Top 10 Front-End Programming Languages

Top 10 Front-End Programming Languages
Front-end programming languages

In this article, we will discuss some of the top 10 front-end programming languages used in 2023 and their pros & cons so that you can choose the best language for your project.

Front-end programming languages are the key to creating stunning websites and applications that look great on any device.

These languages allow developers to create user-friendly interfaces and attractive visuals that engage users. Any website worth visiting is likely built on one of the top front-end programming languages.

As a result, front-end development is an in-demand skill with a high salary potential — the average front-end developer salary in the United States is $111,827. 

Keep reading to discover the best front-end developer languages.

Key Takeaways

  • Front-end programming languages are essential for creating visually engaging, user-friendly websites and applications adaptable across devices.
  • The article provides detailed comparisons of the top 10 front-end languages of 2023, examining their features, advantages, and disadvantages.
  • Front-end development is a high-demand skill in 2023, boasting an average salary of $111,827 in the United States.

The Best 10 Front-End Programming Languages

Now that we’ve covered some basics let’s take a look at the top 10 programming languages used for front-end development in 2023.

HTML (HyperText Markup Language)

HTML is a front-end programming language that is used to create web pages. HTML uses tags and attributes to specify how text, images, and other media are displayed on a webpage. Here’s an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of using HTML.

Features

  • Html facilitates the easy addition of videos, images, and audio content to a web page. 
  • The language can also be used for adding hypertext content to sections of text.
  • Html is a markup language and a lot less complex than other languages. 

Advantages of HTML

  • Great for beginners: HTML is known for its simplicity, using basic syntax and straightforward concepts that make it easy for beginners to learn and use. This provides new developers with a gentle introduction to web development.
  • Widely supported on all browsers and platforms: HTML is the standard markup language web developers use globally. Its widespread support ensures that HTML web pages are compatible with all major web browsers and operating systems.
  • Essential for web development: you can’t create a webpage without it: If you want to create a web page, you must have a good understanding of HTML. It is the foundation of all web pages, providing the essential structure, layout, and content that make up a website.

Disadvantages of HTML

  • It’s a markup language, not a programming language: it doesn’t have logic, loops, or variables: HTML does not have the capabilities to perform logic operations, loops, or other complex tasks. Programmers need to use additional programming languages like JavaScript to develop interactive and dynamic web pages.
  • Limited to web-based projects: HTML is designed for creating web pages. Developers cannot use it to create desktop or mobile applications.
  • Does not support modern interface design and requires CSS and JavaScript for interactive or complex designs: While HTML provides basic formatting and layout options, it does not support modern interface designs. Developers have to use additional languages like CSS and JavaScript to create interactive and dynamic web pages that incorporate advanced design elements.

Keep reading to learn more frontend languages.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)

CSS is a front-end coding language that is used to define the style and layout of web pages. CSS works in conjunction with HTML to determine how elements such as text, images, and other media are displayed on a webpage.

It provides developers with a range of style properties and selectors that can be used to create attractive and consistent designs across web pages.

With CSS, developers can control the visual appearance of a webpage, including the color, font size, background image, and spacing. It also allows for responsive design, where pages adjust their layout based on the device used to view them.

Features

  • Selectors – CSS selectors are tools for users to pick and handle different elements on a web page. They can be referred to as structural components for performing matching of attributes and attribute values.
  • Text effects and layout – CSS3 can be used for making different adjustments such as text justification change, adjusting a document’s whitespace, and word hyphenation style. 
  • First-letter and first-line pseudo-classes – CSS comes with properties that aid in adjusting character spaces to enhance the visuals effect and placing drop caps at the beginning of paragraphs. 

Advantages Of CSS

  • Easy to get started with, improves HTML aesthetics: Not only is CSS easy to learn, but it can also be used to make webpages look more aesthetically pleasing.
  • Powerful styling options: CSS offers a wide range of styling options that can be used to create advanced designs and layouts. It supports various features such as animations, transitions, media queries, and more.
  • Responsive design for all devices: CSS is essential for creating responsive designs that adjust their appearance to fit any device or screen size.

