10 Best JavaScript Frameworks to Use in 2023

In this article, I'll explore the 10 best JavaScript frameworks in 2023.

Whether you’re looking to land a job as a web developer or enhance your portfolio, one thing's for sure: modern web development would not be where it is today without JavaScript frameworks.

But what is a JavaScript framework anyway?

If you're new to the idea, don't worry. I'll introduce the idea of a JavaScript framework before diving into our list of the top 10 JavaScript frameworks.

If you're in a hurry, here's the TL-DR: JavaScript frameworks are a collection of pre-written JavaScript code that provides a structured foundation to build and manage complex web applications.

Wow, that sounds complicated. How about ELI5?

Sure! JavaScript frameworks are like a toolbox filled with special tools (pre-made code) that help you build a website or app more easily and quickly, kind of like building a cool LEGO set.

Put simply, they're kind of awesome and ideal for web developers.

Plus, when you consider that the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports an average salary of more than $85K for web developers, learning to use JavaScript framework can be lucrative.

Now, if you're ready, let's dive in to explore these JavaScript frameworks!

What Is A JavaScript Framework?

How about we start at the beginning and answer this basic question: What is a JavaScript framework?

Sure, you can take a JavaScript course and learn vanilla JS, but when you take your first steps into the world of modern web development, you're bound to bump into this concept!

A JavaScript framework is a collection of pre-written, reusable code that serves as a template or blueprint to help developers build web applications more efficiently.

We can also say that JavaScript frameworks are a type of web development framework, but they are specifically designed for creating and managing web applications with JavaScript.

They provide a structured way to organize your code, and they include built-in functions and tools for common tasks, which means you can focus on the unique aspects of your project instead of starting from scratch.

Essentially, they streamline the web development process, ensuring faster, more consistent, and error-free coding with JavaScript. Sounds great to me!

The 10 Best JavaScript Frameworks

Okay, let's dive in and look at the 10 best JavaScript frameworks available in 2023.

Now, depending on your own experience with JS frameworks, you might have a favorite that you'd like to see higher up, but really, they're all pretty great!

That said, let us know in the comments if you'd like to see something switched out!

Also, it's important to remember that while JS frameworks are incredible at streamlining the coding process, you still need to have JavaScript knowledge to use them.

Yep, you still need to understand basic syntax and how to use standard operators like the JS triple equals.

Now, let's check out these JavaScript frameworks!

1. Angular

Angular is a powerful, open-source web application framework led by the Angular Team at Google and a community of enthusiastic developers.

This popular JavaScript framework is a comprehensive solution for building efficient and sophisticated single-page applications (SPAs).

Angularjs stands out with its rich set of features like two-way data binding, modular development structure, form handling, routing, and dependency injection, which streamline the development process and improve productivity.

Unlike libraries that focus solely on the view layer, Angular provides a complete framework, including tools for testing, developing, and deploying applications.

It also adopts TypeScript to ensure consistent code, enhanced readability, and robust type-checking.

Angular's component-based architecture allows for reusable code and efficient development practices.

This framework is particularly favored in enterprise-scale applications due to its scalability, maintainability, and a strong emphasis on testing and best coding practices.

With so many plus points, it's no surprise that there are many great Angular courses for learning how to use this JS framework.

Features

• Progressive Web Apps: It has modern web platform capabilities to deliver app-like experiences that are high-performance, offline, and have zero-step installation.
• Desktop: Desktop-installed apps across Mac, Windows, and Linux can be created using the same Angular methods as the web, plus the ability to access native OS APIs.
• Code Generation: Angular turns templates into highly optimized code for JavaScript virtual machines, benefiting hand-written code.
• Code Splitting: With the new Component Router, angular apps load quickly, delivering automatic code-splitting.
• Templates: Create UI views with simple and powerful template syntax.
• Angular CLI: Command line tools allow you to start building fast, add components and tests, and then instantly deploy.
• Animation: Create high-performance, complex choreographies and animation timelines with very little code through Angular's intuitive API.
• Accessibility: Create accessible applications with ARIA-enabled components, developer guides, and built-in test infrastructure.

2. React

Okay, before you say anything, I know React is a JS library, not a framework!

But to many developers who don't care about the distinction, it's still one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks!

So it made sense to include it here as it's so popular!

As a declarative JavaScript library, it's ideal for building user interfaces, and it's particularly well known for its efficiency and flexibility in creating interactive and complex web applications.

