10 Overlooked JS Frameworks That Are Worth Using

JavaScript (JS) is a high-level, interpreted programming language that is widely used for creating dynamic and interactive web pages. It is often used in combination with HTML and CSS and can be executed directly in the web browser.

JavaScript works by adding interactivity to a website. It allows for form validation, dynamic content updates, and interactive games. The code is written on a web page and executed by the browser, so there is no need to install additional software on a user's computer.

In addition to being used on the web, JavaScript is also used in server-side applications, desktop applications, and mobile app development. This versatility and its wide availability make JavaScript an essential tool for many web developers.

What Is a JavaScript Framework?

JavaScript (JS) can integrate with most core technologies and provides a wide range of functionalities. JS can also incorporate various third-party libraries, so around 98% of websites use JS in their development today. A popular development agency called Twinslash often chooses JavaScript for their operations since it proves time and cost-efficient by providing the ability to reduce compilation time.  

A JS framework is a collection of JS code libraries. Developers can benefit from various pre-written JS functions and templates by manipulating them according to their project specifications. JS functionalities allow developers to build both mobile and desktop applications. Moreover, the vast developer community can help comprehend complex problems and provide the opportunity to implement optimal solutions.

10 Worthy JavaScript Frameworks

Every JS framework provides unique capabilities, and developers can select which one will design the necessary application efficiently. The most popular silent-side JS frameworks are React, Angular, Vue.js, and Svelte. On the server side, the JavaScript runtime environment Node.js is widely used in web development, IoT, and microservices architecture. 

Here is a brief introduction to ten open-source JS frameworks developers can utilize in 2023 to build high-performing and efficient websites. Some of the tools we describe in this article are based on the most popular JS frameworks mentioned above, and some of them are stand-alone tools.

Next.js

Next.js is a popular and widely-used JavaScript framework for building server-side rendered (SSR) React applications. It provides developers with a simple setup for building scalable, high-performance web applications that are optimized for search engines and fast initial load times.

Some features of Next.js include:

• Server-side rendering: Next.js renders pages on the server, which can improve the performance and load time of web pages, particularly on slow networks.
• Automatic code splitting: Next.js splits the code into smaller chunks and only loads the code required for a specific page, which can help improve the overall performance of the application.
• Built-in routing: Next.js provides a simple and intuitive routing system that is easy to set up and use.
• Static export: Next.js allows for the export of a complete static site for hosting on a CDN or other static hosting service.
• Customizable with plugins and middleware: Next.js can be extended and customized with plugins and middleware, which makes it a flexible and versatile choice for a variety of web development projects.

Overall, Next.js is a popular and well-supported framework for building high-performance, scalable web applications. Its focus on server-side rendering and automatic code splitting makes it a good choice for building fast and responsive applications, especially for high-traffic websites and e-commerce platforms.

Nuxt.js

Nuxt.js is an open-source JS framework that helps create advanced web applications by offering both front-end and back-end functionalities. Nuxt.js is based on Vue.js. Developers can build an efficient web application using Laravel API in Nuxt.js. Moreover, the Nuxt.js framework also allows SEO improvements. It is a robust full-stack platform for building a dynamic application using Vue.js.

Following are some of the core features of Nuxt.js:

Code Splitting

Nuxt.js uses Webpack configuration to generate a static version of a website. The automatic routing of each page helps in the automatic splitting of code required by every routed page. This approach proves helpful as it reduces the file size of split JavaScript code compared to the entire application. This feature speeds up the program and improves its performance.

Built-In Components

This JS framework comes equipped with several essential components that will provide useful in creating applications. These include the Nuxt Component, the NuxtChild Component, the NuxtLink Component, and others.  

Some other essential features are:

• Modular architecture extension
• Zero configurations
• Data fetching
• SEO
• Modular ecosystem
• Server rendering

Gatsby

Gatsby.js provides a comprehensive and modern solution for static site generation, allowing developers to easily create and manage fast, scalable, and secure static websites and web applications. In static site generation, the content of a website or web application is pre-built and served as static HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files. It is built on top of React, and uses GraphQL, a query language for APIs, to handle data. 

Some of the key features and benefits of Gatsby.js include:

• Speed and performance: Gatsby.js pre-builds pages and can deliver them to users in milliseconds, providing a fast and seamless user experience. Since there is no need for server-side processing, it results in a better user experience.
• Scalability: Sites on Gatsby.js can be easily scaled to handle high traffic, as there is no need to worry about server resources or database performance because it's a static website.
• Data sourcing: Gatsby.js integrates with a variety of data sources, including CMSs, APIs, and databases, making it effortless to retrieve and manage data for your site or application.
• Plugins and components: Gatsby.js has a rich ecosystem of plugins and components for better functionality and customizability.
• Security: Sites on Gatsby.js are less susceptible to security vulnerabilities and attacks, as there is no server-side code to exploit.
• Progressive web apps (PWA): Gatsby.js can be used to build progressive web apps, which provide a native app-like experience in a browser.
• SEO-friendly: Gatsby.js is designed to be SEO-friendly, providing the structure and metadata that search engines need to index your site or application effectively.
• Cost-effectiveness: Gatsby.js sites can be hosted on a simple and inexpensive static file server, such as Amazon S3 or GitHub Pages, reducing hosting costs.

