Best Javascript Libraries In 2021

By Author: Thomas
Total Articles: 3
Comment this article

Software development has been on the rise since the start of the century. The software industry is very vast, meaning it has a lot of potential in terms of growth and employment opportunities. And when you delve closely into software development, you’ll notice that most of its foundation has been laid by Javascript, especially Javascript Libraries. In other words, Javascript has become a trending language in software development. It helps in connecting many languages and making for better integration.

In short, you get the idea of why Javascript is so important these days. But now things would’ve been simpler if it was just JS right? Under JS, we have libraries and frameworks among which we are more interested in Libraries today.

And since there are so many libraries out there, there are good chances that you may get confused as to what you should begin with. To help you with this problem, we have prepared a list of the best Javascript libraries in 2021 that are easy to use and help you in getting more opportunities in the future.

But instead of directly jumping into that, we need to talk about some ...
... prerequisites so let’s start.

What is Javascript?
Javascript
JavaScript, also known as JS, is a programming language that follows the ECMAScript specification. It is high-level, just-in-time compiled, and multi-paradigm. It has curly-bracket syntax, dynamic typing, prototype-based object-orientation, and first-class functions.

With HTML and CSS, JavaScript is one of the core technologies of the World Wide Web. It helps in creating interactive web pages and is an important element for building web-based apps.

JavaScript engines were being used only in web browsers, but they are now core components of other runtime systems, such as Node.js and Deno. Such systems are used to create servers that are also embedded into frameworks.

Difference between Javascript Library and Javascript Framework
This is one common question which confuses a lot of people. It is the hot topic of discussions and debates when it comes to Javascript. So here’s a brief excerpt of the two.

What is meant by Javascript library?
A Javascript library is a set of code that can be reused from time to time for different programming. In other words, it saves the time required to write the code multiple times by a lot. It reduces the complexity of creating JS-based applications. It mostly consists of many elements like objects and functions.

What is Javascript Framework?
Compared to the JS library, a framework helps to direct your attention towards the architecture and the project that follows. They consist of multiple libraries and they provide you with hooks and callbacks, so you don’t have any difficulty in continuing to build upon them.

Now that we’re done with the distinction between the two, let’s see the top JS libraries.

Which is the best Javascript library?
Now there are a lot of libraries out there on the internet, which could make anyone confused. Which one to choose when you are just getting started Which library is most commonly used or which has the greatest potential among all. To reduce this burden, the following are the best Javascript libraries that would help you in growing in 2021.

jQuery
jquery-interview-questions
jQuery has been in the development scene for a long time and has been the unprecedented king for webpage dev. It is one of the most common libraries used throughout the world, with more than 50% of websites using jQuery for their functioning. jQuery is a library used majorly for Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation. The DOM is a tree-like structure that represents all elements on a webpage.

This library can select DOM elements, make beautiful designs/animations, handle events, and many more. The key objective of jQuery is to work on cross-platform incompatibilities and improve them while promoting the separation of HTML and Javascript at the same time.

While jQuery is used by a lot of browsers, it isn’t as important as it was a few years back. The modern-day browsers have worked and improved on their DOM Interfaces, making the need for jQuery less than before. As a beginner, it is best if you start your journey by learning this.

React
react dev tools
Now here’s one library that you couldn’t dare to leave when you talk about software development. React is the most famous and commonly used Javascript library out there. It is an open-source library that has been backed by Facebook.

It is used to create small, medium, and large scale web applications as well as creating good quality, feature-rich, and intuitive websites.

React is often termed as SPA or a single-page application. This term is used for web applications capable of fitting a single web page, not requiring constant page refreshes. By using Javascript, we can load the content when needed.

It uses components, that help in the encapsulation of the code and state. The use of components helps make the controlling of complicated user interface easy.

React uses JSX, which is a combination of HTML and Javascript. It’s not a template language; it gives full hands-on experience of Javascript. There’s a chance few learners might find the JSX quite convoluting at times. However, after working with it for a while you’ll understand how beneficial it is. For example, JSX makes it easy to wrap JavaScript expressions directly inside your HTML.

From a beginner’s point of view, React has a steep learning curve so it will be very difficult for someone who is starting from scratch. Here are some ReactJS Projects ideas for Beginners you can try to test your skillsets. And if you have a little experience of Javascript, you can expect to have a lovely experience with React.

Voca
Voca
Voca is used for working with strings so that you can manipulate the data and make things simpler, compared to how complex it would have been without Voca. It offers helpful functions like change case, trim, truncate, and so much more and since it was built with a modular design, it gives you the freedom of opting to load the entire library at once or load just the individual items.

Glimmer
Glimmer
Glimmer is a new child in the game when compared to other reputed Javascript libraries. The people who developed Glimmer are the same people who developed EmberJS. It was built after the demand from a lot of developers to provide a library that provides the same features but is smaller in size and occupies less memory than Ember.

Glimmer.js features lighter components and a smaller size, and it uses the robust Ember CLI. It can be used with Ember.js as a component, it can run standalone, or it can be added as a web component to an existing application. It is not the time to talk whether it has been successful or not since it’s been only 4 years, but the trends point towards a bright future for Glimmer.

D3.js
D3
D3 is a Javascript library, primarily focused on visualizing data. The primary reason behind the development of D3 was to be more visually expressive than other libraries and be more advanced and on-par with the latest trends. That why D3 is known as one of the most popular JavaScript data visualization libraries.

If your intent is to make beautiful designs and entities, then D3 is the one for you. It could be something as simple as a pie chart and bar graph or something as complex as a 3D plot. This library has a powerful API, similar to what you will find in jQuery. In short, if you’re looking for a library that provides some good visualizations, then D3 would be the best option for you.