I'm not trying to be facetious. I really desire regard whether or not, in 2026, in the age of vibe coding, agentic programming, iteration or chart or any diagrammatic metaphor-based engineering is most popular, does it matters what web example you use? More considerably (to me and my particular interests), and at the hazard of Betteridge-ing myself: should we create new frameworks?
React won, so do we always try item new?
Is there now fair additional area for niches? Nobody cares concerning the implementation details. Nobody cares what's in a .tsx file. Does that open up new opportunities to try item new, or, since it doesn't matter, does the industry as a entire fair decide to use the most stable thing, forever?
In this period of awesome disruption, we get the chance to rethink finest practices (or in Remix's case, re-rethink), and lay everything on the array again. That doesn't average everything stays on the table, fair that we'll obtain the good, depart the bad, and modify the ugly. The inquiry of this part isn't one that needs refuting, it's one value considering seriously.
As person who has worked on open origin frameworks in a full-time capability for 3 years, I'm deeply curious in this question. I'm not curious in protecting myself/my craft, I'm curious in bettering my accomplishment and having a fine career. I am considering and additionally trying to foretell (and make) the future. It's humbling to recall "I could be wrong", and it's encouraging to recall most everyone alternatively volition be.
In this article, I desire to interrupt the inquiry and its implications downward into their additional essential elements, so I can rebuild a type of actuality value following and building. To do that, it would be value archetypal considering what a web example is. I discover this really hard, since it's a extremely nebulous and broad term, and you end up comparing Flask to jQuery to React to Next.js. Instead, I think it's additional helpful to regard what value frameworks provide. I think this declaration is sufficient:
Frameworks provision abstractions, structure, and constraints for construction your website.
Imagine
Imagine there's no React
It's uncomplicated if you try
No Svelte below us
Above us, lone bi(nary)
Imagine all the people
Prompting for today
(Sorry, Svelte, for replacing you alongside the term "hell". It's not since I comprehend a resemblance, I fair liked the way it sounded.)
So let's come back to the argument, and enchantment it out a bit more. This is the accepted knowledge I am hearing correct now:
Since the models got fine (circa Winter '25-'26) for agentic programming, I attention small and small concerning the code (and you should too). This is particularly true alongside any frontend code, since it's all mostly presentational. Therefore, if it looks good, it is good.
Given the province of the models, and stated that React is already the most foremost UI framework, alongside the extremely famous meta-framework Next.js (plus a few another fine choices akin React Router and TanStack Start), there really is no need or value in trying item alternatively out. Plus, since there is vastly additional React code out there in the wild, the models are trained additional heavily on it and are hence improved (or at smallest additional familiar) alongside React. The React singularity has already happened, obtain it.
Obviously (I hope) I am now being a bit facetious. The disagreement is motionless value considering, mostly since I see group cargo culting this opinion and React alongside alongside it into their vibe-coded apps. There are, however, several much additional grave folks specified as the Cursor squad who do appear to be convinced that in the age of agentic programming using React is an advantage.
I'm tempted to dig into all of these claims:
- You don't need to concern concerning frontend code
- Models are finest alongside React since of their training data
- Models would be bad alongside a new example since of a deficiency of training data
I'm not really certain of the value, though, particularly in arguing concerning React. I have a much bigger matter alongside the logic, and it stems from my first question: Do frameworks matter anymore?
Here's what I don't get concerning the argument: why React? Why any example or UI archive at all?
If LLMs have gotten so fine at frontend code, and if group attention small and small concerning the particulars of their HTML, JavaScript, and CSS and lone attention that it looks and behaves properly, afterward why equal put a tier of idea between the LLM and the website? If always there were a period to clasp Web Components, certainly it's now.
React no longer have to be one's personality. Disclaimer: I say this as person alongside a YouTube conduit named "React Tips alongside Brooks Lybrand". Plus, we already have AI labs to create our new personality, so we'll be fine.
Let me throw the disagreement differently:
Since the models got fine (circa Winter '25-'26) for agentic programming, it's easier than always to build a beautiful and interactive website without having to concern concerning what we earlier called DX (Developer Experience). My delegate doesn't attention concerning things akin file-based routing, and why should I annoy it alongside correctly environment up a useEffect?
