What is Vue and How Does it Stand in Popularity Compared to React?

Eduardo Maciel

Senior Software Engineer

Vue.js is an open-source JavaScript framework used for building front-end user interfaces. Since its release in 2014, Vue has gradually gained attention among the developer community, largely for its effectiveness in building scalable, maintainable, and resource-efficient applications.

The framework’s lightweight and adaptable nature, ease of use, and powerful features make it a strong choice for building applications. But, with new technology and frameworks emerging much more frequently than previously seen, competition is at an all-time high. So the question is: Will Vue become the most popular front-end framework in 2024?

As a front-end developer with a focus on web technologies, I’m still surprised by the innovation of tools like Vue. In this article, I’ll unpack the features that make this framework so versatile, how it compares to React, the most-used JavaScript framework today, and share my predictions for the future of Vue.

Table Of Contents

What Is Vue?
The Features that Made Vue Such a Popular Framework
Comparing Vue and the Most Popular Alternative: React
The State of Vue
The Tools and Frameworks Shaping Vue’s Future
Is Vue Still a Good Choice in 2024?

What Is Vue?

Vue is a model–view–ViewModel front-end JavaScript framework that strongly emphasizes the view layer and supports a component-based architecture.

Vue's model-view-ViewModel component-based architecture — Vue’s model–view–ViewModel component-based architecture

The framework is an excellent option for creating complex single-page applications (SPA). It also has a progressive design that makes it incrementally adaptable, so developers don’t have to go all-in from the project’s outset. Instead, they can start small by bringing tools or features in as needed and gradually convert their application architecture to leverage Vue.

The Features that Made Vue Such a Popular Framework

The Key Features that Contributed to Vueâs Popularity

Originally published on Nov 22, 2022Last updated on Aug 16, 2024

Key Takeaways

Is Vue still relevant in 2024?

Yes, Vue.js is still relevant in 2024. According to GitHub data released this year, approximately 3 million developers currently use Vue. Since its initial release in 2014, Vue has evolved into a major front-end framework, powering millions of websites across the globe.

Is Vue.js getting popular?

Yes, Vue.js continues to grow in popularity. Usage climbed from 10% in 2016 to 51% in 2021. More companies are adopting the framework into their organizations, including large corporations and institutions like media behemoth NBC and American university, MIT.

Is Vue.js more popular than React?

As of today, Vue.js is not more popular than React. We can ascertain this from various measures: NPM vs React downloads, job postings mentioning either React or Vue, adoption from corporate giants, and the breadth of their respective ecosystems. On all fronts, React continues to be more popular.
However, Vue’s low learning curve means developers that have never worked with Vue, but are familiar with JavaScript or React, can quickly learn the framework. And while the number of Vue job postings is fewer than React, it is steadily growing. Vue is increasingly well-liked by companies intersted in adopting technologies with low learning curves that can facilitate greater productivity.

Does Vue.js have a future?

Absolutely. Vue.js is continuously evolving, with more features being added to each new version. Additionally, Vue is easy to learn and work with, has a growing ecosystem, and boasts an active community. Combined with its support and use by large corporations, it’s safe to say that Vue.js isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

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