JavaScript Libraries and Frameworks: Best Options in 2024

July 16, 2024 2149 Views

JavaScript Libraries: Find the Right Option in 2024

JavaScript, or JS, is the most popular language for making websites interactive. Together with CSS and HTML, JS is a core part of most websites. It allows you to add things like buttons, animations, and interactive maps to your pages. Creating a big, interactive web app can be tricky, but the best JavaScript libraries help simplify this.

The best JavaScript libraries libraries provide chunks of pre-written code you can use repeatedly, so you don’t have to write everything from scratch. This saves time, reduces mistakes, and speeds up your website. There are many JS libraries, and choosing the right one for your project might be tough.

What Are JavaScript Libraries?

JavaScript libraries provide a collection of functions, methods, or objects to accomplish practical tasks on a webpage or JS-based application. They can even be used to build a WordPress site.

Imagine a library where you revisit favorite books. As an author, you might enjoy other authors’ works, gain new perspectives, and apply those ideas in your own writing.

Similarly, a JavaScript library contains reusable codes or functions written by developers. Other developers can use these codes for specific tasks. For example, creating a slideshow without starting from scratch saves time and effort.

This is the main purpose of JavaScript libraries, and you can find many of them for various use cases. They not only save time but also simplify the development process.

How to Use JavaScript Libraries?

To incorporate a JavaScript library into your application, add a `<script>` tag within the `<head>` element of your HTML, utilizing the `src` attribute to reference the library’s source path or URL.

For more detailed guidance, consult the documentation of the specific JavaScript library you plan to use. The documentation will provide comprehensive steps and examples to help you implement the library effectively.

You can download the library files to your local project directory or link to a CDN (Content Delivery Network) where the library is hosted.

Some libraries require initialization code after linking. Check the library documentation for any specific initialization steps.

Libraries may offer configuration options to customize their behavior. Look for configuration guides in the documentation.

Refer to examples provided in the documentation to understand how to implement various functions or features offered by the library.

Learn about common issues and troubleshooting steps from the documentation to handle any errors that may arise during implementation.

Join forums or communities related to the library for additional support and to stay updated with the latest developments.

What Are JavaScript Libraries Used For?

JavaScript libraries are designed to perform specific functions. There are approximately 83 libraries, each created for a particular purpose. Here are some common uses:

Data Visualization in Maps and Charts

JavaScript libraries are essential for data visualization in applications, enabling users to clearly view statistics in admin panels, dashboards, and performance metrics. Presenting data in charts and maps facilitates easy analysis and informed business decisions.

Examples Chart.js, Apexcharts, Algolia Places

DOM Manipulation

The Document Object Model (DOM) represents a web page as objects and nodes that can be modified using JavaScript, allowing you to change content, style, and structure.

Examples jQuery, Umbrella JS

Data Handling

Handling and managing the large amounts of data that businesses deal with daily is crucial. JavaScript libraries make it easier to handle documents and add interactivity.

Examples D3.js

Database Management

Effective database management involves reading, creating, deleting, editing, and sorting data. JavaScript libraries can assist with sophisticated queries, auto-creating tables, synchronizing, and validating data.

Examples TaffyDB, ActiveRecord.js

Forms

JavaScript libraries simplify form functions, including validation, synchronization, handling, conditional capabilities, field controls, and layout transformation.

Examples wForms, LiveValidation, Validanguage, qForms

Animations

Animations make web pages more interactive and engaging. JavaScript libraries make it easy to add micro-interactions and animations.

Examples Anime.js, JSTweener

Image Effects

JavaScript libraries allow users to add effects to images, such as blurring, lightening, embossing, sharpening, grayscale, saturation, hue adjustments, contrast adjustments, flipping, inverting, and reflections.

Examples ImageFX, Reflection.js

Fonts

JavaScript libraries enable the incorporation of various fonts to make web pages more compelling based on the content type.

Examples typeface.js

Math and String Functions

Handling mathematical expressions, dates, times, and strings can be complex. JavaScript libraries simplify these tasks and help manipulate and handle URLs effortlessly.

Examples Date.js, Sylvester, JavaScript URL Library

User Interface and Its Components

JavaScript libraries enhance user experience by making web pages more responsive and dynamic, reducing the number of DOM operations, and boosting page speed.

