Comment by davely
4 hours ago
I work on a React based web app in my Day Job and have genuinely enjoyed it.
That said, it always feels like so much boilerplate to get up and running for a greenfield project (and things like NextJS or even TanStack Start add a lot of things that might be overkill for a simple web app).
For some vibe coded side projects with Claude, I’ve been working with just using handlebars templates with Express and it has been pretty glorious!
I don’t think I’d recommend building a complex web app this way, but for some mild JS interactivity, form submission, etc, handlebars works.
Bonus: I find it much easier to get 100 across the board on Lighthouse scores this way.
> it always feels like so much boilerplate to get up and running for a greenfield project
This is why I love Bun + React. The setup is so easy I can do it off memory. I always hated boilerplate, templates etc. so this is a huge selling point for me.
> and have genuinely enjoyed it.
People who haven't work with other frameworks like svelte, Vue - normally say they are enjoying React.
This is a bit reductive.
For what it’s worth, I’ve used Vue and don’t like it (stuff like custom directives that are nonstandard html, not as explicit about event handling and data flow, etc).
I’ve seen a lot of buzz (particularly on HN) about Svelte but have lacked the motivation to try it.
I wanted to like Vue but when I tried it I didn't. For writing ordinary business applications I wish React reified lists more than it does, but what I like about React is that I know how to draw absolutely anything with it, including 3-d worlds, see
https://aframe.io/