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Posted by olivia cuthbert on May 13th, 2021

The popularity of Typescript counterbalances the popularity of JavaScript.

What can we say? Typescript has moved beyond being a leading JavaScript trend, and we can now talk about a standard. 

And an open choice for the vast majority of software development projects. Typescript's popularity has grown steadily over the past four years, and it is 100% the most promising language for 2021, with a 78% usage rate among professional developers.

| Front-End Executives. Will the king fall in 2021?

If you wonder which JavaScript framework to learn in 2021, you will find the answer in this section. I asked Marcin Gajda, our lead front-end developer, to comment on the most popular JavaScript frameworks.

Marcin Gajda: As far as the most used JS frameworks are concerned, the report clearly shows that we are heading towards a specific stabilization of the demand for certain tools. The podium in this section has remained unchanged for four years and occupied by three well-known kings: React, Angular and Vue.js.

The most used JavaScript frameworks are Regular, Vail, Vue, and Rex, Vector, and Vector.

Exciting things are happening outside the top three, where Svelte is making a noticeable invasion, with usage growth almost doubling. The fourth-place of this free software does not surprise me at all. This is a breath of fresh air in its approach to building front-end web applications, and as such, it should expect to steal more and more impressions in 2021. It is more or less confirmed by the "interest" ranking, where Svelte reigns supreme for the second year in a row with over 65%. Many front-end developers are eyeing. 

Furthermore, it is interesting to see Angular's position as one of the top choices on the list. Even though its used by more than half of the developers, almost no one else is interested in learning this JavaScript framework. Developers share the standard view that Angular has a high entry threshold and works best on large, complex projects. I predict that in 2021, developers will be attracted to smaller frameworks or micro-frameworks, which are lightweight, easy to use, and offer great satisfaction.

Regarding the latter, the new State of JS report looked at satisfaction with the use of JavaScript frameworks. Surprisingly, Svelte surpassed React in this respect and took first place! This development and the continued growth of Svelte means that more and more eyes (and applications) will turn to the "orange framework."

What a surprise! Svelte has become the most satisfying JavaScript framework!

On the other hand, React still has a solid place in the front-end community, and that won't change in 2021. The continued growth of this tool, combined with several pioneers in the front-end world, ensures that it is a future solution that many developers and clients building web applications are looking for. Specialties such as hooks in the past and concurrency and component-based servers in the future ensure that React is practical to use. In contrast, its use is expanded and optimized appropriately for the web development landscape in 2021.

No surprises in data layer management

Almost everything is quiet on the React front. Redux is still the leading choice for a complex solution, but there is a significant drop in user satisfaction. However, this leaves an opportunity for GraphQL and Apollo-based solutions. This opportunity is being exploited as both technologies slowly but surely gain satisfaction, usage, and awareness among React developers. More on data-layer JavaScript trends in 2021 from Andrzej Wysoczański, Head of our Front-end team.

Andrzej Wysoczański: Using individual solutions shows that beating Redux is not that easy. Despite the declining interest and satisfaction with this tool favoring React's Context API, it is still indispensable for large applications. Maybe the premiere of Vue 3 will cause Vuex's popularity to skyrocket in 2021. Or maybe in 2021, we'll get something new from the state, the second-best new player in the rankings?

Redux is still character one in the "usage" category.

GraphQL is now very popular and has risen to number one in the satisfaction, interest, and awareness categories. Ease of use and good cooperation with the backend seems to be the key to success and happy developers.

Developers rated their overall satisfaction at 3.3 on a scale of 0-5. This figure has continued relatively stable for a few years. It shows that the "State of JavaScript" report did not bring any big surprises in this respect, as it clearly shows that developers are not willing to spend money and take risks with alternative solutions. In 2021, the stability of this layer of our applications will become increasingly important and will encourage us to stick with proven data layer technologies.

Backend frameworks and the complete dominance of Express.js

The results in this category are a mix of server-side front-end rendering frameworks (Next.js, Nuxt.js), backend frameworks (Express.js, Nest.js), and static page generators (Gatsby, headless CMS Strap). Unfortunately, though, Kent C. mentioned it as one of the best options. Dodds, Remix - the first commercial framework for the React ecosystem - didn't cut.

Unfortunately, we haven't had a chance to play with Remix yet, but it's certainly worth keeping an eye on, as it's getting a lot of support from experts in the JavaScript and React worlds.

Jest doesn't mess around and wins in the testing category.

I couldn't be less surprised. I also couldn't be more pleased that the tools and libraries that respondents were most interested in were Jest, Testing Library, Cypress, and Storybook - the exact solutions we use every day on almost all of The Software House's projects.

Jasmine, the default testing tool for Angular projects, continues its decline, which is related to the decrease of Angular itself.

Mocha is still a viable option, but it seems that for most users, properly deploying it isn't worth the few seconds it can take away from the time it takes to complete testing.

The test library and its more human-centric and helpful approach to testing have become the preferred solution for testing React components.

It is hard to answer for sure what caused this. It could be that the community has matured or that proper tools that bring new ideas have finally become available. I want to think it has something to do with the growing popularity of Typescript. With the availability of static checks, the community can finally move away from the old testing pyramid and adopt a more modern test-box approach that recognizes that static checks can significantly reduce the number of unit tests developers have to write. The time saved can be used to write integration tests and end-to-end tests. If done correctly, this can add a lot of value.

However, Cypress is an excellent open-source framework, and it would be unfair not to recognize that without it, the noise around non-unit testing would not be as great as it is now in the front-end world. I haven't had that opportunity to play with Playwright yet, but it seems like a complementary solution to Cypress, and I'm not surprised that many developers are looking forward to what 2021 will bring. I consider myself part of this group.

Two in one: React Native moves to mobile

 We at The Software House decided to move entirely to this JavaScript framework, and now it's our first choice for mobile solutions.

Will your technology stack be ready for JavaScript trends in 2021?

Analyzing the State of JavaScript report, I came to one conclusion: I am very proud of the work we have done at The Software House. By creating our technology stack, we could predict the technology trends and trends in JavaScript for the next few years pretty well, and we almost succeeded.

The Software House uses the most popular, tested, and recognized JavaScript libraries, tools, and frameworks recognized by the JS community. You can check out our very cool technology dashboard and see it for yourself! Or if you have any queries you can contact top java web development companies in India.