Disadvantages Of CSS

  • Challenging to manage large projects: As projects scale, managing multiple style sheets can become cumbersome and difficult to maintain.
  • Browser compatibility issues: Different browsers may interpret CSS differently, resulting in inconsistent design across devices.
  • Not a programming language: CSS does not have the capability to perform logic operations or loops like a programming language.

Keep reading the learn more front-end coding languages.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a programming language used to add interactivity to web pages. It allows developers to create dynamic and interactive web content that can respond to user actions and input. JavaScript is used to create everything from simple animations to complex web applications, and all modern web browsers support it. 

With JavaScript, developers can manipulate webpage elements, handle events such as mouse clicks and keyboard inputs, and perform calculations and data processing. JavaScript can also be used for server-side coding with platforms like Node.js, allowing developers to create full-stack applications entirely in JavaScript.

Looking to host a JavaScript application? Please read the tutorial Easy steps to host a NodeJS application.

Features

  • Object-centered script language – JavaScript is an object-centered language like Visual Basic and has concepts built around the concept of objects.
  • Client edge technology – A web browser can be referred to as a client which is utilized by a user. The data of a server is uploaded by a client and is then accessed by a user after it has been rendered. 
  • Validation of user’s input – Validation of User’s Input, also known as form validation, enables users to initiate client interactions through webpage form fill-ups.

Advantages Of Javascript

  • Supports both functional and object-oriented programming styles: With JavaScript, developers can use either functional or object-oriented programming styles. This makes it easier to learn and work with for developers who have experience with both paradigms.
  • Essential for web development: Javascript is the primary scripting language used for creating interactive web pages. Without it, websites would be static and boring.
  • Huge ecosystem of libraries and frameworks: JavaScript has a vast ecosystem of libraries and frameworks like React and Angular that make it easier for developers to create powerful web applications.

Disadvantages Of Javascript

  • Can be difficult to debug: Debugging JavaScript can be difficult and time-consuming due to its asynchronous nature and loosely typed syntax.
  • Can have performance issues: If you’re trying to complete a complex or heavy computation task, JavaScript may not be the best choice. It’s not optimized for certain types of computing tasks and can have performance issues when used for them.
  • Browser compatibility: Different browsers may interpret JavaScript differently, causing inconsistent behavior across devices. As a result, developers must be careful to test their code on all major browsers before release.

Keep reading to learn more front end development languages.

React 

React is well-known due to its Javascript library, which is typically used to create engaging and dynamic user interfaces for web applications.

This open-source technology, which was developed by Facebook, enables developers to create reusable UI components that can be seamlessly combined to create complex and interactive applications with ease. 

One of the major advantages of React is its declarative approach to UI development, which essentially means that developers simply describe the desired output of a UI component, and React takes care of rendering it in an efficient and optimized way.

Another notable feature of React is its ability to work seamlessly with other libraries and frameworks, making it a flexible option for building robust and scalable web applications.

With its highly efficient virtual DOM and rendering engine, React has emerged as a popular choice for creating complex and feature-rich web applications that offer an exceptional user experience.

Here is a list with the best backends to host a React app and a tutorial to host a React application.

Features

  • JSX – JSX is among the syntax extensions of JavaScript. It is utilized with React Native for describing the appearance of a user interface.
  • Virtual DOM – React stores a lighter version of DOM within the memory, which can be referred to as VDOM or virtual DOM.

Advantages Of React

  • Better organized projects: Promotes component-based architecture, leading to reusable code and more organized projects.
  • Virtual DOM: React’s virtual DOM makes it faster than other frameworks at rendering and updating UI components.
  • Large backing: React has a large backing from Facebook, which means that it is actively developed and supported.

Disadvantages Of React

  • Steep learning curve: Due to advanced JavaScript concepts like JSX, Virtual DOM, and component lifecycle, it can be challenging to learn how to use React.
  • Doesn’t cover state management and routing: React only covers the view layer of the MVC framework, additional libraries needed for state management (Redux, MobX), and routing (React Router).
  • Constantly changing: React has a fast-paced environment, with frequent updates and changes to best practices.

Keep reading to learn more front end languages for web development.

Vue

Vue is a JavaScript library that is used for building user interfaces (UIs) and single-page applications. It was created by Evan You in 2014, and since then, Vue has become one of the most popular frameworks for web development.

