Handlebars.js vs pug (Jade)

Handlebars is available as a JavaScript library, a Django module as well as Java, Ruby, Scala, .Net & PHP libraries, which means you can use it for frontend and backend templating in the language of your choice.

Handlebars's syntax is very readable and easy to understand.

If something is not within {{ and }}, it's not Handlebars. As a result, Handlebars "weaves" through HTML, instead of trying to become an invalid extension of it.

Examples for Bootstrap or other CSS frameworks are always in HTML. With Handlebards you can just copy and paste the examples in your code. With something like Pug (Jade) you have to convert the HTML to Pug (Jade) first.

The syntax allows the output to be any text and does not contrain the user to HTML output only. There are examples of handlebars being used to produce SQL, javascript and other programming language code.

Templates may be nested and reusable parts can be factored out.

Handlebars.js allows you to pre-compile your templates so that the loading time at the client end could be reduced when your templated page is loaded.

You can import Mustache templates and add extra functionality, that's provided by Handlebars, on top of them.

By design, logic-less templates force you to separate concerns thus helping you avoid future problems with refactoring. It also allow templates to be used with multiple programming languages without changes.

With Handlebars.js you can create bindings with variables inside any path in your application.

With a few lines of code, a new extension (control or templating function) can be implemented. It will be called by the compiled templates.

Jade supports mixins. These not only make your templating job easier but are also super-easy to read.

The logic in Jade is done with native JavaScript. This means there's less of a learning curve and it'll be easier to get other developers up to speed.

One of the distinguishing features of Jade is its clean syntax. Elements are created with CSS selector syntax which makes the template consistent with your style sheet and JavaScript element selector library.

With Jade you can quickly overview the hierarchy of a template.

Apart from their functionality all template engines need to be efficient in terms of the time they require to render a page. Jade beats most of its competitors in this area, it is highly optimized to deliver good performance on both the server and client ends.

By using the extends and block keywords, sublayouts can be made with intuitive syntax.

Filters make it easy to embed compiled languages such as coffeescript or markdown directly into the template. A filter will allow you to keep your inline code and content consistent with the rest of your codebase so you can continue using your prefered language with your outputted HTML.

Jade allows embedding regular JavaScript code directly within the template.

In addition to JavaScript, you can reuse Jade templates in Scala, PHP, Ruby, Python and Java.

There's an interactive documentation available here that allows you to play around with code examples and watch the results in real time.

Jade compiles to a JavaScript function that produces the ultimate output. This interim format makes it useful for embedding in conditions where you're trying to save space or decrease processing requirements.

Jade is awesome at templating structural markup, but that's not all Jade is awesome at. It also allows you to use markdown within your template itself which will render to a beautiful HTML page.