Software Alternatives & Startups

jQuery UI VS Tabris

Compare jQuery UI VS Tabris 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

Tabris logo Tabris

Native apps from one code base:
  • jQuery UI Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-10-17
  • Tabris Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-04-25

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.

Tabris features and specs

  • Cross-Platform Development
    Tabris allows developers to use a single codebase to create applications for both iOS and Android, which can save time and resources.
  • JavaScript and TypeScript Support
    Developers comfortable with JavaScript or TypeScript can leverage their existing skills to build mobile applications, making Tabris accessible to a wide range of developers.
  • Native Widgets
    Tabris provides access to native UI components, which means applications have a native look and feel and can offer better performance than those relying on web views.
  • Rapid Prototyping
    Tabris enables fast prototyping by allowing developers to iterate quickly with instant feedback loops through JavaScript live updating.
  • Cordova Plugin Support
    Tabris can integrate with existing Cordova plugins, increasing the versatility of the apps by allowing access to additional device capabilities.

Possible disadvantages of Tabris

  • Learning Curve
    Developers new to Tabris and its specific architecture might face a learning curve, especially if they are not familiar with its nuances and specific APIs.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Compared to more popular frameworks like React Native or Flutter, Tabris has a smaller community and ecosystem, which can result in fewer resources and third-party libraries available.
  • Enterprise Pricing
    While Tabris offers a free version, the more advanced features and support come at a cost, which might not be feasible for smaller developers or projects.
  • Limited Web Integration
    Tabris focuses on mobile, and for developers looking for a truly unified web and mobile development platform, Tabris might not meet all their requirements.
  • Performance Overheads
    Despite using native widgets, there could still be some performance overhead related to the JavaScript-to-native bridge, affecting real-time performance-critical applications.

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.

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.

Tabris videos

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

Add video

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to jQuery UI and Tabris)
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
Development Tools
78 78%
22% 22
Developer Tools
53 53%
47% 47
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 forms—. - 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: over 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

Tabris mentions (0)

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

What are some alternatives?

When comparing jQuery UI and Tabris, 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

Apache Cordova - Platform for building native mobile applications using HTML, CSS and JavaScript

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

NativeScript - Build truly native apps with JavaScript