Top 7 Frontend Frameworks to Use in 2024: Pro Advice

Fernando Doglio · Improve this Guide

With the growing complexity of web applications, selecting the right frontend framework is more important than ever. Your choice will impact performance, scalability, and development speed. Not to mention the future-proofing of your application.

In 2024, web development is increasingly about building fast, scalable, and highly interactive user interfaces. Frontend frameworks now need to support real-time interactions, handle large-scale data, and provide excellent developer experiences by simplifying the web development process.

Picking the right frontend framework isn’t just about what’s popular—it’s about finding the tool that fits your project’s needs, whether you’re building a small static site or a large, complex application.

The top frontend frameworks for web development that I’ll cover as part of this article are:

• React
• VueJS
• Angular
• Svelte
• Solid.js
• Qwik
• Astro

Criteria for Evaluating Frontend Frameworks

Finding what the “best frontend framework” looks like is not easy. In fact, it’s impossible without the particular characteristics of your project, your team, and all other surrounding details. They will all inform your final decision.

To help in that process, I’ve defined our own set of key indicators that will give you an idea of how we’re measuring the value of each of the leading frontend development frameworks covered in this article.

1. Performance: How well does the frontend framework handle real-world scenarios, including page load times, rendering speed, and efficient resource use?
2. Popularity and Community Support: Is there a large community around the framework? How easy is it to find tutorials, forums, and third-party tools?
3. Learning Curve: Is the framework easy to learn for new developers, or does it require mastering complex patterns and paradigms?
4. Ecosystem and Extensibility: Does the framework offer a robust ecosystem of libraries, plugins, and tooling to extend its functionality?
5. Scalability and Flexibility: Can the framework handle both small and large projects? Is it flexible enough to support different project types, from single-page applications (SPAs) to complex enterprise solutions?
6. Future-Proofing: Is the framework actively maintained and evolving? Will it remain relevant in the next few years, based on trends and support?

My go-to frontend framework of choice

My go-to framework is React because it has the highest ecosystem score and is one of the most future-proofed ones.

I’ve applied the above criteria to the best frontend development frameworks I’m covering below in this guide. This table gives you a snapshot view of how they all compare according to my ratings, and I’ll explain the details further below.

Of course, the choice of React is mine, and mine alone. You have to consider your own projects and your own context to understand what the best choice for you would be.

Let’s get into the selection and what their strengths and weaknesses are to help you select the right one for you.

Top 7 Frontend Development Frameworks in 2024

React

React was created by Facebook in 2013 and has since become one of the most popular frontend frameworks (though technically a library). Initially developed to solve the challenges of building dynamic and complex user interfaces for Facebook’s apps, React introduced the revolutionary concept of the virtual DOM (Document Object Model), which allowed developers to efficiently update only the parts of the UI that changed instead of re-rendering the entire page.

Performance

React uses a virtual DOM (the Virtual Document Object Model) to optimize performance by minimizing the number of direct manipulations to the actual DOM. This allows React to efficiently update only the components that need to change, rather than re-rendering the entire page. While React is fast, performance can be impacted in large applications if not managed carefully, especially with unnecessary re-renders or poorly optimized state management (two concepts that have created a lot of literature around them, and yet, most developers still get wrong).

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Popularity and Community Support

React is one of the most popular frontend frameworks worldwide, with widespread adoption in both small and large-scale applications. Its massive community means there’s a wealth of tutorials, libraries, and third-party tools available. With strong backing from Meta and continuous contributions from developers globally, React has one of the richest ecosystems and the largest support networks.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Learning Curve

React has a moderate learning curve. It’s relatively easy to get started with, especially if you’re familiar with JavaScript, but understanding concepts like JSX and hooks can take some time (especially if you throw in the relatively new server components). Once you grasp the basics, React becomes easier to work with, but mastering advanced patterns and state management solutions can add complexity.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Ecosystem and Extensibility

