Jamstack research: Typescript and serverless are the winners
- Reference: 1633979710
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/10/11/jamstack_typescript_wordpress/
- Source link:
Jamstack or JAMstack (JavaScript, APIs and Markup) is an approach to web development that is based on static pages with dynamic content rendered by JavaScript calling web services. This makes it amenable to optimisation by content delivery networks – although it may shift the performance burden from web server to whatever server-side code lies behind the APIs.
The Netlify survey was conducted between June and August and had nearly 7,500 respondents, the majority triggered by a Netlify email. Therefore it is not representative of web developers as a whole, and even within the Jamstack commumity; it is biased towards Netlify contacts and customers.
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One characteristic of this survey is the preponderance of newer developers, with 50 per cent having four years or fewer of relevant experience. This means their preferences could be a sign of future trends though nothing is certain.
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Only around 70 per cent of respondents were employed full time, or as contractors, and 16 per cent were students. 32 per cent of those surveyed are working on sites that serve millions of users.
This survey measured satisfaction as well as usage. Satisfaction is a ratio of those who want to use something more, divided by those who want to use it less, so 1.0 would indicate equal numbers in both categories, while usage is a percentage of developers. There were several notable results.
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Functions as a service tops the satisfaction charts
The first was that use of functions as a service to power an API is second only to containers in popularity, and much higher in satisfaction (around 9 versus 3.5). This may in part be explained by usage of Netlify's own function service, which actually runs on AWS Lambda, but it also shows the appeal of letting a cloud provider run code without having to worry much about the infrastructure used to run it.
Another notable statistic is that these developers largely use [5]Figma for designing user interfaces and are happy with it, awarding it by far the highest scores for both usage and satisfaction. Adobe XD (Experience Design) was second but a long way behind.
[6]Microsoft's cloud gets JAMstacked: Azure Static Web Apps greenlit for production
[7]'We want to try and remove tools rather than add more...' Netlify founder on simplifying the feedback loop and more
[8]Future of Jekyll project (engine behind GitHub Pages) in doubt?
[9]The JavaScript ecosystem is 'hopelessly fragmented'... so here is another runtime: Deno is now a company
Netlify also asked respondents about which CMS they use. The venerable WordPress has the highest usage (nearly 40 per cent) but only 0.5 per cent satisfaction. WordPress Headless, which uses the WordPress back end but a custom Jamstack front end, fared better for satisfaction but still only around 1.25. The happiest users were of [10]Strapi or [11]Sanity - though again, these are Netlify users so a bias toward Jamstack is unsurprising.
When it comes to programming languages, the big story is not that JavaScript is most used (at 95 per cent), but that TypeScript has by far the highest satisfaction at nearly 8 points. An analysis of changes since last year's survey is even more telling, with TypeScript up by around 14 per cent and JavaScript slightly down in both usage and satisfaction.
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"TypeScript is taking over. It grew enormously in usage, and its satisfaction score climbed 2 points," said Netlify data evangelist Laurie Voss in a [13]session at last week's Jamstack Conference.
Voss also highlighted the dominance of React.js in web frameworks. "React is unique, it is defying gravity .. at 8 years old it should be over," he said – though in terms of usage gain, it is Next.js (based on React) that is the biggest winner since last year. "React is the new jQuery," Voss added. "Browsers will cave and make React APIs native to the web," he claimed. ®
Get our [14]Tech Resources
[1] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YWS0Hf72iuy7Vg5jfIrhPAAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YWS0Hf72iuy7Vg5jfIrhPAAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
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[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2021/10/11/serviceside.jpg
[5] https://www.figma.com/
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/13/azure_static_web_apps/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/05/25/netlify_matt_biilmann_interview/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/09/14/future_of_jekyll_project_engine/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/04/06/deno_is_now_a_company/
[10] https://strapi.io/
[11] https://www.sanity.io/
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_offprem/front&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YWS0Hf72iuy7Vg5jfIrhPAAAAMc&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjSazFE6Cbs
[14] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Hurrah
Right tool for the right job.
If you're trying to use WordPress to create the next facebook, you're going to have a bad time. Using it to create a fast CDN-fronted content-driven site that can easily be maintained by front desk staff? WordPress is your huckleberry.
JS-driven solutions are well suited to web apps that are complex and interactive; server-side content generation with simple client-facing markup are well suited to content delivery and content that needs to be readily seen by search engines. Getting Angular(.JS) to play well with Google is an exercise in frustration (possible, mind, but frustrating).
"React (...) ...at 8 years old it should be over"
The above describes everything wrong with the browser frontend landscape today. The trendsetters are incredibly busy always running after whatever new framework strikes their fancy, while here I am, still having to maintain sites written in AngularJS. And I feel very lucky, because at least the (insanely) slow migration to Angular is an option. The disconnect feels astonishing.
Re: "React (...) ...at 8 years old it should be over"
This point is a crucial one in technology selection. It seems the younger folks often miss the "will we be able to support this application for the next 10 years with minimal budget from above?" question in the decision tree for using NewShinyJS. Maybe if every dev coming out the door had to spend a year fixing the county's COBOL database before they're let into the wild, they'd understand how long real-world production systems tend to remain in place, and pick seasoned and reliable technologies to suit the job.
I really don’t think the premise that WordPress market share is going to be eaten by JAM stack in any meaningful way is backed up by any of this.
WordPress is chosen by companies, not developers, because it is an extremely safe chose of CMS. JAM is not a CMS and none of the JAM CMS are anywhere near as safe of a business choice as WP. It’s also no surprise that a survey of JavaScript developers doesn’t favor a PHP software.
Hurrah
WordPress is a massive shitshow, long may it rot in hell.