Developed by Facebook, React focuses on building reusable components that manage their own state, leading to more predictable and easier-to-debug code.

It utilizes a virtual DOM to improve performance, updating only parts of the page that need to change without refreshing the entire view. This makes React ideal for dynamic applications with high user interaction.

React's component-based architecture not only streamlines development but also aids in maintaining a consistent codebase, which is especially beneficial for large-scale applications.

While React itself is concerned with UI rendering, it can be combined with other libraries like Redux for state management, making it a versatile choice for front-end development.

React's strong community support, rich ecosystem, and widespread adoption have cemented its status as a go-to tool for web developers globally.

And being so incredibly popular, there are lots of great React courses available to learn how to use it.

Features:

• Declarative: Creates interactive and dynamic UI for websites and mobile applications. Declarative views make the code readable and easy to debug.
• Virtual DOM: For every DOM object, there is a corresponding "virtual DOM object." It creates a virtual copy of the original DOM and is a representation of a DOM object.
• Event handling: React has its fully compatible W3C object model event system created. It also provides a cross-browser interface to a native event.
• JSX: JSX is a markup syntax that closely resembles HTML. JSX makes writing React components easier by making the syntax almost identical to the HTML injected into the web page.
• Performance: React uses one-way data binding with an application architecture called Flux controls. ReactJS helps update the View for the user with Flux controlling the application workflow.
• React Native: React Native is a custom renderer for React; it uses native components instead of web components like React as building blocks.
• Component-Based: Everything is a component of the web page, divided into small components to create a view(or UIs). Components in ReactJS are used to define the visuals and interactions in applications.

3. Vue.js

Vue.js is renowned for its simplicity and flexibility, and it's often used for building user interfaces and single-page applications.

Designed to be incrementally adoptable, developers can integrate Vue into their existing projects piecemeal or use it to build complex applications from the ground up.

Vue's core library focuses on the view layer, making it easy to pick up and integrate with other libraries or existing projects.

It's also well-suited to sophisticated SPAs when combined with supporting libraries. Check out a Vue.js course if this is something you're intrigued by.

Its data binding and reactive components offer an efficient and simple way to manage the application state and build dynamic user interfaces.

Vue's ecosystem includes Vue Router for routing, Vuex for state management, and Vue CLI for project scaffolding, making it a comprehensive solution for developers seeking a balance between performance, flexibility, and ease of use.

Features

• Virtual DOM: Vue.js utilizes a virtual DOM, a clone of the principal DOM element.
• Data Binding: This feature facilitates the manipulation or assignment of values to HTML attributes.
• CSS Transitions and Animations: Vue has several methods to apply a transition to HTML elements when added, updated, or removed from the DOM.
• Template: Vue provides HTML-based templates that bind the DOM with the Vue.js instance data. The templates are compiled into Virtual DOM Render functions.
• Complexity: Vue.js is simpler in terms of API and design. A web developer can build simple applications in a single day.

4. Ember.js

Ember.js is a robust, open-source JavaScript framework designed to create ambitious web applications.

It's known for its "convention over configuration" philosophy, which streamlines development by providing a set of default behaviors and best practices, reducing the amount of boilerplate code developers have to write.

Ember also features a powerful templating engine and automatically updates the DOM when underlying data changes, making it excellent for developing complex, interactive user interfaces.

I also like that it offers a strong set of conventions and a rich component model, ensuring consistency and maintainability in code.

It's also nice that it includes a built-in router, state management, and an Ember CLI for project generation, scaffolding, development, and build-pipeline tools.

This comprehensive ecosystem makes Ember.js particularly well-suited for large-scale, feature-rich web applications where maintainability and productivity are critical.

Features:

• Ease of use: Create usable web applications that are easy to maintain.
• HTML and CSS features: It offers HTML and CSS of the development model at the core.
• Instance initializers: Ember provides instance initializers for classes
• Routes: Ember.js offers routes that are core features used for managing the URL.
• Debugging: Ember.js has the Ember Inspector tool for debugging Ember applications.
• Templating: Ember.js uses templates that help to automatically update the model if the content of applications gets changed.

5. Meteor

Meteor is more of a full-stack JavaScript platform than a JavaScript framework, as it encompasses both client-side and server-side components.

This means it provides a complete set of tools for building and deploying web and mobile applications.

