The 2024 State of JavaScript survey has been released, offering a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of JavaScript development. The survey, which attracted the input of thousands of working developers and JavaScript enthusiasts, provides valuable insights into the JavaScript ecosystem, including AI code generator adoption, new language features, and tool rankings.

One of the key trends highlighted in the survey is the growing adoption of AI code generators. Despite concerns that AI is replacing human programmers, 14% of developers reported not using any AI code generator at all. Among those who do use AI code generators, ChatGPT was the most popular, followed by GitHub Copilot, Claude, and Gemini. This trend is likely to continue, with AI code generators becoming an increasingly important tool in the JavaScript developer's arsenal.

The survey also shed light on the ongoing pain points faced by JavaScript developers. One of the most significant pain points is the lack of static types, with 32% of respondents identifying this as a major issue. This has led to proposals such as Type annotations, which would allow developers to opt-in to static types directly in JavaScript. However, the addition of static types to the JavaScript spec is a slow process, in part due to the popularity of TypeScript.

Other pain points identified in the survey include the lack of a standard library, Signals, and a pipe operator. Additionally, developers noted deficiencies in architecture, state management, dependency management, build tools, and performance. These pain points highlight the ongoing challenges faced by JavaScript developers and the need for continued innovation and improvement in the ecosystem.

The survey also explored the adoption of newer JavaScript language features. The nullish coalescing operator, introduced in ECMAScript 11, was found to be widely adopted, with 85% of respondents reporting its use. Other popular features include Promise.allSettled() and Promise.any(), as well as Array.toSorted(). The survey also highlighted the growing adoption of Set methods, such as union, intersection, and difference, as well as Object.groupBy().

In terms of tool rankings, the survey provided a comprehensive look at the popularity of various libraries and frameworks. In the front-end framework category, Angular was found to be recovering strongly, with a significant increase in positive sentiment and usage. Svelte and Vue were also found to be highly popular, with "would use again" sentiment ratings of 88% and 87%, respectively. React remained strong, with a "used it and liked it" rating of 43%.

In the build and repository tools category, Vite was found to be the star, with 51% of respondents reporting its use and a positive feeling about it. pnpm was also highly popular, with 93% positive sentiment and 42% of respondents reporting its use. esbuild and SWC were also found to be highly regarded, with 91% and 86% positivity ratings, respectively.

In the testing tools category, Vitetest was found to be highly popular, with 98% retention among users. Playwright and Testing Library were also found to be highly regarded, with 94% and 91% "would use again" ratings, respectively.

The survey also explored the popularity of meta-frameworks, with Astro.js found to be a standout, with rapidly growing usage and a 94% "would use again" rating. SvelteKit was also found to be highly popular, with a 90% "would use again" rating. Next.js, while still the most popular meta-framework, saw a decline in sentiment, but remained strong with a 68% "would use again" rating.

Finally, the survey looked at hosting services, with AWS found to be the most popular cloud hosting service, but only just, with 44% of respondents reporting its use. Vercel, GitHub Pages, Netlify, and Cloudflare were also found to be highly popular, with 40%, 38%, 38%, and 21% of respondents reporting their use, respectively.

In conclusion, the 2024 State of JavaScript survey provides a comprehensive look at the evolving landscape of JavaScript development. From AI code generators to new language features and tool rankings, the survey highlights the ongoing innovation and improvement in the JavaScript ecosystem. As the ecosystem continues to evolve, it will be interesting to see how these trends develop and what new innovations emerge in the future.