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Backbone.js VS FeathersJS

Compare Backbone.js VS FeathersJS and see what are their differences

Backbone.js logo Backbone.js

Give your JS App some Backbone with Models, Views, Collections, and Events

FeathersJS logo FeathersJS

Wow your users. Build incredible real-time applications in record time.
  • Backbone.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • FeathersJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-01-17

Backbone.js features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Backbone.js is minimal and lightweight, which means it has a small footprint and adds very little overhead to your project.
  • Flexibility
    Backbone.js provides a flexible structure to developers by allowing them to build their own MVC or MVP architectures using models, views, collections, and routers.
  • Ease of Integration
    Backbone.js can be easily integrated with other libraries and frameworks, such as jQuery or underscore.js, enhancing its capabilities without much difficulty.
  • Large Community
    Backbone.js has been around for a long time, resulting in a large community and a plethora of plugins and extensions that can be leveraged.
  • Detailed Documentation
    The official site offers comprehensive documentation which includes tutorials, examples, and a detailed API reference, aiding developers to understand and utilize the library efficiently.

Possible disadvantages of Backbone.js

  • Steeper Learning Curve
    New developers might find Backbone.js difficult to learn due to its non-opinionated nature and lack of enforced structure.
  • Sparse In-Built Features
    Backbone.js provides only the basic building blocks, requiring developers to write more boilerplate code or rely on external libraries for additional functionalities.
  • Outdated
    As newer frameworks and libraries (like React, Vue, and Angular) have emerged with more robust features and better performance, Backbone.js has somewhat fallen out of favor in modern development practices.
  • Event Binding Complexity
    Managing event bindings in Backbone.js can become complex and sometimes messy in large applications, which can lead to difficult maintenance and debugging.
  • Limited Two-Way Data Binding
    Backbone.js does not provide two-way data binding out-of-the-box, unlike other frameworks such as Angular, necessitating additional code to sync views and models.

FeathersJS features and specs

  • Real-Time Functionality
    FeathersJS makes it easy to create real-time applications with WebSocket and RESTful APIs. It supports real-time data synchronization, which can be especially useful for interactive applications.
  • Flexibility
    FeathersJS is designed to work seamlessly with a variety of databases and frontend frameworks. This makes it highly flexible for different project requirements.
  • Microservice Ready
    FeathersJS supports modular architecture, which is well-suited for building microservices. Services can be easily scaled and managed independently.
  • Ease of Use
    The framework is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, even for developers who may not have extensive experience with Node.js. It includes built-in authentication and other common features.
  • Extensible
    FeathersJS has a rich ecosystem of plugins and hooks, allowing developers to extend functionality without modifying the core codebase.
  • Good Documentation
    FeathersJS provides well-written and comprehensive documentation, which makes it easier for new developers to get started and for experienced developers to find advanced features.

Possible disadvantages of FeathersJS

  • Limited Community
    Compared to more popular frameworks like Express or Koa, the FeathersJS community is smaller, which may result in fewer third-party resources and community support.
  • Learning Curve
    While FeathersJS is designed to be easy to use, its concepts and architecture can be different from other Node.js frameworks, which may require some time to learn.
  • Middleware Complexity
    FeathersJS uses a special middleware structure that might be complex for developers who are used to traditional middleware in Express.js.
  • Performance
    Although FeathersJS is generally performant, it might not be as fast as some lower-level frameworks, especially when dealing with very high volumes of traffic.
  • Dependency on JSON Schema
    FeathersJS heavily relies on JSON Schema for data validation, which can add complexity and may not be suitable for all applications.
  • Limited Middleware
    The middleware ecosystem is not as extensive as some other Node.js frameworks, which might necessitate custom middleware development for certain use cases.

Backbone.js videos

Introduction to Backbone.js

More videos:

  • Review - Introduction to Backbone.js
  • Review - Backbone.js Code Review w Backbone.js Mentor Jonathon

FeathersJS videos

OSS 2019: FeathersJS with David Lueke

More videos:

  • Review - ❄️ Chill Stream | Building EntropyChat.app | node.js, FeathersJS, Vue.js, Vuex, Electron

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Backbone.js and FeathersJS)
JavaScript Framework
59 59%
41% 41
Javascript UI Libraries
85 85%
15% 15
Web Frameworks
24 24%
76% 76
JS Library
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Backbone.js and FeathersJS

