Software Alternatives & Startups

Blockly VS Ember-cli

Compare Blockly VS Ember-cli and see what are their differences

Blockly

Blockly is a library for building visual programming editors.

Rating
0 reviews
Pricing
Open source
Ember-cli

Application and Data, Libraries, and JavaScript Framework Components

Rating
0 reviews

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Blockly seems to be a lot more popular than Ember-cli. While we know about 31 links to Blockly, we've tracked only 1 mention of Ember-cli.

social mentions
31 vs 1
Web Frameworks popularity
100% vs 0%

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Blockly
E
Ember-cli
Website developers.google.com cli.emberjs.com
Pricing
Open source
Listed in

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Blockly 5 features
E
Ember-cli 5 features
  • User-Friendly
    Blockly offers a highly intuitive and visual interface. Users, especially beginners and non-programmers, can easily drag and drop blocks to create programs without needing to write code manually.
  • Educational Value
    Blockly is excellent for educational purposes. It simplifies the learning curve for programming by abstracting the complexities of syntax, allowing learners to focus on understanding logic and computational thinking.
  • Cross-Language Support
    Blockly can generate code for multiple programming languages (JavaScript, Python, PHP, Lua, Dart). This makes it versatile and useful for teaching and transitioning to various languages.
  • Customizability
    Blockly is highly customizable. Developers can create custom blocks and define their own rules, making it adaptable to various projects and domain-specific needs.
  • Open Source
    As an open-source project, Blockly provides the flexibility to modify and extend the toolkit to fit specific requirements. This open nature encourages community contributions and improvements.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Complexity
    Blockly is designed for simplicity and may not handle very complex programming tasks efficiently. Advanced users might find it insufficient for sophisticated or large-scale projects.
  • Performance Overhead
    The visual programming model can introduce performance overhead. Converting blocks to executable code and running it can be less efficient compared to hand-written code, especially for performance-critical applications.
  • Learning Transition
    While Blockly is great for beginners, transitioning from block-based programming to traditional text-based coding can be challenging. Users may need additional guidance to adapt to the intricacies of syntax and coding best practices.
  • Limited Debugging Tools
    Blockly does not offer advanced debugging tools. Debugging issues can be more challenging compared to traditional IDEs that provide sophisticated debugging capabilities.
  • Scalability Issues
    For large projects, the block-based approach can become unwieldy and harder to manage compared to traditional text-based code which can be more neatly structured and maintained.
  • Convention over Configuration
    Ember-cli enforces strong conventions for file structure, naming, and project organization, which reduces decision fatigue and makes it easier for developers to jump between different Ember projects with minimal onboarding time.
  • Built-in Tooling
    Comes with a robust set of built-in tools including a development server, testing framework integration (QUnit), asset compilation, and live reload, reducing the need to manually configure and integrate third-party build tools.
  • Addon Ecosystem
    Ember-cli supports a rich ecosystem of addons that can be easily installed and integrated into projects, allowing developers to extend functionality without reinventing the wheel for common features.
  • Blueprints and Generators
    Provides powerful generator commands (blueprints) that scaffold components, routes, models, and other application pieces quickly, speeding up development and ensuring consistency across the codebase.
  • Stable Long-term Support
    Ember-cli follows Ember's release cycle with clear LTS (Long Term Support) versions, providing stability and predictability for teams maintaining large applications over time.

Possible disadvantages

  • Steep Learning Curve
    The strict conventions and unique architecture of Ember-cli can be difficult for newcomers to learn, especially those coming from more flexible frameworks or with no prior Ember experience.
  • Smaller Community Compared to Alternatives
    Compared to tools like Vite, Webpack, or CRA used with React/Vue, Ember-cli has a smaller community and ecosystem, which can mean fewer third-party resources, tutorials, and community-driven troubleshooting.
  • Build Performance
    For large applications, Ember-cli's build process can become slow, and while improvements have been made with embroider, some developers still report slower build times compared to more modern bundlers.
  • Rigid Structure
    The opinionated nature of Ember-cli, while helpful for consistency, can feel restrictive for developers who prefer more flexibility in structuring their applications or adopting non-standard patterns.
  • Migration Complexity
    Upgrading between major Ember-cli versions or migrating to newer build systems like Embroider can be complex and time-consuming, particularly for older or heavily customized applications.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Blockly
E
Ember-cli

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Blockly is a good tool, especially for educational environments and projects that benefit from visual programming. It's well-supported by Google and the community, making it a reliable choice for developers.