Unlike other frameworks like React and Angular, Vue works with existing libraries, making it easier to integrate with existing projects.

It also provides an intuitive syntax which makes it easy to learn and use. With its virtual DOM and efficient rendering engine, Vue allows developers to create powerful web applications quickly and easily.

To learn more about Vue, please read the tutorial Building a backend with Vue.js.

Features

  • Virtual DOM – Vue.js utilizes virtual DOM, which is essentially a copy of the main DOM component, reacts to each DOM change, and can be availed as JavaScript data structures.
  • Two-Way data binding – VueJS comes with two-way binding due to its MVVM architecture. Relying on the QRR helps to edit or assign HTML value attributes to accelerate HTML blocks.

Advantages of using Vue

  • Easy to use: Easy to understand and start using, especially for those with an HTML, CSS, and JavaScript background.
  • Complete solution: Vue provides a complete solution with routing, state management, and build tooling included in the official ecosystem.
  • Good performance: When compared with other frameworks, Vue provides good performance and smaller runtime.

Disadvantages of using Vue

  • Less support: Vue has a smaller community and is less mature than Angular and React.
  • Lower demand: Vue has less of a job market demand compared to React and Angular.
  • Transition Can Be Challenging: Vue 3 introduces new concepts and changes that can make the transition from Vue 2 challenging.

Keep reading to learn more front end developer coding languages.

TypeScript 

TypeScript , a programming language that is an extension of JavaScript, is an object-oriented and strongly typed language.

It’s built on top of JavaScript and includes additional features that make it easier for developers to write complex programs with fewer errors.

TypeScript is designed to increase productivity while coding and provide better code maintainability and scalability.

It’s widely used in web development and gaining popularity among developers due to its flexibility and robustness.

Like JavaScript, TypeScript can be used for both client-side and server-side development. It also has a vibrant community of developers who are constantly creating new libraries and frameworks to extend its capabilities.

Features

  • TypeScript is the same as JavaScript – TypeScript is quite similar to and often considered the same as JavaScript.
  • JS library support – TypeScript offers support for JavaScript libraries, and compiled code can be adopted from any piece of JS code.  
  • Rename Files – Users find renaming JavaScript files to TypeScript files quite convenient. Any .js file can easily be renamed to a .ts file and compiled with different TypeScript files. 

Advantages Of Typescript

  • Static typing: Static typing allows for early bug detection, better autocompletion, and improved readability.
  • Superset of JavaScript: All JavaScript code is valid TypeScript code.
  • Innovative tools: Strong tooling with advanced autocompletion, navigation, and refactoring capabilities.

Disadvantages of Typescript

  • Slower development: Since an additional compilation step is needed, it can slow down development.
  • Steeper learning curve: Typescript has a steeper learning curve than JavaScript, especially for beginners.
  • Smaller community: Smaller community and fewer libraries compared to JavaScript.

Keep reading to learn more front end languages and frameworks.

Elm

Elm is a front-end programming language that enables developers to create reliable user interfaces with less code and fewer errors.

It uses a functional programming approach, which makes it resistant to runtime errors and helps ensure code correctness.

Features

  • Functional – Elm offers clean functions, inputs, and outputs for the needs of developers. Users derive a predictable output for any given function input. Code reasoning becomes easier. 
  • Reactive – Elm users can define UIs with a function due to reactive programming support. They can create a reactive cycle through user action updates. 
  • Compiles to JavaScript – Elm compiles code to JavaScript for HTML and CSS creation, enabling browsers to run code. 

Advantages of Elm

  • Reliable: Strong static typing and compiler error messages make it reliable and maintainable.
  • Predictable code: Elm emphasizes pure functions, leading to predictable code.
  • No runtime exceptions: No runtime exceptions due to its architecture and compiler design.

Disadvantages of Elm

  • Lack of resources: Elm is not as mainstream, so finding resources, libraries, and skilled developers can be difficult.
  • Steeper learning curve: Steeper learning curve for those coming from an imperative programming background.
  • Complex to us with Javascript: Interoperability with JavaScript (through “ports”) can be complex and verbose.

Keep reading to learn more front end web development languages.

Angular

Angular is a popular open-source front-end web application framework developed by Google, which simplifies building dynamic and interactive user interfaces.

