Why Svelte is my favorite framework right now

Out of everything I've picked up in the last year, Svelte is the one that actually changed how I think about writing UI code. Coming from React, it felt like relearning to drive after only ever using automatic — the fundamentals transfer, but a lot of the reflexes don't.

No hooks, no dependency arrays

No useState, no useEffect dependency arrays to argue with. You assign a variable and the reactivity just handles itself. It's suspiciously simple the first time you see it work, and it stays simple as the app grows, which is the part that actually sold me.

What I've built with it

The clearest example is BananaClicker, an idle clicker game where numbers need to update constantly and cheaply. Svelte's compile-time reactivity means there's barely any runtime overhead doing that, compared to a virtual DOM diffing on every tick.

• BananaClicker — idle clicker game, built entirely in SvelteKit
• Parts of my own portfolio site — SvelteKit under the hood
• Assorted smaller tools where I wanted less boilerplate, faster

The tradeoffs, honestly

What I miss from React: the ecosystem size and the mental model being universal enough that any dev can jump into your codebase. What I don't miss: writing three hooks to do what a single reactive statement does in Svelte. Neither is objectively better — but Svelte is the one I reach for first now.