TL;DR: This blog post compares and contrasts Svelte and React, two popular JavaScript frameworks, to help developers make informed decisions based on their project needs.
We are almost in 2025, and the emphasis on choosing the right framework for frontend development is increasing at an unprecedented rate. Frontend development is more dynamic and fast-evolving than ever.
With developers’ increasing focus on providing the best user experience, performance, and interactivity, they face the challenge of selecting the right tools and frameworks to strike the right balance between ease of development and delivering an optimal solution for creating a large-scale app.
Advancements in technology have increased user expectations over time, which has encouraged developers to shift their focus on providing the optimal user experience. This has led the developers to choose the frameworks that abstract the overheads and provide all the abstraction under the hood so that developers can focus on writing business logic rather than worrying about cross-browser support and common issues.
This trend and the rise of single-page applications (SPAs) have created a dominance of JavaScript frameworks such as React. At the same time, these frameworks have expedited the development and solved many underlying performance and scalability issues than plain old JavaScript.
While React is the top in its pack, developers also seek a lightweight alternative such as Svelte that helps to create large-scale apps without sacrificing speed and efficiency.
Many developers want to break through React’s dominance and find a better tool. Svelte is a great alternative to React for creating a robust, scalable app that uses a different approach than virtual DOM for better performance.
We will discuss their strengths and weaknesses so that you can conclude by choosing the right framework for your next project.
Why is this comparison required?
Many developers find themselves in a dilemma while choosing the right framework for their project due to React’s popularity and adoption. With React being such a prominent player and its reputation established over the decades of evolution, it is harder to choose an alternative such as Svelte, a relatively newer framework.
In recent years, Svelte has caught its pace, and in 2025, it will be quite stable and established enough to be considered for large-scale enterprise-grade apps. However, multiple factors, such as project scope, team expertise, and future scaling needs, must be considered.
Comparing both frameworks and their strengths will help developers make conscious decisions based on their project’s unique demands, avoiding over-complication or under-preparation.
This comparison is not for choosing a winner but rather for choosing the right framework that aligns with the project goals, performance needs, and team structure.
As React becomes more popular, we skip comparing the pool of developers familiar with the framework and instead focus on performance and scalability.
Factors that we will be evaluating while doing the evaluation:
Performance: With the rise of highly interactive and complex web apps, performance has become a critical factor. The user expects an optimal experience with fast load times, and the bar is higher than ever.
Developer experience: The key to a successful business is shipping things faster, which is only possible when the framework being used provides the best developer experience. If the learning curve is smaller and a vast set of libraries and tools are available for the framework, then it helps the developers focus on the important things without reinventing the wheel.
Lightweight: The smaller, the better is the mantra for faster app loading. If the framework is lightweight, it will load faster, even on slower networks, providing a better user experience. No one wants to wait nowadays.
Sustainable and future-proof: The framework or tool that will be chosen should be able to meet all the current needs and be scalable to adapt to all future requirements. Technological advancements such as web assembly, server-side rendering, and edge computing are some features that are supported by all the popular frameworks.
React
React is a JavaScript library introduced in 2013 that uses the virtual DOM (document object model) along with the efficient diffing algorithm called Reconciliation. This algorithm minimizes the interaction with the actual DOM by efficiently calculating updates. Since its inception, it has drastically changed how developers create highly interactive web apps.
React uses JSX (Javascript XML), which helps write JavaScript as HTML markup. This makes it extremely developer-friendly, as different JavaScript functions can be treated as HTML elements, and non-HTML attributes passed to this JSX will be treated as properties.
It has also introduced the concept of Hooks, which allows functional components to have states and side effects, promoting functional programming at its core. Each component can be isolated to a separate UI block that can be extended as it is built.
Refer to the following React code example for an increment counter.
import React, { useState } from 'react';
function App(props) {
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
return (
<div className='App'>
<div>Count: {count}</div>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
<button onClick={() => setCount(count - 1)}>Decrement</button>
</div>
);
}
export { App };
As React is a library that handles the diffing at its core with the virtual DOM, it can be used with different libraries on different platforms.