React has one of the most mature and extensive ecosystems in the frontend space. With a vast selection of libraries, tools, and plugins, React can be extended to meet virtually any development need. Key libraries like React Router (for routing) and Redux (for state management) are widely adopted, and there are countless third-party components available. React’s ecosystem is one of its greatest strengths, offering flexibility and extensibility for all kinds of projects.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Scalability and Flexibility

React is highly flexible and can scale to meet the needs of both small and large applications. Its component-based architecture allows for modular development, making it easy to manage complex UIs. React is adaptable to various types of projects, from simple SPAs to large, enterprise-level applications. However, managing state in larger applications can become challenging, often requiring the use of external tools like Redux or Context API for better scalability.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Future-Proofing

React remains one of the most future-proof frameworks, with continuous updates and strong backing from Meta (Facebook). Its widespread adoption ensures that it will be well-supported for years to come. The ecosystem is mature, but React is constantly evolving with features like concurrent rendering and server-side components. The size of the community and corporate support make React a safe bet for long-term projects.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Vue.js

Vue.js was developed in 2014 by Evan You, who had previously worked on AngularJS at Google. His goal was to create a framework that combined the best parts of Angular’s templating system with the simplicity and flexibility of modern JavaScript libraries like React. Vue is known for its progressive nature, which means developers can incrementally adopt its features without having to completely rewrite an existing project.

Performance

Vue’s reactivity system provides a highly efficient way to track changes to data and update the DOM only when necessary. Its virtual DOM implementation is lightweight and fast, making Vue a strong performer for both small and large applications. Vue 3’s Composition API has further optimized performance by enabling more granular control over component updates.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Popularity and Community Support:

Vue.js has grown significantly in popularity, especially in regions like China and Europe, and is widely adopted by startups and smaller companies. Although it doesn’t have the corporate backing of React or Angular, its community is passionate, and the framework enjoys strong support from individual contributors. Vue’s ecosystem is robust, with many official libraries and third-party plugins, making it a favorite among developers looking for a balance of simplicity and power.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Learning Curve

Vue’s syntax is clean and straightforward, with a structure that is easy to understand even for those new to frontend frameworks. Features like two-way data binding and directives are intuitive, making Vue much easier to pick up compared to React or Angular.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Ecosystem and Extensibility

Vue has a rich and growing ecosystem, with many official libraries like Vue Router, Vuex (for state management), and Vue CLI (for project setup). Additionally, its ecosystem includes many high-quality third-party plugins that make it easy to extend Vue applications. While not as large as React’s, Vue’s ecosystem is well-curated and highly effective, making it both powerful and developer-friendly.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Scalability and Flexibility

Vue is extremely flexible and scalable. It is designed to be incrementally adoptable, which means you can use it in small parts of a project or as the foundation for a large-scale application. Vue’s core libraries, along with tools like Vuex, make it highly scalable.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Future-Proofing

Vue is actively maintained and supported by a strong open-source community. Its development pace is steady. While it doesn’t have the same level of corporate backing as React or Angular, its growing popularity and enthusiastic community ensure its longevity. Vue is a solid choice for long-lasting projects.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Angular

Angular was first introduced by Google in 2010 as AngularJS, a framework that revolutionized web development by introducing two-way data binding and dependency injection. However, AngularJS eventually became difficult to maintain as applications grew more complex, leading Google to rewrite the framework from the ground up in 2016 with the release of Angular 2 (commonly referred to simply as “Angular”).

Performance

Angular offers solid performance, especially in large enterprise applications. It uses a change detection mechanism combined with the Ahead-of-Time (AOT) compiler to optimize performance by compiling templates into JavaScript code before the browser runs them. The built-in optimizations are robust, but Angular’s size and complexity can lead to performance overhead if not managed correctly.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Popularity and Community Support

Angular is backed by Google and is a popular choice for enterprise-level applications, especially in larger organizations. Its community is active, and Google’s long-term support ensures regular updates and improvements. Angular has a strong presence in corporate environments, and its ecosystem includes official tooling and libraries. However, it is less commonly used by smaller teams and individual developers compared to React and Vue.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Learning Curve

Angular has a steep learning curve due to its complexity and reliance on TypeScript. New web developers may find it challenging to grasp Angular’s concepts, such as dependency injection, decorators, and modules. The comprehensive nature of Angular also means there’s a lot to learn before you can be fully productive, but for experienced developers working on large-scale applications, the structure and tooling can be highly beneficial.

