When comparing Knockout vs Marko, the Slant community recommends Knockout for most people. In the question“What are the best client-side JavaScript MV* frameworks?” Knockout is ranked 2nd while Marko is ranked 17th. The most important reason people chose Knockout is:
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.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy data binding
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.
Pro Easy to learn
Has a low entry barrier and an easy learning curve. It's especially easy to learn for beginners.
Pro Built in templating
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.
Pro Legacy browser support
Supports a large number of browsers, including IE6.
Pro Great documentation
The excellent tutorials with built-in exercises are a great learning experience, even for people without prior MVVM and data binding experience.

Pro Lightweight and plays nicely with other libraries
Pro Dynamic models help with keeping the code simple and clean
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.
Pro Very flexible
One can do a lot of things and it keeps self references and other types of loops under control.
Pro It's only a library
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.
Pro Simple manageable modules
Using components is a great way of breaking up large modules into simpler ones.
Pro Extremely fast
Marko consistently outperforms other alternatives in code benchmarks, both on rendering speed and compilation time.
Pro Custom tags
Custom tags provide a simple mechanism for embedding more complex components into a template by extending the HTML grammar with support for new tags. For example:
<div>
<say-hello name="World"/>
</div>
Custom tags are easy to create since they just map to a JavaScript "renderer" function as shown below:
module.exports = function sayHelloRenderer(input, out) {
out.write('Hello ' + input.name + '!');
}
Custom tags support nested content:
<fancy-overlay title="My Title">
This will be the body content of the overlay
</fancy-overlay>
Custom tags can also have parent/child relationships to support more complex use cases such a "tabs" component with nested "tab" components:
<fancy-tabs>
<fancy-tabs:tab label="Home">
Content for Home
</fancy-tabs:tab>
<fancy-tabs:tab label="Profile">
Content for Profile
</fancy-tabs:tab>
<fancy-tabs:tab label="Messages">
Content for Messages
</fancy-tabs:tab>
</fancy-tabs>
Pro Streaming
Streaming allows progressive HTML rendering and reduces time to first byte.
Pro Server-side rendering
Marko supports both server-side and client-side rendering.
Pro Marko Widgets
Marko Widgets allows UI components (rendering + behavior) to be built using Marko.
Pro Compiled templates are readable CommonJS modules
Avoids ugly globals and "named" templates.
var template = require('./template.marko');
var html = template.renderSync({name: 'Frank'});
Pro Asynchronous rendering
Marko makes additional asynchronous calls after the view rendering has begun.
Pro Lightweight runtime (~4 KB gzip)
Pro Easy to integrate with express.js
Easy Integration with Express and Node
Pro Documentation is well maintained and helpful
The documentation is extensive and very helpful. It also contains several sample applications which are very useful.
Pro Allows JavaScript expressions
JavaScript expressions can be executed inside the templates.
Pro Simple and readable syntax
Marko has a HTML-like syntax which should be easy to read and understand for everyone who has even minimal experience in web development.
Pro Short learning curve
It is easy to get up to speed and understand what is going on in a very short period of time.
Pro Small compiled templates
Marko's compiled templates are usually very small, as proven by benchmarks.
Pro Lots of tests
To prevent regressions, Marko includes a full suite of tests. The testing harness renders a collection of templates and does an exact string comparison to make sure that the tests rendered exactly as expected. There are also API tests, and negative tests to make sure that errors are reported in a friendly way.
To run tests:
git clone https://github.com/marko-js/marko
cd marko
npm install
npm test
Pro Friendly compile-time error messages
Error messages come in an easy to read and friendly format, with valid stack traces and file formats of the file(s) which brought the error(s).

Pro Concise and Mixed syntax
The Concise syntax type lets you write Marko with a Jade-like indentation based syntax, and the Mixed mode lets you combine in regular HTML-style syntax.
Pro Server and client logic can easily be expressed within the same template
Pro Has a very active and interactive community
Marko's development community is rather small compared to other frameworks but community is well mannered and active. You can chat with the core development team using gitter.im
Cons
Con Slower than others when amount of objects grows
Knockout has a bad performance when the dealing with large amount of objects. You can see more here.
Con Can become complex once the application grows large
Knockout leaves the application structure to the developer and it can become quite complex and unmanageable in the hands of a beginner once the application grows large and complex.
Con Two way binding requires a little extra work
When allowing users to edit existing data, the two-way binding of observables means you'll need to have to save original values before they're edited, to make comparisons or revert if the user cancels the action.
Con If you want to get the full experience you have to use NodeJS
To use markojs's most popular feature: SSR although you can use any language based server as a backend. It is rather complicated.
Con Very opinionated and not customizable enough
Some custom use cases are not possible. For example, trying to build an AMP page using Marko can be very challenging (special style tag requirements are hard to work with, also, Marko by default inserts a script tag into the rendered output html which is invalid in AMP and needs to be manually removed, etc..)
