The big frontend frameworks comparison 2023

Frontend Frameworks 2023 - Which frontend framework suits you best?

Which frontend framework will still be viable in 2023? What are the differences between the most popular frameworks? And why are frameworks needed in the frontend at all? In this post, we take a wide-angle look at the frontend landscape.

What are the most popular frontend frameworks?

Before we dive deeper into the subject and look at the individual frameworks, we will answer the question of why frontend frameworks are needed in web development at all. This is mainly due to the fact that the requirements for the frontend have increased significantly over the years.

While websites used to be accessed exclusively by a desktop computer, today a variety of mobile devices access a new website, whether smartphones or tablets, smart TVs or other devices.

Website creation cost: A front-end developer is responsible for ensuring that website visitors can interact with the site without any problems. Whenever users visit a new website, everything they see, click on, or otherwise use is the work of a front-end developer. Developers do this by combining design, technology, and programming to code the look and feel of a website.

If there are any errors with the interface, it will have a big impact on the overall website cost. With the advent of mobile devices, it is even more important to create responsive designs nowadays. A frontend framework makes the work of developers a lot easier. With frontend frameworks, it is possible to create websites that meet all the above requirements for a new website with relatively little effort.

Front-end frameworks in web development

Source

The latest State of JS Report from 2021 shows the most popular frontend frameworks of the year.

According to the report, 80% use React, 54% Angular, and 51% Vue.js. Svelte is already well behind at 20%, but has seen a significant upswing since 2019, so we'll be devoting some time to this new framework as well.

What is the React Framework?

The most popular frontend framework is still React. It should be said in advance that React is technically not a framework, but a library. However, opinions merge here (as in the figure above), so we include React in this comparison.

The React framework was created in 2013 by Facebook, which still manages it. React is a component-based web framework that has been used to create a variety of complex applications such as PayPal, Facebook, Dropbox, Netflix, and Twitter.

Building website with React: the advantages of React at a glance

• Simple optimization without much effort
• Flexibility for individual adjustments
• Multiple applications (web, mobile, desktop and more)
• Suitability for SEO websites
• Easy to debug
• Support from Facebook

What is the Angular Framework?

The Angular framework is the second most used frontend framework. Angular is a JavaScript framework based on TypeScript. AngularJS was first released by Google in 2010 and is one of the first JS-based frontend frameworks.

After the release of React in 2013 by Facebook, Google released a new SPA framework called Angular. The current prevalence of Angular is due in no small part to the fact that many companies continue to use the framework, as it is still considered future-proof due to its prominent support.

Building website with Angular: the advantages of Angular at a glance

• Modular structure
• Dependency Injections
• HTML and CSS completely usable
• High safety standards
• Popular with companies
• Support from Google

What is the Vue Framework?

Vue was released in 2014 and has seen a reboot two years later. This is a JS framework for front-end web projects. The goal of developer Evan You was mainly to make the framework simpler and less dogmatic. The result is quite impressive: Unlike other frameworks, the learning curve here is really less steep.

The Vue framework is considered extremely flexible, as changes can be made to the code without affecting basic functionality. Despite its relatively young age, Vue is also already used by a large number of companies, such as Nintendo, Alibaba or Expedia.

Building website with Vue: the advantages of Vue at a glance

• Easy to understand and well structured documentation
• Vue JS Framework Javascript: Flat learning curve
• Large open source community
• Progressive app development
• Script Vue.js: Lightweight framework
• Vue.js 3.0 available as brand new version

And what about the Svelte Framework?

Svelte is the newest of the four most used frameworks and has been able to build a relatively large fan base in a very short time. It is interesting to note that, compared to React or Angular, Svelte is not supported by a tech giant, which is considered a disadvantage by some, and an advantage by others. The framework was developed in 2016 by Rich Harris, who came up with the idea of compiling the code before transferring it to the browser.

The compiler does all the heavy lifting during the build phase, eliminating the need for a Virtual DOM, which makes applications a lot lighter. In addition, the framework does not require any TypeScript knowledge.

Building website with Svelte: the advantages of Svelte at a glance

• Suitable for developers with little JS experience
• Compiler reduces runtime
• Reusable components
• Client-side and server-side rendering
• Optimal for SEO websites
• Cross-platform: web, mobile and desktop apps

An outlook

React as well as Angular and Vue have proven to be reliable frameworks over the past years. All 3 frameworks are used by well-known companies, while behind place 1 and 2 are two of the biggest tech giants from Silicon Valley. Therefore, it is safe to assume that the top 3 most used frontend frameworks still have a long future ahead of them.

But what about 4th place? This is difficult to predict at this point. Svelte is still in its infancy and has not been adopted by companies to the same extent as the other frameworks. Conversely, Svelte's lack of market maturity compared to the other frameworks also means that the job market for capable Svelte developers is extremely small, so we will continue to rely on the tried and true frameworks for the foreseeable future.

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