Why continue to use jQuery?

The simple fact is that jQuery has pretty rock solid stability and compatibility for a wide array of devices due to years of development. jQuery gets some flack nowadays because of its age and new competing frameworks, but it remains small, efficient and presents a solid foundation for building powerful web applications. It has a robust array of third party JavaScript plugins that work with older browsers for tons of use cases. Meanwhile modern JavaScript coding practices are degenerating into dependency hell that break at the slightest touch while developers urge to upgrade to next greatest and best library instead that they promise will fix all the previous problems.

Despite the number of alternatives, it is by far, still the most used JavaScript framework, being used by almost 78% of all websites.

It’s important to understand though that you definitely don’t need jQuery for everything. Vanilla JavaScript has become quite powerful in it’s own regard if a little verbose at times in getting something done. It is immensely more concise to remember and type:

$('#myelement').click(function() {
            alert("Done");
        });

Rather than:

document.getElementById("myelement")
            .addEventListener('click', function(){ 
                alert("Done");
            });

jQuery is still a great tool to have in your tool belt whether it’s maintaining projects or starting new ones. It helps in writing complex operations, allows for seamless deployment and is a tried and tested robust mature framework.