Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Svelte VS htmx

Compare Svelte VS htmx and see what are their differences

Svelte logo Svelte

Cybernetically enhanced web apps

htmx logo htmx

high power tools for HTML
  • Svelte Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

We recommend LibHunt Svelte for discovery and comparisons of trending Svelte projects.

  • htmx Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-25

htmx gives you access to AJAX, CSS Transitions, WebSockets and Server Sent Events directly in HTML, using attributes, so you can build modern user interfaces with the simplicity and power of hypertext

htmx is small (~14k min.gz’d), dependency-free, extendable, IE11 compatible & has reduced code base sizes by 67% when compared with react

Svelte features and specs

  • Performance
    Svelte shifts much of the work from runtime to compile time, resulting in faster and more efficient web applications. By compiling components to highly optimized vanilla JavaScript, it reduces the overhead and boosts performance.
  • File Size
    Due to its compile-time nature, Svelte produces smaller bundle sizes compared to other frontend frameworks like React or Angular, which can significantly improve load times and performance.
  • Simplicity
    The framework is designed to be more accessible and easier to understand. Svelte’s syntax is clean and straightforward, allowing developers to get up and running quickly with minimal boilerplate.
  • Reactivity
    Svelte provides a simple and intuitive way to handle reactivity by using built-in language constructs like assignments. This means no complicated state management libraries are necessary for many use cases.
  • Less Boilerplate
    Svelte reduces the boilerplate code typically required in other frameworks, resulting in a cleaner and more maintainable codebase. This can help accelerate development and reduce bugs.
  • Reactive Programming
    SvelteKit leverages Svelte's reactive programming model, allowing developers to write less code while achieving better functionality through automatic reactivity.
  • Integrated Router
    SvelteKit includes a built-in router, which simplifies the creation of multi-page applications and enables easy setup of dynamic routes.
  • SSR and SSG
    SvelteKit supports Server-Side Rendering (SSR) and Static Site Generation (SSG) out of the box, giving developers flexibility in how they build and deploy their applications.
  • Opinionated but Flexible
    While SvelteKit provides an opinionated setup to streamline the development process, it also allows for customization to fit a developer’s specific needs.

Possible disadvantages of Svelte

  • Ecosystem Maturity
    Svelte’s ecosystem is not as mature or extensive as React’s or Angular’s. There are fewer third-party libraries, tools, and resources available, which might make it more challenging to find solutions for less common problems.
  • Learning Curve
    While Svelte itself is simpler, its approach is quite different from traditional frameworks like React and Angular. This can require a mental shift and time to learn new paradigms, especially for developers coming from those backgrounds.
  • Community Support
    Given that Svelte has a smaller user base and community compared to more established frameworks, finding community support, tutorials, and best practices can sometimes be more difficult.
  • Tooling
    While Svelte has good official tooling and support, it may lack some of the advanced tools and integrations available for other frameworks, which can slow down development for more complex applications.
  • SEO and SSR
    Although Svelte has options for server-side rendering (SSR) and improving SEO, handling these aspects is not as out-of-the-box or mature compared to frameworks like Next.js for React.
  • Community Size
    SvelteKit has a smaller community compared to other frameworks, which can affect the availability of online resources, tutorials, and community-driven support.
  • Tooling and Integration
    Some commonly used development tools and integrations may not be fully compatible with SvelteKit, necessitating workarounds or additional configuration.
  • Frequent Updates
    As a newer framework, SvelteKit undergoes frequent updates and changes, which can sometimes lead to breaking changes or require developers to frequently update their knowledge and projects.
  • Market Adoption
    SvelteKit is less adopted in the industry compared to other frameworks, which might make it a less attractive option for companies looking for widely recognized and vetted solutions.

htmx features and specs

  • Ease of Integration
    htmx allows developers to easily add dynamic, AJAX-powered interactions to existing HTML without requiring significant rework or the use of heavier JavaScript frameworks.
  • Server-Side Rendering
    htmx leverages the benefits of server-side rendering and progressive enhancement, ensuring better SEO, faster initial load times, and improved accessibility.
  • Reduced JavaScript
    With htmx, much of the interactivity can be managed using HTML attributes, resulting in less custom JavaScript code and potentially fewer bugs and maintenance challenges.
  • Progressive Enhancement
    htmx supports a progressive enhancement approach, allowing features to be enhanced progressively without breaking the fundamental user experience for those with JavaScript disabled.
  • Declarative Style
    htmx advocates for a declarative style of programming which can make code more readable and maintainable by clearly expressing the intended behavior in HTML.

