Top 7 React Alternatives To Build Modern Web Frameworks

Today, 13 million+ websites are built using React, but developers are still looking for an alternative. But Why?

So, this blog post is about why programmers are looking for an alternative to React to build modern web frameworks and what available options they have that can replace React. 

Let’s proceed and first find out what the issues are with React, which compels developers to shift from React to another framework.

Issues Faced by Programmers With the React JS Library?

React.js surely creates amazing, never-before-seen Javascript libraries that leverage virtual DOM (Data Object Model). Which makes it the foremost choice among the developers to build the one-page application. 

But still, it has some flaws that drive developers to look for an alternative to React JS

1. Managing React JS Library Is Cumbersome

When you first start using React, a lot of useless libraries are installed during the installation process by Node Package Manager (npm). which uses a lot of system energy and might divert developers. It also has a sophisticated library with numerous moving components. This can make it difficult to learn and understand, especially for beginners.

2. Not A Newbie Friendly Library

React can have a steeper learning curve compared to some other frameworks, especially for those new to JavaScript. This can be a barrier to entry for some projects. Aside from that, you must learn JavaScript before you start using React.

3. Absence of Model-View-Controller

React’s MVC architecture is flawed because its model and controller do not control the view’s functionality. As a result, you look for a view-oriented React framework. While React doesn’t inherently follow MVC, it provides the building blocks to create well-structured and scalable applications.

4. Not a Reliable Option For Larger Projects

React’s component-based architecture is great for building UIs, but for very large projects, it can lead to complex codebases that are difficult to maintain.

5. Accessibility Concerns

Although ReactJS does not inherently preclude the creation of accessible applications, it does shift the onus of responsibility onto developers to ensure that the HTML output they generate is appropriately organized and incorporates the required accessibility features. For the resulting UI to be accessible to all users, developers must have a solid understanding of accessibility best practices and be able to make manual interventions.

In conclusion. We can say that undoubtedly React is a popular library among developers but not a perfect fit for novice programmers. To become experts at it, they must devote an enormous amount of time and skills. Additionally, React.js developers find it challenging to understand JSX React’s documentation. Thus, all things considered, we can conclude that React is well-liked by experienced developers but not quite the right fit for novices. 

So what’s next if not to go with React JS?

Some alternatives can replace React JS. Let’s find out what these are.

React Alternatives To Build Modern Web Frameworks

1. Angular JS

AngularJS is a JavaScript framework that lets you build dynamic web applications. It lets you use HTML as your template language and lets you extend HTML syntax to express your application’s components clearly and concisely. AngularJS’s data binding and dependency injection eliminate much of the code you would otherwise have to write.

Features of Angular JS

• AngularJS arranges this display to be consistent on the screen and the underlying model, in case of any change.
• Angular provides typing and autocompletion features with built-in development environment (IDE) tools. 
• With just the use of Angular, its integrated routing system enables you to switch between multiple views of your application.
• Develop applications with ARIA components that allow the blind to read or hear the content, developer manuals, and a11y test architecture to accommodate accessibility.
• There are built-in tests in Angular JS that may ease the testing application process.

Why Prefer Angular JS over React

Both React and Angular are excellent for developing applications, but Angular has many advantages over React. 

a. Structure

Angular is a fully functional framework, while React is merely a library.

• Angular is a web application framework built with TypeScript and provides a strong opinion on how your application should be designed, as well as a number of tiny libraries that aid in developing complex applications. 

• React JS is a JavaScript library that is concerned with the UI component. Implementing MVC design gives you more freedom in how you want to arrange your code, but it also requires Flux.

b. Data binding

Data binding is a technique that keeps the user interface (UI) and data in sync.

• Angular supports data binding that is both one-way and two-way. It implies that changes made to the UI input will also affect changes made to the model state, and vice versa.

• React uses one-way data binding. One-way data binding means that data can only flow from the parent component to the child component. This means that a UI element can’t affect a component’s state.

c. Language

Javascript serves as the foundation for ReactJS, while Typescript powers Angular. 

TypeScript is a top choice for developers because it is open-source and object-oriented. It is a 

• Angular is a TypeScrript is a statically typed language that is a superset of JavaScript.

• React is TypeeScript can write JavaScript XML (JSX), although it isn’t included by default.

d. UI Component

UI components are reusable pieces of code that can be used to build user interfaces. 

