Frontend Development Trends That You will Want to Try in 2021
By: Vsevolod Ulyanovich
Tags: Web Development, JavaScript, Frontend, Frontend Development, Reactjs

Frontend Development Trends That You will Want to Try in 2021 Vsevolod Ulyanovich Follow Apr 12 · 4 min read

We at Fively love frontend unconditionally. Let’s admit the truth: frontend is changing all the time and it takes significant efforts to stay on top of these changes. Nonetheless, it’s fascinating to observe the industry evolution and the directions where this evolution takes us. In this blog post, we would like to share our insights and vision of the frontend development trends for 2021. After reading this list, you would probably share our admiration with frontend and will definitely find something useful for your business.

1. JavaScript as a Frontend Leviathan

The power of JavaScript is getting stronger year by year. It was named the most studied and popular language in 2020 and got a sufficient number of updates and new features. As for business, it means that more contractors are going to offer JS as a part of their technology stacks as the language can be used for the implementation of various requirements. So, CSS and HTML, make some room, please.

But nothing lasts forever. While JavaScript is staying on the crest of software development, the contenders are getting stronger in the shadow of its glory. Blazor is one of such competitors. It’s a framework that allows us to create browser-based apps with the help of C# and someone has already named it a JavaScript killer.

Only time will tell whether the expectations are to be realized. However, programmers start looking for JavaScript alternatives that will let them use the same language for server and client sides.

2. Engaging Power of ReactJS

According to the Stack Overflow survey, ReactJS is the most loved JavaScript framework among developers across the globe. It captivates us by its simplicity, speed, and minimal coding that doesn’t limit our opportunities to create web applications with great user engagement rates. Huge corporations like Airbnb and Facebook turn to ReactJS when it comes to dealing with interface-related issues.

Vue.js and AngularJS remain popular too. The first one has low barriers to entry and focuses on fast and simple UIs. The second one takes a place in our hearts due to easy prototyping, two-way data binding, and amazing community support as the framework is maintained by Google.

New names emerge as well in the mag of frameworks. In 2020, for example, Svelte fascinated the frontend developers. It allows to build a web application with a reduced bundle size and saves a frame budget.

3. The Great Gatsby

In the roaring twenties of the 21st century, Single Page Apps (SPAs) are changing the web by making it more active and powerful. There is a big obstacle, though. SPAs are no friends of search engines and SEO, which is crucial for online businesses.

To avoid the obstacle, creative minds have concentrated their efforts on making special solutions and that’s why we can talk about Gatsby today. It’s a static website generator that can be used to build PWA’s and optimize them regarding security, speed, and visibility for crawlers. As a result, PWA’s content becomes indexed and you won’t miss the opportunities of SEO. Gatsby is based on React and got the title of the most demanded static site generator and the fastest-growing framework in 2020.

Another popular solution for the PWA’s troubles with SEO is Next.js, which stays the main competitor of Gatsby.

4. Jamstack to not Get Stuck

Jamstack is the new star in the web development sky. It’s an architectural concept that involves Javascript, Markup, and APIs in the static-first web development approach. In contrast to the downsides of the dynamic website request cycle, Jamstack provides immediate responses to requests, scalability, security, and hosting cost optimization.

The Jamstack architecture makes it possible for the frontend developers to work without much worry for backend. Such web apps are supported by the mentioned above React and Vue.

The State of Frontend 2020 respondents admit that a third of them have already built a Jamstack-based solution. Therefore, its huge adoption in 2021 is inevitable.

5. Micro Frontends in Action

Try to consider a web app or a website as a set of features that are owned by separate independent teams. Each of them has a clear specialization and is responsible for the end-to-end development in this field. That’s how micro frontends work.

Using the micro frontend approach, we get compact and cohesive code bases, scalable projects, and independent deployment. Instead of fighting with big and hard things, we slice them up into small pieces and pass responsibility for these pieces to certain people. In 2021, more companies will appreciate this approach.

Summing up

So, now you are aware of the most promising frontend frameworks, languages, architectures, and concepts. If you feel overwhelmed, try to relax — changes are coming but there’s no need to get lost in them. What we should do is to explore the changes and try to adopt the things that seem relevant to us. If you are looking for professionals to implement any trends in the short term, tell us more today.