So here's a question that frequently pops up in dev circles: is jQuery dead, dying, or just... there lingering in old codebases? As we head into 2026, it's worth taking an honest look at where this legendary library stands in today's web development landscape.
Because I still personally use it. It's running in all of my legacy projects that are older than 7-8 years and removing it at this stage, doesn't make much sense in terms of ROI on my time.
The Short Answer: It's Complicated
jQuery isn't dead, not by a long shot. But it's also not exactly thriving in the way it once dominated the web. It's more like that reliable old car in your garage that still runs perfectly fine, even though everyone around you is driving electric vehicles now.
The Numbers Tell an Interesting Story
Here's what might surprise you: jQuery is used in 77.8 percent of the top 10 million websites as of 2025. That's still a massive footprint. We're talking about nearly 195 million websites actively using it. For context, React, the poster child of modern JavaScript frameworks powers around 5-6% of all websites.
But before you think jQuery is somehow winning, there's more to the story. Much of this usage is legacy code. Sites built during the 2010s and early 2020s when jQuery was basically synonymous with "making JavaScript work."
And many of those websites are still around and still being served to millions of people.
Wait, jQuery 4.0 is Actually Happening?
In August 2025, the jQuery team released version 4.0.0 Release Candidate 1, moving closer to a final 4.0 release. This is after years of development, starting with a beta release back in February 2024.
What's in jQuery 4.0? The big headline is that support for Internet Explorer versions before IE11 has been removed. The team has also trimmed legacy code, removed previously deprecated APIs, and dropped support for some overly complicated "magic" behaviors. It's essentially jQuery cleaning house and removing the gunk that accumulated over nearly two decades of development.
The fact that jQuery is getting a major version update tells you something important: the project isn't abandoned. There's still an active team maintaining it, fixing bugs, and addressing security issues. It's part of the OpenJS Foundation's Ecosystem Sustainability Program, which means it has institutional backing for continued development.
Why jQuery Fell From Grace
Let's be honest about what happened. jQuery didn't get worse by any means. The web platform got better, and new paradigms emerged.
Modern JavaScript ate jQuery's lunch. Back in 2006 when jQuery launched, writing cross-browser JavaScript was a nightmare. Features we take for granted today simply didn't exist in most browsers. jQuery solved real, painful problems: selecting DOM elements consistently, handling events, making AJAX requests, and dealing with Internet Explorer's many quirks.
But ES6+ introduced querySelector, fetch, template literals, and arrow functions—all of which reduced or eliminated the need for jQuery. What once required jQuery's elegant $('.element').hide() can now be done with vanilla JavaScript that's nearly as concise.
The framework revolution changed everything. React, Vue, Angular, and Svelte introduced component-based architectures and declarative programming models.
These frameworks handle state management, routing, and DOM updates in fundamentally different ways than jQuery's imperative approach. Once you're thinking in components and unidirectional data flow, jQuery's direct DOM manipulation feels like a step backward.
Performance became a bigger concern. Loading a ~90KB library just for DOM manipulation became harder to justify when vanilla JavaScript could do the same with zero overhead. On mobile devices especially, every kilobyte matters.
Single-page applications became the norm. Modern web apps needed robust state management, virtual DOMs, and sophisticated routing. Things jQuery was never designed to provide.
Where jQuery Still Makes Perfect Sense
Despite the shift toward modern frameworks, jQuery remains relevant in several contexts:
Legacy codebases that just work. Thousands of enterprise applications, government sites, and corporate intranets were built with jQuery. These systems are stable, well-understood, and do their job effectively. Rewriting them in React or Vue would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, introduce new bugs, and ultimately deliver the same functionality. As the saying goes: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
WordPress, Shopify, Drupal, and the CMS ecosystem. WordPress alone powers over 40% of the web, and it ships with jQuery by default. Countless themes and plugins depend on it. This isn't changing anytime soon.
Quick prototypes and simple sites. Sometimes you just need to add a bit of interactivity to a mostly-static site. Maybe you need a simple accordion, a modal dialog, or some basic form validation. For these cases, dropping in jQuery and writing a few lines of code is faster and easier than setting up a build pipeline with Webpack, Babel, and React.
Consider these real-world examples:
// Toggle a mobile menu - takes one line
$('.menu-toggle').click(function() {
$('.nav-menu').slideToggle();
});
// Form validation before submission
$('#contact-form').submit(function(e) {
if ($('#email').val() === '') {
alert('Please enter your email');
e.preventDefault();
}
});
// Load content dynamically
$('.load-more').click(function() {
$.ajax({
url: '/api/posts',
success: function(data) {
$('.content').append(data);
}
});
});
// Add a class on scroll
$(window).scroll(function() {
if ($(this).scrollTop() > 100) {
$('header').addClass('sticky');
}
});
Sure, you can do all of this in vanilla JavaScript. But for a simple brochure site or a quick internal tool, jQuery's concise syntax gets you there faster without any build steps.
Internal tools and admin panels. For internal applications where performance isn't critical and where simplicity matters more than cutting-edge tech, jQuery remains a solid choice.
Existing teams with jQuery expertise. If your team knows jQuery inside and out, it can be more productive than forcing them to learn a new framework for every project.
The Arguments For Moving On
That said, there are legitimate reasons to avoid jQuery in new projects:
Modern JavaScript is good enough. For most common tasks—DOM manipulation, event handling and HTTP requests, vanilla JavaScript now provides everything you need with clean, readable syntax.
Frameworks solve bigger problems. If you're building anything beyond a simple brochure site, modern frameworks offer better architecture, component reusability, and developer experience.
And most modern frameworks can be setup in under 5 minutes.
The ecosystem has moved on. Most new libraries, tools, and learning resources assume you're using modern JavaScript or a framework. jQuery documentation and community support, while still available, isn't as vibrant as it once was.
Bundle size matters. Even though 90KB isn't huge, it's still unnecessary weight if you don't need it. You might no feel it, but PageSpeed Insights might let you know otherwise.
The Verdict for 2026
If you're starting a brand new project in 2026, you probably don't need jQuery. Modern JavaScript and frameworks give you better tools for most use cases. The web has evolved, and the problems jQuery solved are largely solved by the platform itself now.
But if you're maintaining existing jQuery code, there's no urgent reason to rewrite it. Security patches are still being released, and the library is stable. Your time is probably better spent building new features than performing a costly migration that delivers no new value to users.
For developers working in 2026, jQuery is less about whether it's good or bad, and more about understanding when it's the right tool for the job. It's transitioned from "default choice" to "contextual tool" and honestly, that's a reasonable place for a library that first launched in 2006.
jQuery may no longer be leading the charge in web development, but it's not dead either. It's achieved something arguably more important: stability and maturity.
Bottom Line
In 2026, jQuery occupies a unique space: simultaneously ubiquitous due to its massive installed base, yet rarely chosen for greenfield projects. It's a testament to just how thoroughly it solved the problems of its era that so much of the web still runs on it. Whether that's technical debt or pragmatic stability depends entirely on your perspective and your project's needs.
The library isn't going to vanish. It'll continue its slow fade into "legacy but stable" territory, maintained by a small but dedicated team, powering millions of sites that have no reason to change. And you know what? That's perfectly fine. Not every technology needs to be cutting-edge to be valuable.