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Pug vs EJS?

Kim John on March 28, 2019

I have to decide whether to go with PUG or EJS for a node web app.

I highly appreciate if you can suggest one over another explaining why you think so.

Appreciate all help!

nepeckman • Mar 28 '19

The two are roughly equivalent in terms of functionality, so it comes down to what syntax you prefer. I have very strong feelings about this: I despise ejs syntax. All the special characters add noise to the code and increase your surface area for mistakes. Its takes longer to read, it takes longer to write, and it takes longer to find bugs. However, ejs syntax is an expansion of HTML where pug syntax is completely different, so I can see why some might prefer ejs. I would spend a little time writing in each, then decide which one works best for you.

Kim John • Mar 28 '19

That is a neat reply. I agree with you. I'm personally comfortable with EJS since I know HTML very well. But you know lately, I started digesting PUG script, where I don't see any tag, it's clean code. So, I think I will go with PUG, it's a little weird in the beginning but better in the later part. Anyway, thanks for the recommendation.

Ben Halpern • Mar 28 '19

I'm personally comfortable with EJS since I know HTML very well

From my experience, this is important. Even though EJS is kind of ugly, IMO it's much easier to pass around between different people without confusion. With PUG, you're really buying into a wholly different universe, that's probably cleaner and easier to use in and of itself, but different in ways that can matter.

IMO EJS is the more practical solution, even if it isn't "better".

Kim John • Mar 28 '19

Thank you Ben, I share your view too. I had that experience today itself only when one of my colleagues saw my PUG script and freaked out. I thought I better go with EJS since everybody knows HTML. Anyway, Thanks for your input on this.

Ben Halpern • Mar 28 '19

I think it’s great to go through the process of asking this question. There’s no right answer but at least it’s not all in your head anymore.

Kim John • Mar 28 '19

Agree 100%. :)

Matthew Daly • Mar 29 '19 • Edited

I'm not fond of either. I haven't used Pug since it was Jade so my experience of it may not be up date date, but I always found it too terse for my liking and too different to HTML. I haven't used EJS at all, but it looks a lot like Underscore templating which I always found cumbersome.

I agree with Meghan that Handlebars is also worth a look. I've used Handlebars a lot (my site is built with a static site generator I wrote that uses Handlebars), and it has a very shallow learning curve.

Alternatively, have you looked at React.js? It's my usual go-to for JS templating these days and can be used to render the same template on client and server side. It's more complex than the others as it also includes things like event handling, so it might be overkill for you, but for some use cases it can be a boon.

Kim John • Mar 30 '19

Thanks for the comment, Mark. I find react is a little bit overkill for the kind of project I'm doing. In other words, I need something really simple. Given the site is static, my goal to reuse the pieces of HTML code, that's it.

Matthew Daly • Mar 30 '19

In that case, Handlebars should be a good fit. It supports partials, and you can create your own helpers. The syntax is IMHO simpler than EJS or Pug too.

Joe Hobot • Mar 29 '19

Why not Beagle? Sniffs bugs better than Pug

Wish I could give you better suggestion but at the end of the day it is more of a personal preference. Longer time ago I was between Java or Python? I liked Python more because at that time I was very confused how much stuff I need to write in Java vs Python. So I picked something that was easier for me to understand and then I went upwards from it.