What's Trending in Frontend Frameworks for 2024?

"Which frontend framework should I use?”.

Every developer faces this question at some point, and it's an important one. From improving performance and scalability to accelerating development and easing maintenance, the right frontend framework can also manage costs effectively and improve overall user satisfaction. That’s why choosing the right one can make or break the user experience.

In today’s post, we focus on listing the top frontend framework trends and how their popularity and demand have changed over the years.

One of the biggest trends in frontend development lately is a shift from frameworks to meta-frameworks. These are special tools like Next.js, Remix, SvelteKit, or SolidStart, built on top of existing frontend frameworks.

Meta-frameworks improve the capabilities of traditional frameworks by offering additional functionalities and abstractions, making development easier and more efficient. These additional features help with organizing your codebase, managing complex projects, building full-stack apps, improving SEO, handling routing needs, and meeting high-performance standards.

In our recent roundtable discussion with developers from full-service agencies, Next.js came out on top with 70% of the votes for best frontend tool. Its strong features and how well it works with React make it a favorite among developers, as highlighted in our interview with the leading UX agency Bikkelhart.

Other meta-frameworks like SvelteKit, Nuxt, and Astro also got some attention, each with 10% of the votes for their unique strengths in web development.

Overall, the rise of meta-frameworks means that web development and full-service agencies can create websites faster and deliver projects more efficiently.

Deciding on the best way for a web application to generate and deliver content to users is crucial in the early stages of development. This involves choosing a rendering strategy, such as client-side rendering (CSR), server-side rendering (SSR), or static site generation (SSG).

Recently, there's been a significant shift from CSR to SSR and SSG in frontend frameworks. Both SSR and SSG make web pages load faster initially because the server sends fully rendered HTML to the browser, which users and search engines can see right away.

For developers, using Server-Side Rendering (SSR) or Static Site Generation (SSG) with a meta-framework like Next.js reduces JavaScript code on the client side. This approach brings benefits such as better performance and faster page load, improved SEO, reduced client-side processing, easier maintainability and debugging, and a consistent experience across devices.

Frameworks like Next.js and Nuxt.js support SSR and SSG and offer hybrid approaches, combining the best aspects of SSR and SSG. SSR is more useful for content pages that change very frequently, while SSG is more suitable for content that stays fairly stable such as weekly articles. The hybrid approach provides flexibility and optimizes the benefits of both methods.

Artificial intelligence is now a big part of front-end development, just like everywhere else. Welcoming AI as a friend, developers can automate tasks, and get assistance in various aspects of their work.

Tools like GitHub Copilot and TabNine assist in code generation, suggesting snippets and detecting bugs which speed up development. They learn from millions of lines of existing code to recognize common patterns and suggest full lines and blocks. This makes development faster by handling routine tasks such as writing statements, defining functions, and importing libraries. It also reduces the need for developers to deal with repetitive syntax and boilerplate code.

AI-driven testing helps identify and fix issues before launching, ensuring error-free front-end applications.

Meta-frameworks such as Next.js and SvelteKit are starting to incorporate AI capabilities, offering built-in solutions that enhance performance and user experience. AI capabilities in frontend frameworks will soon be essential for developers. By letting AI handle simpler tasks, developers can focus their time on bigger challenges.

Popularity is often short-lived, sometimes lasting just a few seconds. This applies everywhere, including frontend development, where several frameworks have risen and fallen over the years. To understand the change in framework popularity, we compared the data from the Stack Overflow developer survey from past years to visualize the change.

From this graph, we can see that React remains highly popular, with its usage and demand continuing to grow. In contrast, Angular, once on par with React in popularity back in 2019, is now seeing a decline. Similarly, Gatsby's popularity has significantly decreased, making room for newcomers like Next.js and Svelte. As mentioned before, Next.js is emerging as a rising star, while Svelte is also gaining interest over time.

Now, let's focus on the present moment and see our list of top frameworks to watch in 2024.

About 40.6% of developers use React.js, according to Statista. It’s widely liked among developers thanks to its large community and a strong ecosystem of libraries and tools.

React.js, developed by Facebook in 2011, is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It uses a component-based architecture and JSX syntax that make it simpler for developers to build complex interfaces. React's virtual DOM system makes it fast by updating only what's necessary on the screen.

👍 Component-Based Architecture: Facilitates code reusability and simplifies development.

👍 Virtual DOM: Ensures high performance and efficient UI updates.

👍 Strong Ecosystem: Extensive libraries, tools, and community support.

👎 Complexity: Steeper learning curve for beginners.

👎 JSX Syntax: Can be confusing for developers unfamiliar with it.

👎 Not SEO friendly: Client-side rendering makes it challenging for search engines to index and rank pages effectively.

Recommendations for Use Cases:

Single-Page Applications (SPAs): Ideal for dynamic web applications with rich interactions.

Large-Scale Projects: Suitable for high-performance and scalable projects like e-commerce platforms and social networks.

Try using React with Prepr CMS with our quick start guides.

