Software Alternatives, Accelerators & Startups

Preact.js VS Svelte

Compare Preact.js VS Svelte 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.

Svelte logo Svelte

Cybernetically enhanced web apps
  • Preact.js Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-05-11
  • Svelte Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

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

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.

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.

Preact.js videos

JS frameworks are replaceable

Svelte videos

Svelte vs React vs Angular vs Vue

More videos:

  • Review - SvelteKit Breaking Changes 2022 - My Reactions and What You Need to Know!
  • Review - Why Svelte is the best JS "framework"
  • Tutorial - SvelteKit Crash Course Tutorial #1 - What is SvelteKit?
  • Review - Oh crap, here comes *another* JavaScript framework || SVELTE || Sveltejs

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Preact.js and Svelte)
Javascript UI Libraries
24 24%
76% 76
JavaScript Framework
28 28%
72% 72
JavaScript
100 100%
0% 0
Developer Tools
15 15%
85% 85

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 Svelte

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

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.

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Svelte should be more popular than Preact.js. 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.

Preact.js mentions (93)

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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 / 9 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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What are some alternatives?

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

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

React - A JavaScript library for building user 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.

Deku - Functional view library for building UI components as an alternative to React

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