⭐ Rating: 3/5

Ecosystem and Extensibility

Angular’s ecosystem is comprehensive and fully integrated, offering everything developers need right out of the box. Angular includes official libraries for routing, HTTP client, forms, and more, all provided and maintained by Google. The Angular CLI is a robust tool for managing projects. However, Angular’s strict architecture means less flexibility when integrating with external libraries compared to React or Vue, though the ecosystem is extensive.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Scalability and Flexibility

Angular is built with scalability in mind, making it ideal for large, complex applications. Its strict structure and reliance on TypeScript make it a great fit for projects that require clear architecture and maintainability over time. Angular’s modularity and out-of-the-box features like dependency injection and lazy loading enable it to handle enterprise-level web applications with multiple teams. However, its strictness can reduce flexibility for smaller, less complex projects.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Future-Proofing

Angular has a clear roadmap and long-term support, making it one of the most future-proof frameworks, especially for enterprise applications. Google’s regular updates ensure that Angular remains competitive in the evolving frontend ecosystem. Its TypeScript foundation, strong architecture, and large-scale adoption make it a reliable option for projects with long lifecycles.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Svelte

Svelte is a relatively new entrant in the frontend landscape, created by Rich Harris in 2016. Unlike traditional frameworks like React and Vue, which do much of their work in the browser, Svelte takes a different approach. It shifts most of the work to compile time, meaning that the framework compiles the application code into optimized vanilla JavaScript during the build process, resulting in highly efficient and fast-running code.

Performance

Svelte takes a unique approach to performance by compiling components into highly optimized vanilla JavaScript at build time, removing the need for a virtual DOM entirely. This leads to very fast runtime performance and smaller bundle sizes, as only the necessary code is shipped to the browser. Svelte excels in small, fast-loading applications, making it one of the fastest frontend frameworks available.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Popularity and Community Support

Svelte has seen rapid growth in popularity (partially due to its novel approach). While its community is smaller compared to React, Vue, or Angular, it’s highly engaged and growing steadily. Svelte has fewer third-party libraries and tools, but the community is working hard to expand its ecosystem. It’s particularly popular for smaller projects and developers who want a minimalistic framework.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Learning Curve

Svelte is relatively easy to learn, especially for web developers familiar with modern JavaScript. Its component-based structure is intuitive, and there’s no need to learn a virtual DOM or complex state management patterns. The absence of a virtual DOM and the simplicity of Svelte’s syntax make it one of the easiest frontend frameworks to pick up.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Ecosystem and Extensibility

Svelte’s ecosystem is still maturing compared to more established frameworks. While it lacks the extensive third-party library support of React or Vue, Svelte’s core tools like SvelteKit (for building full-stack applications) provide much of what is needed for most use cases. That said, the growing community is actively contributing to expanding the ecosystem and its extensive documentation.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Scalability and Flexibility

Svelte is highly flexible and performs well in small to medium-sized projects. It’s great at creating fast, lightweight applications with minimal boilerplate. While Svelte’s compile-time approach leads to excellent performance, the truth is Svelte is still too new and untested, so its scalability for very large projects or teams is still to be determined.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Future-Proofing

Svelte is gaining momentum as a modern, high-performance framework, and its unique approach has attracted a lot of attention. While the community is still smaller than that of React or Vue, it is growing rapidly, and the introduction of tools like SvelteKit further enhances its long-term viability. Svelte’s focus on simplicity and performance means it has the potential to become a significant player, but it’s still early in terms of large-scale enterprise adoption.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Solid.js

Solid.js is a more recent addition to the frontend ecosystem, developed by Ryan Carniato in 2018. Inspired by React’s declarative style, Solid.js seeks to offer similar features but with even better performance by using a fine-grained reactivity system. Unlike React, which uses a virtual DOM, Solid compiles its reactive components down to fine-grained, efficient updates, reducing overhead and increasing speed.

