The tests don't make sense. jQuery is not an MVC framework and should not be tested as if it were. It's worth noting that both Backbone and Angular use some version of jQuery (lite or otherwise), so comparing that to your own way of using jQuery doesn't correlate. I could use jQuery to append elements in a way that was much faster than and just as short as what you've done in your test. Also, did you know you can append image elements with events using document.appendChild? It must be a security issue! But seriously, don't even include it in the tests. It is a JavaScript library that serves a lower-level purpose than MVC frameworks.