In this article, we’ll take a brief look at the main JavaScript trends of 2017 and try to predict what we’ll face in 2018. We’ll pay attention to the state of JavaScript, current trends in web development, and check the frameworks that will compete for the love of the audience this year.

Javascript Is Still One of the Fastest-growing Languages

Despite the level of criticism that we face from year to year, JavaScript is still one of the fastest-growing programming languages in the world. Besides that, according to the data gathered by the indeed.com website, JavaScript is one of the top three most sought-after languages from the employer’s point of view. According to the survey made by StackOverflow in 2017, JavaScript is the most commonly used language:

Taking into account these data, it’s unlikely that JavaScript is going to fade in the near future. It remains one of the better choices when it’s going to the development of interactive web pages, and you’re in search for a programming language that is supported by all the main browsers.

Another important detail is that JavaScript has come a long way from a tool that can bring some interactivity to a web page to a decent choice for efficient server-side development. Node.js, an open-source run-time environment allows creating server-side code using JavaScript. Dozens of Node.js based frameworks such as Meteor and Derby make this technology suitable for almost any type of projects and provide the functionality required for building highly scalable web apps.

Material Design is the Must

Material Design has become a must-have trend for 2017. It was developed by Google in 2014 as a set of design standards that allow increasing user experience by creating neat and minimalist user interfaces that support responsive scaling across different screen sizes. It’s based on Google’s material design language and provides components such as Parallax and Toast.

If you are looking for a JavaScript Gantt chart with beautiful Material design, we highly recommend you to check the latest release of dhtmlxGantt.

SPA (Single Page Application)

The popularity of Single Page Apps continues to grow which is not surprising. Such kind of apps allows putting all the content into one long scrollable page which allows avoiding complex navigation and multi-level menu. All you have to do to get the info is to scroll.

SPA’s work well on all devices and demonstrate great performance with the minimum of lags. It’s pretty early to say that Single Page Applications will show total domination in the web, but the growth of attention to them both from developers and users can’t be underestimated.

PWA (Progressive Web Apps)

The concept of Progressive Web Apps was announced by Google in 2015. The popularity of such kind of applications is based on relative ease of development and great user experience. Progressive web apps are websites that look and feel like native mobile applications and can work offline. Any user can save the shortcut of such website on the home screen. The most data is stored in the cache, so PWA can be loaded almost instantly.

During the last years, this concept became so popular that such companies as Ali Express, The Washington Post, and Forbes have created their own Progressive Web Apps. Paying attention to the fact that mobile applications lose their share due to a glut of the market, PWA can become a good alternative.

2018 may become a year that will show if Progressive Web Apps will fade or not.

Artificial Intelligence and Bots

AI-based chatbots have gained incredible popularity in 2017. As you may know, Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence chatbots even started talking in their own language. Frightening or exciting, this symbol of progress shows that we’re standing on the verge of new opportunities. Chatbots made on the basis of AI and neural networks will evolve providing new opportunities in the sphere of web communications. It’s hard to predict the exact result of such state of affairs, but we can say for sure that chatbots will become one of the main trends in 2018.

JavaScript Frameworks. Battle of the Giants

2017 was the year of React. This framework developed by Facebook won the popularity contest. But there’s a strong competitor that has all the chances to turn the tables this year. We’re talking about the Vue.js framework. What’s the position of Angular in this race? Let’s take a look.

React won the hearts of developers. There are still a huge amount of developers that use Angular code bases. But as React keeps winning customer satisfaction surveys which indicates that it’ll turn Angular into a dusty relic very soon. Besides that, according to indeed.com, React is the first library to pass jQuery in job popularity in a decade. One of the main features of React is its versatility. Among the React job listings, you may found such things as IoT, AR/VR or even obscure computing. React is widely used outside of web technologies and has a rich, vibrant ecosystem.

Vue.js did a good job in 2017. At the moment it is growing faster than React. It got a lot of headlines, and a lot of developers got interested. This framework is lightweight, easy to learn, has incredible tooling, routing built-in, etc. In 2018, we’ll see a lot of hype for Vue.js.

There were some difficulties in Angular’s growth of developers satisfaction during the last year. At the end of 2017, the level of Angular 2+ users satisfaction was something about 49%. But despite this fact, it’ll remain widely used frameworks in 2018. It seems like companies that adopted Angular 1.0 will pay attention to React and Vue.js as better supported alternatives for migration. Angular fans claim that this framework will be the JavaScript framework of choice for the enterprise. But this claim has yet to be proven.