Interest in React, Angular, and Vue is waning

JavaScript and TypeScript remain more vibrant than ever, but established JavaScript frameworks including React and Angular continue to see dips in satisfaction, according to the State of JavaScript 2022 report.

The 2022 edition of the annual report, published January 10, was based on survey of 39,472 developers late last year. Among its observations was high interest among respondents in performance-oriented front-end frameworks Svelte, Solid, and Qwik, and waning interest in longtime leaders Vue, React, and especially Angular. However, 82% of those surveyed who had used React would use it again, while only 49% and 42% said the same for Angular and Vue, respectively.

For front-end frameworks, rendering frameworks, and other tools, the survey attempted to measure retention (would use again), interest (want to learn), usage, and awareness. Interest in learning Angular has decreased from 68% in 2016 to just 43% in the current report, while interest in Vue has slipped from 91% in 2018 to 77% in 2022. Google’s Sarah Drasner, in the report’s conclusion, suggested that these declines could be signs of maturity. Despite declining interest, React and Angular remain in wide use.

Other findings in the State of JavaScript 2022 report:

• JavaScript language features nullish coalescing, top level await, string.prototype.replaceAll, and dynamic import had high ratios of persons who know about them and had used them, with 81.7% of those who know about nullish coalescing having used it, followed by 67.5% for top level await, 64.6% for string.prototype.replaceAll, and 56.4% for dynamic import. By contrast, only 20.1% of those who know about WebAssembly, heralded in recent years as a breakthrough in web performance and programming, had used it.
• The Vite build tool had the highest retention ratio, with 98% of those who have used it saying they would use it again.
• 21% of respondents did not have a higher education degree.
• 40.2% had a higher education degree in a field related to computer technology.
• 13.7% of respondents had salaries ranging from $100,000 to $200,000.

The State of JavaScript 2022 survey, led by developers Sacha Greif and Eric Burel, was conducted from November 21 to December 22, 2022, with respondents participating from 20 countries around the world.