Performance

Solid.js is designed for performance, using a fine-grained reactivity system to ensure that only the necessary parts of the DOM are updated. This eliminates the need for a virtual DOM, resulting in highly efficient rendering and state updates. Solid’s performance is often considered one of the best in the frontend space, especially for applications with complex state management.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Popularity and Community Support

Solid.js is still a relatively new player in the frontend space, but it is gaining traction due to its high performance and fine-grained reactivity model. The community is smaller compared to other frameworks but highly enthusiastic, and interest in Solid.js is growing quickly. While it has fewer resources and libraries available compared to larger frameworks, it is gradually building a strong support network.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Learning Curve

Solid.js has a learning curve similar to React, particularly because of its JSX-like syntax. However, its fine-grained reactivity system introduces new concepts that might take some time to fully understand, especially for those new to reactive programming. While its reactivity model offers powerful performance benefits, frontend developers need to adjust to this different approach, making it slightly more challenging than React for beginners.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Ecosystem and Extensibility

Solid.js has a smaller but rapidly growing ecosystem. While it supports libraries like Solid Router for routing and integrates well with existing JavaScript tools, the number of available third-party extensions is still limited compared to React or Vue. Solid is seeing increasing contributions from the community, and as it grows in popularity, its ecosystem is expected to expand.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Scalability and Flexibility

Solid.js, with its fine-grained reactivity, is extremely flexible and scales well for complex applications. Its unique reactivity model enables it to handle large, state-heavy applications with minimal overhead. While Solid is still proving itself in larger, enterprise-level environments, its design offers promising scalability. However, due to its newness, large-scale implementations are less common compared to more established frameworks like React or Angular.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Future-Proofing

Solid.js, although newer, is quickly gaining traction due to its performance benefits and innovative reactivity model. Its small but dedicated community is growing, and the framework’s architecture is built with modern web needs in mind. While it’s not yet widely adopted in enterprise environments, its potential for long-term use is promising, especially as more developers discover its benefits. However, its ecosystem is still developing.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Qwik

Qwik, created by Misko Hevery (the creator of Angular), is an innovative frontend framework that aims to solve the problem of slow page load times by introducing a new architecture called “resumability.” Introduced in 2021 (making it the youngest frontend framework on this list), Qwik is designed to instantly load websites by only downloading and executing the minimal amount of code required to render the page, deferring the loading of other parts of the application until they are needed.

Performance

Qwik’s performance is built around its innovative resumable architecture, which optimizes for instant loading. It loads only the minimal amount of JavaScript needed to render the page, and additional code is loaded asynchronously as needed. This makes Qwik ideal for performance-critical applications, especially on slower devices and networks.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Popularity and Community Support

Qwik is an emerging framework with an innovative approach to performance. Its community is still in its early stages, but there is increasing interest due to its “resumable” architecture. Although the ecosystem is small, the framework’s unique features have caught the attention of developers looking to push the boundaries of frontend performance. As of 2024, Qwik’s community is expanding, though still much smaller than React or Vue.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Learning Curve

Qwik has a moderate learning curve, largely due to its new “resumable” approach to web development. Developers who are used to traditional frontend frameworks may find Qwik’s architecture and its emphasis on lazy loading and instant loading a bit unfamiliar. While the concepts are powerful, it can take time to fully grasp how to take advantage of Qwik’s unique features.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Ecosystem and Extensibility

Qwik’s ecosystem is still in its early stages, but it is designed to be compatible with existing tools and libraries. The framework’s emphasis on performance over complexity means that while it lacks a large number of third-party plugins, it is designed to work alongside existing technologies.