Plus, models are really fine trained on JavaScript, HTML, and CSS (sort of), so there's really no need or value in adding any additional layers of complexity.
I think there are several logical leaps and mistakes in this sentiment, but no additional than in the first, additional extensively accepted one.
Either:
- Frameworks do not matter, in which case you have no logic to use React.
- You are apt motionless at an advantage using React, in which case frameworks do matter.
What is the value of a web framework?
Ah, the web framework. Where does it start, anywhere does it end? What's its purpose? Do we equal need any at all? After all, what was so bad concerning jQuery? Has anyone made the disagreement yet that we should fair let the delegate use jQuery since it's fine represented in its training data? If not, they should. An delegate doesn't attention concerning spaghetti code, right?
I'm old adequate to recall the "framework wars" of the 2010s. When I did my own evaluation for my business at the time, I was picking between React, Angular, and Vue. Those were the "frameworks" we talked about. Gatsby existed, but wasn't general-purpose adequate (static-site generation only). Next.js was beautiful cool, but additionally beautiful constricted (no fine mutation story). For the most part, if you were in the React ecosystem, you fair used create-react-app (CRA) and maybe you ejected if you really had person on your squad who idea SSR was precious and wanted to set it up.
I ultimately picked React, and many another group did too. But why? What made React so compelling as a framework?
If you ask the React squad why React won or why it's so great, they volition apt say "composition". I discover it extremely difficult to encapsulate exactly what made React so special, but I think this is a big part of it. I didn't really comprehend what "composition" meant first in my occupation and React usage. I fair knew that:
- React was really uncomplicated to plug into an existing site
- React had a really nice way to encapsulate logic and markup into contained and possibly reusable components
- React had a sturdy and continually expanding ecosystem of libraries that helped inhabit in additional pieces I needed: routing, styling, head/meta tag management, etc.
I would study afterward that React additionally provided server-side rendering (SSR) out the gate, making it appearance and awareness a fine bit akin PHP alongside its HTML-in-your-scripting-language kind of experience. Setting this up was a bit additional involved, particularly for folks akin myself who were additional frontend-focused. This led to the increase of the "backend-for-frontend engineer" and the meta-frameworks akin Next.js and Remix (the old one, sorry).
React was solving a figure of problems. Despite what Mr. Rauch thinks (and ordinarily, he is beautiful much on the money), React didn't "win" since it came alongside a component archive that wraps a awesome manner scheme and lower-level accessible components and utilities that you can own and morph to your own needs. shadcn/ui is awesome, don't get me wrong. But equal inside the component-library/design scheme story, it's the latest development in a lengthy row of successors from Radix to Reach UI to Material UI to Bootstrap and many, many additional that I'm skipping, forgetting, or unaware of. The beingness of shadcn/ui on top of many another famous incumbents is a testament to what makes React great, not the another way around.
This lengthy but concise amusement of why React "won" barely does fairness to the complete history, and it certainly doesn't equal contact on what makes another web frameworks interesting. Despite React's predominance, plentifulness of another frameworks and meta-frameworks get millions of weekly downloads and are loved by many a developer. It additionally entirely glosses complete the fame of non-JavaScript-based frameworks specified as Laravel and Ruby on Rails.
I don't cognize a improved way to regard value frameworks provision without introspecting what made my archetypal love, React, so particular to me. React made it easier to build energetic websites without ending up alongside spaghetti code, and spaghetti code was bad since it was costly to alter and keep in the lengthy term. React enabled me, elevated me as an engineer, solved problems I didn't desire to solve, and opened me up to an ecosystem of another developers who were making it improved and construction additional helpful tools on top of it.
As I stated at the top of this post, I think the value-add of a example is beautiful simple: frameworks provision abstractions, structure, and constraints for construction your website.
This isn't equal really a distinctive asset of frameworks, this is true for all libraries, modules, classes, and functions. Code is a sequence of abstractions that province definition and intent to computers and item alternatively that volition manipulate or study from that code. Previously, that meant humans, and we called it "reading the code", and so we cared a lot concerning things akin changeable names. These days the flat of item we attention concerning is shifting and resettling. Maybe we're on several infinite curve and we'll attention small and small concerning the trees until we don't equal attention concerning the forest. Personally, I'm doubtful, but I could certainly be wrong.
