JavaScript libraries that compete against jQuery, MooTools, Prototype, and YUI

Javascript libraries such as jQuery, MooTools, Prototype, and YUI are popular Javascript frameworks in web arena. Today, Most of developers become used to with these Javascript frameworks. But for the more adventurous developers looking for new or alternative Javascript frameworks; then there are few excellent frameworks outside the popular ones.

This article presents 13 alternative and capable JavaScript frameworks with documentation and download links to get the framework and some action with it.

Node.js

Node.js is a platform built on Chrome’s JavaScript runtime for easily building fast, scalable network applications. Node.js uses an event-driven, non-blocking I/O model that makes it lightweight and efficient, perfect for data-intensive real-time applications that run across distributed devices.

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Dojo Toolkit

Dojo saves your time and scales with your development process, using web standards as its platform. It’s the toolkit experienced developers turn to for building high quality desktop and mobile web applications.

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Google Web Toolkit

Google Web Toolkit (GWT) is a development toolkit for building and optimizing complex browser-based applications. GWT is used by many products at Google, including Google AdWords and Orkut. It’s open source, completely free, and used by thousands of developers around the world.

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DHTMLX

DHTMLX is a JavaScript GUI widget library for building dynamic web applications with desktop-like user experience and Ajax data loading. The library is released under both open-source GNU General Public License and commercial licenses. Modular architecture of the library allows using the components as separate blocks or combining them into a common Ajax-based interface.

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Datejs

Datejs is an open-source JavaScript Date Library. it is comprehensive, yet simple, stealthy and fast. Datejs has passed all trials and is ready to strike. Datejs doesn’t just parse strings, it slices them cleanly in two.

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Mochikit

MochiKit is a highly documented and well tested, suite of JavaScript libraries that will help you get shit done, fast. We took all the good ideas we could find from our Python, Objective-C, etc. experience and adapted it to the crazy world of JavaScript.

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X Library

X Library is a collection of loosely-bound, cross-browser, Javascript functions and objects. It is intended to be a resource from which you pick and choose – you do not have to include the entire library in your application. It contains core DOM/Style functions, unobtrusive enhancements, utility functions, objects such as menus and tab panels, and also has some experimental stuff.

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SproutCore

SproutCore is an open-source framework for building blazingly fast, innovative user experiences on the web.

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JavaScriptMVC

JavaScriptMVC (JMVC) is a MIT licensed, client-side, JavaScript framework that builds maintainable, error-free, lightweight applications as quick as possible. It packs best-of-breed libraries and tools that are guaranteed to work together. It supports every browser that jQuery supports.

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Backbone.js

Backbone.js gives structure to web applications by providing models with key-value binding and custom events, collections with a rich API of enumerable functions, views with declarative event handling, and connects it all to your existing API over a RESTful JSON interface.

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qooxdoo

qooxdoo is a universal JavaScript framework with a coherent set of individual components and a powerful toolchain. It is open source under liberal licenses, and supported by one of the world’s leading web hosts.

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Wakanda

Wakanda is an open-source platform for developing business web and mobile applications in JavaScript. It is a fully integrated stack for JavaScript that includes a database server (WakandaDB), a JavaScript framework (WAF), and Wakanda Studio, an IDE.

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midori

midori is an ultra-lightweight JavaScript framework that gets the job done without getting in your way.

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