The Best Front-End Frameworks for UI/UX: Future-Proof Careers

User Interface is the number one concern for every organization in today's digital environment. People are drawn to an experience that is straightforward, clean, and orderly, regardless of how foggy the functions run in the background.

UI/UX experts who design the front-end functionalities always look for a well-suited library to make things responsive and friendly. These libraries are termed front-end frameworks. Several frameworks in the market supply the best set of tools for a developer to create well-organized and interactive applications.

Every front-end solution delivers different abilities and approaches, choosing the best one depends on the type of project you are opting for. Some that work optimally on the web might fall short on other platforms. There is a range of factors every developer considers when choosing their preferred stack of technologies.

Let us discuss the best in-demand frameworks that will be expanding more in the future. The list of the technologies will be organized in terms of popularity, cost-effectiveness, flexibility, and future use. The content is tailored for the people looking to grab a specific framework to build their careers on.

JavaScript Powered Frameworks

Since we all know that JavaScript powers the web, as it is an integral part of every website. According to research, 94 percent of websites and web applications are backed by JavaScript. It is also important to mention that JavaScript is an over twenty-five-year-old programming language that first appeared in 1995. There are many frameworks that are created on the foundation of JavaScript that supply the best user interface approaches. The State of JavaScript survey of 2021 revealed the golden trio (React, Angular, and Vue) leading the front-end market by a lot. Choosing any of these would place you in the safest position for all your front-end needs now and in the future as well.

ReactJS

What comes to mind of a developer when he hears the word “Front end”? Yes, most people tend to fall for ReactJS! React is the primary choice for most people and it is ranked number one on the list of frameworks that are considered best for curating the web. There are over 5 million websites that are currently running it on the front end. ReactJs easily takes the top rank for the greatest Front-end Framework, given how simple it is to learn and how much money a ReactJs Front-end developer makes. React, now an open-source framework was first created by the Facebook team. The applications created using this technology are rendered at the server-side.

Backwards Compatible, Fast, and Ubiquitous

The framework is the best-suited choice for component-driven development. Moreover, it allows the reusability of components whenever you want, wherever you want. All the react components are independent and work without any correlation.

Still, none of the other frameworks seem to support the backward compatibility feature as easily as ReactJS. We all know, that Facebook is always coming up with the latest changes every day of the week. The react components still hold tightly to the earlier ones. This power enables the compatibility of the framework with all future additions and updates.

The ubiquitous nature of technology has made React a haven for developers that are new to front-end design. It is the most preferred choice for every type of project. In short, it is the best choice for new starters looking to ace their careers in the design and development of the front-end. I prefer using React for all modern web applications and especially the SPAs (Single Page Applications).

Angular

AngularJs came in 2010, three years before Facebook introduced ReactJS to the industry. As per my exploration, it is ranked among the top JavaScript-based frameworks for the web. Developed by Google, Angular works in several ways to enhance the complete development procedure. The preconfigured environment of Angular is prepared for all your operations, whether you want to fetch the data, carry out the routing, or perform any other kind of testing process. The official Angular library is all you need instead of adding those third-party libraries. Additionally, better security and higher code quality are guaranteed with Angular.

We have seen the statistics on the recent web development trends that reveal a report. The recent Angular 2+ open-source framework has been adopted by 2600+ existing websites including Microsoft’s Office Insider platform.

Backwards Compatible, Fast, and Ubiquitous

Being a heavyweight front-end framework, Angular comes with several benefits up its sleeve. It is backed by Google and uses the pure MVC (Model View Controller) pattern to use on the real DOM (Document Object Model) syntax for the manipulation of data rendered on the client side.

Another key benefit of Angular is its CLI (Command Line Interface), which developers can use to automate tasks quickly and simply, like app initialization and configuration. With a few straightforward keystrokes, it may quickly add or drop capabilities or create new projects. It makes it easier to swiftly run both unit tests and end-to-end tests.

The recent updates to the Angular framework have transformed its mechanics. Latest improvements have made the technology rely heavily on TypeScript which is known as the derivational superset of JavaScript.

Angular is preferred for the development of full-fledged, feature-rich Enterprize applications.

VueJs

Up to this time, the point of contention for projects has always been between Angular and React. Despite being the newest of the three JavaScript frameworks, Vue.js has steadily gained popularity over time.

Evan You, a former Google engineer, founded Vue in 2014. Written using TypeScript, the front-end JavaScript framework uses the MVVM (Model View- View Model) architectural pattern. Because it offers more customization than Angular or React, it is the simplest to learn. It also enables straightforward and adaptable code. Therefore developers, especially those who are new to programming, prefer to continue with Vue.js.

