Boost Your Vue3 Projects: Essential Tools and Quick Start Guides

2020-09-18, Vue3 was officially released.

Five years later Vue3 has become a cornerstone of frontend development, yet many still hesitate: \"Vue3 is not stable yet, wait and see\", \"Our project is still on Vue2, migration cost is too high\", \"Learning it is too complex, will do it later when business is not busy\".

Meanwhile, teams around you have already launched large projects with Vue3, and its ecosystem is now significantly faster than Vue2.

Today we will not just talk about how advanced Vue3 is, but explore the tools in the Vue3 ecosystem that make development enjoyable.

Project Quick Start

create-vue

create-vue is the official Vue scaffold tool for quickly setting up a Vue3 application. Run a single command:

# npm | yarn | pnpm | bun
npm create vue@latest

No complex configuration is required; you can simply press No to skip optional features and quickly create a Vue3 project.

Nuxt - Server‑Side Rendering

If you need SSR, SSG, or PWA from the start, use Nuxt. Nuxt 3 fully supports Vue3, and the latest version is Nuxt 4.

Official site: https://nuxt.com

Quickly create a new project:

# npm | yarn | pnpm | bun | deno
npm create nuxt@latest <project-name>

uni‑app Cross‑Platform Development

If you want to use a single Vue3 codebase to publish to iOS, Android, H5, WeChat Mini‑Program, etc., uni‑app is the best choice. It natively supports Vue3 syntax and Vite build mode.

Official site: https://uniapp.dcloud.net.cn/

Quickly create a Vue3 + Vite template via the uni‑app developer tool HBuilder X, or clone the official template:

npx degit dcloudio/uni-preset-vue#vite-ts my-uniapp-project

Electron‑vite Desktop Apps

To build cross‑platform desktop apps (Windows/macOS/Linux) with Vue3, combine Vite and Electron.

electron‑vite brings Vite's fast build and hot‑module replacement to the desktop while retaining Electron's native API capabilities.

Prerequisite electron‑vite requires Node.js 20.19+, 22.12+ and Vite 5.0+

npm i electron-vite -D

Core Development Libraries

Router vue‑router v4

Vue Router v4 is the routing library built for Vue3, supporting declarative routes and deep integration with the Composition API.

Install via npm: npm install vue-router@4 You can also select the Vue Router option when using create-vue.

State Management Pinia

Pinia is the officially recommended state management library for Vue3, a lightweight successor to Vuex.

It offers a simple API, modular state, persistence, HMR, and seamless TypeScript integration, removing the need for Vuex mutations.

npm install pinia

Composition‑API Utilities VueUse

VueUse is a collection of hundreds of composable utilities for Vue3, covering state, browser APIs, animations, sensors, and more.

It enables you to implement clipboard handling, network status detection, mouse tracking, etc., with just a few lines of code.

Form Validation VeeValidate

VeeValidate provides an intuitive, flexible form validation solution for Vue3 and the Composition API.

It supports reactive rules, custom rules, and form state tracking, allowing you to manage complex validation logic without manual DOM manipulation.

Official site: https://vee-validate.logaretm.com/v4

Atomic CSS UnoCSS

UnoCSS is an on‑demand atomic CSS engine inspired by Tailwind and Windi, generating only the styles used in your templates.

# npm | yarn | pnpm | bun
npm install -D unocss

Configure in vite.config.ts:

import UnoCSS from 'unocss/vite'
import { defineConfig } from 'vite'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    UnoCSS(),
  ],
})

Official site: https://unocss.dev/

UI Component Libraries

Element Plus

Element Plus is the Vue3 version of Element UI, maintained by the Ele.me frontend team, offering a rich set of components for desktop admin systems.

It supports TypeScript, internationalization, and multiple themes.

# npm | yarn | pnpm
npm install element-plus

Import in main.ts:

import ElementPlus from 'element-plus'
import 'element-plus/dist/index.css'
app.use(ElementPlus)

ant‑design‑vue

Ant Design Vue implements Ant Design for Vue3, providing high‑quality UI components, responsive layout, internationalization, and full TypeScript definitions.

# npm | yarn | pnpm
npm install ant-design-vue

Import in main.ts:

import Antd from 'ant-design-vue'
import 'ant-design-vue/dist/reset.css'
app.use(Antd)

Naive UI

Naive UI is a modern Vue3 UI library with over 80 components, dark mode, on‑demand import, and full TypeScript support.

# npm | yarn | pnpm
npm install naive-ui

Import in main.ts:

import naive from 'naive-ui'
app.use(naive)

Debugging and Testing

Vue DevTools

Vue DevTools is the official browser extension for inspecting component trees, state changes, Pinia/Vuex, routing, and events.

Install the Vue.js devtools extension from Chrome/Firefox stores.

Open your Vue3 app in development mode and use the component tree, state panel, and event panel.

vite‑plugin‑vue‑devtools

vite-plugin-vue-devtools automatically enables Vue DevTools in the development environment without needing a browser extension.

Install:

# npm | yarn | pnpm
npm install vite-plugin-vue-devtools -D

Configure in vite.config.ts:

import { defineConfig } from 'vite'
import vue from '@vitejs/plugin-vue'
import VueDevTools from 'vite-plugin-vue-devtools'

export default defineConfig({
  plugins: [
    vue(),
    VueDevTools(),
  ],
})

Vitest

Vitest is a modern unit‑testing framework built on Vite, optimized for Vue3 projects.

It offers fast startup, hot‑reloading, TypeScript support, and a Jest‑like API.

Official site: https://vitest.dev/

# npm | yarn | pnpm
npm install -D vitest

Add script to package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "test": "vitest"
  }
}

Example test for a Vue component:

import { mount } from '@vue/test-utils'
import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest'
import MyButton from './MyButton.vue'

describe('MyButton', () => {
  it('renders properly', () => {
    const wrapper = mount(MyButton)
    expect(wrapper.text()).toContain('Click me')
  })
})

Static Site Generator

VitePress

VitePress is the official Vue static site generator, built on Vite, ideal for documentation and blogs.

It offers lightning‑fast dev server, hot reload, and seamless Vue3 component usage in Markdown.

# npm | yarn | pnpm
npm install -D vitepress

Add scripts to package.json:

{
  "scripts": {
    "docs:dev": "vitepress dev docs",
    "docs:build": "vitepress build docs",
    "docs:serve": "vitepress serve docs"
  }
}

These real‑world scenarios and tool combinations show that Vue3 in 2025 is not the future—it is the present choice.

What other useful tools or high‑quality libraries do you know? Feel free to leave a comment and discuss.