Frontend JavaScript frameworks showcase an important development in the enterprise app development scene. These frameworks are available as the Application Program Interface (API) for building sophisticated web apps with ease. These Frontend frameworks offer ready to use interface by sewing together all the major parts of a web app. Thanks to these frameworks the app developers can build a robust web app in no time.
While there are several high-fidelity frontend frameworks at our disposal, often making a perfect choice with detailed considerations about various elements make it difficult for the developers to make a decision. Here throughout the length of this post, we are going to explain some of the key considerations for choosing the right frontend framework for building enterprise apps.
Come To A Few Credible Options
There is no dearth of options or choices when it comes to frontend frameworks. They are published almost every other day and there are already dozens of most popular ones. So, before making your final choice it is important to narrow your search to a specific few as the most likely options. Based on popularity, usage and developer appreciation over time, we can come to a few credible choices such as Angular 2, Vue.js, React.js, React Native, Express.js and a few others.
Now after making a short list of these few well-acclaimed frameworks, it is time to match each of them with your specific project requirements. Finally, satisfactory results to your project requirements should be the guiding elements for your choice.
The chosen framework must allow a lot of options to customize with a whole array of configuration options. These options are crucial to make a framework flexible for different types of development needs.
For example, Angular 2 comes as a framework to cater to every choice including state server, router and handlers with custom configuration options. But the modules may not work for your project appropriately. On the other side of this comparison, both React and Vue, allow incorporating components as per the requirements of your project.
The performance is the most crucial consideration to decide about a framework for your project. While most of the updated versions of the well-known frameworks ensure least performance glitches, there are differences as well. When you consider high-performance frameworks like Angular, React, Ember and Vue and measure the server response time for each of them besides the app loading time for each, they show hardly any difference in terms of frontend performance and backend seems to the only responsible factor for higher loading time.
Can a framework really minimize the development time for the apps? Well, there are several constituent factors that should be considered in this respect. To move faster with the development process it is ideal to opt for the opinionated frameworks that leave little to the mercy of your decisions and hence automatically put things in their right places at a faster pace. For example, Ember.js is a very opinionated framework and while building a multi-featured app you have no option but to develop the app in the specific way Ember suggests. In contrast, React leaves a lot of choices and options for the developers to choose from. While flexibility champions through these options, they actually slow down the development pace.
The size of the framework takes a toll on the browser performance and hence it is advisable to choose always the lightweight frameworks. Many frameworks are extremely lightweight these days as they allow developers to add third-party libraries and custom code easily when they need. The lightweight framework equips an app for all those markets where bandwidth is expensive. In this respect, we can refer to the Vue.js which comes as the most lightweight framework by keeping the libraries down the size of just 23 KB.
Server rendering is a key consideration for frontend frameworks. Long ago it was the convention of the single-page application (SPA) frameworks to send all code to the client end and this used result in increased time for initial page loading. The server-rendered pages later began to put the burden of the code to the server so that the initial loading time can get faster. While Angular 2 has this server rendering capability inbuilt, Vue and React offer them through external plugins.
Finally, you also need to consider the capabilities and expertise of the in-house developer team. If you have a team comprising several developers who have a great track record and proven proficiency in building apps using React or Vue, making your choices gets easier. Unless you have requirements that do not fit to the capacity of these two frameworks at all, they will always make up the list of choices. When building an app faster and within a stipulated budget are your key considerations, the strength of your in-house team can be a positive value-addition.
Conclusion
There is hardly any straightforward answer to a question like what framework works best for frontend development. This is because, there are too many considerations and corresponding choices that we tried to explain here.
Author Bio: Atman Rathod is the Co-founder at CMARIX TechnoLabs Pvt. Ltd., a leading Frontend Development Company with 13+ years of experience. He loves to write about technology, startups, entrepreneurship and business. His creative abilities, academic track record and leadership skills made him one of the key industry influencers as well.
