Are there too many JavaScript frameworks?

00:00:00: If you are a front-end JavaScript

00:00:02: developer, you got plenty of options and

00:00:07: alternatives.

00:00:08: You got plenty of libraries and

00:00:10: frameworks to choose from.

00:00:12: You got React, Angular, and Vue to

00:00:15: name the biggest, most popular ones.

00:00:19: But you also got very popular

00:00:20: alternatives like Svelte, or SolidJS, or

00:00:24: Quik.

00:00:25: And then you got other libraries like

00:00:27: HTMX, where you wouldn't write a lot of

00:00:31: JavaScript code, but which still uses

00:00:33: JavaScript under the hood.

00:00:35: So you got plenty of options if you want

00:00:38: to build complex web user interfaces

00:00:42: with help of JavaScript.

00:00:44: And of course, it's easy to feel

00:00:47: overwhelmed with all those options and

00:00:50: alternatives.

00:00:52: And the question is, how do you decide

00:00:54: which of those frameworks or libraries

00:00:58: you should learn and use?

00:01:00: Do we have too many of those?

00:01:04: Because I recall that when I released my

00:01:08: Svelte course in 2019, so that is a couple

00:01:13: of years ago, but still, when I released

00:01:16: that course, I was quite positive

00:01:19: regarding Svelte.

00:01:20: And that course, it's a good course.

00:01:22: It teaches Svelte.

00:01:23: And Svelte is a really nice library, if you

00:01:28: want to call it like this.

00:01:31: So I was really happy with that course.

00:01:33: And I was surprised that quite a decent

00:01:37: chunk of all the feedback I got on that

00:01:40: release was not about the course or

00:01:43: about Svelte.

00:01:44: It was about the fact that it's yet another

00:01:49: course on yet another front-end

00:01:52: JavaScript library or framework.

00:01:55: And a decent chunk of my students or of

00:01:59: the people who left feedback and left

00:02:02: comments seemed to feel

00:02:05: overwhelmed.

00:02:05: And I would say annoyed by the fact that

00:02:08: there is yet another JavaScript

00:02:12: framework and library to learn.

00:02:15: And I would say that's already the first

00:02:17: problem.

00:02:18: Also a problem on my part and maybe

00:02:21: from the entire JavaScript ecosystem,

00:02:24: but of course you don't have to learn it

00:02:26: all.

00:02:27: So if you feel like you have to learn it all,

00:02:29: that's not the case.

00:02:31: And people like me who create courses

00:02:36: and content on all these different

00:02:38: technologies can definitely give you the

00:02:41: feeling that you need to learn all these

00:02:43: things.

00:02:45: But just because I like learning all these

00:02:49: things and like working with all these

00:02:51: things, and just because I create content

00:02:54: on many of these libraries and

00:02:56: frameworks to help people learn it, does

00:02:59: not mean that you need to learn all

00:03:02: these libraries and frameworks.

00:03:04: And just because all these options exist

00:03:06: and new frameworks and libraries keep

00:03:10: popping up, does not mean that you

00:03:13: have to learn or use them all.

00:03:16: But I understand that it can sometimes

00:03:18: feel as if you do have to do that.

00:03:22: Because why do we have all these

00:03:24: options to begin with?

00:03:26: Why don't we just have one or two

00:03:28: libraries or frameworks?

00:03:31: Because to some extent that is the case,

00:03:35: or is a bit more the case you could say, in

00:03:39: backend web development I would

00:03:42: argue.

00:03:43: If you're using JavaScript for backend

00:03:46: web development, you of course have a

00:03:48: lot of frameworks and libraries you can

00:03:50: use there.

00:03:51: But the most used library still is

00:03:56: Express.js, if you're working with Node.js.

00:04:00: It gets millions of weekly downloads.

00:04:04: It's super popular, even though it

00:04:07: definitely has its issues and it's not under

00:04:11: super active development.

00:04:13: But maybe that's also the reason.

00:04:15: It's very stable and people know it and

00:04:18: therefore it's getting used by many

00:04:20: projects and companies.

00:04:22: And hence if you're working as a

00:04:25: backend JavaScript developer, there's

00:04:28: almost no way around Express.js.

00:04:32: Of course you can learn one of the more

00:04:36: modern alternatives and that might

00:04:38: make a lot of sense.

00:04:40: But if you want to land a job as a

00:04:43: backend JavaScript developer, you very

00:04:46: likely need to know Express.js.

