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Svelte VS Metalsmith

Compare Svelte VS Metalsmith and see what are their differences

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Svelte logo Svelte

Cybernetically enhanced web apps

Metalsmith logo Metalsmith

An extremely simple, pluggable static site generator.
  • Svelte Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-07-27

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

  • Metalsmith Landing page
    Landing page //
    2022-12-12

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.

Metalsmith features and specs

  • Flexible Architecture
    Metalsmith has a simple, yet powerful, plugin-based architecture that allows developers to easily customize and extend functionality to suit their specific needs.
  • Minimalistic Core
    Its lightweight core handles only the basic functions, which ensures that the site generation is fast and efficient, allowing you to only add what you need through plugins.
  • Ease of Use
    The straightforward configuration and operation of Metalsmith make it accessible for users, with minimal setup required to get started.
  • Active Community
    A vibrant community provides ample plugins and support, making it easier to find existing solutions and get help when you encounter issues.
  • Language Flexibility
    Being written in JavaScript and built on Node.js, it fits neatly within the modern web development ecosystem and is accessible to JavaScript developers.

Possible disadvantages of Metalsmith

  • Steeper Learning Curve for Beginners
    Users without prior experience in static site generators or those unfamiliar with Node.js might find the initial setup and understanding of its plugin-based system challenging.
  • Limited Official Documentation
    While there is basic documentation available, the official resources can be sparse, which might make it difficult for new users to get up to speed quickly without community assistance.
  • Maintenance Overhead
    With its heavy reliance on plugins, projects can become tricky to manage over time, especially if key plugins become obsolete or unmaintained.
  • Manual Plugin Integration
    Since all additional features need to be added through plugins, users must invest time in searching for, evaluating, and integrating these plugins to get desired functionalities.
  • Not Opinionated
    While this is a strength for flexibility, it can also be a downside as it doesn't provide a structured path for common use cases, requiring more decisions from the user.

Analysis of Svelte

Overall verdict

  • Svelte is highly recommended for developers looking for a modern, efficient, and easy-to-learn framework. It provides excellent performance and a great developer experience. Its growing community and ecosystem reinforce its viability as a strong option for new projects.

Why this product is good

  • Svelte is considered good because it offers a unique approach to building user interfaces. Unlike other frameworks, Svelte shifts the work from the browser to the build step, compiling components into efficient vanilla JavaScript at build time. This results in faster performance and smaller bundle sizes. Additionally, Svelte's reactivity model is straightforward and intuitive, leading to more maintainable code. Its syntax is easy to learn and helps in building applications quickly.

Recommended for

  • Developers seeking a lightweight and performant alternative to React or Vue.
  • Projects where bundle size and speed are critical.
  • Developers new to front-end frameworks due to its simplicity and ease of learning.
  • Rapid prototyping and single-page applications.

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

Metalsmith videos

Product Review 29 Badger Metalsmith Paint System

More videos:

  • Review - METALSMITHING FAQ! Answers to most commonly asked questions from you guys!
  • Review - DRAWING & SAWING jewelry design in real time. Jewelry metalsmithing

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Svelte and Metalsmith)
Javascript UI Libraries
100 100%
0% 0
CMS
0 0%
100% 100
JavaScript Framework
100 100%
0% 0
Blogging
0 0%
100% 100

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 Metalsmith

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.

Metalsmith Reviews

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Svelte seems to be a lot more popular than Metalsmith. While we know about 392 links to Svelte, we've tracked only 6 mentions of Metalsmith. 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 (392)

  • The UI Future Is Colourful and Dimensional
    The first time I visited https://svelte.dev , the non-flat-vector banner instantly won me. It just stands out from the world around it. I just sort of assumed the engineering was superior to the competition if they were going to lead with crimped metal (and was right). Flat design has always struck me as an extremist response to an issue. Windows Vista required everyone to be on the same page design-language wise... - Source: Hacker News / 7 days ago
  • 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 / 11 days 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 / 11 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 / 23 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 / 24 days ago
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Metalsmith mentions (6)

  • Top ten popular static site generators (SSG) in 2023
    Metalsmith — the best customizable SSG. - Source: dev.to / over 2 years ago
  • who is self-hosting a static website and what are you using to build it?
    I use Metalsmith. Been happy with it. I build my site into a self-contained nginx docker image. Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Configuration error even if nothing changed since last successful deploy
    Const Metalsmith = require('metalsmith') Const markdown = require('@metalsmith/markdown') Const layouts = require('metalsmith-layouts') Const permalinks = require('@metalsmith/permalinks') Const collections = require('metalsmith-collections') Metalsmith(__dirname) .metadata({ sitename: 'Website Name', description: "Website description.", generator: 'Metalsmith', url: 'https://metalsmith.io/' ... Source: almost 3 years ago
  • Why I built my own static site generator
    A static site generator I've been enjoying lately (and using for my blog) is Metalsmith: https://metalsmith.io/ It feel like it's the best of both worlds, because it's simple to learn and customize, but there are plugins for the things you don't want to spend time writing yourself. For example, I'm using plugins to: check for broken links, generate an RSS feed, and run a test server with automatic reloading. But... - Source: Hacker News / over 3 years ago
  • What to use? Frustrated over choice...
    I really like using Metalsmith as a static site generator myself. It's incredibly lightweight and you can extend it in any direction you like if you feel the need. But if you want an out-of-the-box solution, grab something like Gatsby or Hugo. This site has a big list of them. Source: about 4 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

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

React - A JavaScript library for building user interfaces

GatsbyJS - Blazing-fast static site generator for React

Vue.js - Reactive Components for Modern Web Interfaces

Wintersmith - Flexible, minimalistic, multi-platform static site generator built on top of node.js

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

Hexo - A fast, simple & powerful blog framework, powered by Node.js