[psgibbs]

I wouldn't draw a strong conclusion about 'larger' startups using Backbone instead of Angular based on this data.

There is probably some high correlation between a startup's size and age... Older startups are likely to be larger, and are likely to have started their stack using the popular framework of the time (Backbone). Newer startups will be smaller, and were founded at a time when new frameworks (e.g. Angular) are much more mature.

edit: grammar

[corford]

You may well be right but just to add a small data point in the other direction: I'm solo founding a new start up right now and chose to go with Marionette (which is essentially Backbone + some very handy batteries). Its been bliss (and this is coming from a backend guy who normally loathes frontend programming in JS).

[kcent]

Same. FWIW, I have used Backbone for a bunch of past projects (personal as well as large-scale apps for work). In my latest projects in both, I'm using Marionette on top of Backbone and I've been pleasantly surprised at how well it's working out when managing a complex SPA. I really appreciate Angular and what it's doing but every time I've tried to use it, it hasn't been the right fit. I'm hopeful for it though. Maybe eventually I can find a useful application for it!

Backbone is doing a good job thus far establishing itself as a decent and reliable JS framework. Marionette addresses the specific pain points of view and event management in a larger app that Backbone leaves up to you out of the box.

[AdrianRossouw]

I've recently really come to appreciate marionette's application and module containers too, and I have really come to rely on all the event bus stuff that comes from backbone.wreqr.

Basically, marionette gets better.

[willbill]

Derek Bailey is a boss. His lost techies blog is great even if you aren't using marionette.

[psgibbs]

I'm not saying people aren't still choosing Backbone/variants today, just that 2 years ago, Angular was (1) not a nearly as viable an option and (2) not nearly as well known; so any time /company-size correlation will push the results in one direction.

edit: although interestingly, looking at the respective wikipedia entries, AngularJS has an initial release listed in 2009, Backbone.js is listed as October, 2010

[colevscode]

There didn't appear to be a clear relationship between startup size and age in the responses. Many brand new startups had 3 or 4 developers, and several older startups were plugging away with just 2 devs.

You may be right, however, that it's just too early to get an apples/apples comparison between Backbone and Angular.