Why this product is good

  • Blockly is a powerful library for creating visual programming editors. Its intuitive drag-and-drop interface allows both beginners and advanced programmers to create code blocks that can be converted into various text-based programming languages like JavaScript, Python, and more. This ease of use makes it an excellent tool for educational purposes and rapid prototyping.

Recommended for

  • Educators looking to introduce programming concepts to students.
  • Developers seeking to build applications with a visual programming interface.
  • Hobbyists interested in creating projects without extensive coding knowledge.
  • Organizations aiming to develop interactive tutorials and learning platforms.

Overall verdict

  • Ember CLI is a solid, mature command-line tool for building Ember.js applications, offering strong conventions, built-in tooling, and a stable development workflow that has been refined over many years.

Why this product is good

  • Provides a standardized project structure and conventions, reducing setup decisions and configuration overhead
  • Includes built-in support for ES modules, testing, and asset compilation out of the box
  • Strong addon ecosystem allows easy integration of third-party functionality
  • Backed by the official Ember.js team, ensuring long-term support and consistent updates
  • Automatic reloading and rebuilding during development speeds up the workflow
  • Encourages best practices like testing and modular code organization

Recommended for

  • Teams building large-scale, maintainable web applications with Ember.js
  • Developers who prefer convention-over-configuration frameworks
  • Projects that require long-term stability and structured upgrade paths
  • Organizations already invested in the Ember.js ecosystem
  • Developers who value built-in testing and tooling integration without extra setup

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Blockly 3 videos + Add
E
Ember-cli 0 videos + Add

Blockly: Using Block Based Coding in your App

More videos

  • - Fable Blockly Review
  • - Trying Out Blockly, Google's New Programming Language [DiceTV]

No Ember-cli videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Blockly
E
Ember-cli
100% 100%
0% 0%
0% 0%
100% 100%
88% 88%
12% 12%
100% 100%
0% 0%

User comments

Share your experience with using Blockly and Ember-cli. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Reviews and articles

External articles and on-site reviews we used to compare the two products.

Blockly no reviews yet
E
Ember-cli no reviews yet
  • Top 20 Javascript Libraries
    hackr.io · Mar 2022

    Blockly, a creation of Google, is a web-based visual programming editor. When added to the code, the library adds an editor to the app that represents code snippets like loops, expressions, variables, and more as...

We have no reviews of Ember-cli yet. Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Blockly 31 mentions
E
Ember-cli 1 mention
  • Ask HN: Platform for 11 year old to create video games?
    Scratch is fantastic. There are also a number of similar (block-based) tools that let you create your own custom blocks and see the code behind them - e.g. Blockly (https://developers.google.com/blockly). - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago
  • Ask HN: Modern Day Equivalent to HyperCard?
    If your kid is already doing Scratch, Blockly is a really easy next step. https://developers.google.com/blockly Critically, Blockly can emit JavaScript and Python, plus it supports plugins for extended functionality. So the kid can stay... - Source: Hacker News / over 2 years ago
  • A shortage of teachers for computer science classes in California
    The issue with Alice is that graphical, block based coding is not at all an ergonomic way to code. Sure, C++ probably isn't the best for an intro CS courses, either, but even just Python with some wrappers over SDL to draw sprites is not... - Source: Hacker News / almost 3 years ago

View more

  • Help! Why does chrome console inner text and my program inner text not return the same values? (spent nearly the whole day trying to extract an element). Turned to reddit as its always had the best community. Any help is MASSIVELY appreciated. Puppeteer!!
    The webpage is LinkedIn.com. While this isn’t a framework, I know that are using https://cli.emberjs.com/release/. Source: about 5 years ago

Alternatives to Blockly and Ember-cli

When comparing Blockly and Ember-cli, you can also consider the following products.