I'm looking for a datepicker for a vanilla JavaScript project, but finding one that meets modern requirements has been surprisingly difficult. Native date inputs and input masks don't provide enough control.
The datepicker should be accessible, localized, support flexible formatting, handle date ranges, and expose enough events or hooks for application integration. I've considered several options, including flatpickr, vanilla-js-datepicker, Vanilla Calendar Pro, Air Datepicker, Litepicker, and Easepick, but most are either inactive, have limited range support, or don't fit our dependency policy. Many newer alternatives are built specifically for React, which isn't suitable here.
Are there any good vanilla JavaScript options I've overlooked, or is building or maintaining one ourselves the realistic path?
3 Answers
Cally is worth evaluating. It’s a web component that works perfectly well from vanilla JavaScript and covers accessibility, range selection, localization through the Intl API, and useful events. Its main limitation is formatting: you may need to build a small display layer with Intl.DateTimeFormat yourself.
Flatpickr may still be a practical choice if its behavior and accessibility meet your requirements. A library doesn’t necessarily become unusable just because it hasn’t received commits recently, especially for mature date-handling code. That said, avoiding it is reasonable if the lack of maintenance and unresolved issues are part of your project’s risk assessment.
I agree that it still works technically, but four years without meaningful maintenance is enough reason for us to investigate alternatives before adding it as a dependency.
If none of the available packages meet your maintenance or dependency requirements, the realistic options are to vendor an existing permissively licensed project and maintain the changes yourself, or build a focused component in-house. The native Intl APIs can handle localization and formatting, while the component itself would still need careful work for keyboard navigation, screen readers, and range selection.
Cally looks promising and I’m evaluating it now. The formatting limitation is manageable, but I’m still cautious about choosing flatpickr when there are several unresolved issues and pull requests despite its long period without maintenance.