Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Preact.js VS Alpine.js

Compare Preact.js VS Alpine.js and see what are their differences

Preact.js logo Preact.js

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

Alpine.js logo Alpine.js

A rugged, minimal framework for composing JavaScript behavior in your markup.
  • Preact.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-11
  • Alpine.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-25

Preact.js features and specs

  • Size
    Preact is very small in size (about 3KB gzipped), which makes it easy to load and faster to execute, resulting in improved performance and quicker load times.
  • Compatibility
    Preact is largely compatible with React, allowing developers to switch to Preact with minimal code changes. This makes it easier to adopt for projects already using React.
  • Performance
    Due to its small size and efficient design, Preact offers excellent performance, especially on low-powered devices and in applications with heavy user interactions.
  • Ecosystem
    Preact can work with many tools and libraries that are designed for React, giving developers access to a rich ecosystem of resources.
  • Community
    Preact has an active and growing community that provides support, plugins, and third-party tools, making it easier for developers to find solutions and share knowledge.

Possible disadvantages of Preact.js

  • Feature Set
    While Preact covers most of the core React features, it lacks some of the advanced functionality present in React, which may require additional workarounds or third-party libraries.
  • Learning Curve
    For developers coming from a non-React background, learning Preact might involve a learning curve, particularly because of its similarities and subtle differences with React.
  • Tooling Compatibility
    Although many tools designed for React can work with Preact, some might not be directly compatible, requiring additional configuration or patches.
  • Community Size
    While Preact has a supportive community, it is smaller compared to the massive React community, which can result in fewer available resources and third-party packages.
  • Maturity
    Preact, being newer and less widely adopted than React, might not have the same level of battle-tested reliability for all use cases, especially for large scale applications.

Alpine.js features and specs

  • Lightweight
    Alpine.js is very lightweight, typically around 10KB minified and gzipped, which makes it ideal for small projects or performance-conscious applications.
  • Easy to Integrate
    Alpine.js can be easily integrated into existing projects as it only requires including a single script file, making it a low-effort solution for adding interactivity.
  • Declarative
    It provides a declarative syntax similar to Vue.js, which can be more intuitive and readable, allowing developers to easily describe what they want rather than how to achieve it.
  • Reactivity
    Alpine.js offers reactive data binding, enabling automatic updates to the DOM when data changes, reducing boilerplate code needed for dynamic UIs.
  • Minimalist
    With its minimal API surface, Alpine.js aims to provide just enough JavaScript functionality for simple interactivity without the overhead of a full framework.

Possible disadvantages of Alpine.js

  • Limited Features
    Alpine.js lacks many features provided by larger frameworks, like routing and state management, which can limit its use in complex applications.
  • Performance at Scale
    While Alpine.js is performant for small projects, handling performance might become challenging as the application scales, particularly with large datasets or complex interactions.
  • Community and Ecosystem
    Alpine.js has a smaller community and ecosystem compared to more established frameworks, which may result in fewer third-party plugins and resources.
  • Learning Curve
    Although simpler than some frameworks, it still requires learning a new syntax and understanding its reactivity model, which can be a hurdle for new developers.
  • Debugging and Tooling
    Alpine.js does not have as mature tooling and debugging capabilities compared to larger frameworks, which can make troubleshooting more difficult.

Preact.js videos

JS frameworks are replaceable

Alpine.js videos

Alpinejs vs Vue, React and Svelte. When to use Alpine.js?

More videos:

  • Review - Intro to Alpine.js in Just 7 Minutes
  • Review - Alpine.js vs jQuery vs Vanilla JS: Example + NEW Course!
  • Review - What's the Future of Livewire and Alpine.js?