Vue has the highest number of stars GitHub stars as compared to the other frameworks mentioned above. But it also mentions VueJs having the least number of contributors.

Fastest Small-Scale Applications with Template-Based Syntax

The code pieces that are encapsulated components are sometimes used by programmers as models for similar objects. The testing process is set up as a QA (Quality Assurance) activity that looks at how the program's tiniest parts function independently. Vue’s component-based approach greatly simplifies this process. It is much easier to read and maintain code because each component is saved in its own file.

You can declaratively connect the rendered DOM to the data of the underlying component instance using Vue's HTML-based template syntax. It renders on the server-side with all Vue templates parsed by spec-compliant browsers and HTML parsers since they all use syntactically valid HTML.

C# Powered Framework

Yes, it's right we can use C# on the front-end as well. C#, being Microsoft’s favorite programming language, runs on the .NET framework. It is a full-fledged, multi-paradigm, and object-oriented piece of technology that first appeared in 2000. It is a complete solution to develop different sorts of applications on the web, desktop, and other platforms such as mobile. After the introduction of .NET Core to the development environment in 2016, Microsoft made it much more efficient and reliable with open source and cross-platform functionality.

All the frameworks discussed above are based on JavaScript, and people who spent their time learning C# need to learn JavaScript as well to use those frameworks. No need for that as Microsoft has developed a solution to that problem.

Blazor

Blazor is excellent news for the C# programmers out there. Introduced in 2018 by Microsoft, it allows the developers to use C# in the front-end as well!

Blazor follows a unique approach, it leverages C#, .NET, and Web Assembly to build SPAs (Single Page Applications) that run on the browser. In short, you can create an interactive front-end of your web applications using HTML, CSS, and C#.

Blazor is made up of two main components: Blazor Server, which is server-side, and Blazor Web Assembly, which is client-side. The Blazor Server implementation follows the more conventional .NET application method and needs the usage of SignalR to set up a server connection with the front-end for message forwarding. The Blazor Web Assembly implementation, on the other hand, compiles the project into a deployable static bundle.

JavaScript Interoperability, Interactive User Interface using C#

Writing C# code for the front-end makes life easier as the developer doesn’t have to learn any other language. Microsoft has added a new With Blazor, you can call JavaScript functions from.NET methods and.NET methods from JavaScript functions, which is one of the platform's unique features. This is called JavaScript Interoperability which is a key factor in Blazor development.

Blazor has 29.1k stars on GitHub at the time of this article being written. It is much less as compared to React or Vue, but it is worth mentioning that Blazor is comparably the newest entry in the front-end market.

Python Powered Framework

The demand for programming in Python is on the rise and it doesn’t seem to be going down anytime soon. In fact, the Popularity of Programming Language Index mentioned it to be the fastest growing programming language in the world. But we are talking about the latest version of Python I.e., Python3 which was released in 2008. Initially, Python appeared well before JavaScript came into the industry, I.e., in 1991.

Python is an interpreted, object-oriented, and incredibly powerful tool for developers which is much easier when it comes to syntax as compared to other programming languages. The development time is significantly shortened by its simple-to-learn and simple-to-read features.

Django

What if I tell you that this Python framework is enough for both the backend and the front end of your application? Definitely, it is. Django came out in 2005, as a Python-based solution for full-stack web development. It is a free and open-source Python framework that allows programmers to quickly create complex programs and applications. It is one of the top Python frameworks and is used to create APIs and web applications.

Django is used in the back-end development of applications more as compared to the front-end in the market. This blog focuses on user interface and design tools so we will discuss it from the designer’s perspective.

Rapid Development, Open Source

Python’s Django is configured to follow a model–template–views architectural pattern. It is adopted as more of a back-end technology because of its ORM (Object Relational Mapping) capabilities. Still, it can be used for the Front-end adaptation as well. Django consists of a huge library that aids in rapid development and its open-source nature makes it the best toolset for full stack development.

There are several ways to deploy Django at the front-end as it can be paired with other technologies. In simple, if you are looking to learn Python as your main programming language, then Django is there for all your front-end needs.

Final Thoughts

If there is one takeaway from this year's trends, it is that developers want to simplify things even further. Choosing the ideal front-end framework for building your web applications is decided by various criteria, including team preferences, ecosystem, performance, and scalability. I compared several top-rated frameworks, based on different programming languages, which are future-proof and supply the best development toolsets for any developer.