With over 160 thousand stars on GitHub as of April 2020, Vue is now one of the most frequently used and downloaded JavaScript frontend frameworks and a direct competitor to the older and more established Angular and React. The Vue.js framework has been gaining ground in the last few years, becoming more and more present in the portfolio of top software development companies. A lot of companies (e.g. GitLab and Alibaba) are choosing to make it a part of their stack, while software houses add to their portfolios of services. Why is the small JavaScript piece of software getting so much praise and notoriety in a market that seems to have already had its full share of “.js” libraries and frameworks? Where is the trend coming from? There are a couple reasons.
Easy learning curve
Some web application frameworks such as Angular prove to be quite challenging for newcomers. That’s because they were designed to be used for larger web apps and include lots of important concepts from the get-go that need to be mastered before you can start coding your app. When compared to them, Vue is quite small and easy to pick up. The developer only needs to know the basics of JavaScript, HTML and CSS to start. That’s why many companies urge their current frontend and JavaScript developers to learn it on the go. Therefore, Vue is a popular choice for web developers interested in upskilling and reskilling.
Decreased development time
Companies usually want to deliver their software as quickly as possible without compromising its quality. The best way to do that is to search for easy gains such as the ability to reuse code. Vue’s components are quite small and loosely coupled, which promotes code reuse and decreases development time. The fact that is is easy to learn also contributes to the goal.
Freedom for developers
One of the common characteristics of any framework is the extent to which it is opinionated (or not). Opinionated frameworks, such as Ember or Angular, force developers to structure their code in a specific way. This has some benefits in terms of productivity in the long term, but it also limits options for developers. Vue is one of the less opinionated frameworks, leaving it up to developers to choose and agree between each other how to structure the code.
Vibrant community and lots of support
Despite being one of the younger of the big JavaScript frameworks that are currently widely used, Vue has created a strong community of developers ready to contribute to the core as well as develop new tools that improve productivity. A good example of that is Vuex – Vue’s equivalent of Redux, commonly used especially with React for state management in the application.
Great performance and flexibility
Of course, none of these benefits would matter if the Vue-based apps didn’t perform well. Luckily, Vue’s performance is on par with all of the other big JS frameworks. As a matter of fact, you can often achieve the same or better results with less coding, which allows you to dedicate more time to writing your business logic.
With all that, it’s easy to understand why Vue development is now such a hot topic. Being easy to learn, it’s worth it to try it out or suggest it to your developers. Once you try it, it will probably stay as an important part of your organization’s stack for a long time.
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Vue.js Featured Image Source: vuejs.org
