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One thing to note is that the popularity of JavaScript frameworks is ever changing. So, what might be in today may not be in tomorrow.
Let’s begin by defining what a framework is.
Think of a car. Every working car has a chassis, an engine and a body. Basically, a framework is similar to that in that it offers ready-made components that you can play around with. You can input your own logic however, storage, events and data binding has already been done for you.
Normally, a framework offers abstraction in a greater extent as compared to a library and makes the whole process much faster.
All this functionality of course comes at a cost. One drawback that is frequently experienced is that the app you’re trying to build might outgrow the framework used. It is therefore wise that you carefully select a framework that best suits your needs.
Frameworks and libraries work hand in hand.
Simply defined, a library is a collection of functionality. They also provide higher levels of abstraction which leads to better implementation and less inconsistencies. Due to the high level of abstraction, you need not worry of having to write your code from scratch. This means that you might end up reducing the development time by up to 20%.
Angular
There are different versions of Angular. For avoidance of any doubt we’re talking about version 1.x. It played a critical role and still does of extending HTML with two-way data binding while at the same time decoupling DOM manipulation.
Even though Angular 2.x has already been released the first version is still under development.
Some benefits you enjoy by learning Angular 1.x is the fact that it has been widely adopted by various organizations. So you need not worry of it falling out of favor with developers soon.
Angular 1.x offers an all-encompassing solution to building modern web applications.
Since it is part of the MEAN stack you can never run out of tutorials online. MEAN refers to MongoDB, Express.js, AngularJS, and NodeJS.
React
The most talked about library of 2017 has been React. It is used in the MVC (Model View Controller) development process as it mainly focuses on the View component. It is therefore ideal for creating aspects of UI that maintain state.
Most developers use React in the development of apps instead of websites. It is estimated that around 38% of all developers use it.
JQuery
Probably the most famous of all the the JavaScript frameworks, JQuery was launched back in 2006. Despite its age (and yes 2006 feels like a century ago!) JQuery remains one of the most used JavaScript libraries ever.
Part of the reason why JavaScript was and is still popular is because it revolutionized front-end development by introducing the DOM node and the CSS selector.
Even though it no longer as popular as it used to be, it still is used every now and then for projects that require a bit of JavaScript functionality.
Lodash and Underscore
The reason why we’re covering these two libraries together is because there’s some amount of overlap between the two. They provide numerous functionalities that supplement primitive object methods as well as array, number and native string.
Vue.js
Vue was launched in early 2014 and is a light-weight framework designed for building UIs. It is similar to React in the sense that the core acts similar to React’s view layer which is capable of powering single-page applications.
In order to bind the DOM to instance data it uses an HTML template.
Tools that are part of Vue.js are used for state management, routing, scaffolding, animations etc.
One of the reasons why you should consider Vue is because it is becoming increasingly popular. It is also very easy to get started with. Many developers have reported satisfaction when working with it.
BackBone
Backbone was developed by Jeremy Ashkenas and was launched in 2010. It is credited with being one of the earliest client-side options that had an MVC structure. It only has one dependency; Underscore.js.
Backbone is referred to as a library since it can be easily integrated with other projects. There are those who’d rather think of it as being a framework.
Ember
Ember is based on a different pattern than the other frameworks/libraries that are mentioned above. It relies on the MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) design. It combines libraries, data-binding and templating into a single package.
Many Ruby developers like working wth ember as it utilizes the convention-over-configuration concept.
Knockout
It is an older framework that uses the MVVM pattern. It uses observers to ensure the underlying data stays synchronized with the user interface. It implements dependency and templating tracking.
Angular 2.x
Also referred to as 4.x it was released in late 2016.
Even though the name gives the impression that it’s an improvement on Angular 1.x it is actually a complete rewrite. In fact, they’re so different that they are incompatible with each other. Angular 2.0 is a modular component-based model that was created using TypeScript. In early 2017 Angular 4.0 was released.
It is not understood why Google gave confusing semantics when most people would have preferred to have a totally different project name altogether.
Like with Angular 1.x it provides a single solution for creating SPAs (Single Page Applications). Because it is part of the MEAN stack you won’t have a hard time trying to learn it. However, not as many tutorials are available for Angular 2.x as there are for Angular 1.x.
Another advantage you’re likely to benefit from if you chose to learn Angular 2.x, is that if you’re already familiar with statically typed languages for instance Java and C# you will find that TypeScript offers some advantages.
Author Bio:
Over the many years we've been in operation, ITI College has built a solid reputation in the software development space. We are regular contributors to numerous web development blogs.