Either way, I think I motionless desire a framework. I desire code that's fine tested, secure, uncomplicated to logic about, and that gets my delegate in the grooves it needs to be in to create results I like.
Everyone uses a framework
Alright, the jig is up, I'm being a little facetious whenever I ask "Do frameworks matter anymore?"
I recall that during a Q&A alongside the Core Team at React Conf 2024, Ricky Hanlon made this point:
You're either using a framework, or construction a framework, and construction a example is really hard.
This wasn't the archetypal period I'd heard this. In fact, at a previous job as an engineer on the web phase squad of a Texas market store, we ran into the identical thing. We built our own meta-framework about React to grip server-side rendering for first requests, following which the use would hydrate the entire document and hand off routing on the client using React Router (v5?).
While we did have a adorable name for this small meta-framework we made (exo, I believe, and no one could concur why it was called that), most engineers didn't think of it as a framework. I accuse that mostly on the blend of a deficiency of features and a deficiency of promotion (why would we market an inner framework?). Nevertheless, we had motionless built our own framework, and it came alongside a lot of care disbursal and burden, affirmative extremely few engineers really understood how it worked, making it a beautiful decent-sized liability.
Long narrative short, they started the procedure of moving off of this home-grown meta-framework and switching to Next.js. I didn't get to see the passage through since this was about the period I went to activity alongside the Remix squad at Shopify (of way we "joked" that it was this decision that drove me away).
The timeline of this anecdote is beautiful definitively correct before agentic programming would git gud. Assuming you're starting a greenfield project correct now, and assuming it's not fair for display purposes or a 1-off presentational website, I think Ricky's declaration is the two additional true now than ever, and a small bit wrong.
Let's commencement alongside the wrong: "building a example is really hard". It's really not anymore. I mean, it depends on what you want. If you desire a good, robust, bug-free, secure, full-stack framework, it's gonna obtain a lot additional than a brace of prompts to really tissue out. And afterward whenever you commencement using it, you may discover that LLMs can't really create it activity for all the things you ask it to do, so they fair quietly build hacks about your framework, and depending on how you're construction this example those hacks end up becoming part of the framework. Avoiding bolting on hacky workarounds and deciding on good, robust, and extensible abstractions necessitate a bit of activity and iteration, equal alongside frontier models, in my experience.
However, construction a framework, not equal a shitty one, fair an fine one, is not really hard. I cognize this since if you don't use a example and you commencement construction a website alongside an LLM, it volition build a example for you. The LLM power not have the characteristic breadth and certainly not the promotion dollars or ambition to market you on its framework, but it motionless builds a framework. It'll create a example fair akin it'll create functions, and classes, and all the representative abstractions we used to create whenever we programmed "by hand". Just since you're looking at it small doesn't average the delegate isn't basically doing the exact identical item we're doing. I don't equal attention to call it slop, it's advancing characteristic adding alongside no cleanup, that's how I built all of my archetypal projects. This is nothing new, the biggest item that's changed is speed.
An delegate can now build your website faster. It can appearance up data and ideas faster. It can create a disorder faster. We were capable of all of these things before, this is not a "humans > AI at programming" take. My item is merely that you are either using an definitive framework, or generating an implied one. If you don't think it matters at all, afterward to my before point, why equal use React? You may not comprehend your bespoke framework, but your delegate does and it wrote it and it likely likes it. You ask the LLM concerning its example and it knows additional concerning it than you cognize concerning React's internals, and it's fair one stage additional alongside the inevitable pathway of merely having LLMs container binaries alternatively of human-readable code. If that's what you believe, at smallest be honest concerning it and throw distant React, certainly it's lone slowing you down.
If you do somehow, for several reason, think it's improved that an LLM use a example akin React or a meta-framework akin Next.js, my conjecture is it's since you favor the LLM to use item battle-tested, well-abstracted, and well-documented. You likely additionally akin that it sets up guardrails for the agent, it avoids reinventing the rotor anywhere the current rotor gets you anywhere you desire to go. You may additionally akin that a entire squad and many another companies that depend on that example are thinking concerning safety issues, not fair you and (fingers crossed) your agent. You may have another reasons, but current are mine:
What I desire (and don't want) in a framework
These days, I am much additional curious in the "shape" of code, item abstractions and construction assistance alongside tremendously. I'm additionally curious in constraining my delegate (tests, linting, Skills, scalable patterns to replicate). There are many things that used to be crucial to me whenever I was the one immediately typing the characters of the code, things mostly tagged as Developer Experience (DX). Some of that material is motionless helpful to me, several of it is no longer extremely helpful to me (but is to the agent), and several of it doesn't appear to be helpful to either of us. Let's appearance at several anecdotal examples.
