple and mostly consist of the most basic low-level tools; and as a consequence place more work on developers in terms of making decisions on how something should be done. Micro-frameworks are perfectly suited for applications where performance is of utmost importance.

Examples of Micro-Frameworks:

• Mithril
• Preact
• Svelte

Difference Between a JavaScript Framework and a JavaScript Library

Although JavaScript frameworks and libraries are both used to streamline the process of development and are often used interchangeably, they are different.

While developing an application, a JavaScript framework gives you structure and rules to do so. It tells how should be the architecture of your application and how the code should be organized.

JavaScript frameworks come with built-in functionalities and you have to follow certain rules defined in that particular framework to make use of those functions. The framework manages the flow of the application, and it provides a place for you to plug in your code.

A JavaScript library, on the other hand, is a collection of pre-written code that developers can leverage to perform common tasks. Unlike a framework, a library does not impose a structure on the application. Instead, you are in control and can choose how and when to use the library. The library is called upon to perform specific functions, making it less “opinionated” than a framework.

In simple terms, the fundamental difference lies in the “Inversion of Control”. In the case of libraries, it is up to a developer to call library functions when needed. With frameworks, the framework calls the code to structure applications in a particular way.

Key Features of JavaScript Frameworks

Being a widely used web development tool, JavaScript frameworks offer some key features that make it so popular.

• Two-Way Data Binding: It helps to automatically synchronize the data between model and view, thus minimizing a lot of boilerplate code & ensuring better consistency in the UI.
• Virtual DOM: Boosts speed by making a low-weighted replica of the original DOM and only updating what’s changed rather than re-rendering the whole DOM.
• Component-Based Architecture: Divides UI into small, independent, and reusable components that can be used to build up more complex user interfaces.
• Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Helps improve the SEO and page load speed (initial load time) by rendering the content on the server side first, before sending it to the client side.Routing: Handles navigation and views on the client side without requiring a full page reload.
• State Management: Gives a single, central location to manage the application state. This helps in reducing complexity and makes it simpler to debug complex applications.
• CLI & Build Tools: Most of the frameworks provide command-line interfaces (CLI) which will do most of their repetitive stuff like code compilation, optimization, etc.

Popular JavaScript Frameworks

Now that you understand what JavaScript frameworks are and why it is so popular and crucial for web development, let’s go over some of the most popular JavaScript frameworks. There are a lot of frameworks and libraries available and they have certain advantages to them. There are always some new frameworks out there and there are a lot of them! Here, we will only cover some of the most popular ones, as of 2024.

1. React

React is one of the most recognizable JavaScript frameworks. It is an open-source framework, mostly developed by Facebook. React is more of a library than a production framework. It allows developers to create reusable UI components and data states that are bound together for user interactivity.

Doing all this would be time-consuming and will take a lot of effort for the developers if they use just HTML, CSS & JavaScript.
React uses virtual DOM that allows developers to build large web apps that can change data, without reloading the page. React uses virtual DOM to save time by re-rendering only the updates.

Key Features:

• Component-based Architecture
• Virtual DOM
• JSX (JavaScript XML) for template syntax
• Unidirectional data flow

React is popularly used as a base for developing mobile applications. It is commonly used for building SPAs and with cross-platform support, the same concepts of React can be applied to develop mobile applications using React Native.

Also read: Top 30 Advanced ReactJS Interview Questions and Answers

2. Vue.js

Vue.js is a progressive JavaScript framework that is just apt for building web interfaces. Vue is unique among other monolithic frameworks. It is incrementally adoptable and designed from the ground up to be flexible. That assumes simple tasks without having to do much setup while being powerful enough to build complex single-page applications.

Key Features:

• Two-way data binding
• Virtual DOM
• Declarative components
• Reactive components
• Built-in directives

Vue.js is ideal for building complex SPAs, and small interactive components to supplement existing projects. Its simplicity and flexibility make it ideal for beginners and veterans alike.

