An Introduction to Ember.js

If you’ve built applications with React, Vue, or Angular, you understand component-based architecture and modern JavaScript tooling. But you might wonder: what does Ember.js offer in 2026, and why do companies like LinkedIn and Apple Music still rely on it?

Ember.js represents a mature, opinionated framework that prioritizes stability, strong conventions, and developer productivity for large-scale applications. This introduction covers how the modern Ember framework works today and what a new project looks like in the current ecosystem.

What Makes Ember Different

Ember is a component-service framework. Components handle UI—bundles of markup, behavior, and style similar to what you know from other frameworks. Services provide long-lived shared state and integrate with external systems. The router, for example, is a service.

The key distinction is convention over configuration. Every Ember project follows the same structure. Routes go in predictable places. Components live where you expect. This consistency means developers can move between Ember codebases without relearning project architecture.

For teams building complex, long-lived applications, this predictability reduces onboarding time and maintenance overhead significantly.

Modern Ember Tooling: Vite and the Embroider Build System

New Ember projects use Ember CLI with modern defaults. The Ember V2 app format (used by the new app blueprint) represents the current standard, designed for better compatibility with the broader JavaScript ecosystem.

The Embroider build system is now the standard build pipeline. Embroider enables proper tree-shaking, code-splitting, and integration with standard bundlers. For new projects, Vite is a supported and increasingly common build option, offering fast development builds and optimized production output.

To create a new project:

npm install -g ember-cli
ember new my-app --typescript

This generates a TypeScript-enabled project with Embroider configured. The --typescript flag reflects that TypeScript is officially supported and commonly used in modern Ember development.

Core Concepts at a Glance

Glimmer Components

Modern Ember uses Glimmer components exclusively. These are lightweight, follow the “data down, actions up” pattern, and use tracked state for reactivity.

import Component from '@glimmer/component';
import { tracked } from '@glimmer/tracking';
import { action } from '@ember/object';

export default class Counter extends Component {
  @tracked count = 0;

  @action
  increment() {
    this.count++;
  }
}

The @tracked decorator marks properties that should trigger re-renders when changed—similar to signals in Solid or reactive state in Vue’s Composition API.

Templates and GJS/GTS

Ember templates use a Handlebars-based syntax that compiles to optimized bytecode via the Glimmer VM. The framework is moving toward strict-mode templates and single-file components using .gjs (JavaScript) and .gts (TypeScript) formats.

These single-file components combine template and backing class in one file, reducing boilerplate and enabling better tree-shaking.

Routing

Ember’s router is built-in and handles nested routes, dynamic segments, and query parameters. Routes can define model hooks to load data before rendering:

import Route from '@ember/routing/route';
import { service } from '@ember/service';

export default class PostsRoute extends Route {
  @service store;

  model() {
    return this.store.findAll('post');
  }
}

Data Layer

EmberData (@ember-data) provides conventions for managing API data, caching, and relationships. It’s optional but included by default. For REST or JSON:API backends, it reduces boilerplate significantly.

Project Structure

A typical modern Ember project organizes code predictably:

• app/components/ — UI components
• app/routes/ — Route handlers
• app/templates/ — Route templates
• app/services/ — Shared state and logic
• app/models/ — Data models (if using Ember Data)

This structure remains consistent across projects, which is the core value proposition.

When to Consider Ember

Ember works best for ambitious, long-lived applications where team consistency matters. If you’re building dashboards, admin interfaces, or complex single-page applications with multiple developers, the conventions pay dividends over time.

For marketing sites or lightweight projects, lighter frameworks like Astro make more sense.

Conclusion

The official Ember Tutorial walks through building a complete application. The Ember Guides cover each concept in depth. For community support, the Ember Discord is active and helpful.

Modern Ember isn’t the framework you might remember from years ago. With Vite, Embroider, TypeScript support, and single-file components, it’s evolved while maintaining the stability that makes it valuable for production applications.

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