🔥 The Next Big Things in Frontend: Svelte, Astro, Qwik & Solid (2025 Edition)

React, Angular, and Vue have dominated the frontend space for over a decade. But the world of frontend development is evolving. In 2025, new frameworks are pushing boundaries by focusing on performance, developer experience, and innovative rendering techniques.

Svelte, Astro, Qwik, and SolidJS.

Let’s explore how each framework works, what makes them unique, and how they handle a simple counter component.

📊 Performance Benchmarks (2025)

From the latest JS Framework Benchmark:

Framework	Startup Time	Bundle Size	Memory Use	Interactivity
Qwik	🥇 Instant	🥇 ~1KB	✅ Very Low	✅ Resume-only
Svelte	🥈 Fast	✅ ~60–70% smaller	✅ Low	✅ Direct DOM
SolidJS	✅ Very Fast	✅ Compact	✅ Very Low	✅ Fine-grained reactivity
Astro	🥇 Static (SSG)	✅ Minimal (0 JS by default)	✅ Tiny	⚠️ Client-partial
React	⚠️ Moderate	❌ Larger bundles (~40–100 KB+)	⚠️ Higher	✅ Full hydration on load

React is still the most widely used and well-supported, but it comes with heavier runtime and bundle costs compared to newer, specialized frameworks.

Key Takeaways

• Qwik leads in startup time and JS payload size thanks to resumability
• Svelte offers excellent bundle sizes and fast runtime performance
• SolidJS balances React-like DX with superior reactivity and speed
• Astro dominates in static delivery but requires care with client-side interactivity
• React still performs well, but it lags in startup performance and bundle size

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🟠 Svelte

Svelte is different. Instead of running in the browser like React or Vue, it’s a compiler that converts your components into minimal, optimized JavaScript at build time.

This eliminates the need for a virtual DOM or large runtime libraries, resulting in faster performance and smaller bundles.

✅ Highlights

• Compile-time magic: No runtime framework overhead
• Direct DOM updates = ultra-fast UI
• Simple syntax close to vanilla HTML/JS
• Bundles are often 60–70% smaller than React/Vue

⚙️ Counter Component in Svelte

<script>
  let count = 0;
</script>

<button on:click={() => count++}>
  Count: {count}
</button>

🔍 Code Explanation

• let count = 0; declares a reactive variable.
• {count} automatically updates in the DOM when count changes.
• on:click attaches the event handler directly in HTML-like syntax.
• No need for hooks or re-renders—Svelte compiles it all to pure JS.

🧪 When to Choose Svelte

• Performance-critical apps
• Projects where bundle size matters (e.g. low-bandwidth regions)
• Teams who prefer simplicity over convention
• Full-stack apps with SvelteKit

🔗 Try Svelte Tutorial

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🔵 Astro

Astro is built for content-rich websites like blogs, portfolios, and marketing pages. Its secret? Astro ships zero JavaScript by default—it generates static HTML and only adds interactivity when needed via its Islands Architecture.

It also supports multiple UI frameworks (React, Vue, Svelte, Solid) in a single project.

✅ Highlights

• Zero JavaScript by default = blazing fast loads
• Uses partial hydration with client:* directives
• Multi-framework component support
• Built-in routing and markdown rendering

🧼 Zero JavaScript: Why It Matters

In the age of faster load times, mobile-first design, and global reach, minimizing JavaScript isn't just an optimization—it's a competitive advantage.

Modern frameworks like Astro, Qwik, and even Svelte (to some degree) are shifting from the JavaScript-heavy SPA model toward minimal JS delivery, especially during the initial page load.

🚫 The Problem with Traditional JS-Heavy Apps

• Large JS bundles delay First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Time to Interactive (TTI)
• Mobile users on 3G/4G suffer from slow or broken experiences
• More JavaScript means more parsing, more memory, and more battery drain
• SEO bots may struggle with JS-rendered content

⚙️ Counter Component in Astro

// Renders a static button, then hydrates interactivity on the client using inline script
<div>
  <button id="counter">Count: 0</button>
  <script type="module" is:inline>
    let count = 0;
    const button = document.getElementById("counter");
    button.addEventListener("click", () => {
      count++;
      button.textContent = `Count: ${count}`;
    });
  </script>
</div>

🔍 How It Works

• No external JavaScript or framework is used.
• The is:inline attribute ensures the script is included directly in the page output.
• This runs entirely in the browser when the component is hydrated.

