| jQuery | React |
| jQuery directly interacts with the DOM which results in a slightly lower performance than React. Traditional DOM amis also slower at providing updates. | React uses virtual DOM for better speed, performance and user experience. |
| jQuery is not suitable for large size applications. It leads to the generation of spaghetti code and traditional DOM doesn’t support complex codes either. | The components-oriented architecture and virtual DOM implementation in React makes it suitable for building large-sized applications. |
| jQuery and React are relatively alike when it comes to ease of use, however, their objectives are different. jQuery gets the job done extremely effortlessly, for certain kinds of projects, like building a simple website with animated navigation menus, triggering events with a button and like. | React, being a UI-specific library, specializes in building web apps with complicated functions and a variety of views. |
| jQuery has been around for 7 years longer than React. But the number of NPM packages for jQuery is significantly low. This might be because NPM came out in 2019, when a large chunk of developers had already started shifting from jQuery to other platforms. | React is loaded with NPM packages, which are significantly higher than jQuery. Hence, React developers get a head start when working with third-party libraries. |
| The size of the library has the most effect on user end experience, as no one likes to sit and wait for loading a page. The jQuery library is just 75KB, which is almost 18% lower than React. | The React library is somewhere about 95KB in size, which becomes the reason for frequent protest from React developers. It loads almost 20% less in terms of speed on a mobile device. |
| Although jQuery is one of the most used JavaScript libraries till date, it is limited in certain aspects. | Lately, React has been growing exponentially, and over the years, web developers have been shifting from jQuery to React or Angular. Loads of companies have also been adapting to the React ecosystem to reap its benefits. |
