The 10 Best JavaScript Frameworks you Should Learn by 2021

Why do we Need JavaScript Frameworks?

Before we move one further, we need to consider the question – Why do we need JavaScript frameworks? Generally speaking, JavaScript frameworks are actually a collection of JS code libraries that contain pre-written JavaScript code that can use for official programming functions and tasks. It enables you to develop websites or web applications efficiently. It saves you time and increases your productivity by giving you a set of pre-written functions in the framework. Moreover, you don’t have to worry about other obstacles like building everything from scratch, security issues, etc.

Now back to the primary concern, which is to find a usable JS framework that meets all your requirements. To make it more comfortable for you, we have compiled a list of several of the most popular and recommended JavaScript frameworks based on various deciding factors and statistics in 2021.

Let’s start with the list of JS frameworks:

1| Angular

Angular, developed by Google, is an open-source front-end web framework that allows you to integrate JavaScript with other web technologies such as HTML and CSS. The latest version of Angular was released last 2020, based on TypeScript (the JavaScript superset), and you should know that more than 400,000 websites have been built with Angular worldwide. It allows you to develop native apps and web applications for desktop and mobile devices and is suitable for developing enterprise web applications.

Angular also follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture model, which allows you to control UI components and their behavior. Angular allows you to customize DOM attributes according to your needs. The framework is prevalent among developers due to its essential characteristics: two-way data binding, Angular CLI, virtual scrolling, directives, built-in dependency injection, virtual scrolling, and many other features.

• Helps in building advanced web applications (PWA).
• High speed and performance
• Steep learning curve
• Less code in the framework

Angular is used by Google, Microsoft, YouTube, and others.

2| Vue.js

Vue.js, generally known as Vue, is an open-source JavaScript framework related to developing rich user interfaces. It is not blasphemous to say that it is a mixture of both – React and Angular frameworks. For example, the structure provides practical DOM features like React and two-way binding. In 2020, Vue was the most popular framework on GitHub, surpassing Angular and React. The number of developers using Vue has grown significantly, by around 18-20%, over the last 3-4 years.

In addition, it is an MVVM (Model-View-View-Model) based framework, and the core library primarily focuses on the view layer. The framework also supports declarative rendering and component installation. Other notable features of Vue include event handling, models and directives, Vue.js CLI, components, transitions, reactivity, and many others.

• Provides enhanced customizability
• Easier to learn
• Supports CSS transitions and animations
• Improved flexibility and modularity

Vue use by companies like Stack Advance.

3| React.js

React.js is an open-source JavaScript book for developing web interfaces, initially created by Facebook. However, it’s worth noting that React isn’t a framework; it’s a front-end library – although many developers worldwide consider it a framework. React enables you to produce reusable UI components and can be used with other JavaScript libraries. It can develop apps for all types of interfaces, including mobile and desktop, and is heavily favoured for single-page application (SPA) development and building enterprise apps. On GitHub, React is the second most forked framework and the most forked compared to other frameworks.

React uses the JavaScript extension JSX, which facilitates the integration of JavaScript and HTML. It also follows the MVC model and provides some essential features like one-way data binding, virtual DOM, event handling, etc.

• Easier development of dynamic web applications
• Reusable components
• Easy debugging
• Improved community support

Companies using React are Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.

4| Svelte

Svelte compiles code into pure JS and has a proprietary compiler that converts apps within ideal JavaScript at build credit, preferably at runtime like other frameworks. Generally, no additional code is injected at runtime when the app updates the DOM. As a result, web applications developed with Svelte are usually faster than other frameworks.

Svelte offers several essential features: improved speed and performance, less code required, no virtual DOM, and many others. Moreover, according to several research reports, Svelte can conquer other popular frameworks like React, Angular, etc., in the coming time. Svelte certainly seems relatively young, but if you want to learn a web development framework for 2021 – it would be a good choice for you!

• Very responsive
• Higher performance
• No complex management libraries
• Readable and concise syntax

Companies using Svelte are Codstry, Screen, Kontact, etc.

5| Ember.js

Ember.js is another usable JavaScript web framework open source and used to develop scalable single-page web applications. Originally known as the SproutCore 2.0 framework, Yehuda Katz developed it. Ember.js follows the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural model. Although it is a web framework, you can also use it to create mobile and desktop applications. In addition, it uses HTML and CSS as the basis for its development model, and the Ember.js back-end architecture allows you to write advanced HTML tags.

