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Kendo UI vs jQuery UI: What are the differences?
Introduction
Kendo UI and jQuery UI are two popular JavaScript frameworks that help developers create rich and interactive web applications. While both frameworks provide a wide range of UI components and support for various functionalities, there are several key differences between them.
Architecture: Kendo UI is built on top of jQuery, which means that it leverages the functionality and performance optimizations provided by jQuery. This integration allows Kendo UI to have a smaller footprint and better performance compared to jQuery UI.
Commercial vs Open-Source: Kendo UI is a commercial framework developed by Telerik and requires a paid license for certain features and support. On the other hand, jQuery UI is an open-source project maintained by the jQuery Foundation and is freely available for use.
Component Variety: Kendo UI offers a wide range of pre-built UI components and widgets, including charts, grids, calendars, and more. jQuery UI, while also providing a set of UI components, has a more limited selection compared to Kendo UI.
Customization and Theming: Kendo UI provides a higher level of customization and theming options out of the box. It offers a variety of themes and allows developers to easily modify the appearance and behavior of components. In contrast, jQuery UI has a more basic theming system and limited customization options.
Mobile Support: Kendo UI is designed with mobile-friendly features and responsive design in mind. It offers a set of mobile UI components and provides seamless integration with popular mobile frameworks like Apache Cordova (PhoneGap). jQuery UI, while it can be used in mobile applications, does not have the same level of mobile-specific features and optimizations as Kendo UI.
Documentation and Support: Kendo UI has extensive documentation and a dedicated support team, providing resources and assistance to developers. It also offers official training and certification programs. jQuery UI, being an open-source project, has documentation and community support but may not have the same level of official support and resources as Kendo UI.
In summary, Kendo UI and jQuery UI have key differences in terms of architecture, commercial vs open-source nature, component variety, customization and theming options, mobile support, and documentation/support resources.
Full disclosure; I worked for both Telerik and Infragistics in Developer Relations for these projects. From my point of view, neither is a clear "winner" in this space. Kendo has some nice features and Ignite doesn't have and vice versa. We ended up picking Kendo because we needed to settle on one of these, and most of our clients already owned Kendo because it came with some other Telerik product. That's it. It could have very easily gone the other way, but Telerik kinda won the ground war here, so...
Having said that, the only tool we really use is the grid (the rest of them are no better than Flowbite/HTML5/etc. controls. And even then, we really need to be leveraging the advanced functionality of the grid before telling the client they'll have to buy a support license.
Pros of jQuery UI
- Ui components215
- Cross-browser156
- Easy121
- It's jquery100
- Open source81
- Widgets57
- Plugins48
- Popular46
- Datepicker39
- Great community23
- DOM Manipulation7
- Themes6
- Some good ui components0
Pros of Kendo UI
- Collection of controls15
- Speed5
- Multi-framework support4
- Mobile4
- AngularJS2
- Built-in router2
- Good Documentation1
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Cons of jQuery UI
- Does not contain charts or graphs1
Cons of Kendo UI
- Massive footprint4
- Slow3
- Awdawd1
- Spotty Documentation1
- Expensive1
- Poor customizability1