For example, we use ReactDOM on the web to render the elements on the DOM. With React Native, we can use React’s principle for mobile app development.
The core library can be used with any third-party library like Redux for state management, React-Router to handle the navigation, React-Query for query caching, etc., making it flexible to use the library of your preference.
Due to its vast community, a large pool of libraries is available, making it an ideal choice for developers.
Next.js is a server-side framework of React that offers server-side rendering, static site generation, incremental static re-rendering, and server-side streaming capabilities, extending React to a full-stack framework.
Svelte
Svelte is a JavaScript framework that takes a relatively different approach than frameworks that use the concept of virtual DOM, like Preact or React. Unlike other frameworks like React, which executes the code in the browser at run time, Svelte takes the compile-time approach, moving the most of the work to the build time.
Rather than relying on the virtual DOM for the updates, Svelte compiles the components into imperative code that directly manipulates the DOM. It was designed to reduce the boilerplate code and complexity involved in state management and component reactivity. This results in smaller bundle sizes and faster runtime performance.
Instead of relying on third-party libraries, Svelte provides inbuilt support for state management and navigation.
Refer to the following Svelte code example for an increment counter.
<script>
let count = 0;
const increment = () => { count = count + 1; }
const decrement = () => { count = count - 1; }
</script>
<div className='App'>
<div>Count: {count}</div>
<button on:click={increment}>Increment Count</button>
<button on:click={decrement}>Decrement Count</button>
</div>
<style>
button{
background: red;
}
</style>
Svelte follows a more traditional approach as we write native HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in a single file. All the component code is isolated in the same file, which makes it easier to maintain.
It uses an intuitive reactivity model based purely on the assignments and changes in the variable’s value, eliminating the need to use a virtual DOM.
Sapper is a server-side framework of Svelte that offers server-side rendering, static site generation, and other features that give momentum to the framework. It was later made part of the SvelteKit, making it idle for creating full-stack Svelte apps with robust routing and integration.
Svelte comes with an in-built store for state management. The store model matured well in 2024, making it easier to manage global states. It has also introduced tools for server-side state hydration, making it easier to share state between the client and the server.
Architectural difference between Svelte and React
React’s virtual DOM vs. Svelte’s no virtual DOM
One of the major differences between both the frameworks is how they handle the updates to the DOM (Document Object Model)
React’s virtual DOM
React introduced the concept of the virtual DOM, which is an in-memory representation of the actual DOM in which the initial update takes place in the React library. A snapshot of the virtual DOM is maintained before the update to the virtual DOM. It is then compared with the post-update changes to differentiate what has changed using a Reconciliation algorithm, and then the changes are only updated to the actual DOM. This minimizes the changes that boost the performance.
With the help of virtual DOM, React batches the updates and minimizes the actual DOM manipulation, dramatically boosting performance.
Advantages
Optimized rendering: React uses the Reconciliation algorithm to differentiate what has changed, minimizing the interaction with the actual DOM.
Predictable performance: It makes it easier to track the changes in the component when the state or props change. It is also easier to track the errors in the components with the reconciliation.
Backward compatibility: The virtual DOM improves performance in older browsers, where DOM manipulation is an expensive experience.
Disadvantages
- Re-rendering: A change in state or props results in entire components re-rendering; though the changes to the DOM are minimized with the virtual DOM, it still introduces lots of overhead, especially with the nested components in large apps.
Svelte’s no virtual DOM
Svelte has taken a different approach by not relying on the virtual DOM. Instead, It compiles components at the build time into an imperative JavaScript change that directly manipulates the DOM. The compiled code is highly efficient, and it updates the DOM directly whenever needed when the state changes in the component.
This removes the need to re-render the component completely.
Advantages
Direct DOM updates: Sveltes creates highly efficient compiled code that directly updates the actual DOM when anything changes, leading to higher performance, especially for the small components.
