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JavaScript VS Apple Swift

Compare JavaScript VS Apple Swift and see what are their differences

JavaScript logo JavaScript

Lightweight, interpreted, object-oriented language with first-class functions

Apple Swift logo Apple Swift

Swift is a programming language for iOS, OS X, watchOS and tvOS apps that builds on the best of C...
  • JavaScript Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-08-05

We recommend LibHunt JavaScript for discovery and comparisons of trending JavaScript projects.

  • Apple Swift Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23

JavaScript features and specs

  • Wide Browser Support
    JavaScript is supported by all modern web browsers without the need for any plugins, making it highly versatile for client-side scripting.
  • Asynchronous Programming
    JavaScript supports asynchronous programming with features like callbacks, Promises, and async/await, which helps in efficiently handling tasks such as HTTP requests.
  • Rich Ecosystem and Libraries
    The JavaScript ecosystem includes a vast amount of libraries and frameworks like React, Angular, Vue, and Node.js, which streamline development processes.
  • Community Support
    JavaScript has a large and active community, providing extensive resources, documentation, and forums for troubleshooting and development advice.
  • Event-Driven
    The language is inherently event-driven, making it suitable for developing interactive web applications that react to user inputs.
  • Full-Stack Development
    With the advent of Node.js, JavaScript can be used for both client-side and server-side development, enabling full-stack development using a single language.

Possible disadvantages of JavaScript

  • Security Issues
    Being an interpreted language that runs in the browser, JavaScript code is visible to the user, making it susceptible to security risks such as Cross-Site Scripting (XSS).
  • Browser Compatibility
    While JavaScript itself is widely supported, different browsers may implement JavaScript functions and standards differently, leading to compatibility issues.
  • Performance
    JavaScript is generally slower than compiled languages such as C++ or Java. Heavy computations can lead to performance bottlenecks.
  • Single Inheritance
    JavaScript uses prototypal inheritance instead of classical inheritance, which can be confusing for developers coming from object-oriented programming backgrounds.
  • Dynamic Typing
    JavaScript's dynamic typing can lead to runtime errors that are hard to debug, as variable types are checked at runtime rather than during compilation.
  • Fragmentation
    The ecosystem has many competing libraries, frameworks, and tools, which can make it overwhelming for developers to choose the right technologies for their projects.

Apple Swift features and specs

  • Performance
    Swift is designed to be fast and efficient, often outperforming older languages such as Objective-C. This is due to its modern architecture and LLVM compiler, which optimizes code during the compile time.
  • Safety
    Swift provides safety features like optional types and automatic memory management, which help developers avoid common programming errors. This reduces the risk of runtime crashes and enhances code stability.
  • Syntax
    Swift has a clean and expressive syntax, making it easy to read and write. This simplicity reduces the learning curve for new developers and improves code maintainability.
  • Interoperability with Objective-C
    Swift is designed to easily coexist with Objective-C. Developers can integrate Swift code into existing Objective-C projects seamlessly, facilitating gradual transitions to modern Swift codebases.
  • Active Community and Support
    Swift benefits from Apple's strong backing and a growing community of developers. This provides extensive resources, community support, and continuous updates to improve the language.

Possible disadvantages of Apple Swift

  • ABI Stability
    Swift's ABI (Application Binary Interface) was only stabilized in Swift 5, which means applications built with prior versions are not binary compatible. This could lead to challenges in maintaining older projects.
  • Limited Language Maturity
    Although Swift has grown rapidly since its release, it's still a relatively young language compared to Objective-C or C++. This immaturity can result in fewer third-party libraries and tools being available.
  • Ecosystem
    Despite recent advancements, Swift lags behind some established languages regarding package management and deployment tools, which can hinder the development experience.
  • Learning Curve for Objective-C Developers
    For developers accustomed to Objective-C, switching to Swift requires learning new paradigms and idioms, which might temporarily slow down productivity.
  • iOS-Centric
    While efforts are being made to use Swift for server-side development and other platforms, its primary adoption and optimization remain focused on Apple's ecosystem, limiting cross-platform capabilities.

JavaScript videos

Learn JavaScript in 7 minutes | Create Interactive Websites | Code in 5

More videos:

  • Review - Top 10 JavaScript Interview Questions
  • Review - Learn JavaScript in 12 Minutes

Apple Swift videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to JavaScript and Apple Swift)
Programming Language
89 89%
11% 11
OOP
90 90%
10% 10
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100
Generic Programming Language

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare JavaScript and Apple Swift

JavaScript Reviews

Top 10 Rust Alternatives
In simple words, the main goal of JavaScript is to develop web pages and is used for authentication procedures. Some of the pros of using JavaScript as an alternative to Rust are follows.
Top 15 jQuery Alternatives To Know
ExtJS, as the name suggests, stands for Extended JavaScript. As an offering from Sencha, it depends on YahooUserInterface. ExtJS helps in creating data intensified HTML5 apps with JavaScript. It consists of a huge collection of customizable and high-performance widgets that assist in creating cross-platform mobile and web apps, for any type of modernized device.
The 10 Best Programming Languages to Learn Today
JavaScript skills are always in high demand – most of the world's top websites and apps rely on JavaScript in one way or another. Plus, JavaScript is a great springboard for learning more complex programming languages.
Source: ict.gov.ge

Apple Swift Reviews

We have no reviews of Apple Swift yet.
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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apple Swift seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 23 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.

JavaScript mentions (0)

We have not tracked any mentions of JavaScript yet. Tracking of JavaScript recommendations started around Mar 2021.

Apple Swift mentions (23)

  • macOS Sequoia is certified to Unix 03
    - And the Swift Language - https://swift.org. - Source: Hacker News / 7 months ago
  • Learning Swift: The Basics of iOS Development
    Open Source: Swift is open source, meaning it's free to use and has a growing community. You can find the source code, as well as many resources and discussions on Swift.org. - Source: dev.to / 9 months ago
  • Differentiable Swift
    So is differentiable Swift a package for Swift or is it part of the Swift standard library? The video says go to swift.org but I can't find any info about differentiable Swift on that site. Source: over 1 year ago
  • How far can you get with Swift and iOS development on Linux?
    You can learn the Swift language, but not iOS development. So after you're done with basics from swift.org, you need to switch to macOS. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Is there a web site I can go to if I want to find the SwiftUI roadmap?
    Like someone mentioned swift.org is a start. Source: almost 2 years ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing JavaScript and Apple Swift, you can also consider the following products

Python - Python is a clear and powerful object-oriented programming language, comparable to Perl, Ruby, Scheme, or Java.

Elixir - Dynamic, functional language designed for building scalable and maintainable applications

Java - A concurrent, class-based, object-oriented, language specifically designed to have as few implementation dependencies as possible

Kotlin - Statically typed Programming Language targeting JVM and JavaScript

Rust - A safe, concurrent, practical language

VS Code - Build and debug modern web and cloud applications, by Microsoft