JavaScript continues to be the most popular choice among developers, and as such, the number of technologies for this language is growing every year.
The ecosystem and environment in which JavaScript exists are much more crucial than the programming language itself. Frameworks and libraries greatly simplify the developer’s workflow by providing a reliable platform, which leads to a reduction in the number of obstacles, problems, and difficulties on the development path. And Vue is one such framework, along with Angular and React.
According to statistics as of 2022, Vue.js is one of the most used frameworks — almost 20% of surveyed developers around the world choose this technology for their projects. In addition, the wide adoption of this framework is also confirmed by the GitHub data, even though it does not have such incredible support as its competitors — React from Facebook and Angular from Google.
In this article, we talk about Vue.js, its features, attributes, and reasons for using it, advantages and disadvantages, as well as cases of choosing this framework and companies that are already using it. Keep reading to find out everything you need to know about the concept of the Vue.js framework.
What Is Vue.js?
All in all, Vue.js is a JavaScript framework for building user interfaces (UIs) and single-page apps (SPAs). It is a progressive open-source solution that is designed to be adopted incrementally, due to the fact that the main library is focused only on the presentation layer. And any additional functionality must be obtained using the Vue.js extra libraries. However, Vue.js is great for complex single-page applications due to advanced tools and if there are libraries to support it.
This front-end JavaScript framework features an incrementally flexible design, where component composition and declarative rendering are key. At the heart of Vue.js is the MVVM architecture, which allows you to distinguish business logic or model from a graphical user interface or view. A prominent feature of Vue.js is its directives, which are HTML attributes that allow developers to extend HTML.
Vue.js is about how JavaScript products can start small and then expand and improve, while other frameworks are about complexity by default.
Description of Vue.js: Key Features
Vue.js turned out to be an unexpected competitor for Angular and React. Moreover, Vue.js was originally designed as a way to take the best parts of Angular and create a completely new tool around it. And the key purpose of this framework is to simplify the development of the user interface.
Due to the similarities of Vue.js with Angular and React in terms of design and architecture, a simplified and accelerated transition from other frameworks is achieved. Vue.js can be used to build both single-page apps and more complex web application interfaces. The key insight is that small interactive parts can be easily implemented into an existing infrastructure without having a negative impact on the entire system. Vue.js is able to facilitate the creation of large reusable patterns that can be made without the increased time allotted for this, in accordance with its elementary structure. In addition, Vue.js can weigh in at around 20 KB while maintaining its speed and flexibility, allowing you to achieve significantly increased efficiency compared to other platforms.
However, Vue.js has a fairly small market share compared to React or Angular, which means knowledge sharing within this framework is still in its infancy. Vue.js can have difficulty integrating into huge projects, and one more problem is the Chinese roots of this technology. Many elements and descriptions are still available in Chinese, resulting in complexity at some stages of development, but more and more material is being translated into English.
Attributes of Vue js Framework
Vue.js provides some features that make it much easier for developers to access the UI environment.
Transition or Animation
Vue.js offers various options for implementing navigation to HTML components when updating or adding something from the DOM. In addition, the ability to add third-party animation libraries to the setting and build a more convenient UI is also achieved.
Virtual DOM
The Vue.js framework operates using Virtual DOM technology. Changes made during application creation are not directly reflected in the DOM, but instead, a mock DOM is created. This gives developers the opportunity to pre-test their design decisions and preview changes in the user interface design. And most importantly — do not incur economic losses.
Calculated Properties
This is definitely one of the key features of the Vue.js platform. It is responsible for ensuring that coders and designers track changes in UI components and perform required calculations. This approach eliminates the need for additional coding.
Templates
Vue.js technology offers an HTML-centric template that fixes the DOM with Vue data. It assembles templates into a Virtual DOM rendering function, which greatly facilitates user interface development and productivity.
Data Binding
This attribute allows programmers to change the style using data binding directives and set values for HTML elements without any difficulty.