⭐ Rating: 3/5

Scalability and Flexibility

Qwik’s architecture is designed to handle scalability from the ground up. Its “resumable” approach allows applications to scale by loading only the necessary parts of the app on demand, making it particularly well-suited for performance-critical, large-scale projects. Although Qwik is still emerging, its emphasis on scalability and performance ensures it can grow with the demands of large, complex applications, at least on paper. Much like with Svelte, Qwik needs a lot more testing before we can draw a final verdict on its scalability.

⭐ Rating: 4.5/5

Future-Proofing

Qwik is an exciting new frontend framework that introduces a novel approach with its resumable architecture, positioning it well for future needs around performance and scalability. Though still emerging, Qwik’s design aligns with modern web development process demands, particularly for fast-loading, performance-critical applications. If the community and ecosystem continue to grow, Qwik has strong future-proofing potential, especially for performance-sensitive projects.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Astro

Astro was created by the team at Snowpack in 2021 and is a frontend framework focused on static site generation with minimal JavaScript. Astro takes a unique approach by allowing developers to build components using popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte, but it only ships the HTML to the browser, greatly reducing the amount of JavaScript that needs to be processed by the client.

Performance

Astro is optimized for static site generation, shipping little to no JavaScript to the browser by default. This approach leads to very fast page load times, especially for content-heavy sites. While Astro does allow for interactive components, its performance is generally excellent due to the minimal JavaScript footprint on the client side.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Popularity and Community Support

Astro is rapidly gaining popularity, especially in the static site generation space. Its framework-agnostic approach and performance optimizations have led to a growing community. While smaller than React or Vue, Astro’s community is highly active, with increasing adoption for content-heavy websites and static site generation. The ecosystem is expanding quickly with new integrations and plugins.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Learning Curve

Astro is known for being easy to pick up, especially for developers already familiar with other frontend frameworks like React, Vue, or Svelte. Its framework-agnostic approach allows developers to use familiar components and libraries while taking advantage of Astro’s static site generation features. Astro’s simplicity makes it an accessible choice for beginners and experienced developers alike.

⭐ Rating: 5/5

Ecosystem and Extensibility

Astro’s ecosystem is rapidly growing, with support for integrations with popular frameworks like React, Vue, and Svelte. Astro’s framework-agnostic approach allows developers to combine reusable components from different ecosystems in a single project. Its extensibility is also enhanced by its plugin system, which allows web developers to customize their creations even further.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Scalability and Flexibility

Astro is highly flexible for static sites and excels in building fast, scalable content-heavy websites. Its architecture allows for scaling static sites with minimal client-side JavaScript, making it an excellent choice for projects like blogs, documentation sites, or e-commerce platforms. However, Astro is not designed for large-scale, dynamic web applications like React or Angular, limiting its scalability in highly interactive or complex projects.

⭐ Rating: 3.5/5

Future-Proofing

Astro is rapidly growing in popularity, especially for static site generation, and its framework-agnostic approach ensures that it can work with future tools and technologies. As the need for fast, content-heavy websites continues to grow, Astro is well-positioned to meet that demand. Its unique architecture and growing ecosystem suggest it will remain relevant, especially for static sites, but its future-proofing for dynamic applications is less certain compared to other frontend frameworks.

⭐ Rating: 4/5

Conclusion

The space of frontend development continues to evolve with an impressive list of frameworks to choose from. Whether you’re aiming for performance, scalability, ease of use, or future-proofing, each frontend framework brings something unique to the table.

• React remains a reliable choice for large-scale applications.
• Vue.js offers a perfect balance of simplicity and scalability.
• Angular is the go-to for enterprise-level projects.
• Svelte and Solid.js are great options for developers who prioritize performance and simplicity.
• Qwik is an exciting new contender focused on instant loading and performance.
• Astro shines in static site generation, combining a modern approach with the ability to integrate multiple frameworks for highly flexible, content-heavy sites.

In the end, the choice comes down to your specific project needs. Whatever you’re building, there’s a framework here that can help you succeed.

The future of frontend development is exciting, and these frontend frameworks ensure you’re equipped for whatever challenges lie ahead.