Angular

Angular is one of the most used JavaScript frameworks. It is developed and maintained by Google and has everything you need to set up the front end of an artifact management system. It is built on TypeScript and serves as a solid foundation for developing dynamic, scalable web applications.

It is based on MVC architecture and it provides features like dependency injection, two-way data binding, etc. Since Angular2, it has adopted a component-based application, similar to React. It supports developer tools like Angular CLI that promote code consistency.

Key features:

• Two-way data binding
• Dependency injection
• TypeScript support
• Routing
• Built-in directives
• CLI
• Testing support

Angular is a JavaScript framework that is Intended for large-scale, modular web application development with complex requirements. It is ideal for projects that need a unique code base and maintainable structure. The choice of Angular is mainly targeting the enterprise environment where you need lots of tooling and where performance is crucial.

Also read: Basic Angular Interview Questions and Answers You Must Prepare

4. Gatsby

Gatsby is a React-based open-source static site generator that uses GraphQL to create highly secure websites and website applications. Gatsby has a fantastic blend of Static Site Generator, GraphQL data layer, and the best developer experience.

This allows developers to build light-speed websites with the best performance and SEO. Gatsby is a powerful platform with suitable integration plugins and starter templates.

Key features:

• Static site generation
• GraphQL data layer
• Rich plugin ecosystem

It was used to create this blog which is best for static websites & blogs, landing pages, and documentation sites with a high focus on SEO as well as lightweight performance.

5. Next.js

Next.js is one of the most popular JavaScript Frameworks. It is a production framework for React, commonly used in full stack development to build web applications. With Next.js you get a very structured framework to help build React apps and provide solutions on how things should be done. Next. js also abstracts and auto-configures tooling required for React like compiling and binding.

Key features:

• Server-side rendering (SSR)
• Static site generation (SSG)
• Dynamic routing
• API routes
• TypeScript support

Next.js is mostly used for building SPAs, e-commerce websites, and web applications where SEO and load times play an important role.

6. Svelte

A very recent entrant, it is the rising star of JavaScript frameworks. Svelte is interesting because the compile step is where most of the work is done, so there are absolutely no runtime overheads.

Instead of doing the work in a browser, as other frameworks do by using programs that run within it, Svelte compiles your code to the efficient JavaScript modules. This reduces the sizes of bundles, and less JavaScript for the clients to download, which reduces load times.

A Svelte component is a mix of markup, styles, and behavioral logic. Svelte is incrementally adoptable, so you can either build the whole application with Svelte or you can add it on top of an existing codebase.

Key features:

• No virtual DOM
• Reactive assignments
• Minimalistic and efficient
• Compiles to vanilla JavaScript (more efficient)
• SvelteKit
• Declarative components
• Built-in support for animations

Svelte is a popular JavaScript framework for developing fast and small applications. Svelte is well-suited to performance-critical applications because of its simplicity and low overhead.

7. Nuxt

Nuxt is a Vue.js based framework that is designed to create server-side rendered applications that are type-safe and highly optimized. It adds capabilities to Vue, such as static site generation and automatic code splitting. Additionally, it provides an extensive module ecosystem.

Nuxt is used for building server-side rendered (SSR) and static sites with Vue.js applications. It provides a higher-level abstraction for building Vue.js applications with routing, server-side rendering, and automatic code splitting, all built-in.

Key features:

• Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
• Static Site Generation (SSG)
• Powerful module ecosystem
• Automatic code splitting
• Routing TypeScript support

Nuxt is ideal for building e-commerce websites, SPAs, and content-centric websites that require optimized SEO and performance.

8. Astro

Astro is one of the best JavaScript frameworks to build content-driven websites that lets you choose any framework like Vue, React, or Angular. Astro gained popularity because of its unique island architecture that reduced boilerplate and web bloat compared to other frameworks.
The new island architecture, based on partial hydration helped to reduce the JavaScript overhead and complexity. This makes it lightning-fast and SEO-friendly, which is ideal for content-heavy websites.