Backbone.js Reviews

20 Next.js Alternatives Worth Considering
A veteran on the scene, Backbone.js is all about giving structure to your JavaScript-heavy applications. It’s standing the test of time, enabling you to keep your data logic and display logic neatly side by side, all while being lightweight.
9 Best JavaScript Frameworks to Use in 2023
Backbone.js is based on the Model View Controller (MVC) design pattern. The library supports seven components: Models, Views, Collections, Routers, Events, Sync, and Options. Backbone.js also provides an asynchronous communication layer that allows the application to communicate with a backend service.
Source: ninetailed.io
JavaScript: What Are The Most Used Frameworks For This Language?
Backbone.JS is a lightweight JavaScript library that provides a framework for developing structured and scalable web applications. It offers a set of tools for building client-side applications that interact with RESTful APIs. Backbone.JS is well-suited for developing single-page applications (SPAs) where most of the user interface is rendered in the browser, rather than...
Source: www.bocasay.com
20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Backbone.js is a JavaScript-based framework that connects to an API via a RESTful JSON interface. Backbone.js is known for being small and light because it only requires jQuery and one JavaScript library, Underscore.js, to use the entire library.
Top JavaScript Frameworks For Mobile App Development
Backbone JS is a JavaScript framework based on the MVP app design. As the name suggests, it acts as a strong backbone to your project. It is lightweight in nature and hence, is considered ideal for developing single-page applications. It offers a simplistic frontend and makes the best use of JavaScript functions.
Source: medium.com

FeathersJS Reviews

We have no reviews of FeathersJS yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, FeathersJS should be more popular than Backbone.js. It has been mentiond 39 times since March 2021. 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.

Backbone.js mentions (17)

  • JavaScript Views, the Hard Way – A Pattern for Writing UI
    Https://backbonejs.org/#View There is also a github repo that has examples of MVC patterns adapted to the web platform. - Source: Hacker News / 15 days ago
  • JavaScript evolution: From Lodash and Underscore to vanilla
    Underscore was created by Jeremy Ashkenas (the creator of Backbone.js) in 2009 to provide a set of utility functions that JavaScript lacked at the time. It was also created to work with Backbone.js, but it slowly became a favorite among developers who needed utility functions that they could just call and get stuff done with without having to worry about the inner implementations and browser compatibility. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • React is 10 years old
    Got it thanks for the context. I've read the web app and it seems to me it is just https://backbonejs.org/ re-written in Typescript and allows JSX. I'm very certain Typescript and JSX will have improved the DX for Backbone like apps, but it doesn't address all of the other issues that teams had with Backbone. e.g. Cyclical event propagation, state stored in the DOM (i.e. Appendchild is error prone in large code... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • Just Simply – Stop saying how simple things are in our docs
    Even further nowadays, docs are created using Docusaurus. I don't have problem with it but documentation should be good (eye) friendly than easy to write. Why not be creative while writing docs such as - Backbone.js - https://backbonejs.org Or https://backbonejs.org/docs/backbone.html as code annotation. - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • The Emperor's New Library
    What we see, a decade ago, are that many of the "popular" libraries, frameworks, and methods, not surprisingly, have gone by the wayside, a lot that have remained in current code as difficult-to-removemodernize legacy cruft (Bower, Gulp, Grunt, Backbone, Angular 1, ...), and then we have the small minority that are still here. Some that remain have had their utility lessened/questioned by platform and language... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
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FeathersJS mentions (39)

  • Show HN: Triplit – Open-source syncing database that runs on server and client
    This is just using sqlite under the hood and none of this will scale. Why build your own query builder as well when you could just hook in one of the many ORMs in the NPM ecosystem and add support for 50+ other databases. This also isn't really something you could drop into an existing project very easily. Overall, I'm not impressed. Here are some other options I prefer: https://feathersjs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 10 months ago
  • Ask HN: Can anyone suggest few open source projects for SaaS Boilerplate?
    For backend this might help https://feathersjs.com. I’m not affiliated with them, just a happy user. - Source: Hacker News / about 1 year ago
  • Best NodeJS frameworks for seamless backend development
    Feathers.js is a web framework built on top of Express which provides a simple way to develop a scalable and reliable application. Feathers.js supports many databases and works with any frontend technology including iOS, Android, and React Native. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Choosing a backend API framework
    Feathers.js - fully fledged backend framework, with almost anything out of the box. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Node.js 20 is now available
    For anything CRUD or that can be modeled as such, I use FeathersJS (https://feathersjs.com/). - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Backbone.js and FeathersJS, you can also consider the following products

AngularJS - AngularJS lets you extend HTML vocabulary for your application. The resulting environment is extraordinarily expressive, readable, and quick to develop.

ExpressJS - Sinatra inspired web development framework for node.js -- insanely fast, flexible, and simple

Koa.js - Next generation web framework for node.js

ember.js - A JavaScript framework for creating ambitious web apps

Nest.js - A progressive Node.js framework for building efficient, reliable and scalable server-side applications.

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces