Are you struggling to decide on the best JavaScript framework for you to focus on?
If you listen to every opinion on the internet, it gets even more confusing. Instead, we suggest you first understand what the data tells you and choose the path that best suits your needs. We have curated five of the best JavaScript frameworks, their pros and their cons.
We’ve compiled data from State of JS, Stack Overflow, and Google Trends, to help you make an informed decision and start building your career or software with the technologies in most demand.
Top 5 Best JavaScript Frameworks
| Feature | React | Angular | Vue | Svelte | Preact | Ember | Solid |
| Virtual DOM | Yes | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Two-Way Data Binding | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Component-Based Architecture | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes (optional) | Yes |
| Size | Small (43.9 KB) | Large (2.1 MB) | Small (80 KB) | Small (10.5 KB) | Small (3.5 KB) | Large (1.3 MB) | Small (4.5 KB) |
| Server-Side Rendering | No (but can be added with Next.js) | No (but can be added with Angular Universal) | Yes (but not as efficient as Next.js or Nuxt.js) | No (but can be added with Sapper or Elder.js) | No (but can be added with Preact CLI or SvelteKit) | No (but can be added with FastBoot or Glimmer.js) | Yes (but not as efficient as Next.js or Nuxt.js) |
| Routing | React Router | Angular Router | Vue Router | Svelte Routing | Preact Router | Ember Router | Solid Router |
| Popular Use Cases (e.g.) | Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Airbnb, Dropbox | Google, Microsoft, IBM, Cisco | Alibaba Group, Xiaomi, Baidu, Xiaomi Youpin | Microsoft Teams, Discord | Etsy, Deno, Domino’s | LinkedIn.com, Yahoo.com | Durudex, aoe4world, Web |
1. React.js
| Pros | Cons |
| Fast rendering with virtual DOM | Steep learning curve |
| Reusable components | Requires additional libraries for full functionality |
| Large community and ecosystem | JSX can be confusing for beginners |
| SEO-friendly | Poor documentation |
| Good performance with large-scale applications |
React and React Native are JavaScript frameworks that helps developers build reusable UI components in a more efficient and flexible way, making it a popular choice for building large-scale applications.
What makes React unique is that it employs a virtual document object model (DOM) – a representation of the real DOM React uses to increase performance. When a user interacts with a page (e.g., clicking a button to display a table), React will compare the updated virtual DOM to its previous state, identify only the section or elements that were updated, and only update those parts into the real DOM.
React Ranks Number 1 for Usage
According to the State of JS report, React has an 82% “will use again” score, being the most used JavaScript framework for seven years in a row.
In addition, we can confirm this preference by seeing the big difference between React and the rest of the frameworks in terms of NPM downloads – sitting at over 20M downloads and a constant demand.
React.js Breaks Into the Top Paying Web Frameworks
According to Stack Overflow’s 2022 survey, React.js sits at number 9 in the list of the top-paying web frameworks, with an average compensation of $69k.
There’s Still a High Interest in Learning React
Although the framework isn’t the new big thing anymore, the framework has retained developers’ interest in learning it.
Evidenced, also, by its still high search volume and interest over time:
React is the blue line.
This popularity is in part due to its industry adoption and career opportunities, which retroactively creates a bigger pool of React developers, making it easier for companies to attract experienced developers with this skill.
Just on LinkedIn, there are 100k+ jobs available listing React and React Native as a required skill.
Finally, React.js has the highest positive-to-negative ratio score, with only a 14% of respondents stating they won’t use the framework again.
2. Angular.js
| Pros | Cons |
| Angular is very testable | Understanding Angular takes time because of the intricate web of modules, coding languages, integrations, and customization options |
| Both AngularJS and Angular significantly reduce development time | Angular is rather complex compared to React and React Native, as well as other frameworks |
| Fast load time and better security due to the ahead-of-time compiler | Heavyweight codebase |
Angular.js is a TypeScript-based JavaScript framework that supports full-stack development for building all types of web applications. It helps in creating reactive single-page applications (SPA) and large enterprise applications.
