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If you’re building a website or app, chances are you’ll need to use frontend frameworks in order to create custom templates, create interactive websites, and much more. Every good website is built on a solid front-end framework. In fact, it’s probably safe to say that unless you’re a very talented coder, you won’t get far without one. A front-end framework provides a rock-solid foundation for your web application and helps improve quality, consistency and time to market for your project. But with so many options out for popular frontend frameworks such as—AngularJS, Aurelia, Ext JS, Meteor—how do you choose? Well, fortunately for you we have already done some of that legwork.
So here are our top 5 factors before selecting a frontend framework:
- Flexibility: Does it give me the freedom to choose whatever back end I want?
- Performance: How well does it perform?
- Ease of Use: Is its learning curve gentle or steep?
- Developer Experience: Are there enough developers who know how to use it or support forums/communities where I can learn from others if needed?
- Cost-Effective: What is my ROI going to be in terms of cost vs value over time?
While all these factors may not be relevant to every project, depending on specific needs, they should help guide your decision-making process when evaluating different frameworks. Ultimately, though, finding a framework that aligns with business goals and team capabilities will lead to success.
Benefits of Frontend development frameworks
Working with a framework has its benefits. By using a tried-and-tested framework instead of coding everything from scratch, developers can save time and energy by leveraging previous experience, as well as building upon proven tools. So what are some of those benefits? Here are ten reasons why you should use a frontend web development service to build your next website or app:
- You get to focus on business logic, not boilerplate code
- It’s easier to maintain
- You get better performance
- Code is more readable
- It’s easier to scale
- You have access to a huge community
- There’s less chance of bugs
- New features take less time
- Your team will be more productive
- It’s future-proof
This list of top 10 most popular frontend frameworks will help you to decide which framework is best suited to your needs as well as tell you about the different pros and cons of each framework.
1) React
Initially conceived as an internal Facebook project, React made its public debut in 2013. The goal of React was to make building fast user interfaces easier than existing JavaScript tools did. In 2015, the second version of React was released that included new features like server-side rendering and hot reloading. Built with simplicity in mind, anyone can create complex UIs using only HTML and JSX.
What’s really great about React is how easy it is to learn. Unlike other frameworks that have a steep learning curve, you’ll be able to get started quickly without sacrificing power or flexibility.
And when you do run into problems, there are plenty of resources available online to help you troubleshoot them. With great documentation and numerous video tutorials on YouTube, even beginners should be able to get up and running quickly—no matter what programming language they use!
2) Angular
Angular is a feature-rich JavaScript framework that allows you to create single-page applications. One of Angular’s best features is its focus on modular development and reusability; it uses Angular modules, components, and services that can be customized and reused in different projects.
From one project to another, you can use Angular modules as well as other open source modules such as FormsModule or HttpClientModule.
3) Vue.js
Vue.js is a progressive framework for building user interfaces. It provides data-reactive components with a simple and flexible API. Vue.js’ greatest strength is its simplicity and ease of use, making it easier to introduce into existing projects compared to other large frameworks, but powerful enough to build complex single-page applications when needed.
Its relatively small size also means that new features can be developed and added more quickly, allowing Vue to keep up with evolving web development trends better than some of its competitors such as Angular or React.
4) Ember.js
Ember.js is an open-source JavaScript framework for creating ambitious web applications that eliminates much of what we now consider boilerplate. Ember enables rapid and predictable development by embracing commonly accepted development patterns and best practices.
Its library of features covers everything needed to create apps that will stand the test of time. Developed at LinkedIn and released in 2011, Ember has a mature community, which has grown from its original contributors to over 100 individuals worldwide. The current framework is ready for production use and powering some of today’s most popular apps including Discourse, Groupon’s Buy With Me (BWM), and Yahoo! Fantasy Sports.
5) Backbone.js
Backbone.js is a library that allows developers to create front-end applications using JavaScript and HTML. Backbone is lightweight and helps simplify complex web apps by providing structure to data models, structures to views, event handling, and routing. Backbone has become one of most popular frameworks for creating single-page web applications (SPAs).
When it was released in 2010, Backbone was originally called Backpack.js, but due to a conflict with another project named Backpack, its name was changed prior to 1.0 release.
6) Polymer
HTML-based web components that allow for building Web applications with JavaScript, available as an open source project by Google. It is based on ideas from other frameworks like Facebook’s React and Microsoft’s XAML platform. Unlike other frameworks, Polymer is not intended to be an all-encompassing solution; rather, it was designed to be a set of tools for developing Web apps.
In fact, Polymer is comprised of three sub projects: two JavaScript libraries — Web Components and html2canvas — and a command line tool called polymer-cli . The Web Components library contains elements that can be reused as custom HTML tags in web applications.
7) Knockout
Knockout has gained popularity in recent years due to its small file size and ease of use. Basically, Knockout provides a way to link models and views using simple bindings. It’s not as rich or full-featured as AngularJS or Ember.js but it certainly gets you started without weighing down your project with too much code.
The best thing about Knockout is that it does one thing really well—binding data and DOM changes together—and it leaves most of the other stuff to you or another framework/library. If you want to get started quickly with an easy-to-use framework, give Knockout a try.
8) Durandal
Durandal is a standalone Javascript framework that facilitates building single-page applications, or SPAs. While it shares some features with AngularJS (for example, two-way data binding and declarative views), Durandal is primarily event-driven and has a much smaller footprint. Although Durandal uses jQuery under its hood, it doesn’t need to be included in your HTML page; you can use any templating engine you like.
And if you’re not working on an SPA project, then Durandal isn’t for you—it’s intended for building SPA apps only. But if that’s what you need to do, then Durandal will help speed up your development process significantly by making sure all of your code is organized and your site remains responsive at all times.
9) Aurelia
Aurelia is a popular front-end framework that emphasizes cross-platform support and browser compatibility. It also claims to adhere to modern JavaScript standards while still allowing developers freedom in creating robust applications.
Aurelia’s library of online resources includes various tutorials and a directory of best practices. The framework can be implemented with other libraries, such as jQuery, for enhanced functionality. Other features include built-in testing capabilities and simple build tools that allow for easy debugging of JavaScript code.
Aurelia was created by Rob Eisenberg, who has previously worked on AngularJS development projects for companies like Weather Channel and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
10) MeteorJS
Meteor is a JavaScript platform for building top-quality web apps in a fraction of the time, whether you’re an expert developer or just getting started. Meteor is a full-stack framework that makes it easy to build beautiful web apps from scratch by combining Blaze, Meteor’s declarative templating engine and data layer; MongoDB, a scalable and document database; and Node.js, server-side javascript.
Conclusion
Today’s web is fast-paced, where new advancements are made every day. Modern websites need to keep up with these advancements and deliver sophisticated user experiences quickly. These platforms below will give you a head start in front end web development services!
