jquery.com
What jquery.com is and what you’ll actually find there
jquery.com is the official home base for the jQuery project. If you land on the front page, it gives you the short definition of jQuery (DOM traversal/manipulation, events, animation, Ajax, cross-browser API) and points you to the parts people typically need: downloading the library, reading documentation, and checking project news.
That “home base” role matters because jQuery is also mirrored all over the internet: CDNs, GitHub forks, blog reposts, and random tutorials. jquery.com is where the project team publishes canonical links and guidance, including upgrade and compatibility notes when big changes happen.
The download page: getting jQuery the “official” way
The first practical stop on jquery.com for most developers is the download page. It doesn’t just hand you a file; it tries to steer you toward sensible sourcing. It links to the official releases host (releases.jquery.com) where you can browse versions, and it notes that other CDNs may lag slightly behind a release announcement.
If you’re maintaining older apps, this matters because “which exact version are we on?” is often the difference between “works fine” and “why did this selector behave differently in production?”. The releases site is also where you can verify you’re not accidentally pulling a modified build from somewhere unofficial.
A second, quieter point: jquery.com’s download guidance is part of how the project sets expectations. jQuery is stable, but it’s not frozen in time. You’re supposed to pick a version, read release notes when updating, and treat upgrades as actual changes, not a blind patch bump.
The API documentation: the real value for day-to-day work
The jQuery API documentation lives at api.jquery.com, and jquery.com routes you there as the canonical reference. The API docs describe jQuery as a small library that simplifies DOM work, events, animation, and Ajax with an API designed to work across browsers.
In practice, the docs are where jQuery still earns its keep for teams with legacy pages, complicated markup, or lots of “glue code” that’s been stable for years. If you’re inheriting an older codebase, the API docs help you answer questions quickly:
- What does
$(...)accept and how does it behave with HTML strings? - How do event delegation patterns work in jQuery’s event system?
- What’s the expected return type for a given method (collection vs value)?
- What’s deprecated, and what’s the modern replacement?
Even small details like parsing rules for jQuery() matter when you’re cleaning up old patterns or removing compatibility plugins.
The blog: where version changes become “real”
jquery.com itself is more static. The blog (blog.jquery.com) is where you get the narrative around releases, deprecations, and the direction of the project.
A big recent example is the jQuery 4 line. The blog covers the 4.0 upgrade guide work and the reality that 4.0 includes breaking changes the team couldn’t justify in minor releases.
More importantly, the blog post announcing the final jQuery 4.0.0 release (dated January 17, 2026) frames it as the first major release in almost a decade and calls out a long cycle with pre-releases before the final drop. If you’re deciding whether to move, this is the “official signal” that 4.0 is not just an experiment anymore.
If you maintain plugins, internal UI libraries, or older enterprise apps, the blog is where you should start before touching anything. It’s also where you’ll typically find links to migration tooling, upgrade guides, and follow-up patches once real-world adoption hits.
The 4.0 upgrade guide: what it says about jQuery’s current posture
jquery.com hosts an upgrade guide for 4.0 that’s explicitly positioned as guidance for breaking changes and API cleanup. The page describes 4.0 as a chance to clean up the API and fix long-standing bugs, acknowledging that some of those fixes can break existing code.
Reading that between the lines: jQuery’s posture is “modernize, but don’t pretend nothing will break.” That’s a different vibe from the era when jQuery’s main selling point was smoothing over browser quirks. Modern browsers have converged a lot, so the project can afford to be stricter and simplify.
For teams, the implication is straightforward: if you’re upgrading from late 3.x to 4.x, treat it like a real project. Inventory your usage, run your test suite in realistic pages, and assume you’ll touch edge-case DOM construction, event patterns, or deprecated utilities.
Licensing and governance signals you can verify on jquery.com
jquery.com includes licensing info that’s meant to be unambiguous for companies. The site’s license page explains that referenced project code is released under the MIT license and emphasizes how permissive it is.
That permissive licensing is a big reason jQuery stayed everywhere for so long: it’s generally easy to ship, embed, bundle, and redistribute in commercial software as long as you preserve the copyright and license notice.
On the contribution side, the jQuery contribution guidance states that contributors must sign a CLA so the foundation has a clear legal right to use the code and downstream users have clarity on licensing.
These pages don’t just answer legal questions. They’re also “trust infrastructure.” They’re telling you the project expects to be used in serious environments where compliance and provenance matter.
Where jquery.com fits in 2026 if you’re choosing tooling today
If you’re building a brand-new frontend in 2026, you’re probably using modern frameworks and native browser APIs for most work. But jquery.com is still relevant in a few very real scenarios:
- You’re maintaining a large existing app where jQuery is deeply embedded in templates, plugins, or server-rendered pages.
- You have a mixed environment: some new components, plus older pages that won’t be rewritten soon.
- You need a stable, well-documented utility layer for DOM-heavy admin screens and internal tools.
- You’re planning an upgrade to jQuery 4.0 and want the canonical guidance, not forum fragments.
In those cases, jquery.com is less about “marketing a library” and more about being the authoritative index: official download paths, official docs, official upgrade guidance, and official statements about major releases.
Key takeaways
- jquery.com is the canonical hub for jQuery’s downloads, documentation pointers, and official project updates.
- The download page pushes you toward official release hosting and warns that third-party CDNs can lag releases.
- The blog is where major changes become official—jQuery 4.0.0 was announced as a final release on January 17, 2026.
- The 4.0 upgrade guide is explicit: 4.0 includes cleanup and bug fixes that can be breaking, so upgrades should be planned.
- Licensing and contribution pages (MIT license + CLA guidance) are part of why jQuery remains viable in corporate and long-lived codebases.
FAQ
Is jquery.com the same thing as api.jquery.com?
Not exactly. jquery.com is the project hub, while api.jquery.com is the API reference documentation site linked from the hub.
What’s the safest way to pick a jQuery version from jquery.com?
Start from the download page, then follow the link to the official releases host so you can confirm the exact version and file you’re using.
Where should I look before upgrading to jQuery 4.x?
Read the jQuery 4.0 upgrade guide on jquery.com and the release announcement on the official blog, then test your app against the new major version.
What license does jquery.com say jQuery uses?
jquery.com’s license page describes the project as released under the MIT license (for projects referencing that license notice), which is permissive and widely used for open-source software.
If I want to contribute, what’s the key requirement mentioned on jquery.com?
The contribution guidance states contributors must sign a CLA so the foundation has clear rights to use the code and downstream users have clarity on licensing.
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