Overall, Gatsby.js is a powerful and flexible framework for building modern websites and web applications. Its focus on speed, performance, and ease of use makes it a popular choice for developers looking to build fast and scalable web solutions.

Remix

Remix is a full-stack JS framework built on top of React. It is used for building user interfaces and helps work with server-side rendering. Remix allows catching errors on both the client and server sides and helps provide static and dynamic content. 

Remix also delivers excellent user interaction capabilities of websites by using SEO. It helps provide all the website content during website crawling by search engines. Moreover, Remix offers an open-source and production-ready environment for developers.

The Remix philosophy can be summed up in four points:

• Adopt the server/client model, which involves separating the source code responsible for the logic and functionality of the application from the content and data it uses.
• Build architecture on top of the fundamental components of the web, such as browsers, HTTP, and HTML, rather than trying to go against them.
• Enhance the user experience through JavaScript by extending and improving browser behavior.
• Avoid excessive abstraction of the underlying technologies.

Remix has the following features:

• Transitions: This JS framework allows the automatic loading of states required in the application. It does not require any state management libraries like Recoil or Redux, which are usually needed by other JS frameworks to specify the loading state. This built-in feature allows users to customize the loading state however they want.
• Form Handling: Remix uses the typical HTML Form feature with the addition of Action and Loader functions. This allows for performing server-side operations, making form data widely available. 

Moreover, Remix also provides the features:

• Nested pages
• Server-side rendering
• Static website generation
• Data fetching
• Error boundaries

Strapi

Strapi is an open-source headless content management system (CMS) that provides a way to build, manage, and store content for websites and applications. It is built on top of Node.js, and uses a modern MVC (model-view-controller) architecture.

Strapi offers support working with databases such as MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, and others. Developers can also build back-end services and customize APIs. Some huge business companies use Strapi for their processes, such as IBM, Discovery Channel, Societe Generale, and many others.

The following are some of the core features of Strapi:

• Customizable: Strapi provides a flexible and customizable platform for building and managing content, allowing developers to create and configure custom content types, fields, and relationships.
• Headless: Strapi provides a headless architecture, which means that the content management system can be used with any front-end framework or technology, including React, Vue.js, Angular, and more.
• API-driven: Strapi provides a robust and well-documented RESTful API for accessing and managing content, making it simple to integrate with other systems and services.
• User-friendly: Strapi provides an intuitive and user-friendly admin panel for managing and organizing content, making it easy for non-technical users to update and maintain the site or application.
• Scalable: Strapi is built on top of Node.js, providing a scalable and performant platform for managing and serving content, even at scale.

Overall, Strapi is a powerful and flexible solution for building and managing content for websites and applications. Its headless architecture and API-driven approach make it a popular choice for developers looking to build modern, dynamic, and data-driven web solutions.

Astro

Astro is a powerful tool for building static websites. While Astro is called a JavaScript framework, it — by default — doesn't use JS in a runtime. Software developers can introduce interactivity to various components via directives and can plug in JS components from other JS-based frameworks, but, in general, it ships no JS to the browser. That allows making the website load 40% faster than React as there are no JS elements that slow the loading down, particularly on mobile devices.

Astro is:

• Content-focused: Astro was created specifically for websites that feature a large amount of content.
• Server-first: Website performance is improved when HTML is generated on the server.
• Fast by default: Building a slow website should not be possible with Astro.
• Uncomplicated: You don’t need to be an expert to build something with Astro.
• Fully-featured, but flexible: Over 100+ Astro integrations to choose from. 

Following are some of the basic features of Astro:

• Data Optimization: Astro provides data optimization and helps in creating a blazing-fast application. Using Astro integrations of  “@astrojs/image” ensures image optimization, which plays a significant role in website performance.
• Astro also provides support for server-side rendering.
• Tailwind CSS: Using the Astro integration of Tailwind provides the utility for CSS classes to every file and component in the framework. Developers can customize the Tailwind configuration file according to the project’s design and requirements.  
• Built-in Markdown & MDX support: Text-based content such as blog posts and documentation is frequently authored using Markdown, and Astro provides built-in support for standard Markdown files.
  Generating RSS feeds and sitemaps: Astro provides efficient, automatic generation of RSS feeds for blogs and other content-rich websites.

Express

Express.js is a popular Node.js framework for building server-side applications. It is designed to make it easier to create fast and scalable APIs and web applications. Express.js handles many of the low-level details of creating a web server, such as handling HTTP requests and responses, parsing URL parameters, and processing request data. It also provides a routing system that makes it easy to define custom routes for different URL patterns and HTTP methods. Additionally, Express.js integrates with a variety of template engines, allowing developers to create dynamic views that can be rendered in the browser.

