Is jQuery Still Worth Learning in 2026?

jQuery was once the first thing every web developer learned. It smoothed over differences between browsers and made common tasks – selecting elements, handling clicks, sending AJAX requests – far shorter to write. Today browsers agree on most standards, and plain JavaScript does all of those things natively. So is jQuery worth learning in 2026?

The short answer: do not learn jQuery instead of JavaScript, but a working knowledge of it is still useful, especially if you will maintain existing websites or work with WordPress. The rest of this post explains why, and how much is “enough”.

jQuery is not dead: what jQuery 4 changed

jQuery is still maintained. jQuery 4.0.0 was released on 17 January 2026, the first major version in nearly a decade. It is a clean-up release rather than a reinvention:

• Older browsers dropped. Internet Explorer 10 and below and the old (non-Chromium) Edge are no longer supported. IE 11 is still supported in 4.x; the jQuery team has said it will go in jQuery 5.
• Deprecated APIs removed. Utilities such as $.trim, $.isArray, $.isFunction, $.isNumeric, $.type, $.now and $.parseJSON are gone. Use the native versions: str.trim(), Array.isArray(), typeof, Date.now() and JSON.parse().
• Smaller slim build. The slim build no longer includes Deferreds and Callbacks; use native Promises instead.
• Modern source. jQuery’s source code moved to ES modules, and it supports the Trusted Types security API in its manipulation methods.
• Behaviour changes. For example, focusin/focusout are no longer shimmed, and JSON requests are no longer automatically turned into JSONP.

If you work on an older codebase, the official jQuery Migrate plugin (version 4.x for jQuery 4) restores removed APIs and logs warnings in the console, so you can find and fix old code step by step.

Where you will still meet jQuery

• WordPress. WordPress includes jQuery, and a large number of themes and plugins depend on it. If you build or customise WordPress sites, you will read jQuery code. See WordPress Theme Development Basics.
• Older Bootstrap projects. Bootstrap 3 and 4 needed jQuery for their JavaScript components. Bootstrap 5 does not – a common source of confusion. Our Bootstrap track uses Bootstrap 5.3 without jQuery.
• Legacy business applications. Many internal tools, admin panels and older e-commerce sites were built when jQuery was standard. They still run, and someone has to maintain them.
• Plugins. Older sliders, date pickers and form libraries were written as jQuery plugins.

In other words, the jobs where jQuery matters are mostly maintenance and CMS work. That is real, paid work – just not the area where new projects usually start. If that is the work you want, is jQuery worth learning? Yes.

Where you will not need it

• New projects in React, Vue, Svelte or Angular. These manage the DOM themselves, and jQuery changing the same elements causes conflicts. See React vs Plain JavaScript.
• Small new sites, where a few lines of plain JavaScript do the job without an extra download.
• Animations that CSS handles better – transitions and keyframes run more smoothly than JavaScript-driven animation in most cases. See CSS Animation Performance Tips.

jQuery and plain JavaScript, side by side

The best way to judge jQuery is to compare it with modern JavaScript. Most everyday jQuery has a direct native equivalent:

jQuery’s code is often shorter, especially when working on many elements at once, because jQuery methods act on every matched element automatically. Plain JavaScript needs a loop or forEach. That convenience is jQuery’s main remaining advantage.

Try it: the same accordion both ways

Here is a small FAQ accordion with jQuery 4. It uses .on() for events and modern JavaScript alongside it.

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>jQuery accordion</title>
<style>
  body { font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; margin: 20px; max-width: 520px; }
  .q { display: block; width: 100%; text-align: left; padding: 10px; margin-top: 8px; font: inherit; background: #eef2ff; border: 1px solid #c7d2fe; border-radius: 6px; cursor: pointer; }
  .a { padding: 8px 10px; }
</style>
<script src="https://code.jquery.com/jquery-4.0.0.min.js"></script>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Tour FAQs</h1>
  <div class="faq">
    <button class="q" aria-expanded="false">Where does the tour start?</button>
    <div class="a" hidden>From the bus stand in Puducherry at 7 am.</div>
    <button class="q" aria-expanded="false">Is lunch included?</button>
    <div class="a" hidden>Yes, a South Indian meal in Mahabalipuram.</div>
  </div>
  <p id="status">0 answers open</p>
<script>
  $(() => {
    $('.faq').on('click', '.q', function () {
      const $btn = $(this);
      const open = $btn.attr('aria-expanded') === 'true';
      $btn.attr('aria-expanded', String(!open));
      $btn.next('.a').prop('hidden', open);
      $('#status').text(`${$('.q[aria-expanded="true"]').length} answers open`);
    });
  });
</script>
</body>
</html>

