Solomon Eseme
Top 5 TypeScript frameworks to learn in 2021 give an overview of the different frameworks built primarily with TypeScript as the first-class citizen.
We all know the popularity and increase in the number of NodeJS and JavaScript frameworks which are steadily on the rise daily, but do we have TypeScript specific frameworks?
Yes, we do:
Before we delve into that, let’s clear the air with TypeScript and why frameworks should make it the first-class citizen.
TypeScript is simply JavaScript with Types and has gained significant adoption and top 2 most loved language according to StackOverflow’s 2020 Developer Survey.
From the official documentation: “ By understanding JavaScript, TypeScript saves you time catching errors and providing fixes before you run code. “
In this article, I will look at the top 5 TypeScript frameworks to give you an insight into what you can start learning in 2021.
Top 5 TypeScript Frameworks
I will list out the top 5 best typescript frameworks to learn in 2021 based on certain criteria such as popularity, number of usage, and Github stars.
Combining those criteria together plus personal preference, we have the following list of best typescript frameworks.
Before I started learning these frameworks myself especially NestJS and AdonisJS, I was always in doubt of TYPESCRIPT skills until I came across this course.
Typescript: The Complete Developer’s Guide[2020] is my all-time TypeScript best course with it you will master Typescript by learning popular design patterns and building complex projects. Includes React and Express!
Before we delve in, if you’re a backend developer or looking at delving into this career path, join other developers to receive daily articles on backend development that will boost your productivity.
Nest.js Framework
NestJS is the most popular TypeScript framework 2021, it is inspired by the Angular module system.
NestJS is one the fastest growing framework in the NodeJS ecosystem, it has even outgrown lots of other Node.js frameworks except for Koa and Express and that is pretty fair comparing 2018 that it was introduced.
As of the time of writing, NestJS has more than 34.8k Github Stars and about 56.9k Github Usage.
It has records of 585.8k weekly downloads from Jan. 24, 2021, to Jan. 31, 2021, and above all, it supports TypeScript as a first-class citizen with about 99.8% Typescript in its codebase.
If the numbers don’t convince you to learn NestJS in 2021, maybe a screenshot of the NPM Trends will:
So what is NestJS:
NestJS posses as a progressive Node.js framework for building efficient, scalable Node.js web applications built with modern JavaScript and Typescript.
Features of NestJS
What makes Nestjs so great and intuitive can be seen in the features.
NestJS aims to provide an application architecture out of the box which allows for effortless creation of highly testable, scalable, loosely coupled and easily maintainable applications
You can explore some of the features of Nestjs and see how we can use them to speed up our application development here.
Learn NestJS
NestJS Zero to Hero — Modern TypeScript Back-end Development is my number course to learn NestJS, this is the course I used to get up and running with NestJS.
The course shows you how to develop and deploy enterprise back-end applications following best practices using Node.js and TypeScript
Resources
- Official Documentation
- Getting Started with NestJS
- Developing a Secure API with NestJS: Getting Started
- NestJS Crash Course By Brad Traversy
FeatherJS Framework
FeatherJS is the second most popular typescript framework according to our statistics for building real-time applications and REST APIs.
As of the time of writing, FeatherJS has more than 13.2k Github Stars and about 3.4k Github Usage.
It has records of 41.1k weekly downloads from Feb. 7, 2021, to Feb. 14, 2021, and above all, it supports TypeScript as a first-class citizen with about 92.1% Typescript in its codebase.
You can see the trends chart to get more insights below:
Learn FeatherJS
Below are the resources you can get started with featherjs
LoopbackJS Framework
Loopback 4 is a highly scalable and extensible Typescript framework for building microservices and APIs.
Loopback recently upgraded to Typescript fully in version 4 of the framework which is what we are considering in this article.
As of the time of writing, Loopback 4 has more than 3.4k Github Stars and about 3.6k Github Usage.