Some key features of Express.js include:

• Middleware: Express.js provides a middleware mechanism that allows developers to run code before or after requests are processed.
• Routing: Express.js provides a simple and flexible routing system, which makes creating custom routes for different HTTP methods and endpoints simple.
• Templates: Express.js supports various template engines, such as Jade, EJS, and Handlebars, which makes it easy to create dynamic pages.
• Database integration: Express.js can be easily integrated with databases such as MongoDB, Redis, and MySQL, allowing developers to build dynamic web applications that interact with databases.
• Third-party plugins: Express.js has a large and active community of developers, who have created many plugins and middleware that extend the functionality of the framework.
• Easy to learn: Express.js has a simple and straightforward syntax, which makes it effortless to learn and use, even for developers who are new to Node.js and web development.

Overall, Express.js is a powerful tool for building server-side applications and APIs, and it is widely used by developers all over the world. It provides a simple and flexible way to create web servers and APIs, making it a popular choice for building a wide range of applications, from small websites to complex web applications. 

Fastify

Fastify is a Node.js framework that provides a fast, low-overhead way to build web applications. It is designed to be highly performant and scalable, which makes it a good choice for building high-traffic websites. 

Following are some of the core features of Fastify:

• Performance: Fastify is designed to be fast and efficient, with lower overhead compared to other Node.js web frameworks.
• Modular design: Fastify uses a modular design: you can add custom plugins and middleware to your application.
• TypeScript support: Fastify supports TypeScript, a statically typed superset of JavaScript, which can help catch errors early in the development process.
• GraphQL support: Fastify has built-in support for GraphQL for building GraphQL-based applications.
• Schema-based validation: Fastify uses a schema-based validation system, which can help to validate request payloads and reduce the risk of bugs in your application.
• Logging: Fastify includes a powerful logging system, which can be customized to suit the needs of your application.
• Plugin system: Fastify has a well-documented plugin system, which makes it easy to extend the framework and add new features.
• HTTP2 support: Fastify includes built-in support for HTTP2, the latest version of the HTTP protocol, which can improve the performance and security of your application.

As a result, Fastify's fast performance and lightweight design make it a popular choice for building server-side applications, especially for microservices and other performance-critical use cases. Many global organizations use Fastify, including Microsoft, HarperDB, Hotstar, Nucleotide, and many others. 

Nest

Nest.js is a progressive framework for building efficient, scalable, and maintainable server-side applications. It is built on top of the popular Node.js runtime environment and uses TypeScript, a statically typed superset of JavaScript, as its primary language.

Nest.js has several core features that make it a powerful and flexible framework for building server-side applications:

• Modular architecture: Nest.js uses a modular architecture to organize code into smaller, reusable units called modules. This helps keep the codebase clean and maintainable.
• TypeScript support: Nest.js is built on top of TypeScript, a statically typed superset of JavaScript. This makes it easier to catch type-related errors early in the development process, resulting in more robust and maintainable code.
• Dependency Injection: Nest.js provides a powerful dependency injection system that makes it easier to manage the relationships between different parts of the application. This makes it easier to test and maintain the code over time.
• GraphQL support: Nest.js provides built-in support for GraphQL, a flexible query language for APIs. This makes it easy for developers to create GraphQL-based APIs that are efficient, scalable, and simple to maintain.
• Async programming: Nest.js is designed to simplify writing asynchronous code using async/await and Promises. This makes it easier to write code that is fast and responsive, even when dealing with large amounts of data.Testing support: Nest.js provides built-in testing support, making it straightforward to write and run automated tests for the application. This helps to catch bugs early in the development process and improve the quality of the code.

Overall, Nest.js provides a modern, high-level framework for building server-side applications that are fast, scalable, and maintainable. Its features make it a popular choice for building complex, data-driven applications that require a powerful back-end.

SvelteKit

SvelteKit is a modern JavaScript framework for building web applications. It is built on top of the Svelte JavaScript framework and offers a number of advanced features for building fast and scalable web applications.

Some key features of SvelteKit include:

• Server-side rendering: SvelteKit supports the SSR of your application, making your pages fast and SEO-friendly.
• Modular architecture: SvelteKit uses a modular architecture that allows you to break your application down into smaller components, making it easier to develop, test, and deploy.
• Efficient code splitting: SvelteKit uses efficient code splitting to ensure that only the necessary code is loaded on each page, reducing the size of your application and improving performance.
• Simple routing: SvelteKit provides a simple and intuitive routing system that makes it easy to define the pages in your application and their associated URLs.
• Build System: SvelteKit provides a powerful build system that can handle large, complex applications and ensures fast build times.
• Deployment options: SvelteKit supports a variety of deployment options, including static hosting, serverless, and traditional server-based hosting.
• Comfort of use: SvelteKit is designed to be easy to use, even for developers who are new to web development.

Overall, SvelteKit is a powerful and flexible framework for building fast and scalable web applications, with a focus on developer experience and performance. SvelteKit aims to simplify the process of building scalable, performant web applications, leveraging the simplicity and power of the Svelte framework.

Which Framework Is the Best?

This article mentions ten outstanding JS frameworks developers can use to build their applications. Every framework provides a specific set of features and advantages critical for web and mobile app development. We can not define any framework as the best, but developers can go through these and decide which will be the best choice according to their requirements.