What makes Angular unique is that it is a complete rewrite of AngularJS, which Google also created. Its component-based architecture allows you to reuse components across different projects, even if they’re built using other frameworks.
Angular Ranks Number 2 for Usage
According to the State of JS report, Angular has a 49% “will use again” score, consistently taking second place throughout the years.
In terms of NPM downloads, Angular has been downloaded 3.2M times, being the third most downloaded framework.
Angular is in the Top 20 Best Paid Web Frameworks
According to Stack Overflow’s 2022 survey, Angular (and Angular.js) sits at number 15 (and 18) in the list of the top-paying web frameworks, with an average compensation of $63k (and $60k, respectively).
There’s a Declining Interest in Angular
As the new wave of developers gets into the industry and new technologies emerge, it seems like the interest in learning and keep using Angular has drastically decreased.
Its search volume, compared to React, is 50% smaller, and there’s a visual decline line in its graph.
Angular is the yellow line.
The discrepancy between interest and usage could be due to the high demand for the framework in work settings, so there are great career opportunities from using the framework.
We have also seen that 40% of respondents are not interested in learning or using Angular.js.
3. Vue.js
| Pros | Cons |
| Easy to learn and use, even for beginners | Smaller community compared to other frameworks |
| Lightweight and fast | Fewer resources and documentation compared to other frameworks |
| Simple structure and is easy to integrate with other libraries | Less support for large-scale projects |
| Flexible architecture that allows developers to use it incrementally | Due to its popularity in Asia, many components are written in Chinese |
| Has a large number of plugins and libraries that can be used to extend its functionality | Inconsistent codebases due to extreme flexibility |
Vue.js is a lightweight and easy-to-learn JavaScript framework with a simple and flexible structure, allowing developers to use it incrementally. In other words, developers can use it in parts of their applications without having to use it for the entire application.
Thanks to its small size and flexibility, Vue can be used to create highly fast web applications with less complexity. Making it a perfect choice for projects where performance is more important than scalability.
Vue Ranks Number 3 for Usage
According to the State of Front-end JS Frameworks report, Vue has a 46% “will use again” score, taking his spot at the Big 3 JavaScript frameworks.
But surpassing Angular in terms of NPM downloads with 3.9M downloads – a 700k downloads difference:
Vue.js Makes it Into the Top Paying Web Frameworks
Vue sits at number 19, one point below Angular, in Stack Overflow’s 2022 survey, with a $60k/year average compensation.
Interest in Vue.js is Still High
Vue is right above React in terms of interest, showing strong interest retention from developers.
Still, its search volume is lower than Angular, and it also shows a decline in its graph.
Vue is the red line.
That said, it’s important to mention the popularity Vue.js has in Asian countries like China, meaning there’s a lot of search demand coming from, for example, Chinese search engines.
A healthy percentage of participants from the State of JS responded positively to Vue. We see that 62% of respondents are interested in using and learning Vue.js.
The combination in interest from developers and a healthy demand for Vue developers could help Vue keeping growing its adoption.
4. Svelte
| Pros | Cons |
| Compiles code at build time, making it faster than React or Vue | Fewer resources available compared to other frameworks |
| Reduces the overhead of the JavaScript framework you’re using by compiling Svelte to vanilla JavaScript | Steep learning curve for beginners |
| Improves code readability and enables re-use | Limited support for server-side rendering |
| Produces a much faster web app | Limited documentation compared to other frameworks |
| Does not require declarative, state-driven code, which the browser has to convert into DOM operations |
Svelte is a JavaScript framework that simplifies the process of building modern web applications by introducing a new paradigm that shifts the work from runtime to compile time.
The key difference from other frameworks is that it compiles and serves code at build time rather than runtime, making it faster than React or Vue.
Svelte Reached Number 4 for Usage
Svelte has gained a lot of popularity, and it now sits in the 4th position with a 21% “will use again” – according to the State of Front-end JS Frameworks report –, seeing a small 1% increase in 2022.
