Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

jQuery UI VS Ionic React

Compare jQuery UI VS Ionic React and see what are their differences

jQuery UI logo jQuery UI

Curated set of user interface interactions, effects, widgets, and themes built on top of the jQuery JavaScript Library

Ionic React logo Ionic React

Today we're thrilled to announce the general availability of Ionic React, a native React version of Ionic Framework that makes it easy to build apps for iOS, Android, Desktop, and the web as a Progressive Web App.
  • jQuery UI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17
  • Ionic React Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-11-22

jQuery UI features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    jQuery UI simplifies creating and managing complex UI components with straightforward syntax and comprehensive documentation.
  • Compatibility
    jQuery UI is highly compatible with older browsers, offering a broader range of support compared to more modern frameworks.
  • Extensibility
    jQuery UI is designed to be modular and extendable, allowing developers to use only the components they need and easily extend or theming them.
  • Rich Set of Widgets
    It comes with a variety of pre-built widgets such as datepickers, accordions, and sliders, which can save development time.
  • Animated Effects
    jQuery UI includes many built-in animation effects that can enhance the user experience without requiring additional libraries.
  • Theming
    The library provides Themeroller, a tool that allows developers to create custom themes easily, ensuring UI consistency and branding.

Possible disadvantages of jQuery UI

  • Performance
    Due to its extensive feature set, jQuery UI can be relatively heavy, which may affect performance, particularly in resource-constrained environments.
  • Not Mobile-First
    jQuery UI is not designed with mobile-first principles in mind, making it less optimal for modern responsive web applications.
  • Learning Curve
    While easy to use for simple tasks, mastering jQuery UI for more complex applications may require a significant learning curve.
  • Dependency on jQuery
    Since jQuery UI relies on the jQuery library, it adds an additional dependency which can be limiting if you prefer or are required to use vanilla JS or another library.
  • Declining Popularity
    With the rise of modern frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, jQuery UI has seen a decline in popularity and community support.
  • Limited Modern Features
    Compared to contemporary UI libraries, jQuery UI lacks some of the modern features and performance optimizations found in newer libraries.

Ionic React features and specs

  • Cross-platform development
    Ionic React allows developers to build apps that can run on multiple platforms such as iOS, Android, and the web from a single codebase.
  • Rich UI components
    It provides a wide range of pre-built UI components that are designed to work seamlessly across different platforms, helping speed up development time.
  • Integration with React
    Ionic React leverages React, a popular JavaScript library, allowing developers familiar with React to use their existing skills to build mobile apps.
  • Strong community support
    Ionic has a large and active community, providing plenty of resources, plugins, and support options for developers.
  • Capacitor integration
    Ionic React integrates well with Capacitor, Ionic's native runtime, making it easier to access native device features.

Possible disadvantages of Ionic React

  • Learning curve
    While Ionic React simplifies cross-platform development, it may still pose a learning curve for developers new to both Ionic and React.
  • Performance considerations
    Hybrid apps built with frameworks like Ionic React may not match the performance of fully native apps, particularly for graphics-intensive applications.
  • Dependency management
    Managing dependencies can become complex with Ionic React, especially when integrating various third-party libraries and plugins.
  • Native plugin limitations
    Some native features might not be fully supported or may require custom plugin development to integrate seamlessly, adding to development time.
  • UI inconsistency
    Despite providing many UI components, developers might still face challenges in achieving native-like performance and aesthetics on all platforms.

Analysis of jQuery UI

Overall verdict

  • jQuery UI is a solid choice for projects that already use jQuery or for developers who need to implement standard UI components quickly and easily. However, for projects starting from scratch, considering more modern alternatives that align with the current state of JavaScript development, such as React, Vue, or Angular, might be beneficial due to their extensive ecosystems and support for modern development patterns.

Why this product is good

  • jQuery UI is a popular library that extends the capabilities of jQuery with a robust set of user interface interactions, effects, widgets, and themes. It is particularly well-suited for developers who are already familiar with jQuery and need to implement features quickly without starting from scratch. Its components are widely used because they are both customizable and reliable, and it is backed by a large community that offers support and contributions. Furthermore, jQuery UI simplifies complex interactions and effects that would otherwise require significant effort to code manually, especially for those who seek cross-browser compatibility.

