Best Development Frameworks for JavaScript

Expo is a versatile open-source platform that allows developers to craft universal native applications using React. It encompasses an extensive suite of tools and services aimed at simplifying the processes of development, review, and deployment. With Expo, developers can either start fresh with new projects or incorporate existing React Native applications, taking advantage of features such as file-based routing and TypeScript support to create stack and modal screens with minimal setup. Its fast refresh functionality enables real-time updates on devices through the Expo Go app, enhancing the development experience. Additionally, developers have the option to utilize any library, SDK, or write custom native code, providing unrestricted access to device APIs. Furthermore, Expo promotes collaboration among team members by allowing role-based access, generating QR codes for feature previews, and integrating seamlessly with GitHub to facilitate efficient pull request reviews. This combination of features not only accelerates the development workflow but also enhances communication and productivity within teams.

Numerous organizations across various sectors utilize Electron for developing cross-platform applications. With the ability to create desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, if you know how to design a website, you can also create a desktop application. Electron serves as a framework that enables the development of native software using web technologies like JavaScript, HTML, and CSS, handling the more complex aspects so developers can concentrate on their application's essential features. By leveraging Chromium and Node.js, Electron allows you to develop your application utilizing standard web technologies. This open-source framework is supported by the OpenJS Foundation along with a vibrant community of contributors. Electron applications are compatible with Mac, Windows, and Linux, allowing for seamless builds and execution across these three platforms. To embark on your journey with Electron, explore the myriad resources available that guide you through wrapping your web application in Electron, accessing various APIs, and creating installers. Additionally, the Electron Fiddle tool offers a fun way to create and experiment with small-scale Electron projects, enhancing your learning experience and creativity in app development. You'll find that Electron not only simplifies the process but also expands your possibilities in software creation.

Express is a lightweight and adaptable web application framework for Node.js, designed to offer a comprehensive array of features suitable for both web and mobile applications. It equips developers with a wide range of HTTP utility methods and middleware, facilitating the swift creation of powerful APIs. By providing only a minimal layer of essential web application functionalities, Express ensures that the core features of Node.js remain accessible and transparent to developers. Notably, it does not impose any database requirements, allowing developers the flexibility to connect with virtually any database through third-party Node modules. Additionally, a 404 response in Express is intentionally not treated as an error; rather, it signifies that all middleware functions and routes have been executed without yielding a response. This unique handling of 404 statuses underlines Express's philosophy of clarity and simplicity in web application development. By putting the focus on essential features and allowing developers to build upon them, Express empowers users to create tailored solutions that meet their specific needs.

QUnit is a robust and user-friendly JavaScript testing framework designed for simplicity. Its setup is hassle-free, requiring no configuration for Node.js projects and only minimal adjustments for those intended for browser use. You have the flexibility to execute your tests in various environments, whether it’s Node.js, a web browser, or even within a web worker. This allows you to validate your code in the context in which it operates. With adaptable APIs available for custom assertions, runners, and reporters, QUnit can be tailored to meet specific requirements. The onboarding process for QUnit in Node.js projects is swift and straightforward; just begin by installing the QUnit package via npm. Once installed, you can initiate the test suite using the QUnit CLI. It’s advisable to execute the QUnit command through an npm script, which will seamlessly locate the QUnit command from your local dependencies. To enhance your understanding of how to organize tests and make assertions, refer to the API documentation. Additionally, QUnit adheres to the Node.js Long-term Support (LTS) schedule, ensuring it is compatible with current, active LTS, and maintenance LTS releases, thus providing long-term reliability for your projects. This commitment to support makes QUnit an ideal choice for developers seeking a dependable testing framework.

Mocha operates directly within the browser environment. Each version of Mocha releases updated builds of both ./mocha.js and ./mocha.css for browser integration. By including a parameter (commonly referred to as done) in the it() function for a test callback, Mocha understands that it should await the invocation of this function to finalize the test. This callback can receive either an Error instance (or its subclass) or a falsy value; anything deviating from this will lead to an error being thrown, typically resulting in a failed test. Reporters in Mocha anticipate knowledge of the total number of tests to execute prior to running them. However, this data is not accessible in parallel mode since test files are only loaded when set to run. Conversely, in serial mode, test outcomes are streamed live as they are generated. In parallel mode, however, the output from reporters is buffered, which means reporting will happen after the completion of each test file. Consequently, the reporter’s output will be presented in segments, while maintaining the same information. If a particular test file is notably sluggish, it could lead to a significant delay during its execution. Thus, understanding these nuances allows developers to better manage expectations regarding test performance and output.