Key features:

• Island architecture (partial hydration)
• Supports multiple front-end frameworks (UI-agnostic)
• Static Site Generation
• Optimized for speed and performance

Astro is best when you require a content-heavy website like static webpages, blogs, or documentation sites where SEO and quick loading are crucial aspects.

9. Solid

Solid is a declarative JavaScript (TypeScript) framework that focuses on fine-grained reactivity which provides high performance and small bundle size. It is designed to be fast with minimal runtime overhead and uses direct DOM manipulation.

Solid is very similar to React. However, it does not use virtual DOM just like Svelte. Solid utilizes compiled JavaScript and changes the DOM in real time, whereas React manipulates a Virtual DOM. Solid, like many popular frameworks, lets you design declarative UI components and supports Reactivity.

Key features:

• Fine-Grained Reactivity
• Direct DOM manipulation
• Small bundle Size
• Reactive primitives
• TypeScript support
• Declarative components

Solid is a good JavaScript framework to use when you need to build a fast and lightweight application where performance and smaller bundle size are important aspects.

10. Preact

Preact is a lightweight alternative to React with the same modern API. It is designed for the React ecosystem and can be used as a drop-in replacement for React. It provides all the necessary functionalities of React and a very similar API. However, Preact has faster performance.

Key features:

• Lightweight
• Similar API to React
• Small Bundle Size
• Fast performance

Preact is one of the most lightweight JavaScript frameworks and it is ideally suited for websites or web applications where performance and smaller bundle size are a priority but, still want to use the React ecosystem.

11. Meteor

Meteor is one of the few full-stack JavaScript frameworks that is capable of both backend and frontend development. It comes with everything you need to build reactive, modern web applications and it integrates well with MongoDB at the backend.

Meteor also has a native publish-subscribe API and full-stack ecosystem that makes real-time app development easier.

Key features:

• Full-Stack framework
• Integrated with MongoDB
• Built-in user authentication
• Cross-platform development

Meteor is ideally suited for building live applications like applications that rely on collaboration, chat applications, and interactive dashboards.

12. Mithril

Mithril is a JavaScript framework used to write Single Page Applications (SPA). Mithril offers a basic API with minimalistic functions to focus on performance and simplicity. Mithril’s small size and faster rendering with virtual DOM make it an easy choice for performance-centric applications.

Key features:

• Small and Lightweight
• Fast Rendering
• Simple API
• No Dependencies
• Declarative components

Mithril is ideal for SPAs that need to be lightweight and have good performance.

13. NestJS

NestJS is a progressive framework. It is one of the few backend JavaScript frameworks and it is capable of building efficient, scalable server-side applications. Written in TypeScript and following an MVC pattern, it is great for creating a solid base when building powerful backend services.

Key features:

• TypeScript support
• Modular architecture
• Built-in support for microservices.

Perfect for building scalable server-side applications, such as RESTful APIs and microservices.

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FAQs: JavaScript Frameworks

1. What are JavaScript Frameworks?

JavaScript frameworks are pre-written libraries that provide a way of building web applications that help you to do things like DOM manipulation, state management, and routing.

2. Why Should I Use JavaScript Frameworks?

JavaScript frameworks accelerate development, enforce best practices, and enhance the maintainability of the application – by offering a standardized way of writing code.

3. What Are The Different Types of JavaScript Frameworks?

There are a lot of different frameworks and they can be broadly classified into three types: full-featured frameworks, component libraries, and micro-frameworks.

4. What are JavaScript frameworks as opposed to libraries such as jQuery?

JavaScript libraries like jQuery help in accomplishing specific functionalities while JavaScript frameworks give a structure to your web applications and enforce an architecture on you, instead of being just functions.

5. What are some of the most popular JavaScript frameworks?

There are a lot of JavaScript frameworks and many of them are popular because of their unique advantages. Some of the most popular frameworks include the likes of React, Angular, Vue.js, Svelte, and Next.js.

Related reads:

Front End vs Back End Development: A Comprehensive Comparison

Back-End Developer Interview Questions

Role and Responsibilities of a Front-end Software Engineer

Interview Process for Front-End Engineers at FAANG+ Companies