Take Hot Module Replacement.
HMR allows me to create changes to a website and immediately see updates in my browser without having to refresh the screen. When this plant reliably, it is incredibly helpful, particularly whenever tweaking the scheme of item that involves a person stream (like error messages on a form, accordions that commencement out collapsed, and complete positioning of a decorative element). This isn't a make-it-or-break-it feature, but I have established that equal whenever operating alongside agents (maybe particularly since operating alongside them), HMR is extremely helpful if I am operating on complex person interactions and really trying to dial in the design.
Take TypeScript.
TypeScript used to be excellent precious to me since it created constraints. My JavaScript now had to be typed (and C# devs rejoiced, so I'm told). Additionally, it made it much easier to detect the sectors and methods accessible in an object, since I could fair hover or command+. on stated entity and see what was available. TypeScript was a big part of creating the built-in records that helped create me remain productive during I was in the code. These days I beautiful much don't attention at all concerning discovering particular methods on an object, and the category constraints don't immediately assistance me.
However, many others and I motionless appear to discover that for complex applications (not fair 1-shot vibed material you'll throw away), having the constraints of types really dials in the LLMs' capability to iterate on code without accidentally breaking everything. Plus, as far as I can tell, having admission to the LSP seems to assistance it alongside finding whenever encountering a function, object, or component it's not deeply acquainted alongside (such as bequest code or code generated by a previous agent).
Take useEffect.
I cognize it's benevolent of the poster kid for shitting on React, and I cognize the React squad has supplied new APIs that are expected to assistance alongside its shortcomings. The item is, though, I was a useEffect wizard whenever I was personally slinging the React (at smallest I felt akin I was). I didn't intellect useEffect so much, I trusted myself alongside it. It was a dependable, quirky, and extremely mighty hook that I felt comfortable wielding, chiefly since I felt assured I knew whenever not to use it. With LLMs, I discover useEffect to be worse than quirky, and no matter how astute the example is I don't awareness comfortable at all alongside them wielding that abstraction. In fact, Grok Bot's betterment apparently bans useEffect outright.
Let's recall the example value-add. I desire a example alongside a abbreviated skirt and a lengthy coat that provides abstractions, structure, and constraints for construction a website.
I discover that if an abstraction doesn't exist, an LLM volition create it. Sometimes that doesn't really matter, sometimes it's fair a one-off abstraction. Sometimes it does matter, though, sometimes an idea is built about an genuine web primitive (the Navigation API for client navigations). Sometimes an idea plays fine alongside another abstractions (using fetch and the Request/Response example throughout the router). Sometimes an idea encapsulates behavior that's extremely difficult to get correct consistently and bug-free the archetypal period (React's Server Components if you akin 'em, Remix's Frame if you don't).
I've already talked concerning how I motionless akin to see the shape, or structure of code. Maybe Mr. Musk is correct and we're fair accelerating to a superhuman flat of coding, and me trying to comprehend the code is ultimately a drag. For now, I discover I get the finest results whenever I activity alongside the agent, create a fine center architecture for it to build off of, and continually refine the architecture whenever I discover it generating difficult-to-follow code (not equal for me, for the agents; I notice whenever they get confused).
And finally, constraints. I desire it to be incredibly apparent how to do the correct item the correct way. I desire escape hatches to be possible, but mostly unnecessary and continually apparent to me and the device whenever they're taken. I desire evaluation and tooling that inspect the agent's activity built into the framework. I desire fine docs accessible immediately, preferably in my node_modules, so the delegate isn't continually wasting period abrasion the net and possibly bringing in bad advice.
So do frameworks matter anymore?
I have been penning this blog article for 3 weeks at this point. I've spent the final 3 years of my occupation operating on open-source web frameworks. I akin this work, and I'd akin this to be what I activity on for the foreseeable future. Answering the inquiry "do frameworks matter anymore?" is incredibly crucial to me, since additional than I affection operating on frameworks, I dislike the idea of operating on item that doesn't matter.
