The number of front-end development tools grows lightning-fast. New technologies and solutions appear in order to make the IT industry stronger, and the lives of front-end developers easier or, on the contrary, more challenging.

Recently, Vue.js has become one of the most popular JavaScript frameworks nowadays. Its application and potential draws a lot of attention and leads to long discussions. Furthermore, the question of the future of Vue.js is brought up more and more often. Some software development enthusiasts stick to good old Backbone, some gave their hearts to Angular and React. Github statistics tell us that over 300,000 of IT engineers choose Vue.js and use it on their projects. The number is impressive. So, we prepared this article for you to find out more about Vue.JS future.

IT industry is unpredictable and uncontrolled. It is really hard to be sure what the future of a certain development tool is going to be like, as well as to describe how the industry will change in a year. This is why our research is based on three crucial points:

We researched the main features of Vue and its achievements to draw a picture of this framework more accurately; We analyzed the opinions of VueConf.US 2018 and prepared a short review based on this information; And, we gathered the information about the plans of the Vue.js creator – Evan You, to provide you with the most interesting and up-to-date information concerning this topic.

So, keep reading and enjoy!

The Vue.js Future: Must-Know

Vue.js is a strong and convenient framework that started to gain its popularity back in 2016. This tool is perfect for creating user interfaces. Thanks to smooth and seamless integration with other development tools and libraries, it may be a great choice for single-page application development.

Success Story

Evan You, the father of the framework, has never been really interested in software development, as he mentioned in one of his interviews. It is hard to believe, but Evan graduated from Arts and History of Art faculty and started to work at the alma mater of world’s software development technologies – Google. In Google, he worked with AngularJS. And this is when the idea of creating a better, simpler solution came to his mind. Evan wanted to create a tool that allows paying attention only to data links and components.

The next stage was the idea implementation. Evan worked on this project full-time receiving the only income from the fundraising project.

What do we see now on Vue Github page?

More than 300,000 of users; More than 180 contributors; More than 91,000 stars.

And these numbers keep growing.

Documentation

Detailed and well-organized documentation drew the attention of software specialists. Now, there are different resources about Vue.js development uploaded on different websites (look at our portfolio). We can affirm that Vue is a great solution when deciding to start working with one of JS frameworks: switching to it from jQuery is quite painless.

Ecosystem

Vue.js demonstrates a rather rich ecosystem with huge opportunities for front-end development. The ecosystem allows sharing questions and comments. Additionally, it makes it possible to build extensions, add comments etc.

Contributors

The Vue.js community grows, so the number of skilled and confident contributors grows as well. Interestingly, each of them is an inspired professional passionate about Vue success. We believe that inspired contributors are an integral part of reaching the top positions.

Mobile App Development

Additionally, the potential of using Vue.js for mobile app development should be discussed to draw a complete picture. As our research shows, Vue contributors have no plans to create any official mobile solutions at the moment. However, in combination with other tools and technologies like Frameworks7 or Weex for the hybrid or native app development respectively, Vue finds its application for mobile app development.

SEO Solutions

The current version of Vue provides great opportunities for service-side rendering. This is described in the documentation in details and is highly useful for the SEO improvement when launching a single page app.

General tendencies and the first part of our research prove that Vue.js is not going to die in the nearest future. So, let’s proceed to the next chapter.

The Future of Vue.JS: Impressions of the Users

Many events devoted to Vue.js took place all over the world during the last year. The greatest ones were VueConf.US 2018 and bHack to School Event, where Evan You participated as one of the speakers. These events opened the curtain to a lot of Vue peculiarities and secrets, as well as revealed some other significant information.

The software professionals that participated in those events didn’t hide their excitement about Vue.js and its features. So, we analyzed the things they underlined in their interviews and prepared a brief overview for you.

Things influential minds love about Vue.js:

Great performance of the tool that is expected to be improved with the release of Vue.js 2.x;

The fact that Vue is an open source product: anyone can contribute to it or learn something new from the contributors;

Vuetify – the material design framework for implementing great user interface ideas;

SVG animations, as they provide a great opportunity to get acquainted with Vue and its components in an easier way;

Stability of the API and proxy support;

Testing with Vue is simple and nice, especially with the help of VueTest Utils;

Vue is rather simple: this may be a great tool for every designer to make the most unconventional interface concepts come to life;

Nuxt tool for module replacement, etc.

Now, our understanding of Vue is enhanced with new details and real opinions of front-end experts. As you can see, Vue has a great basis for future development. It has the capabilities to impact the whole industry and gain the leading position in its niche.

The Future of VueJS: The Facts

There may be hundreds of different reasons why choose Vue.js, and the discussion about its features can last for hours. But now, let’s focus on its future.

Recently, we have mentioned a lot of articles devoted to the comprehensive comparison of Vue with Angular and React. Of course, those tools’ functionality can be compared, but in essence, they are too different to appear in one article. Angular and React are developed by industry giants. Those JS tools serve their purposes and have stable solid positions in the front-end development galaxy. Vue is being actively developed. This framework is talked about a lot, but according to some opinions, it cannot assist a high-load superb project. It would be nice for your small or medium business solution, but not for the development of a brand new Facebook.

Nevertheless, the future of the tool is defined by the developers that use it. The more projects will require Vue, the more powerful it will get. Choosing the development tool, most entrepreneurs and business owners pay attention to the following factors:

Sustainability

Vue started as a small idea, but it is definitely not a one-man-project at the moment. Patreon Campaign and Open Collective campaigns helped the products to raise their heads. Vue handled the difficulties and grew from weak unprofitable code to a confident solution used by thousands of companies.

Stability

If you want to make sure the developers applying for your vacancy are professionals, go check their Github repository. If you want to make sure Vue isn’t dying, visit the project history and stop worrying about this.

In the nearest VueJS future, the new versions of Vue.js are to come. The front-end specialists hold their breath expecting Vue.js 3.0 and minor 2.x releases. Each of them will bring new opportunities, enhanced features, and even more inspiration. However, what can we say about Vue.js plans for the next months?

To take advantage of ECMAScript 2015, the framework will support only browsers that update automatically;

ES2015 also causes the modification of reactivity system. This will lead to memory increase and performance improvement;

Improvement of the Web Components, such as HTML modules and custom elements, is another feature we are looking forward to meeting in Vue 3.0.

Summary

Vue.js is a great tool for web interface development. Its popularity has been rising since 2016 when Laravel started to use it for its projects. Now we can see the increasing Vue.js popularity, as well as notice its general potential to grow. Research on the nearest improvements of the framework demonstrates that it is the best solution for small and medium products development.