This article will discuss the top six most popular JavaScript libraries to use in 2023. Why? JavaScript is the most widely used programming language today, as it is available in all web browsers.
JavaScript frameworks and libraries became reliable options for front-end developers in the 2010s.
We will discuss each framework in today’s list and tell you why it is so popular, how to use it, and the community’s opinion about it.
Table of Contents
Most popular JavaScript Libraries
jQuery
jQuery is a JavaScript library with classic JavaScript features. It’s lightweight, fast, and feature-rich. John Resig from BarCamp NYC created it in 2006. jQuery is free, open-source software that comes with a license from MIT. This makes it easier to manipulate HTML documents and traverse, animation and event handling, and Ajax. According to W3Techs, 77.6% use jQuery as of 23 February.
jQuery library
Features/Benefits:
- It is simple to use and has a minimalistic API.
- It uses CSS3 selectors to manipulate style properties and find elements.
- jQuery takes only 30 kb to gzip, minify and support an AMD module.
- Because syntax is very similar to CSS, and it is simple for beginners to understand.
- Easily extended with plugins.
- Versatility, with an API that supports multiple browsers, including Chrome and Firefox.
Use cases:
- CSS selectors are used to manipulate DOM using CSS selectors. These selectors use specific criteria to select a node within the DOM. These criteria include element names, their attributes (like class or id span>).
- Element selection using Sizzle (an open-source, multi-browser selector engine)
- Creating effects and events.
- JSON parsing.
- Ajax application development.
- Feature detection.
- Control over asynchronous processing using Promise and Deferred objects.
React.js
React.js, also known as ReactJS and React, is an open-source front-end JavaScript library. Jordan Walke, a Facebook software engineer, created it in 2013. It now has the MIT license, but it was initially released under the Apache License 2.0. React was created to make creating interactive UI easy. Create a view that displays each state in your app. It will then render the opinion and update the suitable component when data changes occur.
React library
Features/Benefits:
- React code is a collection of components or entities that must be rendered to a particular element in DOM using a ReactDOM library.
- This uses a virtual dom to create an in-memory memory cache in a data structure, compute the difference and update the display DOM in the browser efficiently.
- This selective rendering improves app performance while saving developers time in recalculating page layout, styles, and full-page rendering.
- It uses lifecycle methods like render and componentDidMount to execute code at specific points during an entity’s lifetime.
- It supports JavaScript XML(JSX), which combines HTML and JS. It aids in component rendering using nested elements and attributes, JS expressions, and conditional statements.
Use cases:
- Used as the basis for developing single-page or mobile applications.
- Adding a state to DOM and managing it
- Creating user interfaces that are efficient while creating web applications and interactive websites.
- Testing and debugging more easily.
Bonus point: Facebook, Instagram, and Whatsapp all make use of React.
D3.js
Data-Driven Documents (D3) or D3.js are another JS library that developers can use to manipulate data. It was released under the BSD License in 2011.
D3.js library
Features/Benefits:
- It emphasizes Web standards and provides modern browser capabilities without being restricted to one framework.
- D3.js enables powerful data visualizations.
- It supports HTML and CSS.
- Uses data-driven approaches to manipulate the DOM.
- D3.js supports many dynamic behaviors and data sets for interaction.
- This reduces overhead and allows for greater visual complexity at high frame rates.
Use cases:
- To create interactive and dynamic data visualization.
- You can bind data to a DOM and then perform a data-driven transform on them. You can create HTML tables from a number array and create an SVG chart or 3D surface plot with D3.js.
- The functional code makes it easily reusable with many modules.
- D3 offers many ways to modify nodes, such as changing styles or attributes. You can use a declarative approach to add, sort, remove, or change text or HTML content.
- Create animated transitions by arranging complex events through transitions. HTML3_
Underscore.js
Underscore is a JavaScript utility program that performs everyday programming tasks. It was developed by Jeremy Askenas in 2009 and released under an MIT license. Lodash now has it.
Underscore library
Features/Benefits:
- The features are similar to Prototype.js, but Underscore uses functional programming instead of object prototype extensions.
- There are more than 100 functions, each of which can be divided into four types depending on what data they handle. These functions can be used to manipulate data:
- Objects
- Arrays
- Both arrays and objects
- Other functions
- Underscore works with Chrome and Firefox.
Use cases:
It supports functional aids such as filters and maps and specialized functions like binding, quick indexing, JavaScript templating, quality-testing, etc.
Lodash
Lodash, a JS utility library, makes working in numbers, arrays strings, strings, and objects more accessible. Lodash was released in 2013 and used functional programming designs such as Underscore.js.
Lodash library
Features/Benefits:
- It allows you to write concise JavaScript code.
- This simplifies everyday tasks like math operations, bindings, decorating, constraining, and debouncing.
- String functions such as trimming, camelcase, and uppercase are simplified.
- Create, modify, compress, and sort arrays.
- Other operations for the collection, object, and sequence.
Use cases:
Its modular methods help you in:
- Iterating arrays and strings.
- Crafting composite functions.
- Testing and manipulating values.
Algolia Places
Algolia Places, a JavaScript library, allows you to use address auto-completion on any site. It is a lightning-fast, highly accurate tool that will improve your site’s user experience. In addition, Algolia Places uses the OpenStreetMap database to provide coverage of worldwide locations.
You can use it to increase your product page conversions
Algolia Places library
Features/Benefits:
- This simplifies checkouts by allowing you to fill in multiple inputs at once.
- The country/city selector can be used easily.
- We can display link suggestions on a map to view the results quickly.
- Algolia Places can correct typing errors and show the results accordingly.
- It returns results in milliseconds, routing all queries to the closest server.
Use cases:
- You can add a map to show a specific place.
- It allows you to use forms efficiently.
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Final Words
This article will discuss the top Most popular JavaScript libraries that you can use in 2023. We have discussed the top JavaScript libraries you can use to build complete front-end apps and then looked at libraries that offer ready-to-use reusable web components for rapid development. We then moved on to tools and plugins to solve specific problems for developers, such as bundling, visualization and debugging, and compiling.
