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Sonu Jangra
Sonu Jangra

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React vs Svelte: A Performance Benchmarking

In the world of frontend frameworks, React and Svelte are two of the most popular choices among developers. React, with its large ecosystem and community, has been a dominant player in the JavaScript landscape for years. On the other hand, Svelte, a newer and more innovative framework, offers a fresh approach by shifting much of the work from the browser to compile time. In this blog post, we’ll dive deep into a performance benchmarking comparison of React vs Svelte, examining key metrics such as load time, rendering performance, bundle size, and memory usage.

What Makes Svelte and React Different?
Before jumping into the benchmark results, let’s quickly understand the primary difference between React and Svelte:

React: React is a component-based UI library that uses a virtual DOM to update the UI efficiently. It follows the declarative paradigm and manages state changes in an application by comparing the virtual DOM with the real DOM, calculating the minimal set of changes, and updating the UI accordingly.

Svelte: Svelte is a relatively new framework that takes a radically different approach. Instead of using a virtual DOM or relying on runtime overhead, Svelte compiles the app’s components into efficient imperative code at build time. This results in a smaller runtime and fewer resources spent on updating the UI.

Key Metrics for Performance Benchmarking
To perform a fair comparison, we’ll benchmark both frameworks across the following key performance metrics:

  • Bundle Size: Smaller bundle sizes lead to faster load times and better performance, particularly on mobile devices or slower networks.
  • Initial Load Time: This is the time it takes for the application to load for the first time and render the content on the screen.
  • Render Time / Updates: How fast the framework can render and update the UI in response to state changes.
  • Memory Usage: Efficient memory usage is essential for large applications. We’ll look at how much memory is used as the application grows.
  • CPU Usage: High CPU usage during UI rendering or state changes can degrade performance, especially on lower-end devices.

react-vs-svelte-benchmarking

Summary:

  • Performance: Svelte excels in terms of bundle size, initial load time, render time, memory usage, and CPU usage due to its compile-time optimizations and lack of virtual DOM.
  • Ecosystem and Tooling: React offers a more mature ecosystem with a wide range of libraries, third-party tools, and a larger community, making it ideal for complex, large-scale applications.
  • Best Choice: If you prioritize performance and lightweight applications, Svelte is the winner. However, if you're looking for a mature, scalable framework with extensive ecosystem support, React remains a top choice.

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Top comments (7)

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webjose profile image
José Pablo Ramírez Vargas • Edited

Declaring React the winner of state management is outrageous. Svelte signals can be declared and used inside or outside components. React cannot even dream of similar capabilities.

If anything, the existence of state management solutions outside React clearly demonstrates how lacking React is in this area.

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lovelindhoni profile image
Lovelin

💯💯💯

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im_sonujangra profile image
Sonu Jangra

Thank you for your insightful comment!

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keyru_nasirusman profile image
keyru Nasir Usman

It is unfair to compare a component library (React) versus a framework (Svelte). In my opinion, you should have compared Next.js (React's framework) versus Svelte. What do you think?

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im_sonujangra profile image
Sonu Jangra

Hi @keyru_nasirusman

React vs Svelte compares a UI library (React) with a framework (Svelte), focusing on their component rendering and reactivity.

Next.js vs SvelteKit is a better comparison as both are full application frameworks, with Next.js built around React and SvelteKit around Svelte, offering routing, SSR, and static site generation.

So, Next.js vs SvelteKit is more aligned for full app development, while React vs Svelte is focused on UI libraries.

Thanks for sharing your perspective!

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getsetgopi profile image
GP

Who said "Svelte" is the most popular choice among developers? Do you have any data to prove?

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im_sonujangra profile image
Sonu Jangra

@getsetgopi Yes it the most popular choice in 2025. You can search it on google.