Some of its standout features include seamless integration with MongoDB and its ability to propagate data changes to clients without requiring you to write any synchronization code.

This makes Meteor highly efficient for building real-time applications like chat apps or live-updating interfaces.

It also offers a rich set of features, including hot code reload, instant web page refreshes, and a single language development environment, allowing developers to use JavaScript both on the client and server side.

Meteor’s ecosystem also includes a wide array of packages and tools, simplifying the development process from project initiation to deployment.

It can also integrate with various popular front-end JS frameworks and libraries, like React, Angular, and Vue.

Features:

• Full-Stack Solution: Meteor proves to be a full-stack solution for developing and deploying web applications. Features include automatic CSS, reactive templates, and JS minification on the production server.
• Development Ecosystem: Meteor.js is an open-source Isomorphic Development Ecosystem (IDevE). It facilitates building real-time web applications from scratch as it contains all the necessary front-end and back-end components..
• Isomorphic JavaScript Code: The same code can be used on the front-end, the back-end, and mobile and web applications. It saves developers from requiring to install and configure different module managers, libraries, drivers, APIs, and more.
• Front-end Solution: Meteor offers a front-end development framework, Blaze.js, which offers some useful features. It also integrates with popular modern front-end frameworks like Backbone.js to yield better results.
• Database Integration: Meteor.js supports any database with a Node.js driver. MongoDB is commonly used.

6. Mithril

Mithril is a modern, lightweight JavaScript framework that's ideal for building efficient and fast single-page applications (SPAs) that run on all web browsers.

Known for its small size, fast rendering, and simple yet powerful API, Mithril focuses on performance and provides out-of-the-box features like routing and XHR utilities.

These make it easier to manage client-server communication without additional libraries.

Its architecture also encourages a component-based approach, allowing for reusable and maintainable code.

Despite its minimalistic design, Mithril doesn't compromise on functionality, offering an MVC (Model-View-Controller) structure to organize code effectively.

It's particularly well-suited for developers who need a robust framework for SPAs with less overhead and a gentle learning curve, making it a strong alternative to more heavyweight frameworks.

Features:

• Code size: Mithril is around 7.8 kB gzipped and has no dependencies on other libraries.
• Architecture: Mithril does not provide base classes from which to extend. There are no hidden performance costs when implementing core MVC patterns.
• Small API: Mithril offers a tight API, so there‘s no need to build functionality for every scenario.
• Declarative: Mithril is declarative and reduces code complexity.

7. Node.js

Node.js might not be a JavaScript framework in the purest sense, but it's hugely popular for working on the backend, and definitely deserving of a space on our list!

As a powerful, open-source, cross-platform runtime environment, it allows developers to execute JavaScript code on the server side.

Built using Chrome's V8 JS engine, Node enables the development of fast and scalable network apps. It's also well known for its non-blocking, event-driven architecture, which makes it very efficient with data-intensive and real-time apps on distributed devices.

This has made Node.js popular for developing a wide range of applications, from web applications to RESTful APIs and even for IoT devices. If it involves server-side rendering, Node is ideal.

It's no wonder there are so many impressive Node.js courses to choose from!

Features:

• Fast: The library of Node.js is fast when it comes to code execution, as it is built on the V8 JavaScript engine of Google Chrome.
• Asynchronous and Event-Driven I/O: All the APIs are asynchronous, which means that the server does not wait for the API to come back with data.
• Single-threaded: Node.js, along with event looping, follows a single-threaded model.
• Highly scalable: Node.js follows an event mechanism that makes it possible for the server to respond in a non-blocking manner, which makes it scalable.
• No buffering: When it comes to uploading audio and video files, Node.js cuts down processing time significantly. It does not buffer any data, and the application gets the data out in chunks.
• Open source: Being open-source, Node.js community has come up with several amazing models that can be used to add more capabilities to the Node.js applications.

8. Polymer

Yes, I know, another library! But hear me out!

Polymer is an open-source JavaScript library from Google that's primarily for building web applications with Web Components.

It provides a set of features for creating custom HTML elements, which can be reused across web pages and applications, leading to more efficient and maintainable code.

Polymer focuses on leveraging the capabilities of the modern web platform, offering a lightweight approach that aims to complement the existing browser standards rather than abstracting them.

It includes a range of tools and components that make it easier to develop responsive cross-browser applications with a focus on performance and minimal overhead.

