#javascript#legacy

The slow death of jQuery — should you migrate now

jQuery is still on 70%+ of the web. Removing it from a project is rarely worth a sprint, but new projects should never include it.

Vanilla JavaScript covers 95% of what jQuery does. fetch replaces $.ajax. document.querySelectorAll replaces $. CSS animations replace .animate.

WordPress still ships jQuery, so plenty of sites carry it for free. If your site has it and works fine, leaving it is OK.

For new code: never include jQuery. The 90KB hit on every page load isn't worth it.

Migration cost on a 50-page site: 1-2 weeks. Performance gain: 10-15% on perceived speed. Often not the ROI.

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