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Preact.js and Alpine.js)
Javascript UI Libraries
72 72%
28% 28
JavaScript Framework
77 77%
23% 23
Developer Tools
56 56%
44% 44
JavaScript
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Reviews

These are some of the external sources and on-site user reviews we've used to compare Preact.js and Alpine.js

Preact.js Reviews

Top JavaScript Frameworks in 2025
PreactJS is a JavaScript library that is said to be the fast 3Kb alternative to ReactJS using the same modern API. It implements the fastest virtual DOM compared to other frameworks in the market. Moreover, it is one of the smallest libraries in terms of size.
Source: solguruz.com
20 Next.js Alternatives Worth Considering
Preact is like React’s little sibling, smaller in size but with the same familiar moves. It’s cutting down the fluff and zipping through tasks with less overhead. When performance budgets are tight, Preact wiggles in perfectly.
20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Preact is built with the same core principle of React – A component-based approach with Virtual DOM while completely compatible with React. It can even use React packages without compromising on speed, performance, and leaner size. In instances where the full potential of React isn’t necessary, most developers even use React during development and switch to Preact for...
Top 15 jQuery Alternatives To Know
ReactJS is a powerful JavaScript library to create user interfaces. Developers can design easy views at each stage in the application and there is regular update and rendering for the actual components whenever there is any data alteration. It is component-driven and creates encapsulated components that manage their own state.
Top 5 JavaScript Frameworks To Learn in 2021
But according to the graph above, we can notice a decrease in interest in Preact. This might result from having many similar frameworks with the same specs, like react-lite, Inferno, etc. However, knowing a framework like Preact will be useful for your development journey.
Source: enlear.academy

Alpine.js Reviews

20 Best JavaScript Frameworks For 2023
Even while Alpine.js is not intended to be a native full-stack interaction tool, asynchronous activities involving data fetching from a server are quite common and crucial from a templating standpoint. You may download data directly from the Alpine.js template by explicitly designating a function handler as an async or doing the inverse.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Preact.js should be more popular than Alpine.js. It has been mentiond 93 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.

Preact.js mentions (93)

  • Progressive frustration
    How do I retro-fit nextjs instructions on the Flagsmith website to fit Deno's fresh over preact? - Source: dev.to / 12 days ago
  • This Is Tuple Context Pattern
    I'm back with a brand new post for React and Preact developers, and especially anyone leveraging the Context API feature. - Source: dev.to / 28 days ago
  • Show HN: Nue – Apps lighter than a React button
    Compare React and Preact: https://preactjs.com/ I use Preact often and very, very rarely run into an issue that justifies React being almost 20x the size. - Source: Hacker News / 30 days ago
  • Show HN: TinyJs React like framework in 35 lines of code
    Check out "preact" if you haven't already [0] [0] - https://preactjs.com/. - Source: Hacker News / 3 months ago
  • Tauri (1) — A desktop application development solution more suitable for web developers ✅
    Tauri is a cross-platform desktop application framework that allows developers to use familiar web technologies (like HTML, CSS, JS, and frameworks such as Vue.js, Svelte, React, SolidJS, Angular, Preact, etc.) to easily build desktop applications. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago
View more

Alpine.js mentions (31)

  • 60 Best JavaScript Libraries for Building Interactive UI Components
    Alpine.js Alpinejs.dev Minimal framework for declarative DOM interactions. - Source: dev.to / 2 months ago
  • Creating a To-do app with HTMX and Django, part 8: inline edit, and using Iconify
    As usual, there are a few possibilities here; one is to render both the with the title, and a form with for each row, and use plain Javascript (or AlpineJS) to toggle edit mode. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
  • Supercharge your HTML with mizu.js!
    That's why I grew fond of libraries such as Alpine.js and htmx, which require no setup and are easy to use. However, I felt these had some limitations. Since they were mostly designed for client-side usage, it wasn't really possible to use them in server-side rendering contexts (including static generation). - Source: dev.to / 5 months ago
  • 🍣 Sushi — Your Eloquent model driver for other data sources
    It is created by Caleb Porzio (the guy behind Livewire and AlpineJS), Sushi simplifies your data when a full database table is unnecessary. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
  • Build a Simple Auto-Play Carousel with Clickable Controls Using Alpine.js
    Here's a step-by-step example of creating a simple carousel using Alpine.js. Alpine.js is a lightweight JavaScript framework that provides reactivity and can be used to build interactive components without a lot of JavaScript. - Source: dev.to / 6 months ago
View more

What are some alternatives?

When comparing Preact.js and Alpine.js, you can also consider the following products

Svelte - Cybernetically enhanced web apps

htmx - high power tools for HTML

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

Inferno - An extremely fast React-like javascript library for building modern user interfaces.

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

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces