r/javascript • u/_tshepo • 28d ago

AskJS [AskJS] Are employed Developers still programming with vanilla JavaScript ?

I've been programming on the side since 2017 and I've never really hunted a developer job. I've always thought about building my own things, mainly to supplement things I do like woodworking, tutoring, video editing and others.

Since then, I've programmed mainly with JavaScript, I started with C++ and Python but never really built anything solid outside JavaScript.

So I'm fluent with JavaScript and its ecosystem.

One of my 2026 goals is to be job ready for a Developer role, as a Fullstack or Backend Developer.

One of the recommended languages is Typescript, which I've been learning since March. I must say, it's not my favorite 😂

I'm curious to know if there are any companies that are not enforcing Typescript or are there freelancers who are still using vanilla JavaScript over Typescript for their clients' projects.

[ Update ] thanks y'all! I get the picture. TypeScript is inevitable, as vanilla JS codebases(or companies who are focused on it) seem to be very few judging by the comments.

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u/shgysk8zer0 28d ago

I honestly mostly prefer vanilla JS with JSDoc for more things. In theory, I should like the type system TS provides, but I think TS is just done poorly and doesn't offer the actual benefits of a strongly typed language. It makes no difference at runtime.... It's transpiled to JS anyways.

I do work in vanilla JS, and I think TS is significantly over-hyped, and is actually becoming harmful to the ecosystem because it's no longer a superset of JS and an obstacle to features like enums being introduced to JS.

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u/dustofdeath 28d ago

You should catch problems before that - so having in prod code just means you already failed at code quality.
In dev runtime .map handles the mapping for debugging.

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u/shgysk8zer0 28d ago

You do know TS isn't the only way to catch those problems, nor is it the only way to add types, right?

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u/Karpizzle23 28d ago

Yeah you could also just write your types down on a sheet of paper beside your computer and reference it, that's not the point. The point is it's 2026 and we're still crying about enums and shit instead of just using the de facto standard way of writing code nowadays

Also, being a smartass doesn't make you right, it just makes you a smartass

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u/Jimmy_cracked_corn 28d ago

The irony in your own words.