Being a niche product has little to do with popularity. It is often more about specialization, about meeting a specific need and doing it just a little bit better than the market leader. So, it is possible to be quite popular but still be considered niche.

And that is how it is with many JS frameworks. Sure, Angular and React might dominate the conversation, but neither is always the right choice. From frameworks that touch on every aspect of your app or website, to some that are really good at one specific task, niche JS frameworks are worthy of consideration. 

JS frameworks – usage ranking

JS frameworks – satisfaction ranking

Below are seven niche JavaScript frameworks that have attracted a lot more attention in recent months. And while they are unlikely to dominate conversations, they will continue being discussed and debated through the next year.

Svelte

The biggest difference between Svelte and other frameworks is that conversion to JavaScript happens at build time, not at run time. It was the first framework to do this, but with the concept even finding its way into Angular–via Angular Elements. This improves performance, which alone makes Svelte worth considering for your next project or incorporating into your current project.

Rich Harris, the creator of Svelte, has stated that developers will write less code with his framework, while also being able to use features not supported by more popular frameworks. It also supports incremental adoption, so developers can gradually introduce Svelte into their projects.

And while the Svelte community is still relatively small, the development of the framework is far from slow. The first version of Svelte was released in 2016, with Version 3–which saw the framework switch to being written in TypeScript–released less than three years later. Aside from being used at The New York Times, Svelte is also being used in point-of-sale devices, Smart TV apps, and dozens of other apps around the world.

LitElement

Technically, LitElement is a library, not a framework. But regardless of the framework you have used for your web app, there is a good chance you will need to use web components. And being framework-agnostic, LitElement is a great way to build your web components.

The developers of LitElement–the same team responsible for Polymer–describe it as

a lightweight base class that makes it easier than ever to build and share Web Components.

Being lightweight is important if you are already using a lightweight framework and don’t want to add any heft to it. But this also translates into web components that are fast, and with a familiar syntax, also fast to write.

LitElement supports both TypeScript and vanilla JavaScript, and is supported by all major browsers, including IE. This is useful if your app must still support this dated browser.

Alpine.js

Like LitElement, Alpine.js isn’t meant as a framework for your entire website or app, but rather to style or enhance certain features. To better understand where it fits in, you could look at Alpine.js as a replacement for jQuery, Bootstrap, and/or vanilla JavaScript rather than a replacement for any framework. Crucially, it works with an existing DOM, and there is no shadow DOM.

And like LitElement it is lightweight. But that means you are limited to only 20 built-in directives and properties. If all you are looking for is a little bit of styling, and are already familiar with Vue.js and Angular, Alpine.js could be just what you need. Without having to worry too much about any size and performance impact.

Alpine.js has only been around since the end of 2019, but the development of the framework is very active.

Stimulus

While described as a JavaScript framework, the developers of Stimulus are quick to point out that

It’s designed to augment your HTML with just enough behavior to make it shine.

It relies on three core concepts in