Is it still worth using jQuery in 2025?

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JS vs jQuery
jQuery vs vanilla JS

In the early days of web development jQuery's slogan was "Write less, do more", reflecting how it simplified common web tasks. Fast forward to 2025, and the web platform has evolved dramatically. Modern JavaScript now includes many features that jQuery originally provided, and a host of new frameworks have emerged.

So, a question arises, should web developers prefer jQuery over plain JavaScript in 2025? Let's explore jQuery's history, the advancements in native JS, and real-world scenarios to decide when (if ever) jQuery is the pragmatic choice in 2025.

The rise of jQuery: what it originally solved

jQuery was created by John Resig and released in 2006, at a time when building websites meant fighting with inconsistent browser APIs. Back then, simple tasks like selecting DOM elements or handling events required lots of code and hacks to work across Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc. jQuery introduced a unified, chainable API that made JavaScript fun and productive, abstracting away browser quirks.

What made jQuery so popular? A few key things:

In summary, jQuery earned its fame by making web development easier and more accessible. It allowed developers (including beginners) to achieve complex tasks with just a few lines of code, at a time when doing the same “from scratch” was error-prone and time-consuming. It's no exaggeration that jQuery revolutionized front-end development in its heyday.

How modern JavaScript made jQuery less necessary

Today's JavaScript has come a long way. Many features that once required jQuery are now built into the language or browser APIs, often in a more efficient or standardized form. This doesn't mean jQuery isn't useful, but it does mean you may not need it for a lot of tasks that it was originally created to handle. Let's look at some of the improvements in vanilla JS that cover jQuery's core functionality:

In summary, modern JavaScript has caught up with jQuery in most areas. The once-magical convenience of $() and friends is now mostly matched by standardized, built-in methods. If you know your way around vanilla JS, you can handle almost any front-end task without jQuery. This leads many developers to forego jQuery for new projects - why include a library when the language itself does the job?

Surprisingly, jQuery is still extremely prevalent on the web in 2025, even if it's no longer the hot new thing. According to W3Techs, jQuery is still used on ~74% of the websites in 2025. This is ~90% of the websites that use any known library.

How can this be, when most developers today rarely choose jQuery for a new project? The key is that the web is full of legacy content and sites built over the past decade. jQuery was the default choice for so long that millions of existing sites and templates include it by inertia.

What contributes to jQuery's popularity?

A few factors that contribute to jQuery's ongoing ubiquity:

It's important to note that jQuery's popularity in usage stats does not mean it's the top choice for new development. In fact, surveys show a decline in developer usage preference. For example, in Stack Overflow's 2020 developer survey, jQuery was the most used web tech among respondents (used by 43% of developers), but by 2023 it fell to third place with only ~22% of developers using it. This indicates that while jQuery is still running on many sites, fewer devs are actively starting new projects with it. The trend is clear: jQuery's share of websites is slowly shrinking, and newer sites lean toward modern frameworks or just vanilla JS. But given the sheer number of legacy sites and the fact that jQuery isn't broken or deprecated, it will likely remain part of the web landscape for years to come (just in a steady decline).

When You Should Skip jQuery (and Use Vanilla JS or a Framework)

Modern best practices often lean towards either using the platform (vanilla JS) or choosing a more structured framework for large applications. Here are situations where adding jQuery is likely not the best choice:

Summary

jQuery in 2025 is not a default go-to, but it's not obsolete either. It remains a useful tool in the toolbox, especially for certain scenarios like legacy systems and quick jQuery-centric solutions. The JavaScript language and ecosystem have evolved to offer many choices beyond jQuery, so developers should understand those options. Use jQuery when it makes your life easier and aligns with your project's goals, but don't be afraid to go "vanilla" when you can - you might be pleasantly surprised how far the platform itself has come. The best developers stay flexible: sometimes the old trusty jQuery is the right call, and other times you'll do more by writing less… but without jQuery. Happy coding!





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