Choosing a frontend framework

A question I've gotten a few times after my talk or sharing Svelte by Example is which frontend framework I'd choose these days.

Here's the good news: these days you can't really go wrong with any of the major frameworks—at least from a technical perspective. React, Vue, Svelte, Angular… all have incredible teams, contributors & ecosystems backing them. Your frontend framework will not be the limiting factor of your architecture.

Choose a framework based on the non-technical needs of your team. If scaling up your team is important, React might make more sense because of its popularity on the job market. On the other hand, if your team hates the mental model of React, don't feel pressured to use it regardless of its popularity. Choose your framework based on how it aligns with your team's programming values, not performance needs. (Unless you're building a Bloomberg terminal.)

My preference these days: I'm split between React & Svelte. (That is, when I'm working on a project I deem worthy of a JavaScript-heavy interface, for others I still prefer vanilla JS or Alpine.) I like them both because they each have a distinct direction. React is as JavaScript as a JavaScript framework can be, while Svelte stays as close to HTML & the DOM as possible. What they have in common is they've chosen a slice of the stack, and double down on enhancing it. I prefer tools with distinct directions.