The Death of jQuery: How We Survived the Vanilla JS Revolution

Published: September 17, 2025

I have a confession: I loved jQuery. Not in an ironic, “it was simpler times” way—I genuinely loved it. `$(‘#element’).fadeIn()` was poetry compared to the verbose DOM manipulation that came before it. Cross-browser compatibility just worked. AJAX requests were actually readable. For about a decade, jQuery wasn’t just a library—it was the JavaScript foundation that everything else was built on.

Then the industry decided jQuery was evil, and we needed to go back to vanilla JavaScript. The reasons were sound: modern browsers had better APIs, bundle sizes mattered more, and native JavaScript had evolved. But the transition wasn’t as smooth as the thought leaders promised. Here’s how that migration actually went for those of us working on real WordPress projects with real deadlines.

The jQuery Golden Age

Let’s not rewrite history. jQuery solved real problems that made development significantly easier:

**Cross-browser compatibility:** Internet Explorer 8 had different APIs than Firefox, which were different from Safari. jQuery abstracted all that pain away.

**Concise syntax:** `$(element).hide()` vs `document.getElementById(‘element’).style.display = ‘none’`. No contest.

**Chaining:** `$(‘.buttons’).addClass(‘active’).fadeIn().delay(500).removeClass(‘loading’)`. It just flowed.

**Plugin ecosystem:** Need a slider? Image gallery? Date picker? There was a jQuery plugin for everything, and most of them actually worked.

In the WordPress world, jQuery was even more entrenched. WordPress shipped with jQuery by default. Themes relied on it. Plugin developers assumed it would be there. It wasn’t just a library choice—it was part of the platform.

The Turning Point

Around 2018, the narrative shifted. Bundle sizes were killing mobile performance. Modern browsers had better APIs. ES6 made JavaScript actually pleasant to write. The cool kids were building React apps without jQuery, and suddenly using it felt like technical debt.

The problem was that most of us weren’t building React apps. We were building WordPress themes, plugin interfaces, and marketing sites that needed to work reliably across diverse hosting environments and browser versions.

But the pressure was real. Google PageSpeed Insights started penalizing jQuery’s bundle size. Clients were asking about “modern” development practices. Junior developers fresh out of bootcamps were horrified to see `$` in the codebase.

The Migration Reality

Migrating away from jQuery in WordPress wasn’t just a matter of finding-and-replacing syntax. It meant rethinking entire approaches:

**Event handling:** jQuery’s event delegation was elegant and worked everywhere. Native event listeners required polyfills for older browsers and more verbose syntax.

**AJAX requests:** `$.ajax()` was simple and handled edge cases well. The Fetch API was cleaner but required more error handling boilerplate.

**DOM manipulation:** jQuery’s chainable methods made complex operations readable. Vanilla JavaScript required breaking things into multiple statements.

**Plugin compatibility:** Existing jQuery plugins couldn’t just be swapped out. They needed vanilla JavaScript alternatives or complete rewrites.

What We Lost in Translation

The migration tutorials made it look simple: “Just use `document.querySelector()` instead of `$()`!” But they glossed over the practical challenges:

**Development speed decreased.** Writing vanilla JavaScript took longer, especially for DOM-heavy interactions.

**Bug rates increased.** jQuery’s maturity meant edge cases were already handled. Rolling our own solutions meant rediscovering those edge cases.

**Team consistency suffered.** With jQuery, there was one way to do most things. With vanilla JavaScript, every developer had their own utility functions and patterns.

**Client compatibility issues.** jQuery worked everywhere. Our vanilla JavaScript implementations sometimes didn’t, especially on older corporate browsers.

The WordPress Specific Pain

WordPress made the jQuery migration particularly complex:

**Legacy plugin support:** You could remove jQuery from your theme, but if any plugin used it, you’d have conflicts and broken functionality.

**Admin interface dependencies:** The WordPress admin still uses jQuery extensively. Completely removing it meant admin customizations broke.

**Theme marketplace expectations:** ThemeForest buyers expected jQuery sliders and animations. Vanilla JavaScript alternatives often felt less polished.

**Backwards compatibility:** Client sites needed to work with their existing plugin ecosystem, not just the latest and greatest.

The Compromise Solutions

Rather than going cold turkey, smart developers found middle-ground approaches:

**Conditional loading:** Load jQuery only when needed. If a page uses a jQuery plugin, include it. Otherwise, use vanilla JavaScript.

**Utility libraries:** Create lightweight utility functions that replicated jQuery’s most useful methods without the full library overhead.

**Modern jQuery:** Stick with jQuery but use the slim build and only load necessary modules.

**Progressive enhancement:** Build core functionality in vanilla JavaScript, enhance with jQuery if available.

Tools That Helped

Several tools made the transition less painful:

**You Might Not Need jQuery:** The website that showed vanilla JavaScript equivalents for common jQuery patterns. Essential reference.

**Cash:** A lightweight jQuery alternative that provided familiar syntax with a smaller footprint.

**Zepto:** Mobile-focused jQuery alternative that worked well for responsive themes.

**Custom utility libraries:** Rolling our own micro-libraries for common tasks like AJAX, DOM manipulation, and event handling.

What We Learned

The jQuery migration taught us several important lessons:

**Bundle size isn’t everything.** Yes, jQuery adds weight. But if it prevents bugs and speeds development, the tradeoff might be worth it.

**Developer experience matters.** Code that’s harder to write is more likely to have bugs. Productivity gains from good APIs have real business value.

**Context drives decisions.** A React single-page app has different requirements than a WordPress business site. One size doesn’t fit all.

**Migration costs are real.** The time spent rewriting working jQuery code could have been spent building new features or improving user experience.

The Current State

In 2025, the jQuery vs. vanilla JavaScript debate feels less urgent. Modern build tools can tree-shake unused code. Browser compatibility is less of a nightmare. HTTP/2 makes multiple smaller files less problematic than one large bundle.

I still use jQuery for certain projects, especially WordPress sites that need broad plugin compatibility and rapid development. But I also build plenty of projects with vanilla JavaScript or modern frameworks.

The key insight is that it’s not really about jQuery vs. vanilla JavaScript—it’s about choosing the right tool for the specific context.

Advice for Current Projects

If you’re facing this decision today:

**For new WordPress sites:** Consider starting with vanilla JavaScript unless you have specific jQuery plugin requirements.

**For existing sites:** Don’t migrate unless you have a compelling reason. Working code has value.

**For team projects:** Consistency matters more than technology choice. Pick one approach and stick with it.

**For client work:** Consider maintenance costs. jQuery might be “old” but it’s stable and well-understood.

The Bigger Picture

The jQuery migration was really about the industry growing up. We moved from “jQuery solves everything” to “choose the right tool for the job.” That’s progress, even if the transition was messier than expected.

jQuery isn’t dead—it’s just no longer the default answer to every JavaScript problem. And that’s probably how it should be. Good tools don’t disappear; they find their appropriate niche and continue serving it well.

For those of us who lived through the transition, we gained something valuable: the ability to work effectively with or without jQuery, depending on what the project actually needs. That flexibility is worth more than any specific library or framework.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to debug a WordPress plugin that’s still using jQuery 1.7. Some wars never really end.