Libraries and tools
The tools and libraries make up the Vue.js ecosystem. The functionality can be changed using additional libraries and framework tools. Among them are router, vuex, devtools, server-renderer, VuePress, Nuxt, Test Utils, Vue Native, CLI, loader, and others.
Where Vue.js is used
Vue.js is best suited for relatively small projects that need to add some reactivity, submit a form with AJAX, render values on user input, implement authorization, or perform other similar tasks. Vue.js is highly scalable and works well for large projects, which is why it is considered a progressive framework.
It is also the optimal solution for large single-page apps due to its core components such as Router and Vuex. With Vue.js, you can either use public APIs to build applications or implement server-run applications. But still, this framework is best suited for developing solutions that use external APIs for data processing.
Using Vue.js, you can also create frontend blogs on popular CMS. This framework is also appropriate for developing dynamic interfaces that adapt well to users.
Advantages of Using Vue.js
Vue.js is like Angular and React in many ways and continues to experience growing popularity compared to other frameworks. And in some ways, Vue.js easily outperforms its peers. Let’s find out the benefits of using Vue.js that encourage developers to choose this framework for their projects.
Simplicity
The key idea behind the Vue.js development is to achieve great results with minimal effort — the user can code using just a few lines. Vue.js is also great for working with components. The framework requires relatively little overhead because single-file components can store all code, such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, in a single file.
Integration
Developers can integrate Vue.js into other frameworks such as React, allowing them to easily customize the project to suit their needs. With its ease of integration, Vue.js is becoming a popular choice for web development as it can be used with a variety of existing web apps. Since the back end is built on JavaScript, developers can also use this technology to experiment with many other JavaScript applications. Similarly, the diversity of components allows developers to create different types of web applications and modify existing frameworks. In addition to JavaScript, it can also process HTML blocks due to the MVVM architecture allowing two-way communication.
Readability and Single-File Components
Vue.js assumes that all parts of a web page or application are separate components that can be written in CSS, JavaScript, and HTML without dividing them into separate files. A similar separation of application code is also used in Angular and React, and this component-based architecture offers many benefits.
Firstly, this solution is the best in terms of unit testing, allowing you to study individual components and the smallest parts of the application. Secondly, single-file components provide readability and understanding of the code, which greatly facilitates the process of correction, as well as further maintenance of the product. Thirdly, a component-based architecture provides the ability to reuse components.
Friendly Interface
It is believed that Vue.js does not require a steep learning curve, which is certainly an important feature for beginner developers. Regarding the learning process, Vue.js only requires programmers to know the basics of JavaScript, HTML, and CSS. By comparison, advanced coding using Angular or React requires knowledge of additional programming languages. Also, Vue.js can be used with common editors. There is even a browser plugin for Firefox and Chrome that lets you get started quickly.
Easy Setting
Vue.js is a great tool for developers because all of its features are easily accessible. For ease of use, developers can easily name the function whatever they like. Each segment can have separate functions, which makes it easy to customize the application according to individual requirements.
High Performance
Vue.js is extremely fast. This technology is distinguished not only by its high speed but also by providing excellent UX in SPA and UI. If we talk about the development of mobile products, then this framework launches applications faster than Angular and React. Today, users are increasingly choosing mobile devices, and also they extremely appreciate the high speed of loading sites. Therefore, the rapidity of Vue.js is a critical consideration when choosing a JavaScript framework.
Advanced Documentation
One of the best things about Vue.js is the great documentation. It shows all the options offered by the platform and all the best practices. The documentation is constantly improved and updated, it also contains a simple introductory guide and a very good overview of the API. This is perhaps one of the most detailed documents available for this type of language.
So, Vue.js has detailed documentation that, when studied, can save you time developing an application using only basic knowledge of HTML and JavaScript.
Disadvantages of Using Vue.js
Despite a significant number of important advantages, Vue.js has several drawbacks that can limit or complicate the work with this framework in some way. Let’s look at the main disadvantages and flaws that developers may face.
Too Flexible
The most common complaint among developers who choose Vue.js is that it is more flexible than necessary. On the one hand, this framework really allows programmers to start from scratch, and in this regard, the huge flexibility to implement various functions is an undeniable advantage. And on the other hand, developers may experience crashes and development becomes more difficult as bugs and failures appear on larger projects.
Too Limited
The Vue.js environment itself is quite broad when it comes to libraries and communities, but when comparing this framework to competing React and Angular, the difference is obvious. The key disadvantage of Vue.js from this point of view is the lack of a huge number of plugins or components that are available in other similar technology solutions. Since Vue.js lacks support for important plugins, developers are forced to switch to other technologies for help.
Too New
The modernity of Vue.js and its novelty in the market lead to certain disadvantages of this framework. So, for example, the community is still small, and this framework is not supported by a large community of active and influential programmers. In addition, Vue.js was developed by a small team of Chinese developers, and this platform does not have such strong enterprise support from large corporations as React and Angular have.
Another potential problem arising from this is the language barrier. Most of the coding, as well as forum discussions, plugin descriptions, and tutorials, are written in Chinese, which is definitely a challenge as valuable information can be lost in translation.
When to Choose Vue.js?
There are several scenarios when choosing Vue.js is the most optimal and most efficient solution. Let’s look at the most recommended situations where this framework is a win-win choice.
Prototyping with a basic skill set. This framework was created for prototyping. Vue.js allows a designer with minimal knowledge to quickly build a prototype. Writing components in CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and HTML templates are always available within any project. What’s more, the Vue.js interface makes it easier for coders to set up an application to use features in much less time.
Unified integration with multiple applications. Vue.js does a great job of integrating with existing server-side multi-page apps and single-page apps. This framework provides the benefit of unified integration with the current application built using web frameworks such as Express, Laravel, and Rails.
Publication of MVP. The choice of Vue.js is largely justified in terms of quickly publishing the minimum viable product of the project. The available reusable components and templates of this framework can significantly speed up an application development project and launch an MVP in the shortest possible time.
Interactive elements and animation. Animation is a mandatory component of modern applications and websites. And Vue.js offers an extremely flexible API for this, with smooth transitions between views and an adaptable environment. This framework provides a variety of options for creating vibrant animations with built-in modules based on CSS animations.
Who Is Already Using Vue.js?
More and more startups and huge enterprises around the world are choosing Vue.js to build their user interfaces and websites. Notable users of this framework include such giants as Trustpilot, Trivago, Statista, Nintendo, Louis Vuitton, Adobe, BMW, Upwork, Alibaba, Grammarly, Reuters, Gitlab, Xiaomi, and more. In addition, Google has developed its Careers platform in Vue.js rather than native Angular, and Apple has also built its learning website with Vue.js.
Such huge popularity and prevalence of this technology are due to the extreme ease of adaptation and implementation of the basic elements that every application or website needs to operate as a UI. The threshold for entry into the Vue.js environment is very low, and familiarity with basic programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is enough to start working with this framework.
Vue.js tools and support are constantly improving, and in the future, this technology has every chance to displace competing React and Angular from the leading positions.
Contact Brights to Implement an Advanced Vue.js Project
All in all, Vue.js is a powerful and advanced UI development framework. Its small size and customization options make it a great choice for developers looking for a comfortable environment for web applications.
Our Vue.js specialists use the world’s best practices and are always up-to-date with all the latest development trends, which allows us to offer only the best solutions for our clients. We provide custom web application development services using Vue.js to develop user-driven responsive interfaces that provide an incredible user experience.
Trust the Brights developers with your Vue.js project for its successful implementation. Our team will help your business get the most out of this framework. Contact our experts to build powerful, cutting-edge, and cost-effective simple and complex applications with Vue.js.