Examples ReactJS, Glimmer.js

Additional Uses

Creating custom dialog boxes
Switching platforms
Creating keyboard shortcuts
Affecting data retrieval/AJAX
Creating rounded corners
Aligning page layouts
Logging and debugging
Creating navigation and routing

And many more.

List of JavaScript Libraries

JavaScript Libraries: Sencha

Ext javascript framework grid for web and mobile apps web page HTML elements

Sencha Ext JS is one of the best JavaScript libraries for creating enterprise-grade web apps. It provides a wide range of pre-built JS components for building user interfaces. It also comes with an Automation testing tool called Sencha Test.

Features

Ext JS offers 140+ pre-built components, including buttons, menus, carousels, forms, calendars, progress bars, sliders, and more.
Sencha Ext JS is designed for creating enterprise web apps quickly. Moreover, it comes with a variety of charts and the fastest JS grid. The powerful grid can process large data sets quickly and has sophisticated built-in functionalities, like grouping and sorting.
Ext JS also comes with data-driven document package (D3) visualizations, such as heatmaps and treemaps, that you can instantly add to your web apps.
Ext JS is one of the most secure frameworks available in the market. Moreover, its code is fully-tested and highly secure.
With Ext JS, you can create highly functional cross-platform apps quickly. It provides a single codebase for all the platforms to accelerate the app development process.
Ext JS minimizes the amount of code users have to write. It utilizes MVC (Model-Viewer-Controller) architecture, making it simpler and easier to build large client-side apps with several features.
With Sencha Exporter, you can export all your data from the pivot grid or standard grid to different file formats
Sencha Ext JS has detailed documentation where you can find all the details about its components and features, as well as helpful coding examples.
When you purchase an Ext JS license, you also get access to many other supporting Sencha tools, such as Cmd, Themer, Stencils, Architect and Sencha Test. Moreover, all these tools help build efficient and high-performance web apps quickly.

Check out Ext JS quick start guide and get started with the framework today!

Benefits

Comes with over 140 pre-built, easy-to-integrate JS components, such as buttons, forms, tabs, and more
Sencha’s flexible layout system helps with the proper sizing and positioning of all components
Offers a variety of dynamic and static charts, such as pie charts and bar charts
Offers a Community Edition that is completely free to use.

Try Ext JS Community Edition and test its impressive features today.

JavaScript Libraries: DOJO Toolkit

Dojo Toolkit javascript tools with interactive features and js framework

Dojo Toolkit is an open-source JavaScript library that lets you build cross-platform, JS, and Ajax-based websites quickly.

Features

Doesn’t require any browser-side runtime plug-in
Supports all major web browsers
Comes with lightweight and independent modules that load quickly
Comes with a widget and layout library for building attractive user interfaces

Benefits

Comes with all the tools you need to build an efficient web app
Allows you to build rich and engaging user interfaces
Saves time

JavaScript Libraries: jQuery

jQuery - one of the most popular javascript libraries for building interactive interfaces

Next on the list of best JavaScript libraries is jQuery. jQuery is a lightweight JS library that dramatically simplifies JavaScript programming language. jQuery library wraps common UI tasks that involve long JS code into methods that JavaScript programmers can easily call with only a few lines of code.

Features

Makes AJAX calls, event handling, and DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation super easy
Highly extensible
Comes with an easy-to-use API that works across multiple browsers
Platform-independent
Supports all modern browsers

Benefits

Easy to learn and use
Using the jQuery library, you can easily add animations to your web pages with just a few lines of code
Makes HTML document traversal and manipulation very simple and easy

JavaScript Libraries: Google Polymer

Developed by Google, Polymer is an efficient JavaScript library that allows developers to create web applications using web components.

Features

Allows developers to create custom elements using CSS, HTML, and JS to create more interactive apps
Lets developers reuse elements in a declarative way
The app layout components allow developers to build responsive design
The Shadow DOM functionality encapsulates CSS and keeps the code of your web component modular

Benefits

Open-source JS library
Supports both one-way and two-way data binding

JavaScript Libraries: JavaScript InfoVis toolkit

JavaScript InfoVis toolkit pure javascript with html element

If you’re looking to create interactive data visualizations for your web apps, InfoVis is the right tool.