Although it is still far from the Big 3’s level of adoption, Svelte is still a young framework with a lot of room for growth.
In terms of NPM downloads, it already has over 500k downloads.
Svelte Surpassed React in the Top Paying Web Frameworks
Even with its still little demand on the market, Svelte developers, according to Stack Overflow survey, enjoy a $71k/year compensation – $2k higher than React developers.
Most Developers are Interested in Svelte
According to the State of JS, Svelte is at the top of the interest of developers, with 70% of all respondents interested in learning and working using the framework.
In fact having a similar search volume as Vue.js and a steady increase in searches over time.
Surprisingly, only 2% of developers are not willing to use Svelte again.
5. Preact
| Pros | Cons |
| Small size of only 3kb makes it one of the most lightweight frameworks or libraries on the market | Limited documentation compared to other frameworks |
| Compatible with React components | Fewer resources available compared to other frameworks |
| Faster than React and much smaller (3kB compared to React 16’s 35kB) | Steep learning curve for beginners |
| Uses a virtual DOM approach to render web components | Limited support for server-side rendering |
| Supports hot module replacement (HMR) |
Preact is a JavaScript library designed to be an efficient and lightweight alternative to React. It has a small virtual DOM and weighs only 3KB, enabling quick transfers from server to client and optimizes load times. [Note: Here’s a full page explaining the differences between React and Preact.]
Preact Breaks Into the Top 5 JS Frameworks for Usage
In the State of JS survey, Preact gets a 13% usage score, becoming the 5th “most use” framework – although it has clearly lost some momentum as Svelte gets more popular.
However, in terms of NPM downloads, Preact has been download 2.5M – which means 2M downloads more than Svelte.
Although it’s just our guess, there’s a big chance this impressive difference in downloads could be due to React’s popularity. As the framework is a lighter React alternative, there’s a big chance a lot of React developers are willing to test it.
At the moment, there isn’t any salary information available, which is not surprising. Preact is still a very small framework with big shoes to fill, so it hasn’t broken into the top-paying web frameworks, and we couldn’t find much information about Preact developers – which was completely expected.
When looking on LinkedIn, only 60 jobs had Preact listed, and we can’t guarantee all of them are actually developer jobs.
That said, you can find some companies using Preact to get a sense of the kind of business implementing the framework.
At the moment, it’s not a top interest framework as Preact is struggling to keep the interest high. In fact, the interest of learning and using Preact has dropped from 43% in 2018 to 36% in 2022.
On search, there’s not much search volume, and the trend is still quite unstable.
Although we still have to see how it develops, Preact is losing a lot of interest, according to the results in 2022. Over 40% of developers that have heard of the tool are not interested in learning the framework, and 24% didn’t not it existed.
There’s a good chance that, although there’s some interest thanks to React, there’s also a lot of doubt on why to consider an alternative that’s so similar.
Only time will tell us what will happen with this framework, so we advise giving it one or two more years before implementing it into a large project or before completely ignoring it.
Wrapping Up: A Couple of Honorable Mentions
Of course, those frameworks with a mature toolkit and industry adoption are still more used than newcomers. However, as new developers get into the job market and new technologies make it somewhat easier for these developers to become job ready, we’ll see some interesting technologies grow in adoption.
For example, unlike Angular, newer frameworks are getting a lot of interest from both new and experienced developers, like Solid and Qwik.
Qwik has introduced a unique rendering approach worth exploring called “in-demand hydration”, while Solid’s unique features include fine-grained reactivity and modular architecture, making it an ideal choice for a high-performance analytics dashboard like AnalytiCore.
As you can see in the graph above, these two frameworks sit at the top of the most “wanted to learn” technologies in the State of JS report.
Although they still have a long way to go in terms of adoption, these frameworks could quickly get a lot of traction as new companies grow.
We trust that we’ve clarified and enhanced your understanding of the best JavaScript frameworks in today’s rapidly evolving landscape. Given the swift pace and continuous development inherent in JavaScript, rest assured that we will remain attentive and keep you informed on the industry shifts that follow.