Ember.js provides you with its data layer, templates or control bars, a built-in testing environment, and numerous other features and functions. It comes with the Glimmer rendering engine, which allows you to render DOM elements of your model. With the Ember.js command-line interface, you can run tests in the browser, load components automatically, rebuild quickly, etc. Meanwhile, the demand and popularity of Ember among developers have been increasing lately.

• High performance
• Adaptable and flexible
• Availability of Ember CLI
• Bidirectional data binding

Ember.js is used by companies such as Apple, Microsoft, Linked In, etc.

6| Backbone.js

It is a lightweight JavaScript library that follows the Model-View-Controller (MVC) architectural pattern and is often used to develop single-page applications. It can create SPAs and client-side applications that run in web browsers structured and with more flexibility. It provides extensive support for RESTful APIs and has mainly one core dependency, the underscore library. In addition, Backbone.js communicates via events, which means that the application is not broken or disrupted and the code is simple, clean, and easy to maintain.

Using Backbone.js provides you with several excellent features and functionalities for web application development, such as availability of more than 100 extensions, implementation of complex functionalities by writing less code, automatic update of HTML in case of model change, etc. Another advantage of using Backbone.js is that developers can choose the right tools for the project depending on their needs and requirements.

• General code and MV structure
• Free and open-source library
• Better documentation
• Event-driven communication

Companies that use Backbone.js are Airbnb, Drupal, Trello, etc.

7| Next.js

Let’s move on to another open-source framework for front-end development. It enables the development of Jamstack and server-based applications by following best development practices. Meanwhile, Next.js mainly supports CSS and stylized JSX, among other technologies. Moreover, Next.js is written in TypeScript, and JavaScript modules & React components can be dynamically imported into it.

Next.js offers remarkable important features before-mentioned as automatic code splitting, automatic routing, SEO support, prefetching, and many others. Next.js also has a static export feature that allows you to export an utterly static website from the application. In the latest version of Next.js, several new parts and functionalities have been announced, such as support for redirects, incremental static regeneration, and many others.

• Display on the server
• Supports hot code reloading
• Ensures compatibility with the ecosystem
• Dynamic components

Companies using Next.js are Netflix, Github, Avocode, etc.

8| Meteor

The framework provides full-stack solutions for web application development. In addition, the framework has an isomorphic development ecosystem that allows you to build real-time web applications from scratch. This particular framework is in various areas such as back-end development, database management, front-end rendering, etc. It can also use it with several other reputed front-end frameworks like Vue, Svelte, Angular, etc. And yes, with Meteor, you can use the same code for mobile and web app development.

Meteor gives you several outstanding features like responsive templates, hot code reloads, effective communication between front-end and back-end servers, and much more. Looking at the numbers, there are currently more than 25000 websites active on the web using Meteor, and the framework is becoming increasingly popular among developers.

• Isomorphic Development Ecosystem (IDevE).
• Integrated live browser reloading
• Better community support
• Custom package manager

Companies that use Meteor are Accenture, Nordstrom.

9| Aurelia

Aurelia is a popular open-source front-end JavaScript framework used principally for web, mobile, and desktop application development. The framework combines various open-source JavaScript modules written in ECMAScript that allow developers to use plain vanilla JavaScript or TypeScript. In addition, some of these modules can be explicitly used in any JS project and consume less memory compared to some other popular frameworks. It can also integrate with other third-party libraries or frameworks such as jQuery, Polymer, Bootstrap, etc.

Aurelia has many enriching built-in features like solid data binding, routing, progressive extension, dependency injection, and many more. It also provides you with a CLI for developing projects and a browser plugin for the debut.

10| Express.js

The framework supports the MVC architecture (Model-View-Controller) and is quite fast compared to other frameworks. Moreover, it allows dynamic rendering of HTML pages and provides you with essential web applications without hiding Node.js functionalities.

It also provides you with the routing components, supports middleware, templating, and other features that make web application development more convenient. And yes, the framework is very compatible with the databases like MongoDB, MySQL, etc. Express.js is enjoying great popularity among the developers, mainly because of its minimalistic features.

• Fast and recipe-free framework
• Easy debugging
• Compatible with other frameworks
• Better community support

Companies using Express.js are PayPal, Uber, IBM, etc.

In the end, you need to know that each framework has its advantages and disadvantages. Among all these frameworks mentioned above, you can choose to start with depending on your requirements and convenience! If you still have doubts while choosing, there are many software development companies in India that may help in choosing the right programming languages for your business.