Features

Supports a number of data visualizations, such as pie charts, area charts, bar charts, and many more
Supports TreeMaps, SpaceTree and HyperTree
Offers several graph manipulation features

Benefits

Easy-to-use tool for adding interactive data visualizations to web apps
Comes with an easy-to-use API

JavaScript Libraries: D3.js

D3.js

D3 stands for Data-Driven Documents. D3.js allows you to apply data-driven transformations to DOM objects.

Features

Enables developers to bind arbitrary data to a DOM and apply data-driven transformations to it
Allows developers to create dynamic and interactive data visualizations
Comes with several built-in, reusable functions
Supports CSS, SVG, and HTML

Benefits

Extremely fast
Can efficiently handle large datasets

JavaScript Libraries: Pixi.js

Pixi JavaScript library

Next on the list of best JavaScript libraries is Pixi.js, an open-source, cross-platform JavaScript library for creating stunning digital content.

Features

Helps create games and interactive, animation-based websites
Supports multiple platforms, such as mobile and desktop
Renders beautiful anti-aliased text
Comes with advanced support for features like rotational packing and trimming

Benefits

Comes with an easy-to-use, feature-rich API
Excellent community support

JavaScript Libraries: SWFObject

SWFObject is a simple yet powerful JS library mainly used to embed Adobe Flash SWF files in HTML documents.

Features

Make it super easy to embed Flash movies
Can efficiently detect the Adobe Flash Player plug-in
Supports all major web browsers

Benefits

Works on both Mac and PC
Search engine friendly

JavaScript Libraries: Three.js

Three.js Javascript library

Three.js is a cross-browser library and API that allows for the creation of beautiful animations. It offers several useful features for creating 3D scenes in your web browser.

Features

Relies on WebGL rather than conventional browser-plugins
Can efficiently display graphics and 3D animations in a web browser
Comes with useful features like scenes, effects, cameras, materials, lights, sky, meshes, animations, shades, and 3D objects

Benefits

Open-source
Supports almost all modern web browsers

JavaScript Libraries: Velocity.js

Velocity.js is another powerful cross-platform JS library that makes web animations super easy.

Features

A fast-performance engine that simplifies website animations
Works with jQuery as well as without jQuery
Features loops, transforms, color animation, scrolling, and more

Benefits

Extremely fast
Open-source

JavaScript Libraries: React.js

React JavaScript library

React is undoubtedly one of the most used JavaScript libraries that allows you to build stunning and responsive user interfaces for your web applications. It is built by Facebook and is also open-source.

Features

Creates a virtual DOM for every DOM object, thus making it easier to manipulate
React’s declarative style also makes debugging simple and easy
Has a powerful W3C object model event system
Supports unidirectional or one-way data flow, so that the data only flows from the parent component to the child component
React components are also independent and reusable

Benefits

Cross-browser compatibility
Markedly easy-to-learn
Supports third-party libraries

JavaScript Libraries: Vue.js

Vue

Released in 2014, Vue is markedly one of the most used JavaScript libraries. Like React, Vue.js is similarly based on the Virtual DOM model.

Features

Firstly, it allows you to create efficient cross-platform single-page applications (SPA)
Uses virtual DOM
Component-based architecture

Benefits

Fast rendering
Two-way data binding

JavaScript Libraries: WinJS

Developed by Microsoft, WinJS (Windows Library for JavaScript) is another advanced UI toolkit for modern web browsers.

Features

Firstly, it allows you to create efficient cross-platform single-page applications (SPA)
Uses virtual DOM
Component-based architecture

Benefits

Fast rendering
Two-way data binding

JavaScript Libraries: WinJS

Developed by Microsoft, WinJS (Windows Library for JavaScript) is another advanced UI toolkit for modern web browsers.

Features

Firstly, developers can load the entire package or the individual modules as needed
Provide an especially comprehensive set of UI controls
Also comes with a set of utilities and components to build the infrastructure of your Javascript apps

Benefits

Comes with UI controls such as ListView, SplitView, Toolbar, FilpView, and more

JavaScript Libraries: PHP

JsPHP is a JS library for PHP that is available in the JavaScript environment.

