Best 10 Front-End Technologies for Web Development

In this Covid-struck era, digitization has become more important than ever. Front-end technologies, such as front-end frameworks, have been instrumental in developing all software applications.

Although the back end is important, it is not the first thing users encounter.

Front-End Frameworks

Frameworks are small pieces of software that help with the development and maintenance of large projects. These modules include prepared code and basic software modules that programmers can use to solve general programming tasks such as handling AJAX requests or defining a file structure.

These frameworks define the rules for building the app architecture. Frameworks include code libraries, utility programs, and scripting languages. This software is used to facilitate the development and implementation of large-scale software products.

Developers don’t need to start new projects when there are frameworks. Instead, they can use the foundation to implement other features specific to their project.

In web development, the front end is the user interface that displays a website or an application's graphical user interface. You might say it is the interface users interact with and see on a website or application. Therefore, this section has to be designed in a manner that is user-friendly so that knowledge from the server side is effectively imparted. 

1. React

React is also known as React JS. It is a well-known front-end JavaScript library that allows for the development and maintenance of user interfaces. This uses the MVC architecture but with a different table for presentation and data availability. One of its distinctive features is the Virtual DOM, which handles document access and manipulation. The DOM allows them to behave similarly to a tree structure, and each HTML element functions like an object. It also interacts well with XML documents and HTML files.

It is powered by Facebook and has been widely recognized as an excellent library in the front-end toolkit. This coding style uses JSX, which includes a mixture of HTML quotes and tag syntax to create components. The large components are broken down into smaller parts that can be managed individually and separately. This feature will increase the developer's productivity.

Pros

• Component reusability facilitates collaboration and reuses in other areas of the application
• Virtual DOM can be used to achieve consistent and seamless performance
• It allows you to create components without classes and makes it easier to learn React

Cons

• These tools are extremely helpful and advanced
• It is hard to create proper documentation due to the framework's multiple and constant updates, which affects the learning curve for beginners
• Developers find it difficult to understand the complexities of JSX when starting with the framework

Used by: Groupon, Microsoft, Walmart, Netflix, PayPal, Google, Uber, Facebook, eBay, LinkedIn, etc.

2. Angular

Angular is the best front-end framework on the market now and is the dominant web front-end platform. This framework will allow you to create single-page applications that are efficient and advanced. It is a Typescript-based platform for development and was developed by Google. Angular is a component-based framework used to develop scalable web apps. It also provides a range of tools that developers can use for creating, testing, and modifying code and a collection of well-integrated libraries.

Angular can scale from a single-page application to an enterprise-level application, depending on your requirements. It offers many features.

Pros

• You can upgrade modifications made in the model to view or vice versa
• The code size is reduced because the most important features, such as two-way data binding, are available by default
• By defining the components as external elements, they can be decoupled from each other
• Dependency injection components can be reused and are easy to manage
• A large support and learning community

Cons

• There are numerous ways to accomplish the work as Angular is a complete dynamic solution, and therefore learning curve is steeper
• Dynamic apps can sometimes fail to perform due to their large structure and complexity

Used by: Gmail, Upwork, PayPal, Forbes, Xbox, Deutsche Bank, Santander, Blender, Microsoft Office, etc.

3. Vue.js

Vue.js is a modern, progressive MVVM framework that takes advantage of incremental adoption as much as possible. Vue.js is a JavaScript library that has created interactive UI elements which are lightweight and easy to use. It provides data-reactive elements through a simple and flexible API. It is quite easy to complete smaller projects and then moves up to the larger ones.

Pros

• Small and fast
• Beginner-friendly
• Simple syntax
• Detailed documentation
• Positive SEO Impact
• Two-way data binding

Cons

• No available plugins
• Language barriers
• Created by private individuals
• The developer community is small
• Not applicable to larger projects
• No powerful business behind it

Used by: Grammarly, Xiaomi, Adobe, Alibaba, Trivago, GitLab, Netflix, Facebook, Reuters, Nintendo, etc.

4. Svelte

Svelte is a JavaScript compiler that produces high-performance user interfaces. Rich Harris created it in 2017 but is still in its early stages.

It uses a JavaScript Virtual Machine instead of a virtual DOM. This machine is specifically designed to create user interfaces. Through this, Svelte becomes ten times faster than other platforms such as React and Angular frameworks.