The Windows UI Library (WinUI) serves as a native framework designed to enhance user experiences (UX) for both desktop and Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications. By integrating the Fluent Design System across all elements, including controls and aesthetics, WinUI ensures that applications deliver a cohesive, user-friendly, and accessible interface that aligns with contemporary UI trends. It accommodates the development of both new and existing applications, allowing developers to either create from scratch or seamlessly transition their current MFC, WinForms, or WPF applications, utilizing well-known programming languages such as C++, C#, Visual Basic, and JavaScript (through React Native for Windows). Moreover, this versatility enables developers to leverage modern design principles while maintaining familiarity with their coding practices. In doing so, WinUI not only enhances the development process but also enriches the overall user engagement with applications.

Structure your application using compact Views for enhanced organization. Marionette simplifies the process of creating intricate layouts from these smaller components. With numerous features like templateHelpers and a declarative UI hash, you'll find it hard to revert to older methods. Facilitate the sharing of intricate UI interactions across multiple views. Behaviors function similarly to mixins but eliminate the headache of property conflicts. Achieve seamless communication among various application components through a robust messaging system. Create classes that mirror the same API as your views, as Marionette Objects come equipped with capabilities such as extend, events, initialize, and more. The Marionette community is characterized by its inclusive and lively discussions within the Backbone ecosystem. Shift your focus from pondering over the framework to concentrating on your application itself. With Marionette, your coding experience will remain uninterrupted. Embrace the power of modular design and let your creativity flourish.

Develop robust, production-ready Node.js applications in just weeks instead of months. Sails stands out as the leading MVC framework for Node.js, crafted to mirror the well-known MVC structure found in frameworks like Ruby on Rails while addressing the needs of contemporary applications, including data-driven APIs and scalable service-oriented architecture. Utilizing Sails allows for the easy creation of tailored, enterprise-level Node.js applications. By leveraging Sails, your application is entirely composed in JavaScript, the same language your team is already adept at using within the browser. The framework includes a powerful Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tool called Waterline, which offers a straightforward data access layer that functions seamlessly across various databases. Sails also provides built-in blueprints that facilitate the rapid development of your app's backend without any coding required. Additionally, Sails automatically translates incoming socket messages, ensuring they work with every route in your application. To further enhance your development process, Sails provides commercial support to help speed up project timelines and maintain coding best practices throughout your work. With its expansive features, Sails empowers developers to focus on building innovative solutions without getting bogged down in technical complexities.

The Grails® framework is a robust web application framework that is Groovy-based and designed for the JVM, built upon the Spring Boot foundation. It emphasizes convention-over-configuration, offers sensible defaults, and presents opinionated APIs, making it particularly accessible for Java developers to grasp. By leveraging the efficient features of Spring Boot, such as its dependency injection capabilities, the Grails framework enhances productivity and streamlines development. It also ensures smooth integration and interaction with Java, existing Java EE containers, and the JVM itself. Apache Groovy, the language powering Grails, is crafted to boost developer efficiency, providing both optional typing and dynamic capabilities while supporting static typing and compilation as well. Furthermore, the Grails framework incorporates GORM, a powerful data access toolkit that simplifies the interaction with various data sources, offering an extensive array of APIs for both relational and non-relational databases. GORM supports multiple implementations, including popular databases like Hibernate (SQL), MongoDB, Cassandra, and Neo4j, making it a versatile choice for developers working with diverse data storage solutions. Overall, the combination of these features positions the Grails framework as an essential tool for modern web development on the JVM.

Explore libraries and frameworks that seamlessly integrate with Native Image to enhance your development experience. Utilize Graal, an innovative optimizing compiler, to produce more efficient and lightweight code that demands fewer computing resources. By compiling Java applications into native binaries ahead of time, you can achieve instant startup and optimal performance without any warmup delays. Combine the finest features and libraries from various popular languages within a single application with negligible overhead. Additionally, you can debug, monitor, profile, and optimize resource usage not just in Java, but across multiple programming languages as well. The high-performance JIT compiler of GraalVM delivers optimized native machine code that accelerates execution speed, minimizes garbage generation, and reduces CPU utilization through a suite of advanced compiler optimizations and aggressive inlining methods. Ultimately, these enhancements lead to applications that operate more swiftly and utilize fewer resources, significantly lowering costs related to cloud services and infrastructure. This remarkable efficiency fosters a more sustainable approach to software development and resource management.