Features

Offers a significantly compelling interface for JavaScript developers who use PHP
Allows developers to implement Object, Array, and also String methods in the JavaScript way

Benefits

Free and open-source
Supports basically all modern web browsers

JavaScript Libraries: Socket.IO

Socket.IO is a highly reliable library that further allows for event-based two-way communication between the server and the browser window.

Features

Consists of two parts – particularly a client-side library and a Node.js server/server-side library
Uses WebSocket protocol
Also offers useful features like binary streaming and real-time analytics

Benefits

Additionally enables bidirectional communication between the browser window and the server
Scalable

JavaScript Libraries: MathJX

MathJAX, true to its name, is another efficient JavaScript library that can display math notations in web browsers.

Features

Uses markups like LaTeX, ASCIIMathML, and also MathML
Allows users to copy equations into LaTeX, Office, wikis, and other tools
Uses CSS with web fonts instead of bitmap images

Benefits

Supports generally all major web browsers
Easy to integrate

JavaScript Libraries: Blockly

Blockly JS library

Created by Google, Blockly is another web-based visual programming editor.

Features

When the library is used, the app gains an editor that shows code fragments including loops, expressions, variables, and more as blocks
No server-side dependencies
Customizable and extensible

Benefits

Free and open-source
Compatible with basically all modern web browsers

JavaScript Libraries: Modernizr

Modernizr is a feature detection JavaScript library. That is to say, it tells you the JS, HTML, and CSS features that your browser has.

Features

Detects the HTML, CSS and JS features that a web browser supports
The library runs simultaneously as your website loads
Also helps improve user experience

Benefits

Allows web developers to test browsers for new technologies in CSS & HTML

JavaScript Libraries: Verge3D

Verge3D is a toolkit that likewise lets developers create 3D experiences on websites.

Features

Allows users to create interactive interfaces, website layouts, animation, and also AR/VR
Allows designers to use familiar tools, such as 3DS Max, Blender, and Maya
Verge3D Puzzles system also allows for the creation of interactive and responsive web apps

Benefits

Easy-to-use WebGL engine
Intuitive interface

Anime.js

Anime.js is among the best animation JavaScript libraries that makes especially staggering follow-through animations very simple.

Features

Comes with a clean yet powerful API
Has a built-in staggering system, which thus makes follow-through animations simple
Allows you to animate more than one CSS transforms properties simultaneously

Benefits

Lightweight
Built-in controls and callback functions

JavaScript Libraries: Parsley

Parsely is also one of the best JavaScript libraries for front-end form validation.

Features

Automatically detects modifications in forms and then validates them accordingly
Works on generally all web browsers
Also comes with several built-in validators

Benefits

Free and open-source

JavaScript Libraries: QUnit

QUnit

It is also possible to test any generic JavaScript code using the unit testing tool (or framework) QUnit.

Features

Particularly used in jQuery projects
Extensible
Allows developers to test code anywhere, such as browsers, Node, or inside a Web Worker

Benefits

Overall easy-to-use JS testing framework
No configuration required for Node.js projects

JavaScript Libraries: Choreographer.js

Similarly, Chreographer.js allows developers to animate complex CSS effectively.

Features

Allows developers to define animations via a JS API, and subsequently executes them through DOM events
Allows users to add custom functions that they can then use for non-CSS animations

Benefits

Simple and easy-to-use

JavaScript Libraries: Screenfull.js

Features

Allows developers to add a full-screen element to their project
Impressive cross-browser efficiency – you won’t be in trouble while using this JavaScript library.

Benefits

Easy-to-use
Fast and also reliable

JavaScript Libraries: Voca

Voca string manipulation javascript library

Voca is also an efficient JavaScript string library. Moreover, the idea behind creating Voca is to ease the pain while working with JavaScript strings.

Features

Comes with several helpful functions for easy string manipulations, such as slugify, change case, trim, pad, latinise, truncate, escape, and more
Modular design – so you can load the entire library or specific functions
No dependencies

Benefits

Extensive documentation
Long-term supported

Final Thoughts

JavaScript libraries come with pre-written JavaScript functions that you can use to add new features to your web apps. Today, a wide range of JavaScript libraries are available, such as UI components JS library, String manipulation JS library, 3D animations JS library, and many more. Furthermore, these libraries are excellent options when you are a new developer.