TypeScript vs JavaScript: What's The Difference?

JavaScript is one of the most famous scripting languages and has been in the market for many years. But with time, there is another alternative to this language that is getting quite popular. The new competitor of JavaScript is TypeScript.

TypeScript is basically an improved version of JavaScript but with some additional features. It is an open-source programming language suitable for creating complex and larger apps. A prominent fact is that Angular also uses TypeScript for web development services.

What Is JavaScript?

JavaScript is a scripting language and developers use it to develop collaborative web pages. This language uses the rules of client-side programming and performs smoothly in the web browser of the user. Moreover, developers can use this language with other technologies like REST APIs and XML.

The main goal of JavaScript was to make it a supporting scripting language just like how Visual Basic is to C++. But JavaScript can’t be used for complex apps or larger-scale apps. The purpose of this language was to write just a few hundred lines of code for an application.

For stronger backend solutions, you can opt to hire Ruby on Rails developers, as these experts can help you create maintainable and adaptable apps.

Unique Features of JavaScript

While exploring TypeScript vs JavaScript, there are the following unique features of JavaScript:

Developers can use this language for both server-side and client-side
It provides support for all browsers
Offers JIT compilation
Cross-platform, adaptable, and dynamic
It is weakly typed
Lightweight interpreted

What Is TypeScript?

If you ask the question, what is better than JavaScript then the answer will be TypeScript.

Microsoft developed TypeScript and also maintains it. It is an open-source and object-oriented programming language that is used to write concise and clear JavaScript code. The libraries of JavaScript are compatible with TypeScript and just like JavaScript, TypeScript can also be used for server-side and client-side apps.

For companies looking to improve their front-end development skills, the best option is to hire Angular developers. Angular is the framework that uses TypeScript to create advanced and effective web apps.

Unique Features of TypeScript

Below are some of the unique and prominent features of TypeScript:

With this language, problems are easy to deduct at the early stages and debugging is simple
It is quite easy to maintain and increases the overall productivity of the project
Offers full-featured IDE support
With this programming language, it is easy to use static typing and annotations
It supports object-oriented features such as classes, inheritances, and interfaces

TypeScript vs JavaScript

When comparing TypeScript and JavaScript, the following factors must be considered:

Developers Community

JavaScript
JavaScript doesn’t have a large community. This language provides a number of code practices, frameworks, and libraries.

TypeScript
TypeScript became popular in a short time and many organizations are using it. It is very easy to find many guides and tutorials for this language on the internet that make it easy to learn. It has a very active and supportive community as compared to JavaScript.

Learning Curve

JavaScript
JavaScript is an easy-to-learn and also a famous programming language. Developers use this language with HTML and CSS to build web apps. However, HTML is tough because it has scripting, web behavior, event handling, and animations.

TypeScript
Contrary to that, TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript. If a developer wants to write a TypeScript code, there needs to be a basic knowledge and understanding of JavaScript.

Syntax

JavaScript
In JavaScript vs TypeScript, the former follows the ECMAScript definition. But it is not a typed language just like TypeScript. This language uses many programming terminologies from C, such as do-while loops, if statements, switch statements, and many more. Moreover, it provides imperative and functional programming along with an event-driven style.

TypeScript
With TypeScript, you get features like type system, variable declaration, and functional paradigm. While JavaScript lacks them. When it comes to syntax, it is quite similar to .Net and Jscript and offers support for ECMAScript 2015 Standard features. These standard features include classes, an arrow function syntax, and modules.

Performance

JavaScript
When it comes to performance the main difference between TypeScript and JavaScript that you can observe is that TypeScript code is collected into JavaScript before implementation.

TypeScript
The main purpose of the TypeScript language was to overcome all the challenges that JavaScript was facing in developing complex and larger-scale apps. Thus, this language helps developers to be efficient and saves their development time.

Tools and Frameworks

JavaScript
There are many UI frameworks of this language that are already available on the market for web development. JavaScript is very famous among programmers and it has a wide ecosystem. It is very easy to find developers who are experts in Angular, VueJS, ReactJS, and other frameworks.

TypeScript
As Microsoft supports TypeScript, it contains many advanced editors and frameworks. Using tight integration with editors, developers can easily use TypeScript for error handling during the composing to prevent any issues at runtime.

Conclusion

In .TS vs .JS, JavaScript is the best option to use with HTML to improve the quality of the web pages. And it is very easy to find expert developers in JavaScript coding. On the other hand, TypeScript is the perfect programming language for developers who want to create clean, neat, and readable code. However, like JavaScript, not all web browsers support TypeScript.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Is it easier to learn TypeScript than JavaScript?

For some programmers, in TypeScript vs JavaScript, TypeScript is easy to learn as it offers strong type checking that helps to catch issues at early stages. On the other hand, for some JavaScript is simple as it offers dynamic typing and there are a few language features to learn.

Does TypeScript perform better than JavaScript?

TypeScript does offer better performance but this is because of different factors such as certain use cases, runtime optimizations, and code quality.

Is it possible to use JavaScript code in TypeScript?

Yes, it is possible to use JavaScript code in TypeScript smoothly. TypeScript is a superset of JavaScript with additional features and static typing.

Is it possible to use TypeScript code in JavaScript?

Yes, it is possible to use TypeScript code in JavaScript. However, JavaScript compilers or interpreters will not recognize TypeScript features like interfaces and type annotations.

Is TypeScript frontend or backend?

Developers can use TypeScript anywhere where they can use JavaScript. However, it is a more popular option for developers because of the front-end technologies.