Why Vanilla JavaScript and Web Components Beat Modern Frameworks
After building a complex music school platform entirely in Vanilla JavaScript and Web Components, I realized the browser is already the framework. The industry obsession with React, Angular, Vue, and Svelte introduces artificial complexity, forcing developers to surrender control over the DOM and state. Instead of relying on heavy build pipelines and TypeScript, we should embrace native web technologies to write simpler, more robust code.
The browser engine is a huge and complex piece of software that handles so much for you that the only thing you really need is just to write dynamic files with HTML, CSS and JavaScript.
- onion2k
So many more problems solved…
Those problems aren't 'solved'. The author has an implementation of a solution. It's one that they think is good, which is ace and I'm happy for him, but if he ever introduces a second developer to his project those 'solved' problems will become a point of friction. They'll go from 'solved' to 'solved, but in the wrong way' or 'solved, but not for this edge case', or 'solved, but why is the code so verbose?'
The massive advantage of a framework is that the people who choose it have agreed to share a solution to the common problems. This cannot be overstated - as soon as your team grows to more than one developer you move from 'solve the problem' to 'solve the problem in a way that people agree on', and that is far more complicated than just solving a problem. Sometimes you get lucky and work with people who think the same way as you, or with people who are willing to compromise on their ideal solution and accept yours, and then things still work, but if they're 'passionate' about being right then it's horrible, slow, and results in bad code.
A framework is an upfront agreement about how to build something. That has no practical advantage for a dev working alone. It's incredibly useful for two or more devs working together. Which framework doesn't really matter, except the ones with more devs behind them make it a lot easier to find people who've already accepted that way of working. That's helpful.
- root_axis
Labeling UI frameworks as artificial complexity is simply a sign of inexperience manifested as NIH syndrome.
The vanilla approach is fine for a personal or toy project, but it's an unmitigated disaster for a project with even a moderately complex UI.
Eventually, the vanilla project becomes its own bespoke UI framework with a bunch of poor design choices because all the complexity that was dismissed as "artificial" eventually gets patched in using a rube-goldberg-machine approach to architecture.
- WhyNotHugo
I appreciate the sentiment, but can't agree fully. I used vanilla JS for many years before AngularJS even existed (and I also tried AngulasJS when it was the new thing).
Vue is just a huge convenience over raw JavaScript for large, complex view. Sure, I don't get to do direct DOM manipulation, but when I write C code I also don't get to pick which variable goes in which CPU register. I accept giving up control that ASM would give me, for all the improvements that C brings on top of it, even if C just compiles to ASM and is an abstraction on top of it.
- nilirl
> The idea of reactivity came from or was popularized by Angular.js
No, spreadsheets popularized reactivity. And the general point is incredibly weak.
Don't use frameworks and make your own? Sure, have your fun. But then try teaching your framework to your company of 1000 and see how quickly you realize your view of the "problems" are only a slice of the pie.
- doginasuit
This hit so close to home. For the last eight months I've been building a web app without any major framework like react or angular. Angular taught me a lot of important lessons about best practices for structuring UI. But eventually you run into boilerplate that doesn't jive with what you want to do.
The author frames this as artificial complexity, and that's the best framing I've seen. The browser has a particular presentation philosophy and the more you try to cover it up, the more awkward your code becomes at the edges.
The killer application of LLMs is their ability to inform and adapt to a particular API, and analyze the code that you write. They are garbage at producing functionality for which they don't have a thousand examples, but provide documentation and intent and they will help you fill in the gaps. This is the real 10x opportunity, and the best part is that you can still write all the code yourself.
I'm certain this doesn't just apply to javascript and the web. I predict that the need for frameworks will slowly go away.
- JodieBenitez
> Multi-page applications are slow to load and navigate.
A bit tired to see this...
No it's not. We do this all the time. It's as simple as using proper HTTP headers for your css/js/pictures/whatever. You can even have smooth page transitions now.
- adamtaylor_13
Did I misunderstand or was that whole rant just to establish that, actually, we do need super tiny frameworks for the front end, but they're super tiny so it's not a big deal and they're not bad like React?
- benoau
Some good history of the JS ecosystem here but the underlying message is all the same, frameworks scale and provide structure but you don't need them. Very easy to agree up to this point.
Author then elaborates in the absence of using a common-knowledge framework you can create some tighter solution that achieves just the part you need. This is "fun" programming, and the author is suitably impressed with themselves for solving problems they created just by convincing themself not to use a framework. Sometimes that's fine, although I don't think there's much appetite for this anymore.
Article doesn't really elaborate on what "scaling" and "providing structure" means, I think it downplays the benefits because when you use <framework> you are really establishing ground rules for how all future developers are going to work on that software. You don't know exactly what they'll write, but you know they'll always gravitate towards the top 2 or 3 solutions for that framework at any given time.
When you bust out a bespoke solution that carves out that one thing you needed and does it oh so elegantly and perfectly, you're creating art but most of the canvas is left blank for future developers and they're effectively going to scribble on it with crayons.