00:04:50: And it's kind of similar to some extent I

00:04:53: would say, if you're working with PHP for

00:04:56: example.

00:04:57: Of course there are multiple libraries and

00:05:00: frameworks to choose from there as well.

00:05:02: But let's be honest, the clear winner in

00:05:06: the PHP world is Laravel.

00:05:09: If you want to work as a backend PHP

00:05:13: developer, and now that I say it, I guess

00:05:16: there are no frontend PHP developers.

00:05:19: At least you don't use PHP for frontend

00:05:22: code.

00:05:23: But anyways, if you want to work as a

00:05:25: PHP developer, you very likely need to

00:05:28: know Laravel.

00:05:29: It is the PHP framework.

00:05:32: You could even argue that it made PHP

00:05:35: popular again, if it ever was not popular.

00:05:40: And that's also a topic for a different

00:05:42: video.

00:05:43: But Laravel is super important for PHP

00:05:46: and therefore there as well.

00:05:49: We don't have like five or six almost

00:05:52: equally popular options as it seems to be

00:05:56: in the frontend JavaScript world though.

00:05:59: And of course there you could also argue

00:06:01: that React is the most popular frontend

00:06:04: JavaScript library.

00:06:06: And then Angular is also pretty popular,

00:06:09: especially also amongst enterprises and

00:06:12: big companies as it seems.

00:06:14: But you could argue that it's these two

00:06:17: mostly.

00:06:18: And if you just learn React and nothing

00:06:21: else, you'll probably also be fine.

00:06:23: And I tend to agree that probably is the

00:06:27: case.

00:06:27: But nonetheless, we have more options

00:06:30: there and somehow every new option

00:06:34: that appears, every new framework or

00:06:37: library that appears in the frontend

00:06:39: JavaScript world gets more attention

00:06:42: than it seems to be the case for backend

00:06:45: projects.

00:06:47: And I'm not 100% sure why exactly that's

00:06:52: the case and why that's happening.

00:06:54: And I'm super interested in hearing your

00:06:57: opinion and perspective on that.

00:06:59: But I think that maybe we give more

00:07:03: attention to every new frontend

00:07:06: JavaScript framework or library that

00:07:08: appears because a, there might be more

00:07:13: frontend JavaScript developers than

00:07:16: backend JavaScript developers.

00:07:18: I'm not sure about that.

00:07:19: I don't have any official numbers.

00:07:20: It's just something that could be the

00:07:22: case.

00:07:23: And in addition, maybe frontend

00:07:27: JavaScript development still has more

00:07:30: unsolved problems or more problems

00:07:34: that can be solved now that were harder

00:07:37: to solve a couple of years ago.

00:07:39: There may still be more progress

00:07:42: regarding how certain problems could

00:07:45: be tackled.

00:07:46: It feels to me, and again, this is just a

00:07:49: feeling, I could be wrong here, but it

00:07:51: feels to me as if there's still a lot of

00:07:54: innovation happening in the frontend

00:07:56: JavaScript space.

00:07:59: And that is not purely a positive thing

00:08:02: because it also means that maybe there

00:08:04: are more unsolved problems there than

00:08:07: on the backend.

00:08:09: It also feels like we move a bit in circles

00:08:13: in the frontend JavaScript world.

00:08:16: I mean, we're coming from a world

00:08:19: where we built websites, web

00:08:23: applications that worked such that we

00:08:26: had some backend code that rendered

00:08:28: an HTML page, an HTML document and

00:08:31: sent that to the browser.

00:08:33: And then maybe that document also

00:08:36: loaded some script code to add some

00:08:39: interactivity to that page.

00:08:41: And then we had all those frameworks

00:08:44: taking over the frontend and we started

00:08:48: building single page applications

00:08:50: because they also solve a problem.

00:08:53: They allow us to build more interactive

00:08:56: frontend applications.

00:08:58: They allow us to give users a more

00:09:01: interactive feeling with our websites.

00:09:06: They can make websites feel like

00:09:10: desktop or mobile applications, even.

00:09:13: So they exist for a reason.

00:09:15: But now we're moving back to a world

00:09:19: where we also render a lot on the server.

00:09:22: And currently there is this trend in

00:09:27: frontend JavaScript development where

00:09:30: we try to blend these two worlds, these

00:09:33: two ends, the backend at the frontend,

00:09:35: and where we try to get the best of both

00:09:38: worlds.

