What are the best open source JavaScript GUI/widget frameworks?

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score 40 · Answer 1

React with pre-made components

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Top Pro

Easy to reuse components

Since every single UI component is created independently in JavaScript, it becomes very easy to reuse them throughout your app without having to re-write them. See More

Top Con

Large file size

React's react.min.js is 145.5KB in size. It's much larger than some other libraries that offer roughly the same features and it's almost the same size as some MV* frameworks such as Angular or Ember that offer more features out of the box. Although, it should be mentioned that sometimes having a smaller library may force developers to reinvent the wheel and write inefficient implementations on features that React already has. Ending up with a larger application that's harder to maintain and/or that has bad performance. See More

Top Pro

Can be used with different libraries

ReactJS can be used independently as the only library for building the front-end, or it can be used alongside JavaScript libraries such as jQuery, or even Angular. See More

Top Con

You have to learn a new syntax

Requires to learn a custom syntax, JSX that has some gotchas and introduce complexity, a steeper learning curve, and incompatibility with other tools. Though you can opt out from JSX and use vanilla JS instead. But that is not recommended since it adds a lot of unneeded complexity which JSX tries to avoid. See More

Top Pro

Virtual DOM support

Instead of relying on the DOM, React implements a virtual DOM from scratch, allowing it to calculate precisely what needs to be patched during the next screen refresh. This is orders of magnitude faster than fiddling with the DOM itself. See More

Top Con

No support for legacy browsers

React has recently dropped support for Internet Explorer 8. While the library may still work on IE8, issues that affect only IE8 will not be prioritized and/or solved. See More

Top Pro

One-way data flow

React's one-way data binding (or one-way data flow) means that it's easy to see where and how your UI is updated and where you need to make changes. It's also very easy to keep everything modular, fast and well-organized. See More

Top Con

Dependency hell

With all the third party components available for React, which when used smart is a good thing, can result in huge code bloat when used dumb. Javascript sizes can go from KB to MB without doing too much though. See More

Top Pro

Supported by Facebook and Instagram

React is built by Facebook engineers initially to be used only for their inner projects especially to solve the problem of building large complex applications with constantly changing data. See More

Top Con

Slow VirtualDOM

React's VirtualDOM is relatively slow compared to other libraries that implement a VDOM. See More

Top Pro

Extensive SVG support

Since React v0.15, SVG is fully supported. React supports all SVG attributes that are recognized by today's browsers. See More

Top Con

Verbose

React gets a little verbose as applications get more complicated with more components. It's simply not as straightforward as simply writing HTML and JavaScript would be. See More

Top Pro

Template engine independent

React provides a template engine (JSX) which is easy to use. But it's not mandatory. See More

Top Pro

Flux architecture pattern

Flux is a platform agnostic pattern which can technically be used with any application or programming language. One of Flux' main features is that it enforces uni-directional data flow which means that views do not change the data directly. With React this is useful because this way it's easier to understand an application as it starts getting more complicated. By having two-way data binding, lead to unpredictable changes, where changing one model's data would end up updating another model. By using the Flux architecture, this can be avoided. See More

Top Pro

Tested on Facebook itself

React is used on one of the most visited websites on the planet, Facebook. With stellar results and with million of people experiencing it every day. See More

Top Pro

Easy to write tests

Since React's virtual DOM system is implemented completely in JavaScript, it's very easy to write UI test cases. See More

Top Pro

Good debugging tools

React has an official Chrome Extension which is used as a developing and debugging tool. It can be used to quickly and painlessly debug your application or view the whole application structure as it's rendered. See More

Top Pro

Server side rendering

React can render it's components and data server side, then it sends those components as HTML to the browser. This ensures faster initial loading time and SEO friendliness out of the box, since it's indexed as any other static website by search engines. See More

See All

score 14 · Answer 2

Materialize

Top Pro

Opinionated

Material design is very opinionated on how design elements should behave and look. The basics of which revolve around certain visual elements (physics, space, momentum and light) which are used to create specific UX elements. This is very helpful because it creates a consistent feel without making every design look the same. This can be seen in Materialize too, where each element may be customized but still it keeps the consistent look of the material design. See More