Possible disadvantages of htmx

  • Limited Ecosystem
    The ecosystem around htmx is still relatively small compared to larger JavaScript frameworks, which means fewer resources, libraries, and community support are available.
  • Potential for Complexity in Large Apps
    For large-scale applications, managing interactivity solely with htmx might become cumbersome. Combining htmx with more robust state management solutions could be necessary, complicating the architecture.
  • Learning Curve
    While not as steep as some frameworks, there is a learning curve associated with understanding htmx’s attributes and integrating it effectively into existing projects.
  • Fragmentation Risk
    Relying too heavily on server-side partials and asynchronous updates can lead to fragmentation, where the logic of the application is split between the client and server, making it harder to manage and debug.
  • Limited Explicit State Management
    htmx lacks built-in state management solutions that are common in other front-end frameworks, potentially requiring additional tools to manage complex application state.

Svelte videos

SvelteKit Breaking Changes 2022 - My Reactions and What You Need to Know!

More videos:

  • Review - Svelte vs React vs Angular vs Vue
  • Tutorial - SvelteKit Crash Course Tutorial #1 - What is SvelteKit?
  • Review - Why Svelte is the best JS "framework"
  • Review - Oh crap, here comes *another* JavaScript framework || SVELTE || Sveltejs

htmx videos

DjangoCon Europe 2023 | HTMX vs WASM - more backend or more frontend?

More videos:

  • Review - Dynamic Web Pages Without JavaScript? - Intro to HTMX

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Svelte and htmx)
Javascript UI Libraries
85 85%
15% 15
JavaScript Framework
88 88%
12% 12
Software Development
0 0%
100% 100
Developer Tools
83 83%
17% 17

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Svelte and htmx

Svelte Reviews

Top JavaScript Frameworks in 2025
SvelteJS is a modern JavaScript framework that is useful for building static web apps that are fast, lean, and fun. You can use Svelte to build single, reusable components and large or even small-scale projects. Svelte has started gaining attention because of its ability to produce smaller code bundles that run faster in web browsers.
Source: solguruz.com
Top 10 Next.js Alternatives You Can Try
This web development framework can help you perform the easiest tasks to develop the interface components that users can interact with within their browsers, such as the comment section. Moreover, it has SvelteKit to render the components of the entire page with best practices and developments. You can utilize this platform effortlessly to add basic functionalities and...
20 Next.js Alternatives Worth Considering
Cruise into the Svelte ecosystem with Sapper, a framework that takes all the brilliance of Svelte and dials it up for app building. It’s like Svelte’s outgoing cousin, optimizing for an even smoother ride from development to go-live.
10 Best Next.js Alternatives to Consider Today
SvelteKit, the official framework for Svelte, streamlines the development of Svelte applications. With an intuitive API, SvelteKit simplifies the creation of server-side rendered (SSR) and statically generated (SSG) applications while retaining the reactive nature that makes Svelte unique. If you're seeking a framework that marries simplicity with powerful capabilities,...
The 20 Best Laravel Alternatives for Web Development
The next of these Laravel alternatives is Svelte. It cuts through the complexity, snipping off any excess, pre-compiling its magic to keep your app lightweight without shedding any muscle. The end result? Lightning strikes in web performance.

htmx Reviews

We have no reviews of htmx yet.
Be the first one to post

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Svelte should be more popular than htmx. It has been mentiond 386 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Svelte mentions (386)

