Mapbox GL JS is plenty powerful by itself. However, it doesn’t have a lot of the classic spatial analysis tools that we’ve come to know and love (e.g. buffers).
TURF is a library that works with geojson files. It allows you to conduct a number of spatial analysis operations in the web map environment.
Generally, TURF is lightweight and fast. It is composed of multiple modules that focus on specific types of operations. It also allows you to work locally with your geojson files for fast computation.
However, it’s important to note: