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Marie Berezhna
Marie Berezhna

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🛠️ Ditching Frameworks: How Far Can You Get with Just the Platform?

#webdev #javascript #frontend #programming

Frontend frameworks are great - until they’re not.

React, Vue, Svelte, Solid... they’re powerful, but also heavy, complex, and full of abstraction. What if you just said “no” to all of it?

What if you went framework-free?

🧪 What Is "the Platform"?

When people say “just use the platform,” they mean:

  • HTML
  • CSS
  • JavaScript (vanilla, not bundler-fried)
  • Web APIs like fetch(), FormData, URLSearchParams, localStorage, etc.
  • Native browser features like <dialog>, <details>, and <form> (yes, it still works)

It’s everything your browser gives you out of the box. And spoiler: it's a lot more than you think.

đź’ˇ What Can You Actually Build?

Surprisingly... a lot.

  • Static sites? Easy. Just use HTML + CSS.
  • Blogs? Markdown + a build script. No need for a JS runtime.
  • Forms? Native HTML + progressive enhancement.
  • APIs? Call them with fetch(), render with innerHTML.
  • Stateful UIs? EventListener, dataset, classList.toggle(). That’s it.

Unless you’re building a single-page app with dynamic routing, real-time updates, and client-side caching, you might not need a framework.

🧨 Why Bother?

Because:

  • Your bundle size drops to zero.
  • No dependencies = no supply chain drama.
  • No framework = no updates, no breaking changes.
  • It’s fast. Stupid fast.
  • You relearn how the web actually works.

The platform is getting better all the time. Modern HTML is not your grandpa’s <table>-ridden nightmare. Native forms, popovers, animations, and even transitions are finally decent.

🧱 Where It Starts to Hurt

Let’s be real, going raw has its limits:

  • No routing.
  • No component model (unless you write your own or use Web Components).
  • State management? Manual.
  • DX? Brutal. You’ll miss hot reloading, error overlays, dev tools.

For anything complex or long-lived, you’ll start reinventing wheels fast. That’s when a micro-library or lightweight tool makes sense (think: htmx, Alpine.js, Lit, Petite Vue, etc).

✅ So… How Far Can You Really Get?

Pretty damn far - if you design around the platform, not against it.

The sweet spot:

  • Content-heavy pages
  • Forms and interactions
  • Small apps that don’t justify React

You’ll write less, ship less, debug less, and load way faster.

Frameworks are tools. Not laws of nature. Sometimes the best dev experience… is just the browser.

Top comments (2)

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xwero profile image
david duymelinck • • Edited

I would make one little change.

You relearn how the web actually works.

My version: You learn how html, css and javascript work.

Frameworks push you into using their way of working. And with the popularity of Typescript, I wonder how many front-end developers still know how to write javascript.

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marie_berezhna profile image
Marie Berezhna •

Great take, David! And I’d tweak it just a bit more: You learn how HTML, CSS, JavaScript --- and TypeScript --- work.

I’m all for frameworks and TS when they’re used intentionally, not just by default. TypeScript can absolutely deepen your understanding of JavaScript when you’re writing both side by side. The danger isn’t the tool - it’s forgetting the fundamentals underneath. Knowing the platform makes your TypeScript and framework code stronger, not weaker.

Anyone else feel like going "framework-free" actually made them better with frameworks later?