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React vs. Svelte: A Developer's Honest Opinion

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As a software developer, I have learned and worked with both React and Svelte. Let's explore the pros and cons of React versus Svelte.

React's Strengths

React has been around for a while unlike Svelte which is relatively new. This results in:

  • A significantly larger ecosystem when working with libraries than Svelte. Finding libraries to achieve specific functionalities in Svelte can be challenging.
  • React is highly sought after in frontend development roles.

Svelte's Strengths

Svelte is much easier and fun to use than React which means that

  • You can get from an idea to a working prototype faster in Svelte than in React (This makes it useful for backend developers)
  • Working with the DOM is easier in Svelte thanks to element bindings unlike in React with the cumbersome useRef hook
  • Svelte is much faster since it has a compiler.

In conclusion, While React is a staple in the industry, I find Svelte's simplicity and speed to be a refreshing and efficient development experience.

What are your thoughts on React and Svelte?โญ

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Top comments (6)

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webjose profile image
Josรฉ Pablo Ramรญrez Vargas โ€ข

I concur wholeheartedly. However, I don't find the ecosystem to be too lacking. I have found most of what I have needed. The one thing I definitely needed at work was an advanced table component, which I ended up doing and sharing with the community for free. Mine is not the only one, though. There are several others. I just had very specific needs at work.

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miketalbot profile image
Mike Talbot โญ โ€ข

That stopped me last time I was selecting a framework for a major project... It's great news that these things are being addressed!

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webjose profile image
Josรฉ Pablo Ramรญrez Vargas โ€ข

What? A table component? There are several now. Everyone except mine provides pagination and use TailwindCSS. Mine is just the table and tries to be appearance-neutral. Trying to be appearance-neutral is one of the main reasons I opted out of pagination, search, etc.

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ezek-iel profile image
๐™ด๐šฃ๐šŽ๐š”๐š’๐šŽ๐š• โ€ข

Yeah โœจ๏ธ

Since using the dom in svelte is very easy,

You can use vanilla js libraries or build them from scratch yourself

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tyjust_music_1c42b047cdf4 profile image
Tyjust music โ€ข

Here's your translation:

"My man, Svelte is a treasure. I just launched lalye.com with Svelte, Bun, and Supabase, and honestly, for me, it's easier to create an MVP with Svelte than with React, especially in terms of speed."

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ezek-iel profile image
๐™ด๐šฃ๐šŽ๐š”๐š’๐šŽ๐š• โ€ข

That's very true. I found achieving certain functionalities extremely easy in svelte than in react โญ๏ธ

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