I've been programming part-time since 2017, mostly building personal projects and tools to support my other interests such as woodworking, tutoring, and video editing. I started with C++ and Python, but JavaScript is the language and ecosystem I know best.
One of my goals for 2026 is to become job-ready for a full-stack or backend developer role. I've been learning TypeScript since March, but I haven't really enjoyed it so far. I understand that it's commonly recommended for professional development, but I'm wondering how widespread plain JavaScript still is.
Are there companies or freelance clients that still use vanilla JavaScript, particularly for backend or full-stack work? Should I focus on becoming comfortable with TypeScript even if it isn't my favorite, or are strong JavaScript skills enough for some types of professional roles?
4 Answers
Knowing JavaScript from hobby projects is a good foundation, but professional development also involves testing, debugging, architecture, code reviews, deployment, security, and maintaining software written by other people. Rather than choosing between JavaScript and TypeScript, keep strengthening your JavaScript fundamentals and learn enough TypeScript to work productively in a typed codebase. Also spend time building and deploying a few substantial projects so you can demonstrate production-oriented skills.
Plain JavaScript is still used for scripts, small applications, legacy systems, and some backend services. However, TypeScript has become the usual choice for larger, long-lived projects because static types make code easier to understand, review, refactor, and maintain across a team. You don’t have to love it, but being comfortable reading and writing TypeScript will open significantly more job opportunities.
There are still teams using plain JavaScript, including one commenter who works on a large enterprise application with hundreds of thousands of lines of it. Some developers prefer JavaScript with JSDoc, declaration files, tests, and editor-based checking. That can work well, but the quality depends heavily on the team’s discipline, and it’s less common as the default for new professional projects.
TypeScript isn’t really a completely separate language—you’re still writing JavaScript, with an additional type-checking layer. The types disappear when the code is compiled, so the benefit is catching mistakes during development rather than changing runtime behavior. It’s especially useful when a function’s inputs and outputs need to stay clear as a codebase grows.
JSDoc can provide useful editor hints and some type checking, but it usually doesn’t offer the same experience as a well-configured TypeScript project. Either way, tests and runtime validation are still necessary because TypeScript can’t prevent every production error.