What is "Vanilla JavaScript"?

The term vanilla script is used to refer to the pure JavaScript (or we can say plain JavaScript) without any type of additional library. Sometimes people often used it as a joke. Nowadays several things can also be done without using any additional JavaScript libraries".

The vanilla script is one of the lightest weight frameworks ever. It is very basic and straightforward to learn as well as to use. You can create significant and influential applications as well as websites using the vanilla script.

The team of developers that created the vanilla JavaScript is continuously working on it to improve it and make it more useful for the web-developers.

Let's have a look at some big websites that are currently using the vanilla JavaScript:

These following websites are currently using vanilla JavaScript, and these websites also mentioned on vanilla JavaScript home page.

1. Facebook
2. Google
3. YouTube
4. Yahoo
5. Wikipedia
6. Windows Live
7. Twitter
8. Amazon
9. LinkedIn
10. MSN
11. eBay
12. Microsoft
13. Tumblr
14. Apple
15. Pinterest
16. PayPal
17. Reddit
18. Netflix
19. Stack Overflow

It is also quite possible that most people cannot believe that the number of websites that use vanilla JavaScript is much higher than the number of websites that use JQuery.

Why should you learn vanilla JS?

This the very common question asked by the beginners that, when there are already so many other powerful frameworks and libraries available, why they should choose to learn vanilla JS and use it.

There are several reasons for choosing the vanilla JS to learn and use it in our projects. Here we are discussing the following three main and most important of them.

a. Web-performance

This is much better for web performance than many other frameworks and libraries, as it is the most expensive and important part of the front-end stack. Vanilla JS code needs to be compiled and parsed, unlike HTML and CSS files, which are available to use only when they're downloaded. A file of JS with a size of 50kb has a much more significant impact on web performance than the same size of HTML and CSS files.

b. User Experience

It provides an effortless but user-friendly developing experience. While developing an application or website using JavaScript, a developer just needs to open the text editor and can begin coding. There is no need for the developer to perform troublesome steps like npm install, compilation steps, and no build, etc.

c. It makes working with frameworks easier as well

In case, if any developer still wants to use any of the other frameworks, it makes working with them more comfortable as well. As we all aware of how hard it is to get started with a framework.

There's a lot of assumed knowledge in the documentation, and understanding how all available tools works makes it quite easier to learn. A lot of beginners having little knowledge try to learn a framework, no wonders they get stuck somewhere after some time they quit focusing on the fundamentals of the Vanilla js. When they get comfortable, they again start learning frameworks, and this time they get things much quicker.

Some other important advantages of the vanilla script are as follows:

• Interoperability:-

We can insert the JavaScript in any of the web-pages, but in another scripting language, we cannot do so. For example PHP

We can also use it in several different applications because it supports other languages such as PHP and Pearl etc.

• Server Load:-

Since we all know that the execution of the JavaScript is done on the client-side, so it reduces the overall demand for server use. Also, the simple application doesn't require the involvement of the server at all.

• Rich interfaces:-

With the help of JavaScript, we can create an excellent quality of features such as drag & drop, and components like a slider. This can impact the user experience on the website in a positive way.

• Speed:-

Since its execution occurs on the client-side, it does not require any kind of external resources, its speed is excellent. The speed of JavaScript also does not get affected by the calls to a back-end server.

Disadvantages of the Vanilla Script

• One of the most significant disadvantages of the vanilla script is client-side security since we all know that the code of JavaScript is viewable at the client-side. Hence, anyone can modify it and use it as a weapon or tool for malicious purposes.
• Another major disadvantage of JavaScript is that it lacks Debugging Facility.
• We cannot use it for network-based applications because there is no such kind of support available.
• The vanilla script also does not have some capabilities such as multiprocessors, and multithreading, etc.
• It also does not allow reading and writing files for security reasons.