Top Pro

Device agnostic

Since Materialize follows Google's guidelines for Material design, which in theory is device agnostic, Materialize itself is device agnostic too. It's designed to look good on every device. See More

Top Pro

Customizable

While the default style is not bad at all, Materialize also gives developers the ability to customize it and fit their own style, while still keeping in line with the Material Design philosophy. Along with the CSS files, designers can also download the SASS files which can be edited and compiled. See More

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score 29 · Answer 3

Dojo Toolkit

Top Con

Not able to keep up with the future of the web

The web is moving towards web components, something that Dojo does not implement. In its current state Dojo badly needs more abstraction and it also needs to provide some form of modern application architecture. See More

Top Pro

Consistent and complete

Top Con

Integrated first-party loader makes interoperability extremely difficult

Top Pro

Highly modular

Dojo Toolkit is a highly modular framework. It uses AMD modules and the module system is extremely powerful and easy to learn. See More

Top Pro

Not only web apps

Dojo is not used only for web development. The widgets featured in Dojo can also be used to create mobile user interfaces. See More

See All

score 22 · Answer 4

Bootstrap

Top Pro

Well documented

Documentation is thorough, well organized and full of live examples and templates ready for use. Every component and every part of the framework is explained and covered in depth. See More

Top Con

Can be difficult to change the UI opinions it comes with

Top Pro

Massive userbase

Bootstrap is very popular and has a large community. As a result of this it is much easier to find help with anything you might need. See More

Top Con

Limited features as a widget framework

Bootstrap is a full-featured CSS framework, which also includes some powerful prebuilt JavaScript components. However, compared to options with the main purpose of being a GUI/widget framework/tookit, there is a limited number of options with Bootstrap. See More

Top Pro

Custom builds

If you don't want to download the full Bootstrap framework. Custom builds of Bootstrap can be created, including only the desired CSS, CSS components, and JavaScript components. This can be done directly from the Bootstrap website by simply choosing what components to download. See More

Top Con

Depends on jQuery

Depends heavily on jQuery. See More

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score 3 · Answer 5

Quasar Framework

Top Pro

CSS Framework with themes

Full-featured CSS Framework with Material Design and iOS themes out of the box. Apps deploy looking native without additional steps. See More

Top Con

Almost a "one-man project"

It's open source, but it's also mainly developed by the creator, which causes a lot of delay between releases. See More

Top Pro

Hot reload for web & mobile development

Develop websites and/or apps with hot reload directly on your browser or your phone (with the help of Quasar Play app), without the need of F5 or reinstallation. See More

Top Pro

Modern ecosystem with Vue & ES2015+

Leverage all the Vue and the NPM ecosystem easily, including support for '.vue' single-file components. See More

Top Pro

All platforms in one go

One source code for all platforms simultaneously: responsive websites, PWA and hybrid mobile apps. See More

See All

score 8 · Answer 6

Inferno

Top Pro

Pretty light-weight

Inferno weighs in at 9kb gzipped, which is light-weight. See More

Top Con

Some React components may not work with Inferno

Inferno and React have different public and private APIs. If 3rd party components use a private API then it's almost certainly going to break when you use it with Inferno. Once React Fiber is implemented, even libraries that are currently working will break and will not be supported by Inferno. See More

Top Pro

Fast performance

Inferno is one of the fastest UI libraries around and widely considered the fastest. See More

Top Con

Not very popular

Which can hinder one's opinion of its future, but the future of all "frameworks" is to break things into smaller pieces, so inferno very well might get used by the big names in the future. See More

Top Pro

Modular

Use it however you want in a framework of your own custom design. When things change in the industry, swap things out instead of being locked in by someone else's design. See More

Top Pro

React compatability

Using the Inferno compatibility package ("inferno-compat"), Inferno can support the vast majority of React codebases. See More

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score 2 · Answer 7

Material Components

Top Pro

Also useful w/o JavaScript

score 2 · Answer 8

Polymer

Top Pro

Built at Google

Google engineers are leading the project. See More

Top Con

Lack of browser support

Due to web components being so new, there is still a lot of issues with browser compatibility. Though Polymer has solved some of these compatibility issues with polyfills, there is still a lot of bugs and unpredictability. See More

