State of frontend 2020: ‘I am surprised by how quick these changes occur’

The world of tech has always been an ever-changing environment. Especially for frontend developers, the changes come often and fast. Keeping up with up and coming frameworks, new supersets or team compositions can be a challenge for tech leads building their stack. Software development company The Software House (TSH) is keeping a finger on the pulse. They surveyed thousands of frontend developers and caught up with seasoned seniors to hear the latest developments on React, Svelte, TypeScript and everything in between. 

The State of Frontend 2020: React on top

The State of Frontend 2020 report, in which TSH surveys over 4,500 frontend developers from all over the world, gives a revealing insight into the technologies that are up and coming or on their way out. To dive deeper into the matter, TSH’s CTO Marek Gajda hosted a fireside chat to talk frontend. Seasoned devs Luca Mezzalira (VP of Architecture at DAZN), Antony Jones (CTO of Beyonk) and Andrzej Wysoczański (Frontend Team Lead at The Software House) joined to offer their take.

Read the report: State of Frontend 2020

If you are a tech manager at a software company, one of the most pressing questions will be: which frontend framework to choose for your tech stack? For the last few years, the two most popular frameworks were React and Angular. When you look at the results of the State of Frontend 2020 survey, unsurprisingly, React is on top. Over 74 per cent of the frontend developers say they used it last year. The second and the third most popular frameworks – Angular and Vue.js – were used only by 33 per cent and 30 per cent of developers.  

“When you see that more people are using React than those using Angular and Vue.js combined, you realise that React has gained such a solid reputation that it seems the safest choice for tech managers,” says Marek Gajda. This may not necessarily be the case, predicts Beyonk’s Antony Jones: “I think that all frameworks have their advantages and disadvantages. React is the king now, and it will probably remain so. However, I believe that the movement will be towards so-called compiled frameworks, like Svelte.” 

Is TypeScript ‘mandatory’?

Another significant development in the world of frontend is the rising popularity of TypeScript. TypeScript, developed by Microsoft, is a superset of JavaScript that adds a set of new features. The most important one is static typing which in practice means that TypeScript is catching errors, and providing fixes before you actually run the code. These new features leave many tech managers over the world wondering if they should adopt this new language. 

According to the survey, 77 per cent of frontend developers have already used the relatively new TypeScript. More than half (54 per cent) prefer it to JavaScript. Not many developers (less than 7 per cent) prefer JavaScript over TypeScript. During the fireside chat, there was not much controversy over the use of TypeScript, with attendees in the audience calling it ‘the future’ and ‘mandatory’. 

TSH’s tech lead Andrzej Wysoczański disagreed to some extent: “I won’t say that TypeScript is mandatory. However, I’d say that it’s easier to work on everyday projects with TypeScript. What is more, it seems that the people from the TypeScript team try always to be one step ahead of JavaScript, introducing the same features but faster. And such competition is good for us, software developers.” 

The role of frontend in teams

Not only the technology developers are working with is constantly changing. The way frontend developers work in tech teams is also a crucial topic for many tech managers, as organising development teams is one of their everyday responsibilities. According to the data in the State of Frontend 2020 Report, up to  92 per cent of frontend developers work as part of development teams while less than 8 per cent work entirely on their own. 

But the role of developers changes in time. “When I was starting my adventure in IT, I was called simply a software developer, as I was doing both frontend and backend”, Marek Gajda remembers. “After a while, people started specialising as backend developers and frontend developers, and it became a standard. And now I see that in some companies there are already two kinds of frontend developers: JavaScript developers who handle the data and UX developers who work on interfaces.”

Watch the full video: State of Frontend 2020 Fireside Chat

Luca Mezzalira believes that it depends on the context: “For example, at DAZN, we have roughly 400 tech people and among them are various JavaScript developers. Some of them work on, for instance, microservices. Some are working on UX together with designers. Some take care of TV apps which are completely different things. But when you’re working in a small startup, such fragmentation is not needed. So, it all comes to the size of your organisation and the product that you’re working on.”

The future of frontend

While the State of Frontend report gives a detailed look at the current playing field, predicting the future is not an easy task, says Gajda: “Am I surprised by the results of the survey and the recent changes in frontend development? Not really. Am I surprised by how quick these changes occur? Definitely yes.” One thing is for sure, according to him. Frontend development is always on the move. 

If you feel like your business has a hard time keeping up with the changes in frontend development, The Software House offers free 1-hour consultations – to set the right direction for your frontend development strategy. You can get an actionable plan for building or upgrading your application’s frontend, improving your app’s UX, performance and scalability – to speed up your business transformation.