Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

mustache VS Handlebars

Compare mustache VS Handlebars and see what are their differences

mustache logo mustache

Mustache is a simple web template system with implementations available for ActionScript, C++...

Handlebars logo Handlebars

Handlebars is a JavaScript template library that is, more or less, based on ...
  • mustache Landing page
    Landing page //
    2021-09-13
  • Handlebars Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-06-28

mustache features and specs

  • Logic-less Templates
    Mustache uses a logic-less template syntax, which simplifies the creation of templates by encouraging separation of concerns between HTML and JavaScript logic.
  • Language Agnostic
    Mustache is implemented in many programming languages, making it highly flexible and portable across different environments and platforms.
  • Readable and Clean Syntax
    The Mustache template syntax is straightforward and easy to read, which can help improve the maintainability of code.
  • No Dependencies
    Mustache is a lightweight templating engine with no external dependencies, which can improve performance and reduce complexity in projects.
  • Easy to Learn
    Due to its simplicity, Mustache has a gentle learning curve, making it accessible to developers with varying levels of experience.

Possible disadvantages of mustache

  • No Built-in Helpers or Logic
    Since Mustache is logic-less, it doesn't support built-in helpers or complex logic, which might necessitate additional coding to handle specific scenarios.
  • Limited Features
    Mustache's simplicity means it lacks features found in more advanced templating engines, such as dynamic data manipulation or conditionals, which may be needed for complex templates.
  • Manual Data Preparation
    The logic-less nature often requires manual preparation of data to fit the templating needs, potentially adding to development time.
  • Inefficient for Complex Views
    For applications with complex views requiring conditional rendering or iterations, Mustache may not be the most efficient choice compared to more feature-rich templating engines.
  • Fragmented Support Across Languages
    While Mustache is implemented in many languages, the feature set and efficiency can vary, leading to inconsistent behavior or performance across different platforms.

Handlebars features and specs

  • Simplicity
    Handlebars provides a straightforward and easy-to-learn syntax for templating, making it accessible for developers with varying levels of experience.
  • Logic-less Templates
    Encourages the separation of logic and design by only allowing minimal logic in templates. This promotes a cleaner code base and separation of concerns.
  • Extensibility
    Handlebars allows for custom helpers and partials which enable extending the templating functionality as needed.
  • Precompilation
    Templates can be precompiled, improving performance by reducing client-side parsing and rendering time.
  • Wide Adoption and Community Support
    As a popular templating engine, Handlebars has a large community of users and contributors, which provides abundant resources, plugins, and support.

Possible disadvantages of Handlebars

  • Limited Logic
    The logic-less nature of Handlebars means it supports only very basic conditionals and loops, which can be limiting for complex scenarios.
  • Verbosity
    Handlebars templates can become verbose, especially when using custom helpers or partials extensively.
  • Initial Learning Curve
    For developers coming from more logic-oriented templating engines, adjusting to Handlebars' logic-less paradigm can take some effort.
  • Dependency Management
    In larger projects, managing dependencies between templates, partials, and helpers can become complex and cumbersome.
  • Lack of Reactivity
    Handlebars does not include built-in support for data reactivity, making it less suitable for dynamic, real-time updates compared to modern frameworks like React or Vue.

mustache videos

Mustache Wax Comparison: Beard Product Review

More videos:

  • Review - The Best Mustache Wax Ever | Best Beard Company!!!
  • Review - Death Grip Mustache Wax Review

Handlebars videos

MTB Handlebars: Our Top 5 Picks for 2018!

More videos:

  • Review - Roland Sands Handlebars Review at RevZilla.com
  • Review - KST Kustoms Handlebars Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to mustache and Handlebars)
Javascript UI Libraries
31 31%
69% 69
Development
36 36%
64% 64
Tool
42 42%
58% 58
Programming Language
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

Share your experience with using mustache and Handlebars. For example, how are they different and which one is better?
Log in or Post with

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Handlebars should be more popular than mustache. It has been mentiond 65 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.

mustache mentions (30)

  • Hacking with mdBook
    I strongly recommend keeping it in your toolbox, along with other command-line power tools, such as jq, yq, and mustache. No need to mention Nix, right? - Source: dev.to / 11 days ago
  • Thinking in Templates
    Logic-less: The template engine does not allow any logic in the template. All the logic is pre-applied to the variable content, our data, before it even arrives at the template engine. A typical example is Mustache. - Source: dev.to / 16 days ago
  • Chapter 7: HTML part two
    For a more robust approach, we'd probably need to install a templating language of some kind, such as Twig, EJS, Handlebars, Pug or Mustache (this is not a complete list!). Reading the documentation for posthtml-modules, you'll notice it doesn't mention package.json or any of the approaches we've used in this guide. Instead, the examples are in JavaScript and we've advised to add this to our Node application. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • The Features of Front-end UI Components
    In dynamic web pages, especially when using template engines such as Mustache and Handlebars or libraries/frameworks such as React and Vue, the final content structure is basically generated by JS, which strengthens JS and weakens the control of HTML over the content structure. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • How To Choose the Best Static Site Generator and Deploy it to Kinsta for Free
    Templating engine: SSGs rely on templating engines to define the structure of web pages. These engines enable developers to create reusable templates and incorporate dynamic content. Popular templating engines include Liquid, Handlebars, Mustache, EJS, ERB, HAML, and Slim. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
View more

Handlebars mentions (65)

  • Chapter 7: HTML part two
    For a more robust approach, we'd probably need to install a templating language of some kind, such as Twig, EJS, Handlebars, Pug or Mustache (this is not a complete list!). Reading the documentation for posthtml-modules, you'll notice it doesn't mention package.json or any of the approaches we've used in this guide. Instead, the examples are in JavaScript and we've advised to add this to our Node application. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • How to send emails using Express and NodeJS
    As suggested by a teammate, I found out that I'll need to create the template in a different file and then replace the variables in it using some utility. So, again after searching for some packages, I figured that Handlebars would be the best solution for our problem. - Source: dev.to / 7 months ago
  • The Features of Front-end UI Components
    In dynamic web pages, especially when using template engines such as Mustache and Handlebars or libraries/frameworks such as React and Vue, the final content structure is basically generated by JS, which strengthens JS and weakens the control of HTML over the content structure. - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • Make Custom Handlebar Helpers in Ghost!
    In this variable, we have the response from the Ghost instance as the full HTML of the page. Imagine that this response is the homepage of your Ghost instance. The HTML content will also include our plain text {{hello_world}}, which is displayed as plain text. If our custom helper is in this form, we can compile it using Handlebars.js (https://handlebarsjs.com/) in our middleware. Remember to install the library... - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • htmx and ExpressJS
    It is a novel experience to say the least for me. I mean yes I have been using Handlebars, pug, and other templating engines but this is novel in how it changed my perspective about HTML (Just read their motivation in htmx.org). - Source: dev.to / 8 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing mustache and Handlebars, you can also consider the following products

Pug - Pug is a robust, elegant, feature rich template engine for Node.js

EJS - An open source JavaScript Template library.

Jinja2 - Jinja2 is a template engine written in Python.

jquery-template - A template plugin for jQuery. Allows templating without cluttering JavaScript code with markup.

NANO – jQuery Template Engine - NANO is a simple and open-source jQuery Template Engine developed by trix.pl and released under the MIT License.

Eta JS - Application and Data, Languages & Frameworks, and Templating Languages & Extensions