Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Babel VS Turbolinks

Compare Babel VS Turbolinks and see what are their differences

Not enough products to filter down. Redirecting to the primary Operations.

Babel logo Babel

Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.

Turbolinks logo Turbolinks

Turbolinks makes navigating your web application faster
  • Babel Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-02
  • Turbolinks Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-17

Babel features and specs

  • JavaScript Version Compatibility
    Babel allows developers to write code using the latest JavaScript features and syntax, and transpile it into a version of JavaScript that can run on older browsers. This ensures greater compatibility across different environments.
  • Future-Proof Code
    With Babel, developers can start using upcoming JavaScript features today. This means that codebases can stay modern and developers can take advantage of new functionalities without waiting for full browser support.
  • Ecosystem and Plugins
    Babel has a rich ecosystem of plugins and presets that can extend its capabilities, making it highly adaptable to different project needs. This modularity allows for customization and enhancement of the build process.
  • Integration with Modern Development Tools
    Babel integrates well with various development tools such as Webpack, making it easier to include in existing build processes and workflows. This helps streamline development and maintain efficient workflows.
  • Community and Support
    Babel has a large and active community, which means extensive documentation, tutorials, and support forums. This can be particularly useful for troubleshooting and staying updated with best practices.

Possible disadvantages of Babel

  • Performance Overhead
    Transpiling code with Babel introduces a performance overhead during the build process. This can slow down development workflows, especially for large codebases with many files.
  • Configuration Complexity
    Setting up Babel can be complex, particularly for beginners. The numerous options and plugins available can sometimes be overwhelming and require significant time to configure correctly.
  • Source Map Issues
    Generating accurate source maps can sometimes be tricky with Babel, leading to difficulties in debugging. Misconfigured source maps can make it harder to track down issues within the original source code.
  • Dependency Bloat
    Including Babel in a project can add a significant number of dependencies. This dependency bloat can increase the size of the project and potentially introduce maintenance challenges or security vulnerabilities.
  • Learning Curve
    There is a learning curve associated with Babel, especially for developers who are new to modern JavaScript tooling. Understanding how Babel works and how to effectively use its features can take time and effort.

Turbolinks features and specs

  • Fast Page Loads
    Turbolinks makes use of AJAX to load only the content that changes between pages, leading to faster page transitions compared to full page reloads.
  • Ease of Use
    It can be easily integrated into a Rails application with minimal setup and code changes, providing fast results without a steep learning curve.
  • Reduced Server Load
    By minimizing full-page reloads, Turbolinks can help reduce server load and usage, as well as client bandwidth.
  • Improved User Experience
    By providing faster navigation and transitions, Turbolinks can create a smoother and more efficient user experience similar to that of a single-page application.

Possible disadvantages of Turbolinks

  • JavaScript Compatibility Issues
    Turbolinks can cause issues with existing JavaScript code that relies on traditional DOMContentLoaded events, requiring additional configuration or workarounds.
  • SEO Challenges
    Since Turbolinks primarily changes content dynamically, it can pose challenges for search engine optimization unless properly handled.
  • Limited Use Cases
    Turbolinks is best suited for pages where content changes without heavy interactivity, and may not be ideal for highly interactive applications.
  • Backward Compatibility
    Integrating Turbolinks into an existing application might require significant changes to JavaScript code to ensure compatibility.

Analysis of Babel

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Babel is widely considered a good tool for modern JavaScript development. It eases the use of cutting-edge JavaScript features and ensures broader compatibility, which is crucial for many projects. Its active community and continuous updates reflect its standing as a reliable and well-supported choice.

Why this product is good

  • Babel is a popular JavaScript compiler that allows developers to use the latest JavaScript features while maintaining compatibility with older environments that may not support these features natively. It transforms modern JavaScript code into a version that can run in current and older browsers or environments. Babel is highly configurable and has a rich ecosystem of plugins and presets that enable developers to tailor it to their specific needs, making development smoother and more efficient.

Recommended for

    Babel is recommended for web developers who want to write modern JavaScript but need to ensure that their code remains functional across different environments and older browsers. It is also valuable for projects where developers aspire to use the latest ECMAScript features without waiting for broad native support.