Top Pro

Flex layout components

It provides Flex layout components. See More

Top Pro

Based on web components

Web Components are a collection of specifications released by W3C as a way to reduce the complexity of web apps by creating reusable components. Browser support is currently poor for web components, however Polymer is developed to make web components compatible with modern browsers. See More

Specs

v1.0 GZipped size:53K

v2.0 GZipped size (Chrome):10K

v2.0 GZipped size (Edge):36K

v2.0 GZipped size (Firefox):32K

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score 7 · Answer 9

jQuery UI

Top Con

Slow development

jQuery UI development is rather slow and new features or components are not released frequently. See More

Top Pro

Globalization support

jQuery UI has internationalization (globalization) support. See More

Top Pro

Cross-browser compatibility

jQuery UI, like jQuery has great cross-browser and backward compatibility with the most popular browsers on the market. See More

See All

score 2 · Answer 10

Discover AngularJS

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score 1 · Answer 11

Fit.UI - Object Oriented UI framework

Top Pro

Completely free and open source

Most UI frameworks seems to be really limited or cost money. Fit.UI is actually quite comprehensive and licensed under LGPL which means you can use it for any kind of project - commercial, personal, or open source. See More

Top Con

Not as much third-party resources available

Since it's not as popular as other libraries there are not as many third-party resources like plugins or tutorials available. See More

Top Pro

Full intellisense for JS and TypeScript in Visual Studio Code

You never have to look look up the names of functions - Visual Studio code just lists all the possible functions available on a given Fit.UI object. See More

Top Pro

NPM package available

It can easily be installed through npm: npm install fit-ui. See More

Top Pro

Enhances productivity

You can create a fairly complex app in little time from scratch using Fit.UI. See More

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The Best 1 of 11 OptionsWhy?

My Recommendation for React with pre-made components

My Recommendation for React with pre-made components

Easy to reuse components

Large file size

Can be used with different libraries

You have to learn a new syntax

Virtual DOM support

No support for legacy browsers

One-way data flow

Dependency hell

Supported by Facebook and Instagram

Slow VirtualDOM

Extensive SVG support

Verbose

Template engine independent

Flux architecture pattern

Tested on Facebook itself

Easy to write tests

Good debugging tools

Server side rendering

10 Other Options Considered

My Recommendation for Materialize

My Recommendation for Materialize

Opinionated

Device agnostic

Customizable

My Recommendation for Dojo Toolkit

My Recommendation for Dojo Toolkit

Not able to keep up with the future of the web

Consistent and complete

Integrated first-party loader makes interoperability extremely difficult

Highly modular

Not only web apps

My Recommendation for Bootstrap

My Recommendation for Bootstrap

Well documented

Can be difficult to change the UI opinions it comes with

Massive userbase

Limited features as a widget framework

Custom builds

Depends on jQuery

My Recommendation for Quasar Framework

My Recommendation for Quasar Framework

CSS Framework with themes

Almost a "one-man project"

Hot reload for web & mobile development

Modern ecosystem with Vue & ES2015+

All platforms in one go

My Recommendation for Inferno

My Recommendation for Inferno

Pretty light-weight

Some React components may not work with Inferno

Fast performance

Not very popular

Modular

React compatability

My Recommendation for Material Components

My Recommendation for Material Components

Also useful w/o JavaScript

My Recommendation for Polymer

My Recommendation for Polymer

Built at Google

Lack of browser support

Flex layout components

Based on web components

My Recommendation for jQuery UI

My Recommendation for jQuery UI

Slow development

Globalization support

Cross-browser compatibility

My Recommendation for Discover AngularJS

My Recommendation for Discover AngularJS

My Recommendation for Fit.UI - Object Oriented UI framework

My Recommendation for Fit.UI - Object Oriented UI framework

Completely free and open source

Not as much third-party resources available

Full intellisense for JS and TypeScript in Visual Studio Code

NPM package available

Enhances productivity