Recommended for

    jQuery UI is recommended for developers working on legacy projects that heavily rely on jQuery, or for quick, short-to-medium-term projects where ease of use and speed of implementation are paramount. It is also suitable for educational purposes, helping beginners understand DOM manipulation and UI interaction concepts. However, for new projects aimed at creating highly interactive and scalable applications, a framework or library that supports modern front-end technologies may be more appropriate.

Analysis of Ionic React

Overall verdict

  • Ionic React is a solid choice for teams that need to ship cross-platform mobile, web, and desktop apps from a single React codebase, offering a mature component library, native device access, and strong tooling, though it may not match fully native performance for highly complex or graphics-intensive apps.

Why this product is good

  • Single codebase targets iOS, Android, and web, reducing development time and cost
  • Rich library of pre-built, accessible UI components that follow platform-specific design guidelines
  • Built on top of React, allowing use of familiar React patterns, hooks, and ecosystem libraries
  • Capacitor integration provides easy access to native device APIs (camera, GPS, storage, etc.)
  • Strong community, extensive documentation, and official support from Ionic team
  • Supports PWA output, letting the same app run in browsers with offline capabilities
  • Active plugin ecosystem for extending functionality without leaving the JS/TS environment
  • Good performance for most business, e-commerce, and content-driven apps due to hardware-accelerated WebView rendering

Recommended for

  • Startups and small teams wanting to launch iOS, Android, and web apps quickly with limited resources
  • React developers who want to reuse their skills for mobile app development without learning a new framework
  • Businesses needing a PWA plus native app strategy from one codebase
  • Projects with moderate UI complexity such as e-commerce, booking, or content apps
  • Teams prioritizing faster time-to-market over squeezing out maximum native performance
  • Enterprises that need consistent theming and design across multiple platforms with a single design system

jQuery UI videos

jQuery UI tutorial: Adding a user interface with jQuery UI | lynda.com

More videos:

  • Review - jQuery UI Ultimate:Design Amazing Interfaces Using jQuery UI : Understanding the curriculum.

Ionic React videos

No Ionic React videos yet. You could help us improve this page by suggesting one.

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to jQuery UI and Ionic React)
Javascript UI Libraries
Developer Tools
90 90%
10% 10
Development Tools
98 98%
2% 2
Libraries And Widgets
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, jQuery UI seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 15 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.

jQuery UI mentions (15)

  • Let Me Talk About Component-based Front-end Development
    The once popular jQuery, with its strengths fully utilized in jQuery UI and Bootstrap, provides many UI components and is also friendly to backend developers, seemingly meeting the requirements. However, looking at their component implementation and resource loading formsโ€”. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • 100+ Must-Have Web Development Resources
    jQuery UI: An open-source library for building user interfaces based on jQuery. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • What is a component library and should you build your own?
    Fortunately, when I started web development in earnest, many of these issues were ironed out. By this point, there were still a handful of libraries that made writing complex interfaces with cross-browser support a little easier. Jquery UI, the first component library I used, supported accordions and other widgets. But the browser is constantly evolving, and we now have a native way of implementing this accordion... - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Best ReactJS library for Drag-n-Drop Table for plugin Admin view?
    Because WordPress is already have these jQuery & jQuery UI libraries (https://jqueryui.com/). Source: about 3 years ago
  • jQuery 3.6.2 Released
    We still use jQuery + jQuery UI on our website because it is basically battle tested through 15+ years. https://jqueryui.com/ It is easy as hell. What's there to not like? I don't care to be called names or being old fashioned. I also don't care about "right" tooling for frontend. As far it works and it is robust and it is going to be around for many years, I am fine with it. - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
View more

Ionic React mentions (0)

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

What are some alternatives?

When comparing jQuery UI and Ionic React, you can also consider the following products

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

Ionic - Ionic is a cross-platform mobile development stack for building performant apps on all platforms with open web technologies.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Babel - Babel is a compiler for writing next generation JavaScript.

NativeScript - Build truly native apps with JavaScript

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