Astro serves as an all-encompassing web framework crafted for optimal speed and performance. You can source your content from any platform and deploy it effortlessly, all while utilizing your preferred UI components and libraries. With unmatched optimization capabilities, Astro elevates your website's efficiency beyond what other frameworks offer. Its innovative zero-JS frontend architecture empowers you to achieve increased conversion rates and improved SEO outcomes. Tailored specifically for content management, Astro enables seamless data retrieval from any CMS or allows for local development through type-safe Markdown and MDX APIs. Whether you’re creating personal blogs or professional websites, Astro’s integrated Markdown support and content APIs facilitate a user-friendly experience. Achieve distinction with a remarkably fast site that enhances your SEO ranking. Agencies leverage Astro for constructing websites with remarkable speed and efficiency. Enjoy complete control over your frontend code, allowing for extensive customization on every project. In the fast-paced business world, time equates to money; therefore, provide your customers with an exceptional shopping experience and accelerate your business growth. Present your work effectively with a high-performing portfolio that helps others connect with you and your creations swiftly. Additionally, with Astro, you can harness the power of modern web technologies to maximize user engagement and satisfaction.

Molybden SDK is a tool for creating modern and secure desktop apps that run on multiple platforms. It has a HTML/CSS/JavaScript interface. It has many tools to generate a project using different templates, build, brand, package, sign and notarize, make installers for macOS Windows and Linux, auto update apps, etc. Molybden allows you to turn your web application or website into a desktop app, create desktop apps using HTML/CSS UI and desktop apps that use UI built with modern frontend frameworks like React, Vue, Angular etc.

Yii is an efficient, secure, and rapid PHP framework that balances flexibility with practicality, functioning effectively right from the start with sensible defaults. While it significantly reduces repetitive coding efforts, the essential creative process of system design ultimately lies with you, often beginning with the creation of a comprehensive database schema. Utilizing migrations is the most effective approach for this task. Yii optimizes functionality while maintaining minimal overhead, and its sensible defaults alongside integrated tools empower developers to create robust and secure applications. With straightforward yet potent APIs and code generation capabilities, you can produce more code in a shorter timeframe. As a versatile web programming framework, Yii is suitable for a wide array of web application development using PHP. Its component-based architecture and advanced caching mechanisms make it particularly adept for large-scale applications, including portals, forums, content management systems (CMS), ecommerce solutions, and RESTful services, among others. Ultimately, Yii stands as a powerful ally for developers aiming to streamline their workflow and enhance productivity in a variety of web projects.

Accelerate your development workflow with F3, a lightweight and user-friendly PHP micro-framework that prioritizes speed and simplicity. Its unobtrusive design ensures that you can focus on your work without unnecessary distractions. With a gentle learning curve, F3 also helps you reduce costs associated with training. Regardless of whether you are a beginner or an experienced PHP developer, F3 enables you to start building applications swiftly. There are no elaborate installation processes or complicated configurations to navigate, making it incredibly accessible. This powerful framework is equipped with a comprehensive toolkit and boasts a minimal code base of approximately 90kb, making it easy to master. Leverage its built-in features to create impressive applications that stand out. F3 provides a robust foundation, a mature code base, and a straightforward approach to crafting web applications. Beneath its surface lies an intuitive web development toolkit, high-performance URL routing, a multi-protocol caching engine, built-in code highlighting, and support for multilingual applications, making it a versatile choice for developers. With F3, you can confidently develop dynamic web solutions that truly resonate with users.

SvelteKit serves as a powerful framework for swiftly building efficient and resilient web applications utilizing Svelte. It resolves typical developmental hurdles by offering solutions for aspects such as routing, server-side rendering, data retrieval, service workers, and TypeScript integration, among others. By default, applications created with SvelteKit are server-rendered, which ensures outstanding initial load performance and advantages for search engine optimization, while still allowing for a shift to client-side navigation to improve the overall user experience. The framework is tailored to adapt to developers' needs, enabling them to begin with basic features and progressively incorporate more complex functionalities as required. SvelteKit relies on Vite, providing a dynamic and feature-packed development environment that includes capabilities like hot module replacement. In essence, Svelte allows developers to create interactive user interface components—such as navigation bars, comment sections, or contact forms—that users engage with in their web browsers. The Svelte compiler efficiently transforms these components into JavaScript that generates the page's HTML and CSS for styling, ensuring seamless integration and performance. This makes SvelteKit an excellent choice for both novice and experienced developers looking to enhance their web development projects.

