Here’s the Deal

ESLint vs JSLint

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When comparing ESLint vs JSLint, the Slant community recommends ESLint for most people. In the question“What are the best JavaScript linting tools?” ESLint is ranked 1st while JSLint is ranked 6th.

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Common Questions

What are the best JavaScript linting tools?

Pros

Pro
Good ES6 support

Pro
Highly flexible ruleset

ESLint allows customizing rules for errors, best practices, variable declarations, ES6, style and JS running on Node. Additionally, custom rules can be applied.

Pro
Functionality can be extended with a wide variety of plugins

A wide variety of plugins are available on npm's repository.

Pro
Clear warnings and error messages

Warnings and error messages are detailed and easy to understand because of the usage of natural language throughout all warnings and messages.

For each message, the rule name is given so you can know what rule is being broken.

Pro
JSX support

JSX extends JavaScript's syntax and makes code faster, safer and easier to write than using plain JavaScript. ESLint is actually the only tool of it's kind to support JSX.

Pro
Enforces a very high standard

Since it's relatively old (it was made in 2002) and made by Douglas Crockford, considered a JavaScript God by many JavaScript programmers. It was created to enforce what in Crockford's experience are the good parts of JavaScript. This means that it's considered by many the best way to enforce the highest standards in JavaScript.

Pro
No setup required

JSLint comes preconfigured and ready to be used.

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Cons

Con
Can throw a weird error out of the box

Con
Requires some configuration before use

Some options and rules need to be configured before using it. This is done by using JavaScript comments inside the file itself, or through a configuration file which can be either a YAML or a JSON file.

Con
The documentation can be a hit or miss

ESLint's documentation is very detailed and helpful in some parts, while in others it gets a little confusing.

For example, the rules list is easy to follow and is grouped into logical categories, while the configuration tutorials can get a little confusing.

Con
Highly opinionated

JSLint has a very strict, dogmatic ruleset that cannot be changed or warnings turned off. So much so that rarely any code will pass JSLint tests. It's reasonable to evaluate if all warning are worth changing.

Con
Difficult to know which rule is causing which error

Since you can't edit the rules and it's not programmed in a way to display the rule that's being broken, it's difficult to understand which rule has been broken.