Being the curious mind, have you ever been bouncing around to different javascript frameworks searching for your happy medium? Well I have for the past few years, and I’m still no where near settling with just one. As of late I’ve been in a jQuery groove, but who knows what next week will bring, especially after this startling test by Mootools.
Mootools has previously been known for its silky smooth effects and great dom utilities, but they also have performance on their side as well. jQuery on the other had has to have the friendliest syntax ever with chaining and selectors, with just enough effects to make you hungry for more. I really have to say this makes me frustrated. Just as you get comfortable with a framework something as disturbing as this test comes about.
Well its not at all bad news. I am always looking for something better, but I’m not convinced that mootools is any better at this point. Sure speed is a plus, but whats a millisecond compared to usability? I do like jQuery’s documentation better, as well as the infinite plugins available. For the sake of quality and flexibility though, even if you are situated with one framework, it always pays off to have another framework under your belt. While I don’t foresee this test making many jQuery users abandon their beloved framework, but there will be some splitting time with Mootools…
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15 Responses
Gavin Williams
21|Dec|2007 1I’m an avid jQuery user too, switched over from mootools last year (not by choice, I had to be dragged kicking and screaming!).
jQuery’s lovely, the coding’s amazing and you can easily write plugins, at the same time it seriously sucks for animation. It really lacks the smoothness mootools offers, you can always tell when a website is using mootools purely from how smooth the effects are.
trent
23|Dec|2007 2I agree completely. I love mootools smoothness, but jQuery makes it so much easier to code. Guess its all according what you’re doing and to what extent animation is important. This is probably one of the very few areas I would like to see jQuery improve(I’m sure they will)..
jethro
02|Jun|2008 3You have to test in multiple browsers to be fair. Make sure you’ve hit FF2 FF3 IE6 IE7.
trent
03|Jun|2008 4Its definitely amazing the difference between browsers. It really shows just how slow IE is and how fast Opera and Safari are.. Firefox has nothing to brag about either by my tests. Goes to show that even the less popular browsers aren’t necessarily the weaker browsers.
David
14|Sep|2008 5I just thought I would throw in my 2 cents. Generally speaking it seems like people use 1 library or another, and that’s it.
jQuery’s coding structure is nice, chaining and stuff, as is the AJAX etc. I find no single library makes me 100% happy as is the way with most people.
I have a nice thirdparty folder, and in there sits:
1. extjs (extjs.com) for sweet interface tools (grids etc).
2. jsTween (all variations from http://jstween.blogspot.com/) for simple, smooth and fast tweens.
3. jQuery for speed of coding and major library stuff like AJAX and general page manipulation (always using #id-selectors for improved speed).
4. ajax tool box (http://www.ajaxtoolbox.com/) for simple AJAX calls when I don’t want to use jQuery and have the overheads.
Unfortunately I don’t need mootools now because the jsTween is a fraction the size and is so smooth. I just import the files I need from the folder based on a given problem.
Seriously folks, it pays to use a variation, and if you’ve never tried jsTween, go check it out, I’m sold on it.
Dave.
kbo206
02|Feb|2009 6I tried the test in Firefox 3.0.5 and Dojo was considerably faster than Mootools. And jQuery was just slightly slower than Mootools.
Choose your framework | Miles Per Hour
09|Feb|2009 7[...] another blog by Trent Richardson (trents blog) he compares jQuery and MooTools ; Mootools has previously been known for its silky smooth effects and great dom utilities, but they [...]
Bimakov
12|May|2009 8perhaps jQuery is best framework if we look for easy js, it’s support many major browser, but if we’re looking for a good animating js i think mootools is great choices, just consider what u need. if we looking for a productivity i suggest u to choose the easiest way….
trent
12|May|2009 9I completely agree. You definitely have to examine what you need for each project before committing to a framework.
choncon
27|May|2009 10Here is other test page, better:
http://owljs.org/speed/
dan
29|May|2009 11http://owljs.org/speed/ is kinda broken – stopped after 6 tests
FF3 (3.0.10)
EW
26|Jun|2009 12As a technical recruiter in a very niche space, that being web development in Orange County, I do my best to learn technologies and the differences between them. I really appreciate this blog because currently I am working with the largest employer in Orange County on a very high-end Web 2.0 UI position where Mootools is a MUST.
Many of the front-end Asp.Net developers I’ve spoken to have had exposure to JQUERY, but not Mootools. Do you guys have any suggestions as to where I can find a 6-figure front-end developer with Mootools experience tied to an Asp.Net application?
I really appreciate the thoughts, and think I might start teaching myself light code as a side project!
trent
26|Jun|2009 13I have a bit of experience with all of the above
Moises
02|Sep|2009 14IE8: 281;140;793;578;All the tests return errors
FF3.5: 78;76;180;190;37 (with 3 errors)
Chrome: 47;32;267;174;47 (No one returns an error)
kamlesh
25|Aug|2010 15but it takes a time to code in jquery.
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