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Zepto vs jQuery: What are the differences?
Introduction
Zepto and jQuery are both popular JavaScript libraries that provide a wide range of functionalities for web development. While they have many similarities, there are also key differences that set them apart from each other.
DOM Traversal and Manipulation: Zepto and jQuery both offer powerful and concise methods for DOM traversal and manipulation. However, jQuery provides a more extensive set of methods compared to Zepto, making it a more versatile choice for complex operations.
Size and Performance: One notable difference between Zepto and jQuery is their size and performance. Zepto is significantly smaller in size compared to jQuery, making it more lightweight and faster to load. This advantage can be particularly beneficial for mobile web development, where the file size affects page load time.
Browser Compatibility: jQuery is widely known for its excellent cross-browser compatibility. It handles various browser quirks and inconsistencies effectively, ensuring consistent behavior across different browsers. On the other hand, Zepto may have limited compatibility with less common or older browsers, which could be a consideration depending on your target audience.
Plugin Ecosystem: jQuery has a massive and well-established plugin ecosystem, with a vast range of plugins available for almost any use case. The extensive community support and documentation make it easy to find and use plugins for extending jQuery's functionality. On the other hand, Zepto's plugin ecosystem is comparatively smaller and may not have as much developer support or availability.
Animation and Effects: jQuery offers a more comprehensive set of built-in animation and effects methods. It provides a robust framework for creating smooth animations and transitions, making it an excellent choice for interactive websites. While Zepto also includes basic animation capabilities, it lacks some of the advanced features provided by jQuery.
Development and Maintenance: jQuery has a long history and a large user base, making it a more established and well-maintained library. It is actively developed, with regular updates and bug fixes. Zepto, on the other hand, has a smaller community and may have less frequent updates and maintenance.
In summary, jQuery offers a broader range of features, better browser compatibility, and a more extensive plugin ecosystem compared to Zepto. However, Zepto shines in terms of size and performance, making it a suitable choice for mobile web development or projects with specific performance constraints.
I use jQuery at the moment because I use it for a lot of years already, but now Bootstrap 5 decided to switch to JavaScript, I am thinking of switching to an alternative.
I use jQuery only for the DOM integration, animations and ajax calls because JavaScript calls to a class looks such a long call. I like the way of jQuery with $(document).on('click','.something',function() {});
By the way, I like to keep using HTML, PHP and Bootstrap as I do now.
Hi Adan,
Javascript has changed quite a bit in the recent years and lot of it was inspired from jquery. Now almost all modern browsers support javascript syntax everything that jquery does with few elaborate / sometimes better alternatives. So, if you like to switch, find the equivalents of what portions of jquery you use and replace those parts. Btw, jquery is still nicer sometimes with its method chaining and a lot simpler syntax - the equivalent in js may not be that sugary syntactically.
I was like you two years ago, used to jquery and didn't want to switch, but if you're willing to use js frameworks in your projects(React, Vuejs...), I advise you to switch asap, and get used to normal javascript, because in the end, it's the core language, but there are some new ways in it (especially in ES6) that will make your life easier, like you can replace the document.querySelector()
with $()
and document.querySelectorAll()
with $$()
, using this line of code:
const $ = e => document.querySelector(e), $$ = e => document.querySelectorAll(e);
then you can select a p element just by writing: $('p')
, and multiple p elements like that: $$('p')
.
I hope my advice helped you in any way.
I have made an extended effort to drop frameworks completely if they are not actually needed. While I still use JS Frameworks like Vue, Angular and React ( if I have too ), I see far too often devs / teams deciding to build a single page site entirely in a framework, rather than just using HTML, CSS and a little JS.
I personally feel it's important to know when a framework is a good solution, and maybe when it's overkill.
The project is a web gadget previously made using vanilla script and JQuery, It is a part of the "Quicktext" platform and offers an in-app live & customizable messaging widget. We made that remake with React eco-system and Typescript and we're so far happy with results. We gained tons of TS features, React scaling & re-usabilities capabilities and much more!
What do you think?
I've an eCommerce platform building using Laravel, MySQL and jQuery. It's working good and if anyone become interested, I just deploy the entire source cod e in environment / Hosting. This is not a good model of course. Because everyone ask for small or large amount of change and I had to do this. Imagine when there will be 100 separate deploy and I had to manage 100 separate source. So How do I make my system architecture so that I'll have a core / base source code. To make any any change / update on specific deployment, it will be theme / plugin / extension based . Also if I introduce an API layer then I could handle the Web, Mobile App and POS as well ? Is the API should be part of source code or a individual single API and all the deployment will use that API ?
When I started TipMe, I thought about using React frontend. At the end, plain, simple jQuery won.
I had to build this iteration of the site fast and by using jQuery I could keep using Django as a full stack development tool. One important point is Django form (combined with Django Bootstrap3) means that I don't have to reinvent form rendering again, which will be the case with React.
Over time, more interactivity seeped into the site and React components start making its way into the codebase.
I now wish the site is built using React so that I could add more user friendly interfaces easier (no more fuddling with server states) but I would still say jQuery helped me get past those early days.
Pros of jQuery
- Cross-browser1.3K
- Dom manipulation957
- Power809
- Open source660
- Plugins610
- Easy459
- Popular395
- Feature-rich350
- Html5281
- Light weight227
- Simple93
- Great community84
- CSS3 Compliant79
- Mobile friendly69
- Fast67
- Intuitive43
- Swiss Army knife for webdev42
- Huge Community35
- Easy to learn11
- Clean code4
- Because of Ajax request :)3
- Powerful2
- Nice2
- Just awesome2
- Used everywhere2
- Improves productivity1
- Javascript1
- Easy Setup1
- Open Source, Simple, Easy Setup1
- It Just Works1
- Industry acceptance1
- Allows great manipulation of HTML and CSS1
- Widely Used1
- I love jQuery1
Pros of Zepto
- Lightweight5
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Cons of jQuery
- Large size6
- Sometimes inconsistent API5
- Encourages DOM as primary data source5
- Live events is overly complex feature2