Next.js, a framework built on top of React, offers server-side rendering (SSR) and static site generation (SSG) for optimal performance and SEO. It's popular among developers who build high-performance web applications, especially those working for full-service agencies, as emphasized in our roundtable discussion.

👍 Server-Side Rendering (SSR): Enhances performance and SEO by rendering pages on the server.

👍 Static Site Generation (SSG): Optimizes loading speed by pre-rendering pages at build time.

👍 Full-Stack Capabilities: Supports API routes for creating full-stack applications.

👍 Built-In CSS and Image Optimization: Simplifies managing styles and optimizing images.

👎 Learning Curve: Requires understanding of both React and Next.js specific features.

👎 Initial Setup: Can be more complex to set up compared to simpler frameworks.

Recommendations for Use Cases:

SEO-Heavy Websites: Great for blogs, marketing sites, and e-commerce platforms needing good search engine visibility.

Dynamic Web Applications: Suitable for projects requiring both static and dynamic content.

Try using Next.js with Prepr CMS with our quick start guides.

Angular is a framework developed by Google and released in 2016. It's used to build big, complex applications for businesses. Angular works with both TypeScript and JavaScript and comes with lots of tools and features already built in.

👍 Comprehensive Framework: Provides a complete solution with built-in tools for routing, state management, and form validation.

👍 TypeScript Support: Enhances code quality and maintainability.

👍 Two-Way Data Binding: Simplifies synchronization between model and view.

👍 Strong Community and Corporate Support: Backed by Google and Microsoft, ensuring long-term stability.

👎 Complexity: Steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set.

👎 Performance: Larger bundle sizes compared to lighter frameworks.

Recommendations for Use Cases:

Enterprise Applications: Suitable for large-scale applications with complex business logic.

SPAs: Ideal for applications requiring rich interactions and real-time updates.

Try using Angular with Prepr CMS with our quick start guides.

Vue.js, known as the progressive JavaScript framework, is both simple and flexible, making it ideal for projects of any size. Its extensive library network enables developers to easily build complex single-page applications.

👍 Simplicity and Flexibility: Easy to learn and integrate into existing projects.

👍 Component-Based Architecture: Similar to React, allows for reusable components.

👍 Incremental Adoption: Can be gradually integrated into projects.

👍 Performance: Lightweight framework with fast rendering.

👎 Smaller Ecosystem: Not as extensive as React's.

👎 Limited Corporate Backing: Primarily community-driven.

Recommendations for Use Cases:

Small to Medium-Sized Projects: Perfect for projects needing quick development cycles.

Prototyping: Great for creating prototypes and MVPs due to its simplicity and rapid development capabilities.

Try using Vue with Prepr CMS with our quick start guides.

Svelte, a relatively new framework that focuses on performance and minimalism in front-end development. Developed by the Svelte core team, it compiles components into highly efficient JavaScript code during the build process.

👍 Performance: Compiles components into efficient JavaScript code, leading to smaller bundle sizes and faster rendering.

👍 Minimal Boilerplate: Simplifies code, making it easy to write and maintain.

👍 Reactivity: Built-in reactive programming model.

👎 Smaller Community: Less community support and fewer third-party libraries.

👎 Newer Technology: Fewer resources and a less mature ecosystem.

Recommendations for Use Cases:

High-Performance Applications: Ideal for projects where performance is critical.

Startups and Prototypes: Great for startups needing to build fast and optimize efficiently with minimal overhead.

Try using Svelte with Prepr CMS with our quick start guides.

Astro, renowned for its efficiency in static site generation, prioritizes performance by delivering optimized HTML, CSS, and JavaScript directly to the browser. Its innovative approach reduces load times and enhances user experience, making it a preferred choice for modern web development.

👍 Performance-First: Prioritizes minimal JavaScript, resulting in fast load times.

👍 Islands Architecture: Efficiently manages dynamic content with minimal overhead.

👍 Integration Friendly: Seamlessly integrates with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte.

👍 Static Site Generation: Automatically generates static pages, boosting SEO and performance.

👎 Learning Curve: Unique concepts might require some initial learning.

👎 Limited Plugin Ecosystem: Smaller ecosystem compared to more established frameworks.

Recommendations for Use Cases:

Content-Rich Websites: Ideal for blogs, documentation, and marketing sites that benefit from fast load times.

SEO-Driven Projects: Perfect for projects where search engine optimization is a priority due to its static site generation capabilities.

Try using Astro with Prepr CMS with our quick start guides.

Looking at 2024, we can sum up the key frontend development trends into three main highlights:

• Meta-frameworks like Next.js and SvelteKit are rising,
• Rendering strategies are shifting from CSR to SSR for better performance and SEO,
• AI is automating tasks, assisting in coding, and improving testing.

We reviewed the top frameworks of 2024, examining their pros and cons and how their popularity has changed over time. We also summarized their key features to help developers decide which one is the best fit. Now that you're aware of the trending frameworks, consider integrating them with a headless CMS like Prepr for managing your content more efficiently.