Top JavaScript Frameworks and Web Development Trends in 2021
This year the whole world has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. This unprecedented crisis still affects absolutely all spheres of human activity. Negative consequences of the virus also impact the sphere of web development, but it is one of the global industries that has been moving forward in 2020.
Therefore, it is high time to take a look at the main trends of the passing year in web technologies and JavaScript in particular as well as try to make some predictions about further front-end development in 2021. And of course, we won’t forget to mention how DHTMLX responded to the changing dynamics in the industry during the year and share our plans for the future.
JavaScript Stays on Top
Many web developers accept that JavaScript has some drawbacks and tricky parts, but it is still the most widely-used programming language. According to the Developer Survey 2020 held by Stack Overflow, 69.7% of 47,184 interviewed professional developers gave preference to JavaScript.
Although JavaScript is not perfect, it is hard not to appreciate its rich ecosystem with the abundance of frameworks, libraries, and other useful tools as well as a huge JS community of developers. Moreover, there is a special technical committee (known as TC39) that works on ways to improve JavaScript. Thus, it is next to impossible that JavaScript can be ousted from leading positions in web development any time soon, but TypeScript is likely to become an even more attractive alternative.
TypeScript Continues Conquering New Heights
TypeScript is frequently referred to as an improved version of JavaScript, and for good reasons. TypeScript not only takes advantage of all JavaScript strengths (as it compiles to JS) but also brings along its own powerful features such as static typing, support for modules and interfaces, etc. Besides, TypeScript is easier in terms of learning, maintainability, and debugging. Participants of the Stack Overflow survey named Typescript (67.1%) the most loved programming language right after Rust (86.1%).
The latest report from GitHub also confirms the current dominance of JavaScript in popularity. But at the same time, it clearly shows the rapid growth in demand for TypeScript in recent years.
It can be expected that the same trend will continue in 2021, as Microsoft continues to expand the capabilities of TypeScript and more web apps are written in this programming language.
JavaScript Frameworks: Familiar State of Things May Change in 2021
We have become accustomed to seeing React, Angular, and Vue.js as the leading JavaScript frameworks. The State of Frontend 2020 report doesn’t say anything new on framework preferences among more than 4,500 professional front-end developers, who responded to the survey.
But if you take a look at what frameworks responders want to keep on using or learn for their future projects, a new name comes into the top 3 list.
It is Svelte. So what’s so special about it? Let us take a closer look at this promising framework.
Svelte
Svelte is a lightweight next-generation component framework written in TypeScript that offers a new way of creating highly-performant web apps. Unlike more popular React and Vue.js that convert apps into vanilla JS code at runtime, Svelte does it at build time. In other words, Svelte serves as a compiler that allows running code in the browser without any abstraction layer, thereby enhancing the app’s performance and providing a greater user experience.
As a result, web applications created with Svelte turn out to be much faster than apps based on other frameworks right from the first load. Svelte can be utilized separately or in combination with other frameworks for generating web apps.
For now, Svelte may seem not mature enough to compete with such giants as React, but it certainly has the potential to gain wider use in web apps next year.
Deno: A Game-Changer or an Alternative to Node.js?
This year, web developers have received a new powerful tool for implementing their code on the server-side — Deno. This is a new runtime environment written in Rust that utilizes the V8 JS engine and built-in support for TypeScript.
The main idea behind Deno was to get rid of major Node.js shortcomings such as security vulnerabilities and package management issues and take advantage of modern JavaScript features. It comes with numerous integrated tools that will be handy for developers in testing, debugging and formatting.
The advent of Deno does not mean that Node.js comes to its end, as it is still a widely-used and well-supported environment.
But the GitHub statistics show that Deno has already evoked great interest in the web development community, thus it will be very exciting to follow its progress in 2021.
Something New in the Realm of CSS
New trends in CSS often live in the shadow of all that’s happening in JavaScript and undeservingly go unnoticed by many developers. The State of CSS survey provides interesting insights on adoption and awareness rates of new and already established CSS technologies in 2020 that can be helpful for those who need some extra tools for web app design.
For instance, CSS Grid becomes a more popular tool for generating dynamic and responsive layouts. Instead of utilizing global stylesheets, it is more effective to combine styles with components to create themeable design systems.
Bootstrap is probably the first example that comes to mind when talking about CSS frameworks. But the statistics show a serious decline in developers’ interest and satisfaction in Bootstrap and other mature tools such as Foundation.
Tailwind CSS has been in the lead for the last two years. Unlike Bootstrap, this lightweight framework does not impose on developers any built-in components but gives them the freedom to create unique designs using a set of CSS helper classes and other powerful features.
Number of Software Developers Using GitHub is Expected to Almost Double by 2025
At the moment, GitHub is the largest platform for open-source software development, where more than 56 million developers from all over the world can store their source code and collaborate on thousands of projects benefiting various industries. For instance, more than 67 thousand COVID-19 related projects were created during the first four months since the pandemic outbreak in an effort to help combat the disease.
According to the State of the Octoverse 2020 report, the number of developers on GitHub will reach 100 million by 2025. That is why we can expect significant growth in the number of open source projects in the coming years.
DHTMLX. Following Trends and Supporting Developers
The DHTMLX development team keeps up with the trends in the JavaScript world and web development. We closely follow the most demanded technologies in 2020 and 2021. This year we have added ready-made examples of using the Suite UI widgets with the topmost JS frameworks React, Angular, and Vue.js. Almost all DHTMLX components have also received TypeScript support, which contributes to speeding up web development and avoiding coding errors.
Since Node.js is predicted to remain a wanted tool for many years to come, DHTMLX has delivered code examples of using the Suite widgets on the backend.
With remote working becoming the new norm because of COVID-19, many companies around the world have to create conditions for optimal productivity in the rapidly changing environment. So we can expect a further growing demand for project management and collaboration software. Therefore, the DHTMLX team will stick to developing modern JavaScript tools for creating efficient project management apps in 2021. To cast some light on the upcoming novelties in 2021, we are on track to release a line of brand new Gantt charts written in pure React, Svelte, Vue.js, and Angular.
As healthcare organizations face many challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic, DHTMLX has come up with new demos and templates to assist medical institutions. The org chart demo serves to illustrate the management hierarchy of medical centers and manage medical staff online. The hospital management system template can help monitor the hospital capacity or become part of a full-featured telemedicine app.
Conclusion
2020 was very challenging for all of us. But despite all the odds, the DHTMLX team is committed to delivering top-notch JavaScript tools and supporting our clients and users in all challenges. Take care and stay positive.
