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Svelte VS Harp

Compare Svelte VS Harp and see what are their differences

Svelte logo Svelte

Cybernetically enhanced web apps

Harp logo Harp

The static web server with built-in preprocessing.
  • Svelte Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

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

  • Harp Landing page
    Landing page //
    2018-10-10

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.

Harp features and specs

  • Ease of Use
    Harp is known for its simplicity and ease of use, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced developers. It provides a straightforward environment to set up and manage static sites quickly.
  • Built-in Preprocessing
    Harp automatically preprocesses files like Markdown, LESS, and EJS, reducing the need for additional build tools. This streamlines development by allowing developers to use these languages without manual configuration.
  • Rapid Development with Live Reload
    Harp offers live reloading, enabling developers to see changes in real-time without refreshing the browser manually, which speeds up the development process.
  • Focused on Static Content
    Harp is specifically designed for creating and managing static websites, providing features tailored to this use case and avoiding unnecessary complexity found in more comprehensive frameworks.
  • Minimal Configuration
    The platform requires minimal configuration to get started, which reduces the learning curve and accelerates setup, allowing developers to focus on coding rather than setup issues.

Possible disadvantages of Harp

  • Limited Flexibility
    Being a static site generator, Harp lacks the flexibility and features of dynamic web applications or CMSs, which may not meet the needs of more robust or interactive projects.
  • Community and Support
    Harp has a smaller community compared to other static site generators or frameworks, which can lead to challenges in finding help, resources, or plugins when needed.
  • No Built-in Deployment
    Harp does not provide a built-in method for deploying sites to hosting platforms, requiring developers to configure deployment separately using tools like Rsync, FTP, or third-party services.
  • Feature Limitations
    Due to its focus on simplicity, Harp lacks some advanced features that other static site generators might offer, which could be limiting for complex site requirements.
  • Stagnation Concerns
    As of the latest updates, Harp does not receive frequent updates compared to more actively developed projects, raising concerns about future feature developments and maintenance.

Svelte videos

Svelte vs React vs Angular vs Vue

More videos:

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

Harp videos

Harp Review - 10 harps from 50$ to 15.000$ - comparison guide

More videos:

  • Review - Westside Discs Harp Review and Giveaway! | Danny Lindahl
  • Review - Dusty Strings Harp Review

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Svelte and Harp)
Javascript UI Libraries
Blogging
0 0%
100% 100
JavaScript Framework
96 96%
4% 4
Developer Tools
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 Svelte and Harp

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.

Harp Reviews

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Svelte seems to be a lot more popular than Harp. While we know about 391 links to Svelte, we've tracked only 1 mention of Harp. 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 (391)

  • Whimsy: a Tiny Game Engine I Made for Storytellers
    Svelte as the main framework. (Whimsy is my first Svelte project, actually! And Svelte didn't disappoint. Almost.). - Source: dev.to / 1 day ago
  • Creating Beautiful User Interfaces With Material Design for Bootstrap 4 & 5 (MDB)
    We're going to build our Svelte application using the Svelte REPL sandbox (or just REPL) at svelte.dev. I recommend checking out all the great documentation at svelte.dev, like its Examples section showcasing Svelte's many features, as well as the cool interactive tutorial at learn.svelte.dev. - Source: dev.to / 2 days ago
  • Plain Vanilla Web – Guide for de-frameworking yourself
    In theory, “de-frameworking yourself” is cool, but in practice, it’ll just lead to you building what effectively is your own ad hoc less battle-tested, probably less secure, and likely less performant de facto framework. I’m not convinced it’s worth it. If you want something à la KISS[0][0], just use Svelte/SvelteKit[1][1]. Nowadays, the primary exception I see to my point here is if your goal is to better... - Source: Hacker News / 13 days ago
  • Why I’m Learning Vue.js After Six Years in React
    When I teased this series on LinkedIn, one comment quipped that Vue’s been around since 2014—“you should’ve learned it by now!”—and they’re not wrong. The JS ecosystem churns out UI libraries like Svelte, Solid, RxJS, and more, each pushing reactivity forward. React’s ubiquity made it my go-to for stability and career momentum. Now I’m ready to revisit new patterns and sharpen my tool-belt. - Source: dev.to / 14 days ago
  • Hyper – Outperform React on every metric
    What is the advantage over Svelte (https://svelte.dev/)? Especially since Svelte is already established and has an ecosystem. - Source: Hacker News / 18 days ago
View more

Harp mentions (1)

  • Is there a technology for reusing HTML components?
    Sounds like what you want is a static site generator. I've used Harp for a long time but I'm not sure it's really maintained these days, so you might also look at 11ty. Source: almost 3 years ago

What are some alternatives?

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

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

Metalsmith - An extremely simple, pluggable static site generator.

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

GitHub Pages - A free, static web host for open-source projects on GitHub

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

AngularJS - AngularJS lets you extend HTML vocabulary for your application. The resulting environment is extraordinarily expressive, readable, and quick to develop.