What 2020’s State of JavaScript Reveals About Syntax, Frameworks, and Tools

The annual "State of JS 2020" results have just been released, offering a quick snapshot of what happened in the JavaScript world over the past year and revealing gaps worth exploring.

The survey covered 137 countries and 23,765 respondents, most from the US or Western Europe. Full report: https://2020.stateofjs.com/en-US/.

1. Syntax Features

Destructuring (89.1%), Spread Operator (92.8%) and Arrow Functions (97.9%) are now commonplace, while newer features such as Nullish Coalescing (45.3%) and Optional Chaining (66.7%) are still gaining adoption. Private Fields (10.9%) remain rare, with 43.9% of developers never having heard of them.

Example: replace

a && a.b && a.b.c

with the more elegant

a?.b?.c

.

1.2 Language Features

Async/Await (95.2%) and Promises (96.2%) are widely used, but Decorators (47.4%) and Dynamic Import (42.8%) see lower usage. Proxies (22.3%) and

Promise.allSettled()

(14.7%) are also less familiar.

Dynamic Import combined with webpack code‑splitting is a powerful performance tool.

Promise.allSettled

complements

Promise.all

by reporting each promise’s outcome.

1.3 Data Structures

Maps (73.4%) and Sets (66.9%) are popular; Typed Arrays (34.9%),

Array.prototype.flat()

(39.6%) and BigInt (13.9%) see limited use.

1.4 Browser APIs

Local Storage (90.6%) and Fetch (87.1%) are ubiquitous. WebSocket (62.6%), Service Workers (42%) and Intl (31.3%) have moderate adoption. Shadow DOM (42.1%) and Custom Elements (33.4%) are the most exciting APIs, though ecosystem support remains immature.

Specialized APIs such as Web Audio, WebGL, Web Animations, WebRTC, Web Speech and WebVR are used in niche scenarios.

1.5 Other

WebAssembly usage is low: 10.5% have used it, 73.9% have heard of it, and 15.6% have never heard of it.

2. Frameworks and Tooling

2.1 Language Style

93% of respondents are satisfied with TypeScript for typing JavaScript.

2.2 Front‑end Frameworks

React, Angular and Vue remain dominant, but Svelte receives the highest satisfaction rating (66% interest, 89% satisfaction).

2.3 Data Layer

GraphQL stays popular; Redux is the most used state manager, with Vuex and XState rising quickly.

2.4 Back‑end Frameworks

Next.js and Express have overtaken Koa in popularity for server‑side JavaScript.

2.5 Testing Frameworks

Jest leads, followed by Mocha and Storybook; Testing Library is gaining attention despite modest adoption in China.

2.6 Build Tools

Webpack remains the most used (89%), but esbuild and Snowpack are praised for speed, while gulp and Browserify decline.

2.7 Application Platforms

Electron is the primary desktop solution; React Native and the newer Capacitor are the main options for mobile, though overall satisfaction is modest.

Overall, 2020 shows incremental improvements rather than breakthroughs, with notable advances in build performance, testing, and richer web APIs.