Babel videos

Babel - Movie Review

More videos:

  • Review - Day 16 | Babel Review | 365 Films
  • Review - Worth The Hype? - BABEL Review
  • Review - Book CommuniTEA: Is BABEL a rac1st mani!fest0? [you should know the answer]
  • Review - Babel is a Masterpiece, And Here's Why

Turbolinks videos

Improving Your Page Load Speeds on Any Site with Turbolinks

More videos:

  • Review - 16 Laravel Livewire SPA using Turbolinks
  • Review - True hybrid mobile applications with Turbolinks

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Babel and Turbolinks)
Development Tools
100 100%
0% 0
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Web Application Bundler
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

Share your experience with using Babel and Turbolinks. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Babel seems to be a lot more popular than Turbolinks. While we know about 151 links to Babel, we've tracked only 14 mentions of Turbolinks. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Babel mentions (151)

  • The Architecture Wars: How We Almost Built Everything Wrong ๐Ÿ—๏ธ (Part 2/5)
    I was convinced that Babel with full AST parsing was the "right" way to analyze code. I mean, that's what real tools do, right? VS Code uses it, TypeScript uses it, all the cool kids use AST parsing! - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Quanter A pure JavaScript CSS Selector Engine
    There are several ways to use Webpack, Browserify or Babel. For more information on using these tools, please refer to the corresponding project's documentation. In the script, including Quanter will usually look like this:. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • Supporting multiple Javascript environments
    In order to accomplish this, I picked up a tool that I've been loathe to touch since the last time I used it, roughly a decade ago โ€” Babel. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • NodeJS Fundamentals: function expression
    ES6 features like arrow functions and lexical this binding require polyfills for older browsers (IE11 and below). core-js (https://github.com/zloirock/core-js) provides comprehensive polyfills for various ES features. Babel (https://babeljs.io/) can be configured to transpile modern JavaScript code to older versions, automatically including necessary polyfills. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Valentineโ€™s Day Breakup: React Dumps Create React App
    Create React App (CRA) is a command-line interface tool that allows developers to set up a React project easily. It primarily serves as a project scaffolding tool, allowing you to create a new project with a single command: npx create-react-app . CRA comes with tools like Webpack and Babel, which handle the bundling and transpiling of code. The tools are pre-configured. It comes with a development server that... - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

Turbolinks mentions (14)

  • Hotwire: HTML Over The Wire
    First off, name calling. Second, I actually thought the same as you but digging into the history I don't see any records of a public release of Hotwire until December of 2020, and HTMX was public in May of that year. I'm pretty sure what I was thinking of was actually Turbolinks: https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • What is the best way to add dynamic workflow in django template ?
    You can find out more about Turbolinks on the GitHub repository (https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks). The repo is now archived, because itโ€™s was integrated in a framework called Turbo, but the functionality is the same. Source: over 2 years ago
  • A Comprehensive Guide to Rails Internationalization
    // app/javascript/src/helpers/price.js // Turbolinks are enabled by default in Rails, // we need to process our script on every page load // https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks#full-list-of-events Document.addEventListener("turbolinks:ready", () => { // Get language from html tag const lang = document.documentElement.lang; // Find all span tags with data-localize="price" const pricesOnPage =... - Source: dev.to / almost 3 years ago
  • An SPA Alternative
    Https://github.com/turbolinks/turbolinks It provides a smooth UX by fetching next page's HTML in background, then replace the DOM by compareing the diff in HTML. So you won't see a blank page while navigating between pages. - Source: Hacker News / about 3 years ago
  • Get Started with Hotwire in Your Ruby on Rails App
    If you have used Turbolinks in the past, you will feel right at home with Turbo Drive. At its core, some JS code intercepts JavaScript events on your application, loads HTML asynchronously, and replaces parts of your HTML markup. - Source: dev.to / about 3 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Babel and Turbolinks, you can also consider the following products

jQuery - The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.

RubyGems - RubyGems. org is the Ruby community's gem hosting service. Instantly publish your gems and then install them. Use the API find out more about available gems. Become a contributor and improve the site yourself.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

GitHub - Originally founded as a project to simplify sharing code, GitHub has grown into an application used by over a million people to store over two million code repositories, making GitHub the largest code host in the world.

Composer - Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP.

JUST - Service to find a job in sports and eSports.