The Top Open Source Frameworks of 2023

Top Open Source Frameworks in 2023

This year's report reveals that the top three open source frameworks are the same as last year’s: 

1. React.js

2. Spring Boot

3. jQuery

Usage of these three technologies is virtually identical, within one percentage point of each other. While jQuery is technically not a framework, we felt it made sense to include it here, as it is a very useful and complete JavaScript library. It's interesting to see a number of JavaScript frameworks being used across industries.

The graph below shows the top 10 open source frameworks, but in total we asked about 20 different frameworks. If you’re curious about a framework you don’t see here, refer to pgs. 33-34 in the report. 

Other things to note: Usage of Django, the web framework for Python, is up by 6% compared to last year, and Angular and Vue.js (JavaScript frameworks), declined by 4% each. 

Speaking of Angular…

EOL OSS Frameworks Still Being Used

In 2022, the State of Open Source Report came out about a month after AngularJS reached end of life. So it was not surprising to see that many organizations had not yet migrated off of the framework. However, a year later, we see almost exactly the same usage for EOL AngularJS: close to 16% (15.71%) across all organizations, and nearly 21% (20.67%) of large organizations. 

We were curious to see which industries in particular were still running applications on EOL AngularJS, and it turns out that the top three are Technology, Energy/Oil/Gas, and Education/Research:

If your organization is part of the 15% still running unsupported AngularJS, I highly recommend looking into AngularJS alternatives and planning your next steps. There are a lot of risks associated with EOL software including exposure to newly disclosed vulnerabilities, so consider getting AngularJS LTS from a vendor like OpenLogic to get security patches and fixes to protect your applications in the meantime. 

Support Challenges Using Open Source Frameworks

When it comes to challenges using open source frameworks, a few themes emerge from the data. More than half of our survey respondents selected installation, upgrades, and configuration issues, followed closely by keeping up with updates and patches. Because open source frameworks have active communities that regularly advance the software, it is challenging for organizations to keep up-to-date with the latest versions. 

Two personnel-related challenges also show up here (personnel experience/proficiency and lack of personnel), which does not surprise me given the high level of expertise and specialized skills required to set up and troubleshoot open source frameworks. So it makes sense that this would also be a pain point for many organizations, particularly smaller ones. 

Zooming in a little more to see which industries have skill gaps, we see that Energy/Oil/Gas, Media/Gaming, Telecommunications, Retail, Healthcare/Pharma, and Government/Public Services and selected one or both of these personnel issues as a top challenge in implementing OSS frameworks: