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KnockoutJS VS jQuery

Compare KnockoutJS VS jQuery and see what are their differences

KnockoutJS logo KnockoutJS

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

jQuery logo jQuery

The Write Less, Do More, JavaScript Library.
  • KnockoutJS Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-09-30
  • jQuery Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-10-22

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.

jQuery features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    jQuery simplifies complex JavaScript tasks by providing easy-to-use methods, which can lead to shorter development times and cleaner code.
  • Cross-Browser Compatibility
    jQuery handles many browser inconsistencies, ensuring that your code works seamlessly across different browsers without additional effort.
  • Large Community and Ecosystem
    There is a vast community of developers who contribute plugins, extensions, and provide support, making it easier to find solutions and enhance functionality.
  • Animation and Effects
    jQuery offers built-in methods for creating animations and effects, allowing developers to enhance the user interface with minimal code.
  • AJAX Simplification
    The library provides straightforward methods for making AJAX calls, which simplifies the process of loading data asynchronously.
  • Documentation and Learning Resources
    Extensive documentation and a plethora of tutorials are available, making it easier for developers to learn and troubleshoot.

Possible disadvantages of jQuery

  • Performance Overhead
    Using jQuery can add overhead to your application due to its file size and additional abstraction, which can impact performance, especially in resource-constrained environments.
  • Relevance
    With the advent of modern JavaScript frameworks like React, Vue, and Angular, and the improvements in native JavaScript (ES6+), the need for jQuery has decreased, making it less relevant in contemporary web development.
  • Learning Curve for Advanced Features
    While basic usage is straightforward, mastering more advanced topics and optimizing performance can be challenging for newcomers.
  • Potential for Overuse
    Developers might rely too heavily on jQuery for tasks that can be efficiently handled by native JavaScript, leading to bloated codebases.
  • Maintenance and Legacy Code
    Projects heavily reliant on jQuery may face maintenance challenges as modern frameworks and practices evolve, requiring significant refactoring effort if transitioning away from jQuery.
  • Security
    Older jQuery versions have known security vulnerabilities, and continuing to use outdated versions can pose security risks. Regular updates are necessary to mitigate this issue.

KnockoutJS videos

KnockoutJS Review

jQuery videos

Quick jQuery Review

More videos:

  • Review - jQuery vs Vue, React and Angular
  • Review - Front-End Development, HTML & CSS, Javascript & jQuery by Jon Duckett | Book Review
  • Review - The Legend of jQuery in 100 Seconds
  • Review - ⭕The one book I regret not having as a beginning web developer || Jon Duckett JavaScript & jQuery

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to KnockoutJS and jQuery)
Javascript UI Libraries
Development Tools
0 0%
100% 100
JS Library
100 100%
0% 0
JavaScript Framework
13 13%
87% 87

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 jQuery

KnockoutJS Reviews

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jQuery Reviews

Top 20 Javascript Libraries
jQuery dramatically simplifies JS programming and is easy to learn and use. It is highly extensible and makes web pages load faster. jQuery wraps up a lot of standard functions making the job of the developer easy. A JS code of several lines could be just a method to be called in jQuery. It also has many plugins to perform different tasks. Some of the features of jQuery are...
Source: hackr.io
Top 15 jQuery Alternatives To Know
The world is full of newer technologies and there are alternatives available for all of them. jQuery is no different. The above-mentioned technologies can be a good alternative to jQuery though jQuery itself has a loyal user base of its own. Overall, it depends upon the organizational skills, requirements, budget, and objective, based on which stakeholders can take a call on...
Best Javascript libraries to use in 2021
jQuery has been in the development scene for a long time and has been the unprecedented king for webpage dev. It is one of the most common libraries used throughout the world, with more than 50% of websites using jQuery for their functioning. jQuery is a library used majorly for Document Object Model (DOM) manipulation. The DOM is a tree-like structure that represents all...
Source: codersera.com

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, jQuery should be more popular than KnockoutJS. It has been mentiond 101 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.

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 / 24 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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jQuery mentions (101)

  • This One jQuery Mistake Froze Our Web Page! Here's the Fix You Need to Know
    Whenever the number of items increased, the browser became slow, sometimes even unresponsive. At first, we thought it was a server issue or maybe too much data. But no — the problem was hiding inside a small line of jQuery. - Source: dev.to / 18 days ago
  • Is jQuery Dead?
    Ah, jQuery — the library that powered a generation of web apps. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Understanding Awaitables: Coroutines, Tasks, and Futures in Python
    Then we have callbacks, which were popularized by AJAX calls. Back then, with jQuery, we could define handlers to deal with both success or failure cases. For instance, let's say we want to fetch the HTML markup of this blog (skipping error failure callback for brevity), we do. - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • the entire history of JavaScript, i guess
    One of them is JQuery created by John Resig. The library addresses extremely-frustrating issues related to cross-browser compatibility that existed at the time. To this day, it remains the most widely used JavaScript library in terms of actual page loads. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • 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 / 4 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing KnockoutJS and jQuery, 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.

React Native - A framework for building native apps with React

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

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

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

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