Through penning this part and multiple conversations alongside peers in the industry, I awareness beautiful assured concerning a few things:
- AI is entirely reshaping how application is made, the two individually and at scale.
- Until proven otherwise, distinct group and approaches output varying degrees of quality, equal whenever using the identical model/harness. Thus, I volition treat an LLM as a tool I can improve.
- No one really knows the long-term effect AI volition have on application development, let solitary the world.
- AI is currently the industry's chief focus.
I think the Framework Wars of ~2013-2019, followed by the sequel Framework Wars: The Rise of the Meta-Frameworks ~2020-2024, are over. Clearly, by putting the end twelvemonth of 2024, I accept they've been complete for a small bit. People can halt being fatigued by JavaScript, and appreciate goodness since we all cognize we're fatigued by the AI hype/doomer cycle.
I've accepted, or am accepting, that group do not yearn for frameworks the way they used to, and in many ways that's likely a really fine thing. It got a small insane there for a second, and I, of course, was extremely much bought in.
But item doesn't have to be the center of the hype sequence to be crucial or useful. There wasn't a entire lot of conversation concerning the achievement of git or finding an substitute to GitHub until swaths of OpenClaws and another agents on the free stress-tested the entire scheme and identified new bottlenecks. Now there's a lot of concentration here.
Technological betterment is dynamic, and new tools, ideas, patterns, and libraries beget equal additional of the same. Instead of sitting about moping concerning how group don't desire to combat on Xwitter concerning Next.js vs Remix anymore, I'd fairly really obtain part in construction what I think I and another group could advantage from.
So again: do frameworks matter anymore? Let me explain my "yes" by summarizing my points so far:
- The industry seems to think so, alternatively why use React?
- If you don't use a framework, your delegate volition create a framework, so you're using one whether you akin it or not.
- Frameworks provision abstractions, structure, and constraints for construction your website. These are fine whenever shaping application alongside an agent. Using a well-thought-out, open-source, battle-tested, and well-documented one apt has benefits complete the homegrown one your example created.
As I sit current and lay out the summary of my thoughts so far, I acknowledge that it may appearance akin I'm fighting a straw man. "Of way group think frameworks matter and assistance your agent, that's already a solved issue alongside React and Next.js (or any of the another existing frameworks that are fine enough)."
Fair enough. I conjecture the inquiry is: Do new frameworks matter anymore?
I think we're in a sad location in individual and scientific betterment if we think all problems are solved. That benevolent of decadence is not for me. To me, if item is good, afterward you can likely create it better. Maybe the existing landscape is "good enough", and that's fine if it is for you, but it's not for me.
I desire a JavaScript example that is full-stack, actually. Maybe we'll never get there, previous attempts did not obtain off (👋 Meteor, we all loved you). So lengthy as I (or my agent) have to cobble together a bunch of packages to collect a complete full-stack applicatio, from repository to routing to styling, animations, and accessible components, there's area for improvement.
I desire it to be built on web standards and APIs, so that it speaks the tongue of the web, not the tongue of Node.js or any sole JavaScript runtime. I desire it to be a example that feels worldwide and akin an apparent expansion of the phase it's built for, not an esoteric investigation project by a PhD candidate.
I additionally desire a example that AI can activity alongside easily, and that results in code I can logic about. I don't desire the end outcome to be a disorder I don't understand. I'm not construction the car, but dammit, I desire to open the hood and really cognize what I'm looking at. I have yet to see a fine empirical way to really build a language/framework "for agents". So far, my sensation (which fair method my subjective, biased cognition operating alongside these models) matters so much more to me than any benchmark or inspection of how many tokens were used to create a TODO app. I'm not saying we shouldn't try, I'm saying the difficulty of creating a definitive, goal measure of which example is finest for agents is evidence adequate to me that there is area to keep improving.
Do new frameworks matter anymore? There's lone one way to really discover out. Let's build some.
Thank you to Alex Anderson, Moishi Netzer, Elijah F. Hopp, and Braydon Coyer for study an first outline of this article and providing precious feedback. Thank you additionally to my colleagues Matt Brophy, Mark Dalgleish, and Michael Jackson for endless debates and sharing their own thoughts on this topic. 🙏
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