We know the difference between a JavaScript Library and a JavaScript Framework. We also know the benefits of using a JavaScript Framework in development. But choosing the right one for your next project can be a difficult task. New frameworks haven’t stopped appearing on GitHub regularly, while others, failing to gain any traction, are quietly abandoned.

Which begs the question of how do you go about choosing a JavaScript Framework for your next project? How can you be sure the framework you choose won’t fall into neglect at some time in the future?

There is no single answer to the first question; it all depends on the project you are working on: the requirements, timeline, and your knowledge. And you have to also consider what your customers will be using. At Handsontable, we need to ensure that our spreadsheet component can easily be added to new projects. That is why we have wrappers for popular JavaScript frameworks: React, AngularJS, Angular, Vue, and Polymer.

The second question is still a little tricky to answer, since you have no way of knowing for sure. You can only hope that if the original developers abandon it, that the community will step in, fork it, and keep the core of the framework intact.

This post is not about trying to answer either of those questions. Instead it is simply our take on notable JavaScript Frameworks that we believe will continue to thrive in 2018.

But this isn’t purely a popularity contest. The health of a particular framework isn’t assessed on number of downloads alone, it also considers contributor activity, the number of recent releases (or updates), and even search trends. [Note on search trends: many JavaScript frameworks have names that could apply to a variety of products, objects, etc., so it is difficult to accurately assess popularity using Google Trends].

However, we also don’t have a crystal ball, so while we consider recent activity, we can’t guarantee that any one of these won’t be usurped by a surprise challenger that nobody saw coming.

Angular

AngularJS was originally released in 2010, and is a web application framework primarily maintained by Google. It was originally developed to address challenges in developing single-page apps (SPAs), with components that complemented Apache Cordova, making cross-platform mobile app development possible.

In 2014, the original AngularJS team began working on an updated framework, which was released as Angular (or Angular 2+) in 2016. Unlike AngularJS, Angular is a single framework for all platforms, which is a big plus. Negative aspects of Angular include a much steeper learning curve than other frameworks — there are more than 30,000 “unanswered” questions on Stack Overflow, and uses non-standard HTML tags and attributes — and no compatibility between the two frameworks, so knowing AngularJS doesn’t mean you can also work with Angular.

Website | GitHub | License

React

Released by Facebook in 2013, Re