# Unabridged Conclusion to the State of JS Original: https://swyx.io/state-of-js-2021 Published: 2022-02-16 > the full text of my State of JS writeup! I was invited by **Sacha Greif** to write the conclusion for [the State of JS 2021 survey](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/), which was just released today. I felt it was a huge honor to be asked so I went ham on the "financial analyst" side of me to interpret the results for readers! Ultimately though, I went way too long and a lot of it had to be cut, mostly because of the need to translate these words into 20 different languages. Still... I already did the writeup, so here's the full text! [![https://2021.stateofjs.com/images/social/js2021-social.png](https://2021.stateofjs.com/images/social/js2021-social.png)](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/) --- **JavaScript is in a tremendously better state today compared to the first survey in 2016.** Back then, only [21% of you used TypeScript](https://2020.stateofjs.com/en-US/technologies/javascript-flavors/javascript_flavors_experience_ranking), compared to a [nice 69%](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/other-tools/javascript_flavors) today. Where in 2016 we used to joke about a new frontend framework releasing every day, React has now held the top spot [for 6 years running](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/front-end-frameworks/front_end_frameworks_experience_ranking). The percentage of people reporting that "JS is moving too fast" is down [from 59% then, to 38% today](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/opinions/js_ecosystem_changing_to_fast). This is not to say that JS has stood still. Due kudos must be given to the champions of [the Optional Chaining and Nullish Coalescing APIs](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-optional-chaining), which have rocketed up to be **by far the most used new JS APIs** in our survey, despite only being 2 years old. The [6.2% and 13.8%](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/features/language/#nullish_coalescing) of you who have never heard of them should probably give them a try! More good things are on the way from TC39: you reported that date management is a [top missing feature](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/opinions/currently_missing_from_js_wins) and the Temporal API recently reached [Stage 3](https://github.com/tc39/proposal-temporal). Over in user-land, **[Solid](https://www.solidjs.com/) made a solid debut** tying with [Svelte](https://svelte.dev/) in first place for the coveted [top spot in frontend satisfaction](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/front-end-frameworks). By usage, [Vue.js](https://vuejs.org/), now on [version 3](https://blog.vuejs.org/posts/vue-3-as-the-new-default.html), is on track to overtake [Angular](https://angular.io/docs) as the second place framework (after [React](https://reactjs.org/)) sometime in 2022-23. [Backend/Fullstack frameworks](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/back-end-frameworks) have seen much more innovation, with [SvelteKit](https://kit.svelte.dev/docs), [Astro](https://astro.build/), and [Remix](https://remix.run/) all debuting with very high satisfaction. However, real usage changes much slower than satisfaction, with [Express](https://expressjs.com/) still the undisputed king and [Next.js](https://nextjs.org/) the distant but fastest growing second place. The difference in pace between front and back can be explained by developer happiness: [66% of you are happy](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/front-end-frameworks/front_end_frameworks_happiness) with frontend frameworks, but less than [50% are happy](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/back-end-frameworks/back_end_frameworks_happiness) with backend ones. In terms of build tools, **2021 has been the year of Vite**. Vite not only debuted at 98% satisfaction, [the highest scoring library across all of JavaScript](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/tier_list), but usage is already at 30% in its first year on our survey, eclipsing [esbuild](https://esbuild.github.io/). Vite isn't alone in trying to improve the state of JavaScript Build Tools - 8 of the 12 tools we track today are less than 2 years old! Also notable: for the first time, new entrants like Deno, Rome, swc, and Snowpack are now supported by venture-backed companies, perhaps charting a viable alternative to the fragile open source funding environment. As [the Third Age of JavaScript](https://www.swyx.io/js-third-age/) enters its third year, the opportunities for aspiring open sourcerors and entrepreneurs continue to unfold: - In our first year of tracking [**monorepo tooling**](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/monorepo-tools), pnpm, Turborepo, and Nx took the top spots, but only 25% report being happy with the state of monorepo tooling. - Looking at [**runtimes**](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/other-tools/runtimes), Deno is stable at 5.6% usage but faces fierce competition from the various Serverless and Workers platforms. - **Teaching** online continues to be a source of incredible opportunity, as most of you report self directed learning, free courses, and paid screencasts and books to be [your top choices in learning](https://2021.stateofjs.com/en-US/resources/first_steps). Lastly, it's worth mentioning our top write-ins, as it can help correct unintentional biases. This year's top write-ins are [Elm](https://elm-lang.org/), [Stencil](https://stenciljs.com/), and [Platzi](https://platzi.com/). If your favorite library or resource didn't do well this year, keep spreading the word! After all, last year's [3rd place write in](https://2020.stateofjs.com/en-US/awards/#tool_interest_award) was... **Vite**. --- I was also briefly on the State of JS results livestream, which you can see here {% youtube KgLMU6yBW1g %}