They are typically written in JavaScript and HTML and can be used to create a variety of different elements, such as buttons, menus, forms, and more.

• Angular includes a number of material design components that make UI configuration a breeze.

• On the other hand, React relies on the Matterial-UI Library and Dependencies, which offer a vast array of UI components created by the community. 

2. Preact

Preact is a lightweight JavaScript library designed to be an efficient alternative to React. It is compatible with React, allowing developers to scale an MVP into a full React application. Preact’s small virtual DOM and 3KB size enable quick transfers from server to client and optimize load times. 

It also provides a compatibility layer with React, making it easy to incorporate into existing applications. Preact is a lightweight JavaScript framework for developing mobile or web applications and progressive web apps (PWA).

Features of Preact

• Preact does not require any translation steps to be used directly in the browser. It registers actual event handlers, expands upon stable platform features, and integrates well with other libraries.
• Because of its simple and reliable implementation, Preact is among the fastest virtual DOM libraries available. 
• Preact’s compact size allows for the expansion of the Virtual DOM Component paradigm, enabling the creation of app parts without complex integration.
• This lightweight JavaScript library is a lightweight tool that enhances productivity. It allows for the passing of props, state, and context to render(), and supports standard HTML attributes like class and for.

Why Prefer Preact over React

React and Preact are both JavaScript libraries for building user interfaces. They both use a component-based architecture, making creating reusable and maintainable code easy. Preact has never claimed to be a React equivalent, though there are some significant distinctions between the two libraries.

a. Size

Preact is a much smaller library than React. Preact’s minified and gzipped version is only 3KB, while React is 45 KB. This makes Preact a good choice for projects where size is critical, such as mobile apps or progressive web apps.

b. Performance

Performance refers to the responsiveness and speed of an application. An essential aspect of developing applications is ensuring that users can interact with them seamlessly, load quickly, and have a great experience.

Speed: This React clone is faster than React. Preact is up to twice as fast as React in terms of initial load time and memory usage in benchmarks. This is because Preact uses a more streamlined codebase and omits some of the features found in React.

Interface: One popular JavaScript library for creating user interfaces is called React, which was developed by Facebook. It has a large community and extensive ecosystem and is known for its virtual DOM implementation, which optimizes UI rendering. React has become a go-to solution for developers looking to create complex and reactive web applications.

API: Preact, is a lightweight alternative to React. It offers a similar API and component-based architecture but with a smaller footprint. Preact’s small size makes it an excellent choice for performance-critical applications, especially on slower internet connections or devices with limited resources.

c. Virtual DOM

Both React and Preact rely heavily on the virtual DOM. A user interface can be updated and re-rendered quickly using the virtual DOM, which is an abstraction of the real DOM.

React Virtual DOM is now widely used because of its well-optimized implementation. It uses a diffing algorithm, which makes determining and applying the necessary changes quickly and effectively possible.

Preact uses a lighter virtual DOM and is made to be more compact while still offering all of React’s virtual DOM’s main features. For web apps where performance and size are important factors, Preeact is a good fit.

3. Vue

Vue is a JavaScript framework for building user interfaces. It offers a declarative, component-based programming model that enables you to effectively create user interfaces of any complexity. It builds on top of standard HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

The majority of the standard features needed for front-end design are provided by the Vue framework and ecosystem. The things we create on the web can differ greatly in size and form, though, due to the great diversity of the web. Vue is made to be adaptable and progressively used.

Where to Use Vue

• Improving static HTML without a build step.
• Single Page Application (SPA)
• Fullstack or Server-Side Rendering (SSR)
• Static Site Generation (SSG) or Jamstack 
• Focusing on WebGL, desktop, mobile, and even terminal

Features of Vue

• With the help of Vue’s template syntax, which extends standard HTML, we can declaratively describe HTML output by using JavaScript state.
• When changes occur, Vue effectively updates the DOM and automatically tracks JavaScript state changes.

Why Prefer Vue over React

The following benefits make Vue a better option than React.

1. Application Size

Vue.js and React.js both have feature-based designs and are lightweight, which means that they both improve app performance. On the other hand, Vue renders data more quickly and easily than React.

2. Code Reusability

Code reusability is the practice of writing reusable code that can be shared across different parts of an application, and even across different applications. 

