JavaScript library poll results

I held a JavaScript library poll in the last three weeks, and it’s time to publish the results. At least 3,350 people responded. With nearly 155,000 responses in total, and nearly 1,700 for the least-answered question, I believe this poll is fairly representative of my readers and the readers of my readers, and therefore gives genuinely useful information about current JavaScript library use.

On average, respondents used 3.5 libraries in the past year, and about 2 in more than 50% of their projects. (Of course the latter figure might mean they use one library in 50% of their projects, and another in the other 50%.)

95% used libraries, which means that 5% didn’t. That’s something, though not much.

59% could have done without a library in his last project. That’s not too bad, but it still means 41% could not.

42% sticks with his current libraries because learning to use a new one takes too much time.

The most-used library is jQuery with 91%. Duh.

Second-most used is Modernizr (58%), and then come underscore.js (33%) and backbone.js (30%).

From 25-40% of the users of a library use it in at least 50% of their projects. For Modernizr, underscore.js, and especially jQuery this percentage is higher. For Zepto, Sencha Touch, and Raphael.js this percentage is considerably lower.

The results are here. You can create more crosstabs if you like; there’s quite a bit of information there. Note that it’s not possible to close an Urtak poll, so people will continue to send in responses, and percentages might change gradually.

General

General questions about library use Question Yes Have you used any JavaScript library at all in the last year? 95% Do you use any JavaScript library in more than 50% of your projects? 91% In general, do you feel any current JavaScript libraries are useful and performant enough to use on mobile? 75% Did you start using a new JavaScript library in the past year? 60% In the last project you used a JavaScript library in, could you have written the script yourself without help of the library? 59% In general, do you feel micro-libraries are a better approach than general full-scale libraries like jQuery, YUI, or MooTools? 47% Does the time it takes to learn a Javascript library prevent you from taking up any new ones? 42% Have you ever contributed to a JavaScript library? 28% In the last year, did you ever change to another JavaScript library in mid-project? 24% Have you used a micro-framework library such as qwery, reqwest, bonzo, or domReady in the last year? 17%

Individual libraries

For each library I asked two questions:

Have you used [library name] at all in the last year? Do you use [library name] in more than 50% of your projects?

People who said Yes to the first question are users; those who said Yes to the second question are frequent users. The crosstab column shows the percentage of those who answered the first question with Yes who also answered the second question with Yes. Note: If the first question was answered with Yes by less than 100 people I did not calculate the crosstab.

So 58% of the respondents used Modernizr at least once in the past year, 35% used it in at least 50% of his projects, and of those who used it at least once, 57% used it in at least 50% of his projects.

Raphael, Zepto, and Sencha Touch score low on the crosstab. Evidently people don’t use it in many projects, although all three are used reasonably well. The reason is most likely that these libraries are for very specific use cases that don’t occur in all projects.