It has records of 33.1k weekly downloads from Feb. 7, 2021, to Feb. 14, 2021, and above all, it supports TypeScript as a first-class citizen with about 73.9% Typescript in its codebase.
The statistic is rather biased because it includes Loopback 3 which not our focus for this article.
Learn Loopback
Anyways, to learn Loopback 4, I will recommend Build a full-stack app with Node.Js, Loopback4, React, and Hooks course, though it’s a new course but has the potential to help you learn typescript, Loopback 4, and react while building a real-world application.
Resources
Below are the free resources you can get started with Loopback 4
AdonisJS Framework
The AdonisJS framework is my all-time favorite Node.js and TypeScript framework except Expressjs.
It is easy it is to jump right into it and get complex projects out if you have prior experiences with Laravel, Spring, or Ruby on Rails.
“AdonisJS is a Node.js framework that is focused on developers’ ergonomics, stability, and speed. AdonisJS is written from the ground up with a strong principle and goals in mind to be a strong integrated system.” from AdonisJS Tutorial.
As of the time of writing, AdonisJS has more than 9.6k Github Stars and about 707 Github Usage.
It has records of 7.83k weekly downloads from Feb. 7, 2021, to Feb. 14, 2021, and above all, it supports TypeScript as a first-class citizen with about 99.9% Typescript in its codebase.
The statistic is rather biased because it includes Adonis 4 which not our focus for this article.
Learn AdonisJS
Learning and building with AdonisJS 5 have been made very easy with this free course which I will highly recommend.
AdonisJS 5 From Scratch teaches you AdonisJS 5 from the ground up to the level you’re comfortable enough to take up real-world projects because of the numerous practicals.
Resources
Below are the free resources you can get started with AdonisJS.
- Official documentation
- AdonisJS Tutorial: The Ultimate Guide(2021)
- AdonisJS Tutorial: build a full-stack web application
Tsed Framework
The TSED framework is a Node.js framework that is written with typescript on top of Express.js and Koa to build out your server application easily and quickly.
It has great features and built-in support of several technologies to speed up your development, you can check out the official website for more information.
As of the time of writing, TSED has more than 1.5k Github Stars and about 547 Github Usage.
It has records of 9.95k weekly downloads from Feb. 7, 2021, to Feb. 14, 2021, and above all, it supports TypeScript as a first-class citizen with about 98.4% Typescript in its codebase.
Learn Tsed
Since the framework is not popular among the community, the only source of truth and a great place to get started is the official documentation.
Bonus
For reading this long, I have a reward for you.
Foal Framework
Foal is a NodeJS framework for building web applications written entirely with TypeScript which allows you to detect most silly errors during compilation and improve the quality of your code.
Foal provides reusable components so you don’t reinvent the wheel, you also have a complete web development environment with CLI, testing tools, scripts, frontend utilities, ORM, deployment environments, AWS utilities, GraphQL, advanced authentication, and Swagger API, and more.
As of the time of writing, Foal has more than 1.1k Github Stars and about 89 Github Usage.
It has records of 11.4k highest weekly downloads and above all, it supports TypeScript as a first-class citizen with about 98.1% Typescript in its codebase.
Learn Foal
Since the framework is not popular among the community, the only source of truth and a great place to get started is the official documentation.
Final Thoughts
Choosing a particular one for your project will solely depend on the type of project and the programming language, team strength.
We have given a rough overview of these different frameworks and their trends over a year.
We also give you the knowledge of what to expect when choosing anyone who is a good knowledge of TypeScript.
Conclusion
In this article, we covered the top 5 typescript frameworks 2021 and the different Github Usage, Github Stars, and the percentages of typescript in the codebase.
We have also explored the different trends in usage from NPMTrends.
Let me know in the comment section, which typescript framework is more familiar to you and which one you’re most going to try out.
Happy coding!
Originally published at https://masteringbackend.com on March 1, 2021.
