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  4. Javascript UI Libraries
  5. Hyperapp vs Preact

Hyperapp vs Preact

OverviewDecisionsComparisonAlternatives

Overview

Preact
Preact
Stacks1.1K
Followers292
Votes28
Hyperapp
Hyperapp
Stacks38
Followers51
Votes0

Hyperapp vs Preact: What are the differences?

# Introduction
Here are key differences between Hyperapp and Preact:

1. **Virtual DOM Implementation**: Hyperapp uses its own implementation of the virtual DOM, which focuses on minimalism and performance by minimizing memory allocation and reconciliation times. Preact, on the other hand, has a faster virtual DOM compared to other libraries like React due to its optimized reconciliation process.

2. **Size**: Hyperapp is incredibly lightweight, with the entire library being just 1 KB minified and gzipped. This makes it ideal for small applications or situations where keeping file size to a minimum is crucial. In contrast, Preact weighs in at around 3 KB minified and gzipped, making it more suitable for larger, more complex applications that need additional features.

3. **State Management**: Hyperapp comes with a built-in state management system that is based on ES6 Proxies. This allows for a simpler and more intuitive way of managing application state without the need for additional libraries. Preact, on the other hand, does not include a built-in state management system, but it is often used in conjunction with libraries like Redux for more complex state management requirements.

4. **Community and Ecosystem**: Preact has a larger and more established community compared to Hyperapp, which means that there are more resources, plugins, and tutorials available for developers using Preact. This can be advantageous when seeking help or looking for solutions to common issues faced during development.

5. **JSX Support**: Both Hyperapp and Preact support JSX syntax for building user interfaces. However, Preact requires the use of Babel plugins to enable JSX support out of the box, while Hyperapp offers JSX support natively without the need for additional configuration or dependencies.

6. **Companion Tools**: Preact offers a range of companion tools and extensions, such as Preact CLI and Preact Router, that enhance the development experience and provide additional functionality. Hyperapp, on the other hand, has fewer companion tools available, which may limit the options available for developers looking to extend their applications with additional features.

In Summary, Hyperapp and Preact differ in terms of virtual DOM implementation, size, state management, community and ecosystem, JSX support, and companion tools available.

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Advice on Preact, Hyperapp

David
David

VP Product at loveholidays

Oct 10, 2020

Review

Generally I would advise you pick Node.js for your backend if you want to run a GraphQL service. The main reason for this is the tooling and support you get from the language around GraphQL and the native feel due to the spec being initially written in JavaScrip for JavaScript. However that isn't to say that you couldn't use Go for a service underneath your GrahpQL layer - but I would say that's probably complicating it too much to begin with.

Node.js has great support for reading from databases and using a server such as Koa will give you great performance (we operate several Node.js services in Koa with over 1000req/s). Additionally it keeps your initial simple stack in the same language so it will be easier for you to jump backwards and forwards.

If you were not to use GraphQL then I'd say it's really up to you whether you want Go in your ecosystem or not. It's a fantastic language and super performant, along with being more memory efficient than Node (if you are worried about costs at large scale).

If you're at infancy stages and haven't picked certain parts - and this is a customer facing application - then I would recommend you look at Preact instead of React and URQL (instead of Apollo Client). Both are great libraries that are very performant and don't need much advanced learning. Additional swap out MySQL for PostgresSQL (they are interop primarily, but offers you more features as you grow) for its ACID compliance, better performance at scale and support for NoSQL if you were to go that way.

3.57k views3.57k
Comments
Damiano
Damiano

Oct 27, 2019

Decided

Preact offers an API which is extremely similar to React's for less than 10% of its size (and createElement is renamed to h, which makes the overall bundle a lot smaller). Although it is less compatible with other libraries than the latter (and its ecosystem is nowhere as developed), this is generally not a problem as Preact exposes the preact/compat API, which can be used as an alias both for React and ReactDOM and allows for the use of libraries which would otherwise just be compatible with React.

25.6k views25.6k
Comments

Detailed Comparison

Preact
Preact
Hyperapp
Hyperapp

Preact is an attempt to recreate the core value proposition of React (or similar libraries like Mithril) using as little code as possible, with first-class support for ES2015. Currently the library is around 3kb (minified & gzipped).

Out of the box, Hyperapp combines state management with a VDOM engine that supports keyed updates & lifecycle events — all with no dependencies.

-
2x faster than react; Minimal;Functional;Batteries-included; 10ms time to interactive
Statistics
Stacks
1.1K
Stacks
38
Followers
292
Followers
51
Votes
28
Votes
0
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 15
    Lightweight
  • 5
    Drop-in replacement for React
  • 4
    Performance
  • 3
    Props/state passed to render
  • 1
    ES6 class components
No community feedback yet
Integrations
React
React
JavaScript
JavaScript

What are some alternatives to Preact, Hyperapp?

jQuery

jQuery

jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.

AngularJS

AngularJS

AngularJS lets you write client-side web applications as if you had a smarter browser. It lets you use good old HTML (or HAML, Jade and friends!) as your template language and lets you extend HTML’s syntax to express your application’s components clearly and succinctly. It automatically synchronizes data from your UI (view) with your JavaScript objects (model) through 2-way data binding.

React

React

Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.

Vue.js

Vue.js

It is a library for building interactive web interfaces. It provides data-reactive components with a simple and flexible API.

jQuery UI

jQuery UI

Whether you're building highly interactive web applications or you just need to add a date picker to a form control, jQuery UI is the perfect choice.

Svelte

Svelte

If you've ever built a JavaScript application, the chances are you've encountered – or at least heard of – frameworks like React, Angular, Vue and Ractive. Like Svelte, these tools all share a goal of making it easy to build slick interactive user interfaces. Rather than interpreting your application code at run time, your app is converted into ideal JavaScript at build time. That means you don't pay the performance cost of the framework's abstractions, or incur a penalty when your app first loads.

Flux

Flux

Flux is the application architecture that Facebook uses for building client-side web applications. It complements React's composable view components by utilizing a unidirectional data flow. It's more of a pattern rather than a formal framework, and you can start using Flux immediately without a lot of new code.

Famo.us

Famo.us

Famo.us is a free and open source JavaScript platform for building mobile apps and desktop experiences. What makes Famo.us unique is its JavaScript rendering engine and 3D physics engine that gives developers the power and tools to build native quality apps and animations using pure JavaScript.

Riot

Riot

Riot brings custom tags to all browsers. Think React + Polymer but with enjoyable syntax and a small learning curve.

Marko

Marko

Marko is a really fast and lightweight HTML-based templating engine that compiles templates to readable Node.js-compatible JavaScript modules, and it works on the server and in the browser. It supports streaming, async rendering and custom tags.

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