Luigi serves as a robust micro-frontend framework tailored for enterprises, assisting developers in creating modular, scalable, and cohesive user interfaces and web applications. It effectively breaks down monolithic web applications into distinct UI modules that mirror the modularity of their backend counterparts, thereby enhancing the overall user experience in diverse development settings. This framework is agnostic to technology, which means it supports the easy incorporation of UI modules from various external sources, while also enabling the secure addition of new functionalities from customers or third-party vendors. By adopting this modular approach, organizations can distribute the end-to-end development of features across different teams, allowing them to swiftly and independently build, deploy, manage, and operate their respective solutions. Furthermore, Luigi mitigates the risk of technology lock-ins, enabling businesses to swiftly adapt to emerging trends and changes in the market landscape. This flexibility ultimately empowers organizations to maintain a competitive edge in an ever-evolving digital environment.

Wasp is a comprehensive web application framework designed to accelerate the development process by minimizing the amount of boilerplate code needed. It employs React for the frontend, Node.js for the backend, and Prisma for managing databases, which allows developers to concentrate on the core functionalities of their applications. With its intuitive declarative syntax and easy configuration, developers can outline the high-level architecture of their app within a .wasp file, while the framework takes care of the more tedious tasks such as routing, authentication, and API management. The objective of Wasp is to streamline the application development process without compromising on flexibility, making it particularly well-suited for creating both MVPs and fully-fledged production applications. Additionally, Wasp's thoughtful design fosters a more efficient workflow, empowering developers to innovate and iterate on their projects with greater ease.

Vanilla JS stands out as a quick, efficient, and versatile framework ideal for developing exceptional and robust JavaScript applications. The dedicated Vanilla JS team highlights its remarkable lightweight nature, making it the most minimal framework accessible today; thanks to our effective deployment approach, your users' browsers will have Vanilla JS preloaded into memory prior to even accessing your website. This remarkable framework has gained such widespread popularity that browsers have been preloading it for more than ten years, enhancing the user experience significantly. Its enduring presence and efficiency continue to attract developers looking for a seamless solution.

Tauri is a powerful framework that allows developers to create lightweight, efficient, and secure cross-platform applications by merging existing web front-ends with Rust-based back-ends. It is compatible with any JavaScript framework, allowing you to maintain your current technology stack while utilizing the native web renderer of each operating system, resulting in app sizes as small as 600 KB. The framework facilitates deep inter-process communication, which connects your JavaScript user interface, Rust core logic, and native components written in Swift or Kotlin, ensuring smooth integration with system APIs. Built with security as a fundamental principle, Tauri integrates Rust at its core alongside a collaborative approach to enhancing and innovating security measures. The command-line interface provides scaffolding for new projects through various tools such as Bash, PowerShell, npm, Yarn, pnpm, Deno, Bun, or Cargo, and it offers features for bundling, templating, and secure defaults, all launched through the straightforward “create-tauri-app” command. By streamlining the development process, Tauri empowers developers to focus on building robust applications without compromising on performance or security.

Nitric is a versatile, open-source backend framework that operates across various cloud platforms, allowing developers to easily define their infrastructure through code and streamline deployment processes with customizable plugins. It is compatible with several programming languages, such as JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Go, and Dart. Among its prominent features are the ability to create APIs (including REST and HTTP), serverless functions, routing, and handling authentication and authorization via OIDC. Additionally, it provides support for storage solutions, such as object and file storage, signed URLs, and bucket events, as well as database management, including managed Postgres with migration capabilities. Messaging features like queues, topics, and pub/sub are also integrated, alongside support for websockets, scheduled tasks, and managing sensitive information securely. Nitric can seamlessly integrate with infrastructure management tools like Terraform or Pulumi, or you can develop your own plugins, and it is compatible with leading cloud service providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Furthermore, it offers a local development environment that simulates cloud conditions, enabling developers to prototype, test, and refine their applications without incurring any cloud expenses. The framework also places a strong emphasis on declarative security, efficient resource access management, and ensuring portability across different environments, making it a powerful choice for modern application development.

