React vs Preact: Lightweight Alternative UI Libraries

React and Preact are JavaScript libraries for building user interfaces. While React is the original, more popular library created by Facebook, Preact is a smaller, faster alternative that aims to be compatible with React's API. Preact offers similar features but with a much smaller file size (3KB vs React's ~40KB), making it great for projects where size matters.

UI Librariesfrontenduser-interfacecomponentsvirtual-domjavascript

Detailed Comparison

Technical Analysis

featureComparison

Both Preact and React are virtual DOM libraries that provide efficient rendering and updating of UI components. However, React has a more comprehensive set of features, including a built-in context API, hooks, and a more extensive ecosystem of third-party libraries. Preact, on the other hand, is a lightweight alternative that focuses on performance and simplicity.

typescriptSupport

Both Preact and React have excellent TypeScript support, with official type definitions and extensive documentation.

browserCompatibility

Both libraries support modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge. However, React has better support for older browsers, including Internet Explorer.

dependencies

Preact has no dependencies, while React depends on the react-dom package.

performance

Preact is generally faster and more lightweight than React, thanks to its smaller bundle size and optimized rendering engine.

Ecosystem Analysis

frameworkCompatibility

Both Preact and React are compatible with popular frameworks like Next.js, Gatsby, and Create React App.

communityActivity

React has a much larger and more active community, with more contributors, issues, and pull requests on GitHub.

documentationQuality

Both libraries have high-quality documentation, with extensive guides, tutorials, and API references.

maintenanceStatus

React is maintained by Facebook, while Preact is maintained by a smaller team of developers. However, both libraries are actively maintained and updated regularly.

Performance Comparison

bundleSizeAnalysis

Preact's bundle size is significantly smaller than React's, making it a better choice for performance-critical applications.

runtimePerformance

Preact is generally faster than React, thanks to its optimized rendering engine and smaller bundle size.

loadingTime

Preact-based applications tend to load faster than React-based applications, thanks to its smaller bundle size and optimized rendering engine.

memoryUsage

Preact uses less memory than React, thanks to its smaller bundle size and optimized rendering engine.

Code Examples

Hello World with Preact

1import { h, render } from 'preact';
2
3function App() {
4  return <h1>Hello, World!</h1>;
5}
6
7render(<App />, document.body);

This code creates a simple 'Hello World' application using Preact. We import the `h` function for creating virtual DOM elements and the `render` function for rendering the application to the DOM.

Hello World with React

1import React from 'react';
2import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
3
4function App() {
5  return <h1>Hello, World!</h1>;
6}
7
8ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById('root'));

This code creates a simple 'Hello World' application using React. We import the `React` library and the `ReactDOM` library for rendering the application to the DOM.

Recommendation

Summary

Both Preact and React are excellent choices for building fast and efficient UI components. However, Preact is a better choice for performance-critical applications, while React is a better choice for complex, enterprise-level applications.

Details

If you need a lightweight and fast virtual DOM library, choose Preact.
If you need a more comprehensive set of features and a larger ecosystem of third-party libraries, choose React.

Similar Packages

Solid.js

95%

Solid is a JavaScript framework that looks very similar to React but runs much faster. It uses the same JSX syntax that React developers already know, but works differently under the hood.

If you know React, Solid will feel very familiar. It's perfect for React developers who want better performance without learning totally new concepts. The code looks almost the same as React.

Frontend Framework

Vue.js

90%

Vue is a progressive JavaScript framework for building user interfaces. It's designed to be easy to learn and use, with a gentle learning curve and excellent documentation.

Like React and Preact, Vue lets you build websites using components. It's often easier for beginners to learn than React, and it's very fast. Many developers find Vue's syntax more straightforward and less confusing.

Frontend Framework

Inferno

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Inferno is an extremely fast, React-like library for building user interfaces. It's designed to be super quick and small in file size, while keeping many React features that developers love.

Inferno is almost a drop-in replacement for React, especially good for projects that need to be really fast and small. It works with most React code with only small changes needed.

Frontend Framework

Svelte

80%

Svelte is a modern framework that turns your components into highly optimized JavaScript at build time. Instead of using a virtual DOM like React, it updates the page directly when your data changes.

Svelte is great for developers who want React-like components but with better performance. It has less code to write and is becoming very popular because it's simple to understand.

Frontend Framework

</a> </p> <p align="center">Fast <b>3kB</b> alternative to React with the same modern API.</p>

All the power of Virtual DOM components, without the overhead:

Familiar React API & patterns: ES6 Class, hooks, and Functional Components
Extensive React compatibility via a simple preact/compat alias
Everything you need: JSX, <abbr title="Virtual DOM">VDOM</abbr>, DevTools, <abbr title="Hot Module Replacement">HMR</abbr>, <abbr title="Server-Side Rendering">SSR</abbr>.
Highly optimized diff algorithm and seamless hydration from Server Side Rendering
Supports all modern browsers and IE11
Transparent asynchronous rendering with a pluggable scheduler

💁 More information at the Preact Website ➞

</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

You can find some awesome libraries in the awesome-preact list :sunglasses:

Getting Started

💁 Note: You don't need ES2015 to use Preact... but give it a try!

Tutorial: Building UI with Preact

With Preact, you create user interfaces by assembling trees of components and elements. Components are functions or classes that return a description of what their tree should output. These descriptions are typically written in JSX (shown underneath), or HTM which leverages standard JavaScript Tagged Templates. Both syntaxes can express trees of elements with "props" (similar to HTML attributes) and children.