Pros

• Better reactivity
• Faster than Angular or ReactScalable framework
• Simple, lightweight, and uses the existing JavaScript libraries

Cons

• Lack of support 
• Small community
• Lack of tooling 
• Not very popular yet

Used by: Chess, Godaddy, HealthTree, Philips, BlueHive, Cashfree, Rakuten, Razorpay.

5. jQuery

jQuery is one of the most well-known and oldest available frameworks. John Resig created it. It's small and fast, has many features, and is one of the most popular front-end JavaScript framework libraries. It is a cross-platform library that makes client-side HTML scripting much easier.

jQuery makes it easy to perform tasks such as document traversal, event handling, and animation. It also supports a wide variety of web browsers. With its extensibility, versatility, and flexibility, jQuery has changed the way JavaScript designers write JavaScript.

Pros

• Adaptability in terms of adding and removing elements
• Streamlining the process of sending HTTP requests
• Dynamic content is allowed

Cons

• Slow working speed
• Many advanced alternatives are available

Used by: Bank of America, Uber, Udemy, Twitter, Twitter, and JPMorgan ChaseBank of America.

6. Backbone.js

Backbone.js is a JavaScript library that provides web applications with proper structure. It does this by providing models with custom events and major key-value binding. You will find libraries with enriched APIs, including views, declarative events handling, and functions. It communicates with the current API via a RESTful JSON user interface. It is lightweight because it only uses two JS libraries.

Pros

• You can find more than 100 available extensions
• Beginner-friendly
• Fewer requests to HTTP
• It's small
• In-depth tutorials
• Instead of storing data in DOM, it stores it in models

Cons

• Two-way data binding is not supported
• Perplexing Architecture
• Writing more code is required
• It is believed to be getting obsolete by many developers

Used by: Pinterest, Uber, Coursera, Master Card, Walmart, Reddit, LinkedIn, Roblox, etc.

7. Ember.js

This open-source framework is worth keeping an eye on. This framework can be used to create modern user interfaces, internet solutions, mobile apps, and other cross-platform applications.

It is important to follow the MVVM pattern. Ember automatically generates a test program for every new entity. This is an extremely useful feature.

Pros

• Consistent documentation
• Server-side rendering
• Widget-based approach to components
• Native testing and debugging
• The data binding is two-way
• URL-focused approach
• Well-organized community
• Supports TypeScript & JavaScript

Cons

• Rough for beginners
• Not very suitable for small projects
• Heavyweight
• Component reuse capabilities are lacking
• Little or no customization

Used by: Chipotle, Blue Apron, Nordstrom, Tinder, Netflix, PlayStation Now, Apple Music, Yahoo!, and LinkedIn.

8. Semantic-UI

SemanticUI is another newcomer in the front-end frameworks market. Semantic-UI was created by Jack Lukicthis (full-stack developer). It is a CSS framework based on organic syntax. It uses LESS and jQuery. It rose quickly to the top of the JavaScript projects list on GitHub in 2015.

Pros

• Organic code is self-explanatory in nature
• Responsive and rich UI components Integrations with Ember React and Meteor are possible
• Great selection of themes

Cons

• Relatively small community
• Not for beginners with little knowledge
• Few recent updates
• To develop custom configurations some proficiency is required

Used by: Kmong, Digital Services, Snapchat, Accenture.

9. Foundation

Zurb's Foundation is another powerful front-end framework. It was created to assist developers in quickly prototyping and building websites. It includes HTML and CSS components, as well as JavaScript plugins and Sass variables. This framework also contains all the functionality needed to develop modern web apps.

Foundation, unlike other frameworks, focuses more on prototypes than production code. The teams can quickly move from a design to functional prototypes without needing to write code.

Pros

• Flexible grids
• You can create exquisite-looking websites
• HTML5 form validation library
• You can get customized user experiences for different devices and media
  

Cons

• Tough for beginners 
• Fewer support forums and community forums.
• There are some competitors that are more popular than Foundation

Used by: Firefox and eBay.

10. Get in the Act

React is the most widely used front-end framework for front-end development, but it does have some flaws. This idea inspired the creation of a smaller framework that offers similar features to React. Preact, therefore, is a miniature version of React.

Both have the same API and use the same app development methods. Preact, however, is smaller and uses the fastest virtual DOM.

This template is perfect for small applications that don't require many integrations.

Pros

• React-style elements can be used, but it is built using Backbone and JQuery
• App development can improve performance
• All of these characteristics are embodied by the React community

Cons

• Incompatible with the React prototype
• No support is provided for React's synthetic event use
• No context support