Svelte vs React: Which One is the Best?
Overview
When it comes to web development, React and Svelte are the two choices that come to our minds. React is a popular JavaScript library for creating and building user interfaces. It is an open-sourced software used for building reusable components. Similarly, Svelte is a framework used for building lightweight applications. It is a compiler that is used to translate JavaScript code into applications.
Introduction
As a front-end web developer, you might have faced the dilemma to choose the perfect framework for your webpage. Among all JavaScript frameworks or libraries, Svelte and React are some of the most preferred choices for web developers. But how should you choose one? Let us try and understand the same through this article so that you can choose the best for your web page.
React is a popular front-end JavaScript library. It is used to create user interfaces. It can be used for both complex and light-weighted apps. React was created by Facebook in the year 2011. It is maintained by Meta and a community of individual developers. After its release, it was made free and an open-source software 2 years later. Most companies like Facebook, Instagram, and Airbnb are built using React. One of the best features of React is that it uses Virtual DOM. Virtual DOM is a JavaScript representation of the actual DOM. It can exchange data and it doesn't require reloading for it.
Svelte is a popular front-end JavaScript framework. It was introduced in the year 2016. It is free and open-source software. Svelte is a compiler that translates JavaScript code into an application. It is used to make apps tiny and fast. It is maintained by the Svelte developer's community. Svelte at the build time compile components so that when the user interacts with the app, extra work of seeing which part of DOM has to be updated is minimized. Svelte is considered better than React. Yahoo, Apple, Square, ByteDance, Spotify, The New York Times, Ikea, etc., are the few companies that use Svelte for their web pages.
What is React?
When Should You Use React?
React should be used for state management. As discussed above, it can exchange data and it doesn't require reloading for it. It is user-friendly and coding is required for the interface's view model. It uses virtual DOM that looks for the best possible methods to make any changes to the actual DOM. It also enables cutting the development cost.
The typical examples of the type of applications built using React are-
- Desktop-based applications
- video streaming applications
- JAMstack webpages
- Web-based applications
Tip:
Jamstack or JAMStack is a web development architecture pattern and solution stack. The initialism "JAM" stands for JavaScript, API, and Markup.
Here is a glimpse of a code written in React.
How Does It Help in Cost Management?
React releases the product faster than any other library or framework. React has ready-made components that can be used to build the most complex apps using simple blocks of code. The components are further divided into smaller sub-components which saves a lot of time and effort.
What is Svelte?
When Should You Use Svelte?
Svelte is popularly known to resemble JavaScript code. That makes it easy to learn for those who are already well-versed in JavaScript. When the company wants a small package size for its website, Svelte is the best choice. The various programs written in the same are useful when the device power is low. Because of its compiler, framework abstractions of Svelte do not cause an effect on the application performance.
The typical examples of the type of applications built using Svelte are-
- applications with interactive visuals
- websites with single pages
- applications developed under restricted internet connection
Here is a glimpse of the code written in Svelte.
How Does It Help in Cost Management?
Svelte is considered one of the fastest JavaScript frameworks. It is faster than React. Since it uses a compiler, the maximum part is done during the build-time of compilation. Since it is fast, it yields quick results.
Similarities between Svelte and React
- Svelte and React both are used for front-end development. They are based on JavaScript.
- Both use components but have different methods for state handling and rendering.
- Both Svelte and React are open-sourced software.
Svelte vs React: Comparison Chart
Here is a quick summary of a comparison between Svelte and React. The comparison of Svelte vs React is:
| Comparison point | Svelte | React |
|---|---|---|
| Creator | Rich Harris | Jordan Walke |
| Creation year | 2016 | 2011 |
| Performance | Very good | Good |
| Maintained by | Community | Meta |
| Reactivity | Higher than React | High |
| Speed | Higher | High |
Svelte vs React: The Key Differences
Let us understand the difference between React vs Svelte and what makes these distinct.
| Comparison point | Svelte | React |
|---|---|---|
| Performance | Svelte uses a compiler. | React uses a virtual DOM which helps to boost the performance of the page. |
| Leaning curve | Since Svelte resembles Vanilla JS, it is easy to learn. | React has a steep learning curve as it has a more complex syntax as compared to Svelte. |
| Community | Since Svelte is comparatively new, the community is smaller. But it is gaining popularity. | React has a larger community because of its popularity. There are several resources available to learn React. |
| Documentation | Svelte has a growing community that is helping in improving documentation. | React has proper documentation because of the large community. |
| Syntax | Svelte uses a simpler syntax. | React uses JSX (JavaScript XML) as syntax which makes it a little bit complex. |
| Packages | Svelte has a lesser number of packages. | The packages in react are more. |
Conclusion
- React is a popular JavaScript library for creating and building user interfaces. It is an open-sourced software used for building reusable components.
- Svelte is a framework used for building lightweight applications.
- React uses a virtual DOM whereas Svelte uses a compiler.
- Svelte at the build time, compiles components so that when the user interacts with the app, extra work of seeing which part of DOM has to be updated is minimized.
- React uses virtual DOM that looks for the best possible methods to make any changes to the actual DOM.
- Svelte is faster than React as, at the build time the components are compiled so that when the user interacts with the app, the extra work of seeing which part of the DOM has to be updated is minimized.
- React is more popular than Svelte, has a proper community, neat documentation, and more packages as compared to Svelte. Gradually, Svelte is gaining popularity and improving its documentation and other factors.