✅ Usage Example

You can use it inside any page like this:

import Counter from '../components/Counter.astro';

<html>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello from Astro</h1>
    <Counter client:load />
  </body>
</html>

When to use Astro

• Content-Driven website,app

🟣 Qwik – Resumable Apps That Start in 1KB

Qwik introduces a radical concept: resumability. Instead of hydrating the entire app on the client, Qwik sends serialized app state and resumes only the parts a user interacts with.

This means Qwik apps are interactive almost instantly, even at large scales.

✅ Highlights

• No hydration phase—just resume from server state
• Fine-grained lazy loading of components and logic
• Ships only ~1KB of JS to start
• Qwik City: built-in routing and SSR support

⚙️ Counter Component in Qwik

import { component$, useSignal } from '@builder.io/qwik';

export default component$(() => {
  const count = useSignal(0);

  return (
    <button onClick$={() => count.value++}>
      Count: {count.value}
    </button>
  );
});

🔍 Code Explanation

• useSignal(0) creates a reactive state variable.
• count.value gets/sets the value.
• onClick$ adds a resumable event listener.
• Qwik defers all JS until it's needed, making load times almost instant.

When to Choose Qwik

• Large-scale interactive apps that must load fast
• SSR-heavy or SEO-critical applications
• Forward-thinking teams ready to explore new paradigms

🔗 Qwik Concepts

🔗 Qwik Resumability Explained

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🟢 SolidJS – Reactivity Without the Virtual DOM

SolidJS offers fine-grained reactivity with a React-like syntax—without using a virtual DOM. It updates the DOM directly using a system based on signals.

The result: top-tier performance and a clean, composable architecture.

✅ Highlights

• Uses createSignal() for state
• No virtual DOM—DOM updates are exact and scoped
• React-like JSX and mental model
• Great for highly interactive UIs

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What Are Signals?

In SolidJS, a signal is a reactive variable—a primitive that automatically tracks and reacts to changes.

const [count, setCount] = createSignal(0);

This gives you:

• count() → to get the current value
• setCount() → to update the value

When you use count() in your JSX or computations, Solid automatically tracks that dependency and will re-run just the parts that depend on it when the value changes.

✅ Benefits of Signals

1. No full re-renders – only update what changed
2. Automatic dependency tracking – no useEffect, no boilerplate
3. Efficient updates – no virtual DOM diffing
4. Memory-safe – avoids unnecessary retention
5. Minimal overhead – ultra-performant even at scale

Think of it like reactive Excel cells: when one changes, only the affected formulas update.

⚙️ Counter Component in Solid

import { createSignal } from "solid-js";

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = createSignal(0);

  return (
    <button onClick={() => setCount(count() + 1)}>
      Count: {count()}
    </button>
  );
}

🔍 Code Explanation

• createSignal() returns a reactive getter and setter.
• Calling setCount() updates the value and triggers updates.
• Only the <button> text updates—not the full component.

When to Choose SolidJS

• You want React-like DX with better performance
• Your app has heavy interactivity and needs precise updates
• You want low runtime cost without learning a new paradigm

🔗 Signals in JavaScript – dev.to

🔗 Hands-on Reactivity in Solid

🧭 Final Thoughts

Use Case	Recommended Framework
Tiny bundles, fast UI	Svelte
Content-heavy static sites	Astro
Resumable SSR apps	Qwik
Reactive UI-heavy apps	SolidJS

Each of these frameworks offers unique advantages and mental models. Exploring them will deepen your understanding of performance trade-offs, reactivity, and modern rendering techniques.

📚 References

1. Svelte Compiler Handbook – Li Hau Tan
2. Astro Concepts – Official Docs
3. Astro Islands Architecture
4. Qwik Concepts: Think Qwik
5. Qwik Resumability Guide
6. SolidJS document – dev.to
7. Signals in JavaScript – dev.to
8. Hands-on Reactivity with Solid – dev.to
9. JS Framework Benchmark (2025)
10. Frontend Frameworks in 2025 – Leverture