00:09:39: And I did talk about that in separate

00:09:42: videos and episodes, so I'll not reiterate it

00:09:45: here, but that seems to be the future we

00:09:50: seem to be moving towards with

00:09:53: frontend JavaScript.

00:09:55: And maybe that's also why we see so

00:09:58: many libraries and frameworks pop up

00:10:02: because it's clear that we're not there

00:10:07: yet.

00:10:08: There are some problems and there

00:10:10: were problems with the way we built

00:10:13: frontends five years ago.

00:10:16: So maybe that's why we see all that

00:10:19: innovation and all those different

00:10:21: libraries and frameworks pop up.

00:10:23: Maybe that's the case.

00:10:25: But what does that now mean for

00:10:27: developers?

00:10:29: Do you have to learn all these different

00:10:32: options?

00:10:33: How can you make sure that you don't

00:10:36: feel overwhelmed by all these different

00:10:38: options?

00:10:39: And I can only say you don't have to

00:10:43: learn them all.

00:10:45: You can just stick with the option you

00:10:48: personally like the most or with the

00:10:51: framework or library you want to learn

00:10:54: because it gives you the best

00:10:56: perspectives on the job market or

00:10:58: because you may be needed in your

00:11:00: existing job.

00:11:01: You can't just learn React or Angular or

00:11:04: Vue and call it a day.

00:11:06: You don't need to know them all.

00:11:08: But I would recommend that you at

00:11:11: least take a look at multiple options

00:11:14: simply to find out which of those options

00:11:17: you like the most and also to stay in the

00:11:21: loop regarding the innovation that's

00:11:24: happening in the frontend JavaScript

00:11:26: world.

00:11:27: That does not mean that you have to use

00:11:30: all those latest features and concepts

00:11:33: right when they come out.

00:11:35: Indeed, I would recommend that you

00:11:37: always wait a bit until you use some new

00:11:41: library or framework or feature of a

00:11:45: library or framework in a real app until

00:11:48: it's polished and battle-tested.

00:11:51: I would recommend that you don't start

00:11:53: using all the latest libraries and features

00:11:56: immediately in your production apps

00:11:58: because that can lead to problems and

00:12:01: we've seen that in multiple libraries and

00:12:05: frameworks in the last years as well.

00:12:07: It makes sense to wait and you don't

00:12:10: have to learn everything at the point of

00:12:13: time where it comes out but keeping an

00:12:15: open mind and just staying informed

00:12:18: about some general trends and

00:12:20: developments I guess makes sense and

00:12:23: at the same time this approach also

00:12:25: ensures that you hopefully don't feel

00:12:28: overwhelmed and that you can see all

00:12:32: these different alternatives and options

00:12:35: as something positive because it is that

00:12:39: innovation.

00:12:40: It is the appearance of all these different

00:12:43: libraries and frameworks and features

00:12:44: and the evolution of existing libraries

00:12:48: and frameworks that drives the overall

00:12:51: frontend JavaScript ecosystem forward

00:12:55: and that ensures that we'll hopefully

00:12:58: reach a point where we are at least very

00:13:02: close to having the best of both worlds

00:13:05: and where we maybe have a great way

00:13:07: of merging backend and frontend

00:13:10: because there is one big advantage

00:13:12: JavaScript has over PHP for example and

00:13:16: that is that it can run both on the server

00:13:20: side and in the browser and that holds a

00:13:24: lot of potential because that indeed can

00:13:28: allow us to build web applications where

00:13:32: backend and frontend are integrated

00:13:34: seamlessly and where we therefore can

00:13:38: give our website users a great user

00:13:41: experience because ultimately that's the

00:13:44: main goal.

00:13:46: As a web developer no matter which

00:13:48: technology you're using you have to

00:13:51: build websites and web applications

00:13:53: that give their users a great user

00:13:57: experience and that do their job so that

00:14:02: if you build an online shop it's an online

00:14:04: shop that's easy to use.

00:14:06: If you're building a complex web app like

00:14:09: Google Sheets or something like that

00:14:13: you build it such that it's easy to use that

00:14:15: it's performant that it's intuitive that's

00:14:19: your main job and all that innovation

00:14:22: that's happening in the JavaScript world

00:14:25: in the frontend JavaScript world

00:14:27: hopefully helps with making that job a

00:14:31: bit easier and a bit more pleasant but

00:14:34: there is no reason to feel overwhelmed

00:14:37: at least in my opinion.