  • SVQK - A Web Application Development Platform Using Svelte + Quarkus
    At Project Au Lait, we are developing and publishing an open-source asset called SVQK, which combines Svelte (Frontend) and Quarkus (Backend) for web application development. The asset includes automated testing tools and source code generation tools. This article introduces an overview of SVQK. (For instructions on how to use SVQK, refer to the Quick Start.). - Source: dev.to / 8 days ago
  • Why Svelte Might Be the Best Framework You Haven't Tried Yet 🚀
    Embrace the Ecosystem: Explore tools like SvelteKit for full-fledged app development. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Firebase: deploy a React application with Firebase Hosting
    Vite is a modern build tool created by Evan You, the same developer behind Vue.js. It is designed to provide a faster and leaner development experience for modern web projects. You can use Vite to create front-end projects in seconds: React, Svelte, Lit, Qwik and many others modern frameworks are supported. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Lexical 0.24 with Vanilla JS: Getting started
    Lexical is an open source project and considered the successor of Draft.js. It is primarily developed by Meta, licensed under MIT. It is not restricted to React, but supports Vanilla JS, too. The flexibility enables us to integrate it with other JS libraries such as Svelte and Vue. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
  • Svelte 5 on Bun 1.2: Getting started
    ┌ Welcome to the Svelte CLI! (v0.6.20) │ ◇ Which template would you like? │ SvelteKit minimal │ ◇ Add type checking with Typescript? │ Yes, using Typescript syntax │ ◆ Project created │ ◇ What would you like to add to your project? (use arrow keys / space bar) │ prettier, eslint │ ◆ Successfully setup add-ons │ ◇ Which package manager do you want to install dependencies with? │ bun │ ◆ Successfully... - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
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htmx mentions (117)

  • The 3 Best Python Frameworks To Build UIs for AI Apps
    FastHTML allows developers to build modern web applications entirely in Python without touching JavaScript or React. As its name implies, it is quicker to begin with FastHTML. However, it does not have pre-built UI components and styling. Getting the best out of this framework requires the knowledge of HTMX and UI styling using CSS libraries like Tailwind and Bootstrap. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
  • Build a Bookmark Manager with the HONC Stack
    Import { bookmarks } from './src/db/schema'; ... Const sampleBookmarks = [ { title: "Hono Framework", url: "https://hono.dev", description: "A lightweight web framework for building APIs and applications.", tags: "hono, framework, edge", }, { title: "Drizzle ORM", url: "https://orm.drizzle.team", description: "A type-safe ORM designed for SQL databases.", tags: "orm, database,... - Source: dev.to / about 2 months ago
  • An advanced Data Table with HTMX
    HTMX: The library that makes this approach possible. HTMX allows the development of applications with HTML and HTTP, but by lifting a whole set of limitations, particularly by allowing interaction with the server without necessarily reloading the entire page. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Summer Web Internship: Low-JavaScript Development for 🧶Knitters/Crocheters (US Only)
    We're looking for a fiber arts hobbyist who wants to create a low-Javascript web experience as part of a flexible, self-led summer internship. HTMX experience is not necessary — you just have to be excited about HTML/CSS and have a strong interest in doing low-Javascript web development. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Your API Doesn’t Always Need to Be a Product
    The Single-Page Application trend gained popularity partly because it allowed developers to avoid full page reloads during navigation or form submissions. HTMX has been generating buzz recently precisely because it enables bypassing full document reloads. At the same time, it sticks to a document-based approach for browser/server interactions. This eliminates the need to retrofit JSON API constraints.... - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Svelte and htmx, you can also consider the following products

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

Alpine.js - A rugged, minimal framework for composing JavaScript behavior in your markup.

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

Tailwind CSS - A utility-first CSS framework for rapidly building custom user interfaces.

Next.js - A small framework for server-rendered universal JavaScript apps

Preact.js - Preact is a fast 3kB alternative to React with the same modern API. Components & Virtual DOM.