In contrast to Vue JS, which allows for the reuse of HTML and CSS code, React.js only allows for the reuse of code for CSS.

3. Mobile App Development

Although React only includes a small library, it can be used to create cross-platform applications with the most recent React Native app development technology. But in order to create cross-platform apps, Vue and Native Script worked together a few years ago.

Moreover, when developing such single codebase sharing apps for iOS and Android devices, people often opt to use React Native due to its competitive advantages. Even though Vue makes mobile app development considerably easier, it still falls short of React in terms of producing truly robust apps.

4. Inferno

For JavaScript programming, Inferno is a declarative user interface library. It uses a component-based approach, rather than working with MVC/MVVM style patterns where data is unidirectional, which helps in making coding predictable, reusable, and highly testable.

Inferno adjusts its own costs to customize your user interface (UI) to meet your app requirements. Additionally, Inferno uses NodeJS and Inferno-server to render content on the server, allowing you to create amazing UIs that are rendered full-stack.

Features of Inferno

• Inferno JS also supports the same component lifecycle events as React, which makes it easy to write code that is reusable and maintainable.
• Several well-known state management frameworks, such as Redux, MobX, and Cerebral JS, are supported, in addition to Hyperscript JSX and the Vanilla createElement function.
• Inferno JS can be used to render UIs on both the client and the server. This makes it possible to create applications that are fast and responsive, even on mobile devices.
• It supports controlled components for input/select/textarea elements. This makes it easy to create forms that are easy to use and validate.

Inferno Vs React

• While React has a fully synthetic event system, Inferno only has a partially synthetic event system, delegating only specific events (like `onClick`).
• Inferno is not compatible with React Native. It was only designed for the browser/server with the DOM in mind.
• Inferno does not support legacy string refs; instead, use the `createRef` or callback’ref` API.
• Using Inferno, you can obtain lifecycle events based on functional components rather than ES2015 classes.
• Inferno styles use CSS property names [background-color: blue] rather than [backgroundColor: blue]. camelCase styles are supported through the inferno-compat package.

5. jQuery

With an intuitive API that functions across numerous browsers, the JavaScript library JQuery is intended to make HTML document traversal and manipulation, event handling, animation, and Ajax considerably easier. 

According to Web analysis, it is at least three or four times more frequently used than any other JavaScript library, making it by far the most widely deployed JavaScript library.

jQuery provides capabilities for developers to create plug-ins on top of the JavaScript library. This makes it possible for developers to produce abstractions for sophisticated effects, high-level, theme-able widgets, and low-level interaction and animation. The jQuery library’s modular design enables the development of robust, dynamic web pages and online applications.

Features of jQuery

• Compared to JavaScript, it has a predefined method that you can use to accomplish any task with ease.
• Because of its lightweight library, it can be minified and gzipped. Apart from that, it has a predefined CSS() method to manipulate HTML elements’ styles. 
• Using jQuery, you can easily select DOM elements, traverse them, and modify their content.
• It supports the latest modern web browsers, including IE-6, and event handling like clicking the mouse button.
• jQuery’s predefined method “animate()” allows you to create custom animations on web pages directly from the built-in animation.

Why jQuery over React

Even though both jQuery and React are Javascript libraries, they differ in a few key areas.

Is jQuery Performance Better Than React?

When it comes to performance, it is difficult to decide which one is better than the other. 

• jQuery leans on the traditional Data Object Model (DOM), which is responsible for slower updates, especially in large or complex applications. 
• React, on the other hand, makes use of the virtual DOM to improve performance and the update process. React outperforms jQuery in terms of speed and efficiency, using the virtual DOM.

Which is Highly Capable of Handling the Large Apps

• The slower DOM updates and development of “Spaghetti Code” in jQuery make it an unsuitable choice for developing and managing large applications.

• On the other hand, React ensures a virtual DOM and component-oriented structure, which accelerates its functionalities. Its faster DOM updates and easier-to-maintain codebase make it a better option for larger projects.

Which Has More Third-Party Owned Libraries? 

Third-party-owned libraries are generally avoided by software developers.  

Since jQuery is more established than React, there are more jQuery libraries available for developers to use. Then jQuery has a smaller number of NPM packages. 

On the flip side, React has a large number of NPM packages. This ensures that React is loaded with more third-party libraries than jQuery.

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