Why do people hate jquery

Overview

jQuery emerged in August 2006 when web developer John Resig created it to address the frustrating cross-browser compatibility issues of early 2000s web development. At its peak around 2014, jQuery powered over 70% of the top 10 million websites according to BuiltWith statistics, becoming the most popular JavaScript library globally. The library's primary value proposition was simplifying DOM manipulation, event handling, and AJAX requests across different browsers, particularly Internet Explorer 6-8 which dominated enterprise environments. jQuery's syntax used CSS selectors like $("#element") that were intuitive for designers transitioning to JavaScript. However, the web development landscape changed dramatically with the rise of single-page applications (SPAs) and component-based architectures around 2012-2015. The standardization of ECMAScript 6 in 2015 provided native solutions for many jQuery features, while modern browsers eliminated the cross-browser issues that originally justified jQuery's existence.

How It Works

jQuery operates through a lightweight core library (approximately 30KB minified) that provides a unified API for browser manipulation. The library wraps DOM elements in jQuery objects, allowing method chaining like $("#element").hide().fadeIn().css(). This abstraction layer normalizes browser differences by detecting the user's browser and applying appropriate polyfills. For DOM manipulation, jQuery uses direct element selection and modification, which differs fundamentally from modern frameworks' virtual DOM approaches. The library's event system centralizes event handling through methods like .on() that work consistently across browsers. jQuery's AJAX capabilities simplified asynchronous requests with methods like $.ajax() that handled XMLHttpRequest differences. However, this direct DOM manipulation creates performance issues in complex applications because every change triggers browser reflows and repaints. Modern frameworks optimize this through techniques like React's virtual DOM diffing, which batches updates and minimizes actual DOM operations.

Why It Matters

jQuery's decline matters because it represents a major shift in web development paradigms from library-based to framework-based approaches. Legacy systems still using jQuery face security risks, as the library has had multiple vulnerabilities like CVE-2020-11022 and CVE-2020-11023. For businesses, maintaining jQuery codebases becomes increasingly expensive as developer expertise shifts toward modern frameworks. The transition affects millions of websites, with WordPress (powering 43% of all websites) only beginning to phase out jQuery in its Gutenberg editor. Performance differences are substantial: React applications typically render complex interfaces 2-3 times faster than equivalent jQuery implementations. This impacts user experience metrics directly tied to conversion rates and search rankings. The evolution from jQuery to modern frameworks demonstrates how web standards development can render once-essential tools obsolete.