It uses HTML, CSS, and TypeScript to create highly interactive applications. Angular provides developers with powerful features such as declarative templates, dependency injection, two-way data binding, and an extensive library of tools.

Features

  • Progressive web apps – Developers can use cutting-edge platform features to create similar experiences to apps. Angular offers high performance and easy installation. 
  • Angular CLI – Angular offers command-line tools to enable developers to create apps faster, add tests, and achieve fast deployment. 

Advantages of Angular

  • Complete framework solution: Provides a complete framework solution with tools for routing, state management, and HTTP requests.
  • Robust programming: Enforces strong typing and object-oriented programming with TypeScript.
  • Backed by Google: Backed by Google, ensuring stability and support.

Disadvantages of Angular

  • Steep learning curve: Due to its complexity and diverse concepts, it may be challenging to learn Angular.
  • Complex syntax: Verbose and complex syntax compared to Vue and React.
  • Heavy framework: a heavier framework can lead to slower load times and performance issues.

JQuery

JavaScript developers often use JQuery , a widely-used library that simplifies several tasks involved in web development.

With its help, developers can easily traverse HTML documents, handle events, create animations, and manage Ajax interactions.

It’s a valuable tool that streamlines web development processes and enhances the speed of creating dynamic web pages.

Features

  • CSS manipulation: jQuery has predefined css() methods for changing HTML element style. 
  • Html manipulation: jQuery facilitates easy selection, traversing, and content modification of DOM elements.
  • Cross-browser support: jQuery provides support for the most popular modern web browsers. 

Advantages of jQuery

  • Easy to learn: Easy to learn and use for manipulating HTML documents.
  • Cross-browser compatibility: Strong cross-browser compatibility, working across all major browsers.
  • Large amount of plugins: With thousands of plugins available, jQuery provides developers with a vast library of tools and resources.

Disadvantages of jQuery

  • Modern web development doesn’t require it: Not necessary for modern web development due to similar features being available in Vanilla JavaScript and CSS3.
  • Slow performance: Performance can be slower than native JavaScript.
  • Not a modular code structure: This does not promote the modular code structure that is encouraged by modern frameworks and libraries.

Swift

Swift is a programming language developed by Apple for building iOS apps, macOS applications, and other cross-platform apps.

It is powerful yet easy to learn, allowing developers to quickly build robust mobile and desktop applications.

Swift syntax is concise but expressive, and it provides safe patterns while making code easier to read and maintain.

It also offers features such as support for generics, type inference, closures, multiple return values, object-oriented programming with protocols and classes, and high-performance memory management.

Features

  • Swift adheres to easy and safe patterns
  • Users get access to the latest programming features
  • Objective C and Swift have the same syntax
  • It is a preferred option for writing iOS and OS X programs. 

Advantages of Swift

  • High performance: Swift is known for its high performance and ability to optimize code quickly.
  • Reduces errors: Swift is designed to be safe, reducing the amount of common coding errors.
  • Supported by Apple: Apple, the primary language for iOS and Mac development, supports Swift.

Disadvantages of Swift

  • Created for the Apple ecosystem: Primarily for the Apple ecosystem, limiting cross-platform development.
  • Language is still evolving: The language is still evolving, leading to potential issues with backward compatibility.
  • Fewer resources available: Compared to JavaScript and Python, there are fewer resources and a smaller community.

Please Swift vs Objective-C to know more about iOS programming languages.

Conclusion

When choosing a front-end programming language, it is important to consider the needs of the project and evaluate all available options.

Popular languages like JavaScript and HTML are universal, while newer technologies like React and Vue offer modern features with better performance.

Other languages like Swift or TypeScript may be more suitable for specific tasks or platforms. Ultimately, the best option will depend on the project and the developer’s experience.

No matter which language is chosen, it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest developments in front-end programming languages. That way, developers can make sure they are using the best tools for their projects.

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FAQ

What is a front-end?

Front-end or frontend refers to the portion of a software application that a user can see and interact with.

What are the advantages of front-end programming?

– It pays high salaries
– Quick and secure development
– Fast responses

What are the best front-end programming languages?

– HTML
– CSS
– Javascript
– React
– Vue
– TypeScript
– Elm
– JQuery
– Angular
– Swift


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