No cost involved. Works across multiple platforms. Open-source software. A comprehensive development environment for creating applications. Develop native applications for Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows using just one codebase. You have the option to write your .NET applications in C#, F#, or Visual Basic. Your expertise, coding practices, and preferred libraries are applicable across all .NET environments. To discover more about the capabilities of .NET, check out these complimentary video resources. The open-source nature of .NET is greatly enhanced by the numerous contributions from the community, which we deeply appreciate. Additionally, this collaborative effort fosters innovation and continual improvement.

Enhance your ships with all the necessary tools to create a fully functioning app ready for production. Arrange your pages effortlessly, similar to how you would organize files in a desktop folder. Utilize straightforward JavaScript functions to access and store your data efficiently. Create reusable components using HTML paired with scoped CSS for better organization. Implement client-side interactions specifically where they are needed for enhanced user experience. Develop server-rendered custom elements that can smoothly transition into interactive web components. Enhance simplifies the process of doing things the right way. Begin with a version that operates universally for all users. Gradually upgrade interactive features from that foundational point. The web platform offers everything required and remains timeless in its relevance. Move away from throbbers and loading screens by eliminating unnecessary framework bloat, focusing solely on the code that is essential. As you learn Enhance, you are acquiring development techniques that will endure alongside the web's evolution. Enhance applications are crafted with deployment considerations at their core. When the moment arrives for your launch, we are here to support you with Begin, ensuring a smooth transition to the live environment. With Enhance, you are not just creating apps; you are building a sustainable future in web development.

The modular architecture provides remarkable flexibility by permitting the integration of various libraries. This adaptable framework serves as a comprehensive foundation for a wide range of server-side applications. It harnesses the latest features of JavaScript, introducing design patterns and well-established solutions to the Node.js ecosystem. Serving as an all-encompassing development kit, it facilitates the creation of scalable server-side applications. In recent years, Node.js has positioned JavaScript as the dominant language of the web, applicable to both frontend and backend development. This shift has led to the emergence of impressive frameworks such as Angular, React, and Vue, which enhance developer efficiency and allow for the rapid development of fast, testable, and extendable frontend applications. Nonetheless, despite the abundance of exceptional libraries, utilities, and tools available for Node and server-side JavaScript, there remains a significant challenge that is not adequately addressed—namely, the issue of architecture. This gap highlights the need for more robust solutions that can streamline and improve the overall structure of server-side development.

TypeORM is a versatile Object-Relational Mapping (ORM) tool that operates across various platforms, including NodeJS, Browser, Cordova, PhoneGap, Ionic, React Native, NativeScript, Expo, and Electron, and is compatible with both TypeScript and JavaScript (ES5, ES6, ES7, ES8). Its primary objective is to consistently embrace the latest features of JavaScript while offering additional capabilities that facilitate the development of diverse applications that require database interaction, ranging from simple projects with minimal tables to complex enterprise solutions featuring multiple databases. Unlike other existing JavaScript ORMs, TypeORM accommodates both Active Record and Data Mapper design patterns, empowering developers to create high-quality, loosely coupled, scalable, and maintainable applications with enhanced productivity. This flexibility allows developers to choose the architectural style that best fits their project's needs, further enhancing TypeORM's appeal among various development teams.

Feathers is designed to seamlessly integrate with various backend technologies, offering support for numerous databases right out of the box while also being compatible with a wide range of frontend frameworks such as React, VueJS, Angular, React Native, as well as mobile platforms like Android and iOS. Rapidly develop prototypes within minutes and transition to fully functional production applications in just a few days. Thanks to its innovative architecture, Feathers enables developers to concentrate on crafting their APIs and real-time applications efficiently. You benefit from automatically generated scalable HTTP and real-time APIs, ensuring you are well-equipped for any future advancements. Feathers can be utilized with NodeJS, directly in the browser, through React Native, or any API client you choose. It offers the versatility to work with any database, providing extensive out-of-the-box support and allowing for a seamless connection between your API and any frontend framework you prefer. Specifically crafted for TypeScript, Feathers strikes the perfect balance between providing a structured environment for developing complex applications and maintaining the flexibility necessary to avoid hindering your workflow. With a vast ecosystem of plugins available, you can easily incorporate exactly the features you require, making it a powerful tool for developers. Ultimately, Feathers empowers you to bring your ideas to life efficiently while adapting to your project's unique needs.