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KnockoutJS VS Backbone.js

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

KnockoutJS logo KnockoutJS

Knockout makes it easier to create rich, responsive UIs with JavaScript

Backbone.js logo Backbone.js

Give your JS App some Backbone with Models, Views, Collections, and Events
  • KnockoutJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • Backbone.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30

KnockoutJS features and specs

  • Data Binding
    KnockoutJS offers a powerful two-way data binding mechanism, allowing for automatic synchronization between the model and the user interface. This reduces the amount of boilerplate code needed to manage data updates.
  • Declarative Bindings
    The library uses declarative bindings to connect the UI to the data model. This makes it easier to understand the structure of your UI without having to sift through complex JavaScript code.
  • Flexibility
    KnockoutJS is framework-agnostic, meaning it can be integrated with other libraries and frameworks such as jQuery and Angular, providing flexibility in application architecture.
  • Simplicity
    It's relatively easy to learn and use, especially for developers familiar with Model-View-ViewModel (MVVM) architecture.
  • Community Support
    Despite being a mature library, KnockoutJS has a solid community with ample documentation and plugins, which can be quite helpful for development and troubleshooting.

Possible disadvantages of KnockoutJS

  • Performance Issues
    For very complex applications or large datasets, KnockoutJS might lead to performance bottlenecks, since it doesn’t offer the same virtual DOM diffing optimizations as newer frameworks/libraries like React.
  • Steep Learning Curve for Complex Applications
    While it's simple for smaller projects, creating and managing more complex applications often involves a steeper learning curve and can lead to complex models.
  • Lack of Built-in Support for Modern Features
    KnockoutJS does not natively support some modern JavaScript features and patterns, such as ES6 modules or TypeScript, requiring additional configurations or libraries.
  • Decreasing Popularity
    As more modern frameworks like React, Angular, and Vue gain popularity, the use of KnockoutJS is declining, which might lead to a smaller community and fewer updates or improvements in the future.
  • Limited Official Tooling
    Compared to newer frameworks, KnockoutJS has less official tooling support for development, build processes, and testing, which can make project setup and maintenance more arduous.

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.

KnockoutJS videos

KnockoutJS Review

Backbone.js videos

Introduction to Backbone.js

More videos:

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

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to KnockoutJS and Backbone.js)
Javascript UI Libraries
19 19%
81% 81
JavaScript Framework
12 12%
88% 88
JS Library
32 32%
68% 68
Front-End Frameworks
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 KnockoutJS and Backbone.js

KnockoutJS Reviews

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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

Social recommendations and mentions

KnockoutJS might be a bit more popular than Backbone.js. We know about 22 links to it since March 2021 and only 17 links to Backbone.js. 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.

KnockoutJS mentions (22)

  • JSX over the Wire
    > Everything old is new again An age ago I took interest in KnockoutJS based on Model-View-ViewModel and found it pragmatic and easy to use. It was however at the beginning of the mad javascript framework-hopping marathon, so it was considered 'obsolete' after a few months. I just peeked, Knockout still exists. https://knockoutjs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 25 days ago
  • A First Look at HTMX and How it Compares to React
    The approach is not new, essentially a variation of Knockout, Alpine, and similar "JS-in-HTML" approaches. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • The Best UI Libraries for Cross-Platform Apps with Tauri
    SolidJS and Tauri form another potent combination for creating performant, lightweight, and secure experiences. SolidJS is a reactive UI library that is similar to Svelte in the way it compiles away reactivity and updates the DOM directly, but it also incorporates a fine-grained reactivity system reminiscent of libraries like Marko, Knockout, and MobX. - Source: dev.to / almost 2 years ago
  • Why are signals still not so popular?
    People act like Signals are a new discovery. KnockoutJS was using them 13 years ago and other libraries used them before that. Source: almost 2 years ago
  • What is KnockoutJS and how is it relevant in Magento 2?
    Knockout JS is a Javascript library which uses the MVVM pattern to bind data to certain DOM elements. Within Magento, we usually define a View-Model (which is a .js file) and a Template (which is a .html file), and the data in the template file is bound to the view-model, meaning whenever the data in the view-model changes, the template file changes too. Source: almost 2 years ago
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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 / 22 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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What are some alternatives?

When comparing KnockoutJS and Backbone.js, 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.

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

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

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

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

Svelte - Cybernetically enhanced web apps