This makes Polymer appealing to developers looking to create scalable, future-proof web applications that align closely with web standards.

Features:

• Polyfills: Polymer features polyfills for creating customized and reusable elements.
• Reusability: Polymer is used for the creation of reusable widgets in web documents and applications.
• Good for mobile applications: Polymer uses Google material design to develop mobile applications for fast and easy-to-develop mobile applications.
• Flexibility: Custom elements are distributed across the network and allow users to use these elements with the help of HTML Imports.

9. Aurelia

Aurelia is a modern, open-source JavaScript framework for building web, mobile, and desktop applications.

It stands out for its focus on simplicity, clean code, and standards-compliant web components, making it a favorite among developers who prefer a more conventional approach to coding.

Aurelia's core philosophy is to stay as unobtrusive as possible, meaning it doesn't force specific patterns or complex configurations on developers, allowing for more straightforward and intuitive coding practices.

This JS framework is highly extensible and supports two-way data binding, a robust routing system, and a modular architecture, making it versatile for a wide range of projects, from simple websites to complex enterprise-level applications.

Features:

• Components: Components are the building blocks of the Aurelia framework and are composed of JavaScript view-model pairs and HTML views.
• Web Standards: It is one of the cleanest modern frameworks. It completely focuses on web standards without unnecessary abstractions.
• Extensible: The framework facilitates an easy way to integrate with other tools.
• Commercial Support: This framework offers commercial and enterprise support.

10. Backbone.js

To round things off, we've added another JS library (I know, not a framework per se!) in Backbone.js.

This lightweight JavaScript library provides the minimal structure needed to build web applications by organizing the data into models, collections, and views, and connecting these to your existing API over a RESTful JSON interface.

It's known for its simplicity and flexibility, allowing developers to choose the best tools that work alongside it for their specific needs.

Backbone models contain interactive data and business logic, collections manage groups of models, and views handle user input and output. It also implements event-driven communication between views and models, which helps create highly interactive web applications.

Backbone's approach gives developers the freedom to design the architecture of their web application as they see fit, making it a preferred choice for those who want a lot of control over their code structure without the weight of more opinionated frameworks.

It's particularly suited for projects where a full-fledged framework might be unnecessary or when a lightweight solution is preferred.

Features:

• Convenience: Building blocks such as models, views, events, routers, and collections are provided for assembling the client-side web applications.
• Easy-to-use library: It is a simple library that helps separate business and user interface logic.
• Many extensions: Backbone has a free and open-source library and contains over 100 available extensions.
• Dependencies: Backbone has a soft dependency on jQuery and a hard dependency on Underscore.js.
• Organized development: Backbone lets you create client-side web applications or mobile applications in a well-structured and organized format.

Wrapping Up

So there you have it, the 10 best JavaScript frameworks in 2023.

Whether you’re looking to land a job as a web developer, enhance your portfolio, or boost your skills, JavaScript frameworks are one of the best ways to stay ahead of the curve in modern web development.

Even if you're new to the world of JavaScript frameworks, I hope you now have a better idea of what they are and why they're so useful.

And if anyone asks you what they are, you should be able to say, well, they are like a toolbox filled with pre-made code that helps you build a website or app more quickly.

Which one is your favorite? And are there any others you'd like to see us include on our list of JavaScript frameworks? Let us know in the comments below.

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Frequently Asked Questions

1. Which Framework Is Best For JavaScript?

The best JavaScript framework really depends on your project requirements and developer preference, but popular choices include React, Angular, and Vue.js.

2. What Is The Fastest JS Framework?

The "fastest" JS framework can vary based on the context and specific use case, but frameworks like React and Vue.js are renowned for their performance and efficiency.

3. How Many Frameworks are in JavaScript?

There are numerous JavaScript frameworks available, with new ones emerging regularly, but some of the most recognized include React, Angular, Vue.js, Ember.js, and Backbone.js.

4. Is jQuery a Framework?

jQuery is not a framework but rather a fast, small, and feature-rich JavaScript library designed to simplify HTML DOM tree traversal and manipulation, as well as event handling, CSS animation, and Ajax.

5. What is the Difference Between a JavaScript Framework and a JavaScript Library?

The main difference between a JavaScript framework and a JavaScript library is that a framework provides a complete solution and dictates the architecture of your project, while a library offers specific functionalities and greater flexibility in how it's used.

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