What is this?
Public research done by cody lindley in late 2014 to define criteria and results for a comparative quality analysis of jQuery widget toolkits.
Why don't you compare total number of widgets or type?
Pointless because each framework is not consistent about what is a widget and what is a category of widgets. Additionally, naming conventions are all over the board.
Why do you only consider official aspects of a toolkit?
Only official aspects (from the source, no third-party dependencies) of toolkit remain updated, relevant, and properly supported. Therefore my research draws a line between official and unofficial parts of a toolkit. Unofficial parts are not considered in this research.
DevExtreme Ignite UI jQuery EasyUI jQuery UI jQWidgets Kendo UI Syncfusion JavaScript ShieldUI w2ui Webix Wijmo ZinoUI
Browser Support & Hard Dependencies Comparison:
Firefox two latest 3.6+ ? (Current - 1) or Current 2.0+ Latest and Extended Support Release (ESR) 2.0+ latest 7+ latest 3+ 4+
IE 8+ 8+ ? 8+ 7+ 7+ 8+ 7+ 9+ 8+ 6+ 8+
Safari two latest 3.2+ ? 5.1+ 3+ 4+ 3+ latest 5+ latest 3+ 5+
Chrome two latest 2.0+ Win; 5.0+ Mac/Linux ? (Current - 1) or Current latest latest 1+ latest latest latest latest 12+
Opera Opera 12 and Two Latest Versions ? 12.1x, (Current - 1) or Current latest 15+ 9+ latest latest latest 11+
Hard Dependencies jQuery version 2.1.1 (but 1.11.1 for IE 8), Globalize jQuery 1.9.1, jQuery UI 1.10.3 jQuery 1.7.2 jQuery 1.6+, Globalize jQuery 1.7.0 to 2.0.2, Globalize jQuery 1.9.1. jQuery 1.7.1+ (recommended v1.10.2), JQuery Globalize, JS Render, JQuery Easing jQuery 1.10.2, Globalize jQuery 2.0.2 optional jQuery 1.11.1, jQuery UI 1.11.0, Globalize jQuery 1.10.1
Soft Dependencies Angular Directives
Soft Dependencies Knockout
General Comparison:
Lowest Commercial Cost Per Developer, Per Site (updates typically good for a year) $499 $849.00 $449 (Up to 5 developers) free $199 $699 $599 $299 free $469 $495 $59 (Up to 5 developers)
100% Open Source for any type of use
Partially Open Source for any type of use details details
Open Source for non-commercial use (typically non-profit) GNU GPL MIT Creative Commons Apache License V2 (only applies to Kendo UI core) ? MIT GNU GPL GNU GPL GNU GPL
hobbyist license (commercial usage of entire solution by a single individual, not a company) $1 hobbyist license
Licenses Available Commercial Commercial Commercial, GNU GPL MIT Commercial, Creative Commons Commercial, Apache License V2 (only applies to Kendo UI core) Commercial, Open Source Project License, Academic Pricing, Microsoft MVP License, Hobbyist license Commercial MIT Commercial, GNU GPL Commercial, GNU GPL, MIT Commercial, GNU GPL
Official Commercial Support
Localization Uses globalize English, Japanese, Russian, Bulgarian, German, French, Spanish
details		 af, bg, ca, cs, cz, da, de, en, es, fr, nl, tr, zh_CN, zh_TW i18n moving to globalize Uses globalize details Uses globalize Uses globalize ? i18n (details) Uses globalize
Accessibility / WAI-ARIA ? details ? ?
Official Server Side Wrappers ASP.NET MVC ASP.NET MVC ASP.NET MVC, JSP, PHP ASP.NET MVC JAVA DataViz, ASP.NET DataViz, ASP.NET MVC DataViz ASP.NET MVC PHP
Data Attribute Initialization / Declarative Initialization
Official Front-end Framework/Application Tool Offerings
Contains Specific Data Visualization Widgets (aka charts, graphs etc...) SVG > VML Canvas SVG > Canvas > VML SVG > Canvas > VML SVG > VML SVG > VML SVG > VML SVG > Canvas
AMD Compatible (not shimming actual AMD modules)
Official Developer Browser Extension Kendo UI Chrome Inspector
Official Live Code Editor Dojo
Official Public CDN
Individual Src Files ? ?
Custom Build Tools
Official Bower.io Package details details details
Official Nuget Package ? ? ? ? ? ?
Official Bootstrap Theme (not just compatibility but official theme)
Source on Github & Accepts Contributes Applies to core
Build Tools (tools to build from source or tool to create a custom version) Build tools included with core. Custom Download Builder for Professional
Toolkit provides a widget factory/pattern for adding custom widgets ?
Source Mappings ?
# of posts in official forms ? 2699 5707 22,146 31,349 49,938 135 725 10,385
Stack Overflow followers/tagged questions 3 followers, 29 questions 7 followers, 61 questions
(tag: ignite-ui, 0 other tags)		 29 followers, 229 questions
(tag: jquery-easyui, 0 other tags)		 5.7k followers, 28.9k questions
(tag: jquery-ui, 27 other tags)		 4 followers, 46 questions
(tag: jqwidget, 0 other tags)		 650 followers, 6.6k questions
(tag: kendo-ui, 35 other tags)		 27 followers, 134 questions
(tag: syncfusion, 0 other tags Note: this is for all products not just UI widget toolkit)		 16 followers, 86 questions
(tag: shieldui, 0 other tags)		 0 followers, 13 questions
(tag: w2ui, 0 other tags)		 0 followers, 5 questions
(tag: webix, 0 other tags)		 30 followers, 103 questions
(tag: wijmo, 2 other tags)
Widgets (not just mobile specific widgets) compatible with touch devices (i.e. do the web widgets run on phones and tablets) Android 2.3+ (4+ in dx.chartjs.js), iOS 6+, Windows Phone 8, Tizen Tizen 2.2 Chrome Latest, Firefox latest, Opera 15+, Safari 5+, and IE 10+ ? ?
Mobile/Tablet Comparison:
Offers Mobile Widgets (must be phone/tablet specific/first) via jQuery Mobile
Mobile Widgets Support the following Devices/Platforms Android 2.3+, iOS 6+, Windows Phone 8, Tizen Tizen 2.2 Android Stock 2.3+, Safari on iOS 5+ jQuery Mobile 1.4 Supported Platforms Mobile Safari, Android, IE Mobile, Opera Mobile iOS 6.0+, Android 2.3+ (In Android 2.3 dataviz widgets support only Canvas rendering mode), BlackBerry OS 10+, Windows Phone 8+, Chrome for Android latest IOS7, Android, Windows, Flat (versions ?) iOS, Android 4+, Windows Phone
Mobile Widgets Support For desktop/laptop (i.e. mobile centric widgets work on non-mobile platforms) IE 9+, Safari 2 Latest Versions, Firefox 2 Latest Versions, Google Chrome 2 Latest Versions, Opera 12 and 2 Latest Versions ? ? ? Chrome 21+, Opera 15+, Firefox 24+, Safari 5+, and IE 10+ on Windows XP+, OS X 10.5+, or Windows Server 2003+ ? ? ? ? ? ?