And the same behaviour in plain JavaScript, with no library:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>Vanilla accordion</title>
<style>
  body { font-family: system-ui, sans-serif; margin: 20px; max-width: 520px; }
  .q { display: block; width: 100%; text-align: left; padding: 10px; margin-top: 8px; font: inherit; background: #ecfdf5; border: 1px solid #a7f3d0; border-radius: 6px; cursor: pointer; }
  .a { padding: 8px 10px; }
</style>
</head>
<body>
  <h1>Tour FAQs</h1>
  <div class="faq">
    <button class="q" aria-expanded="false">Where does the tour start?</button>
    <div class="a" hidden>From the bus stand in Puducherry at 7 am.</div>
    <button class="q" aria-expanded="false">Is lunch included?</button>
    <div class="a" hidden>Yes, a South Indian meal in Mahabalipuram.</div>
  </div>
  <p id="status">0 answers open</p>
<script>
  const faq = document.querySelector('.faq');
  faq.addEventListener('click', (e) => {
    const btn = e.target.closest('.q');
    if (!btn) return;
    const open = btn.getAttribute('aria-expanded') === 'true';
    btn.setAttribute('aria-expanded', String(!open));
    btn.nextElementSibling.hidden = open;
    const count = faq.querySelectorAll('.q[aria-expanded="true"]').length;
    document.getElementById('status').textContent = `${count} answers open`;
  });
</script>
</body>
</html>

The two versions are almost the same length. That is the honest picture in 2026: jQuery saves a little typing, but it is no longer the huge shortcut it once was. For a simple accordion with no JavaScript at all, the native <details> and <summary> elements are worth considering too.

How to read jQuery code you inherit

If you open an old theme file and see lines full of dollar signs, these four ideas will help you follow it:

• $ is just a function. $('.price') runs a CSS selector and returns a jQuery object – a wrapped list of matching elements. $ is a short alias for jQuery; WordPress loads jQuery in no-conflict mode, which is why its code often writes jQuery(function ($) { … }).
• Methods work on every match. $('.price').addClass('sale') changes all matching elements, with no loop. If nothing matches, nothing happens and no error appears – which can hide bugs.
• Getters and setters share a name. .text() with no argument reads text; .text('Sold out') writes it. The same pattern applies to .val(), .attr() and .css().
• Chaining. Most methods return the same jQuery object, so calls are chained: $('#msg').text('Saved').addClass('ok').show().

Inside an event handler written with function () { … }, this is the DOM element that triggered the event, and $(this) wraps it. With an arrow function, this does not point to the element, so use event.currentTarget instead. This small detail causes many bugs when people “modernise” old jQuery code.

Who should learn jQuery, and how much

Once your JavaScript is solid, the core of jQuery takes a few days, not months. Our jQuery track covers it in twelve short lessons, starting with the introduction and selectors, and ending with jQuery vs vanilla JavaScript.

Tips if you do use jQuery today

• Use .on('click', …) rather than older shorthand forms, and never .bind() or .delegate() – those are removed in jQuery 4.
• Use .text() for user data, not .html(), to avoid injecting unsafe markup.
• Load one copy of jQuery only. Two versions on one page cause strange bugs. In WordPress, enqueue the bundled copy instead of adding your own.
• Use native features when they are simpler: classList, fetch, Array.isArray, String.prototype.trim.
• When upgrading an old site, add jQuery Migrate, fix the console warnings, then remove Migrate.

The verdict: is jQuery worth learning?

jQuery is no longer a must-learn skill for new developers, but it is not obsolete either. It is maintained, it powers a huge amount of the existing web, and WordPress work still involves it. Learn JavaScript first – including DOM manipulation and events – then pick up jQuery when a project or job needs it. With good JavaScript basics, you will find it easy.

For the bigger picture of what to learn and in which order, see the Front-End Developer Roadmap.

Frequently asked questions

Further reading

• jquery.com/upgrade-guide/4.0
• api.jquery.com
• api.jquery.com/on
• getbootstrap.com/docs/5.3/getting-started/introduction
• developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Element/closest
• developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/API/Fetch_API