No re-rendering: Unlike React, Svelte updates the DOM directly, removing the need for complete re-rendering of the components and saving unnecessary computation.
Smaller bundle sizes: As there is no virtual DOM and its ecosystem, the Svelte bundle size is comparatively smaller than the React, leading to faster load time.
Disadvantages
- Inefficient for large-scale: React’s virtual DOM provides batched updates and proves highly efficient for large-scale apps where the DOM frequently changes.
React’s runtime vs. Svelte’s compiled code
Another important difference between React and Svelte is how the code execution takes place during development and production.
React’s runtime
React’s code is executed at runtime. The React app runs in the browser, which interprets the code during execution. It manages state updates, event handling, and rendering at runtime.
Advantages
- Dynamic changes: React can handle dynamic changes to its app, making it suitable for real-time dashboards or collaborative tools.
Disadvantages
- Dependency overhead: React components are dependent on the React library for reactivity and re-rendering, which forces them to include React in the main bundle, increasing the upfront load time, especially for smaller apps.
Svelte’s compile-time
Unlike React, Svelte is a compile-time framework. At build time, Svelte components are converted to highly optimized JavaScript code capable of efficient DOM updates.
Advantages
Lean bundle: The Svelte compiler optimizes the code during the building time, removing the redundant logic. This ensures the final code is lean and highly efficient.
Zero runtime: The final bundle is only composed of the highly efficient vanilla Javascript code, removing the need to include any extra library in the main bundle, leading to smaller bundle sizes and faster load times.
Disadvantages
- Less dynamic flexibility: In highly dynamic apps, where the app UI components change frequently based on user interactions, React’s runtime flexibility outperforms the Svelte compilation.
JavaScript fatigue: External dependencies in React vs Svelte
One of the major pain points in modern front-end development is JavaScript fatigue – the overwhelming number of tools, libraries, and other dependencies that modern front-end frameworks require.
Both React and Svelte approach dependencies differently, which tends to affect the developer experience.
React’s extensive ecosystem and dependencies
React is a huge community, and it is highly adopted, which has increased its ecosystem vastly, which means developers can find tools and libraries for every use case out there. React-query for query management, Redux for global state management, React-router for routing/navigation, styled-components for component styling, etc.
While this flexibility is an asset, it is also a burden. Enterprise-scale apps can quickly accumulate a large set of dependencies, which increases the complexity of managing and maintaining the app.
Disadvantages
Extensive learning curve: Developers have to familiarize themselves with the dependencies and React itself. This can increase the learning curve for beginners or those just getting started with the codebase.
Tooling overload: As there are multiple libraries available for the same work, developers often encounter decision paralysis while choosing the best library for their use case.
Complex build process: External tooling libraries such as Webpack and Vite handle the bundling process of React apps. Developers have to configure the bundlers to manage the dependencies efficiently.
Svelte’s minimalist dependencies
Svelte is a minimalist framework that requires pretty much nothing to get started. It is designed with state management and built-in reactivity.
Advantages
- Fewer dependencies: Svelte projects require fewer dependencies to get started, which results in smaller bundle sizes, less configuration, and easier maintenance. Developers spend more time writing actual logic rather than configuration.
Disadvantages
- Smaller ecosystem: Compared to React, Svelte has a smaller ecosystem; even though it is still growing, there is a limited choice of libraries and tools available.
Apart from these, both frameworks provide built-in support for Typescript and are designed to tackle performance issues.
Conclusion
Thanks for reading! React, an old player with its vast and mature ecosystem, large community, and extensive tooling, continues to dominate large-scale enterprise apps. Industry giants such as Netflix, Meta, and Airbnb have tested it over time. It is an ideal choice for complex apps that require scalability, modularity, and long-term support.
On the other hand, Svelte has carved a niche for itself, providing a more lightweight, performance-optimized, and developer-friendly alternative with less learning curve than the native coding style. Its compile-time approach leads to smaller bundle sizes and faster load times, making it ideal for small—to medium-sized projects or performance-critical apps.