The HTML-First Approach: Why Htmx and Lightweight Frameworks Are Revolutionizin

Summary

For years, when it came to building something “modern” on the web, the almost automatic choice fell on React, Angular, Vue, and the entire Single Page Application (SPA) ecosystem. These frameworks became the safe choice, almost a de facto standard. But lately, a significant shift is happening in the front-end landscape. Many teams — including some large ones with enterprise projects — are moving toward HTML-first frameworks like htmx and other tools that take a more traditional, server-driven approach. And honestly, it makes perfect sense. 🎯 Not every application needs a heavy client-side engine. In many cases, the SPA model adds more complexity than value. HTML-first frameworks bring back some of the simplicity and speed the web was originally designed for, without sacrificing the interactivity users expect. In this article, we’ll explore in depth the reasons behind this trend, backed by concrete data and statistics. The JavaScript Bloat Problem: The Numbers Speak Clearly 📊 Before analyzing the advantages of the HTML-first approach, it’s essential to understand the magnitude of the problem we’re facing. The Exponential Growth of JavaScript The HTTP Archive data is eloquent: the average amount of JavaScript transferred per page has grown from 90 KB in 2010 to 650 KB in 2024. And this trend shows no signs of slowing down. But these are just average values. A detailed 2024 analysis reveals far more extreme cases: Slack, a chat application, loads 55 MB of JavaScript — practically the size of the original Quake 1 with all resources included Jira, a task management software, weighs almost 50 MB LinkedIn reaches 31 MB Simple social network “Like” buttons typically require 12 MB of code Even Google Maps, relatively modest by modern standards, weighs 4.5 MB If we assume an average line of code is about 65 characters, we’re talking about shipping approximately 150,000 lines of code with every website, sometimes just to display static content! 💡 Ever thought about it? Slack, ...