Svelte 5 Has a Free Runes System That Replaces React Hooks

Svelte 5 introduced Runes — a new reactivity system that makes React Hooks look verbose. No virtual DOM, no runtime overhead, just compiled efficiency.

What Changed in Svelte 5

Svelte has always been different: it's a compiler, not a runtime. Your components compile to surgical JavaScript that updates the DOM directly.

Svelte 5 takes this further with Runes — a universal reactivity primitive:

// React way
const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
const doubled = useMemo(() => count * 2, [count]);
useEffect(() => { console.log(count) }, [count]);

// Svelte 5 way
let count = $state(0);
let doubled = $derived(count * 2);
$effect(() => { console.log(count) });

No dependency arrays. No stale closures. No rules of hooks.

What You Get for Free

$state — reactive state that works everywhere (components, modules, classes)
$derived — computed values that auto-update
$effect — side effects with automatic dependency tracking
$props — type-safe component props
$bindable — two-way binding props

Bundle output: ~2KB for a typical component. Svelte compiles away the framework.

Quick Start

npx sv create my-app
cd my-app
npm install
npm run dev

Why Runes Matter

Runes work outside components. You can create reactive state in a plain .svelte.js file and import it anywhere. This solves the biggest complaint about Svelte 4 — state management across modules.

// counter.svelte.js
let count = $state(0);
export function increment() { count++; }
export function getCount() { return count; }

Import this anywhere. It's reactive everywhere. No stores, no context, no providers.

Performance

Svelte 5 with Runes is faster than Svelte 4 in every benchmark. The new reactivity engine uses signals under the hood — the same pattern that powers SolidJS and Angular 17.

If you've been waiting to try Svelte — Svelte 5 is the version to start with.

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