To get started using Preact, first look at the render() function. This function accepts a tree description and creates the structure described. Next, it appends this structure to a parent DOM element provided as the second argument. Future calls to render() will reuse the existing tree and update it in-place in the DOM. Internally, render() will calculate the difference from previous outputted structures in an attempt to perform as few DOM operations as possible.

import { h, render } from 'preact';
// Tells babel to use h for JSX. It's better to configure this globally.
// See https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx#usage
// In tsconfig you can specify this with the jsxFactory
/** @jsx h */

// create our tree and append it to document.body:
render(
	<main>
		<h1>Hello</h1>
	</main>,
	document.body
);

// update the tree in-place:
render(
	<main>
		<h1>Hello World!</h1>
	</main>,
	document.body
);
// ^ this second invocation of render(...) will use a single DOM call to update the text of the <h1>

Hooray! render() has taken our structure and output a User Interface! This approach demonstrates a simple case, but would be difficult to use as an application grows in complexity. Each change would be forced to calculate the difference between the current and updated structure for the entire application. Components can help here – by dividing the User Interface into nested Components each can calculate their difference from their mounted point. Here's an example:

import { render, h } from 'preact';
import { useState } from 'preact/hooks';

/** @jsx h */

const App = () => {
	const [input, setInput] = useState('');

	return (
		<div>
			<p>Do you agree to the statement: "Preact is awesome"?</p>
			<input value={input} onInput={e => setInput(e.target.value)} />
		</div>
	);
};

render(<App />, document.body);

Sponsors

Become a sponsor and get your logo on our README on GitHub with a link to your site. [Become a sponsor]

Backers

Support us with a monthly donation and help us continue our activities. [Become a backer]

License

MIT

	Stars	Issues	Version	UpdatedⓘLast publish date	CreatedⓘPackage creation date	SizeⓘMinified + Gzipped size
P preact	37,751	152	10.26.9	a month ago	10 years ago	install size 4.7 KB
R react	236,924	991	19.1.0	a month ago	14 years ago	install size 2.8 KB

</a> </p> <p align="center">Fast <b>3kB</b> alternative to React with the same modern API.</p>

All the power of Virtual DOM components, without the overhead:

Familiar React API & patterns: ES6 Class, hooks, and Functional Components
Extensive React compatibility via a simple preact/compat alias
Everything you need: JSX, <abbr title="Virtual DOM">VDOM</abbr>, DevTools, <abbr title="Hot Module Replacement">HMR</abbr>, <abbr title="Server-Side Rendering">SSR</abbr>.
Highly optimized diff algorithm and seamless hydration from Server Side Rendering
Supports all modern browsers and IE11
Transparent asynchronous rendering with a pluggable scheduler

💁 More information at the Preact Website ➞

</td> </tr> </tbody> </table>

You can find some awesome libraries in the awesome-preact list :sunglasses:

Getting Started

💁 Note: You don't need ES2015 to use Preact... but give it a try!

Tutorial: Building UI with Preact

import { h, render } from 'preact';
// Tells babel to use h for JSX. It's better to configure this globally.
// See https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-plugin-transform-react-jsx#usage
// In tsconfig you can specify this with the jsxFactory
/** @jsx h */

// create our tree and append it to document.body:
render(
	<main>
		<h1>Hello</h1>
	</main>,
	document.body
);

// update the tree in-place:
render(
	<main>
		<h1>Hello World!</h1>
	</main>,
	document.body
);
// ^ this second invocation of render(...) will use a single DOM call to update the text of the <h1>

import { render, h } from 'preact';
import { useState } from 'preact/hooks';

/** @jsx h */

const App = () => {
	const [input, setInput] = useState('');

	return (
		<div>
			<p>Do you agree to the statement: "Preact is awesome"?</p>
			<input value={input} onInput={e => setInput(e.target.value)} />
		</div>
	);
};

render(<App />, document.body);

Backers

Support us with a monthly donation and help us continue our activities. [Become a backer]

License

MIT

React vs Preact: Lightweight Alternative UI Libraries

Detailed Comparison

Technical Analysis

featureComparison

typescriptSupport

browserCompatibility

dependencies

performance

Ecosystem Analysis

frameworkCompatibility

communityActivity

documentationQuality

maintenanceStatus

Performance Comparison

bundleSizeAnalysis

runtimePerformance

loadingTime

memoryUsage

Code Examples

Hello World with Preact

Hello World with React

Recommendation

Summary

Details

Similar Packages

Solid.js

Vue.js

Inferno

Svelte

💁 More information at the Preact Website ➞

Getting Started

Tutorial: Building UI with Preact

Sponsors

Backers

License

React vs Preact: Lightweight Alternative UI Libraries

Detailed Comparison

Technical Analysis

featureComparison

typescriptSupport

browserCompatibility

dependencies

performance

Ecosystem Analysis

frameworkCompatibility

communityActivity

documentationQuality

maintenanceStatus

Performance Comparison

bundleSizeAnalysis

runtimePerformance

loadingTime

memoryUsage

Code Examples

Hello World with Preact

Hello World with React

Recommendation

Summary

Details

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Solid.js

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Dependencies Comparison

preact

Dependencies

Dev Dependencies

Peer Dependencies