Knockout vs Handlebars.js

Knockout uses HTML5 data attributes to bind HTML elements to data objects in javascript. This allows more work to be done by the framework rather than requiring you to specify where data should be bound in the javascript. The data binding is very intuitive as the bindings are done within the HTML itself in the location it should be bound.

Has a low entry barrier and an easy learning curve. It's especially easy to learn for beginners.

Bindings in Knockout can also be used to control the generated structure of the HTML. There are bindings provided to allow for iteration and conditionals. The structure of the html reflects the structure of the data so iterative elements are bound to arrays in the data model. Having the HTML structure maintained by bindings keeps the templating simple, easy to read, and maintain.

Knockout also allows for string based templating so you can use whatever templating library you prefer.

Supports a large number of browsers, including IE6.

The excellent tutorials with built-in exercises are a great learning experience, even for people without prior MVVM and data binding experience.

Models in Knockout can be watched to keep the page data up to date by using observable objects. The observables notify Knockout when data is changed and automatically updates the page when this happens. By having Knockout maintain this relation, it keeps the front end code cleaner and simpler, and by enforcing a consistent pattern with observables the methodology can be more robust.

One can do a lot of things and it keeps self references and other types of loops under control.

Knockout does one thing, and does it well. It doesn't try to take on more than one area. It does MVVM data binding and that is it.

Using components is a great way of breaking up large modules into simpler ones.

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.