Do you know when to use TypeScript (vs JavaScript and CoffeeScript)?

TTypeScript is JavaScript with optional static types. It was released by Microsoft in 2012 and has grown heavily in popularity, becoming the most-used language on GitHub in 2025. TypeScript is now the default choice for many modern JavaScript codebases because it catches errors earlier, improves editor autocomplete, makes refactoring safer, and documents data shapes through types.

So what are the benefits of TypeScript?

CoffeeScript is a lightweight programming language that also compiles into JavaScript. It was designed to provide a more concise and readable syntax, however, modern JavaScript has adopted many of the features that made CoffeeScript attractive, so CoffeeScript is rarely a good choice for new projects.

• Use JavaScript for small scripts
• Use TypeScript for most modern front-end apps, reusable components, shared libraries and repositories that will grow
• Avoid jQuery unless maintaining legacy code or using an existing plugin
• Avoid CoffeeScript for new projects

✅ Figure: Good example - TypeScript is very similar to JavaScript so it’s easy to learn, and also helps developers learn proper JavaScript coding practices

❌ Figure: Bad example - CoffeeScript (LHS) is very different from JavaScript (RHS)