--- title: After 8 Years of Building With React, I Started My Last... description: A developer with 8 years of React experience shares why they chose HTMX and Alpine.js over React for a new internal admin dashboard. The core frustration... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/after-8-years-of-building-with-react-i-started-my-last-project-without-it-niszlr77n twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: After 8 Years of Building With React, I Started My Last Project Without It | daily.dev og:description: A developer with 8 years of React experience shares why they chose HTMX and Alpine.js over React for a new internal admin dashboard. The core frustration... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/after-8-years-of-building-with-react-i-started-my-last-project-without-it-niszlr77n og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/NisZlr77n.png og:image:alt: After 8 Years of Building With React, I Started My Last Project Without It og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # After 8 Years of Building With React, I Started My Last Project Without It **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 7 min read · 34 upvotes · 9 comments ## Summary A developer with 8 years of React experience shares why they chose HTMX and Alpine.js over React for a new internal admin dashboard. The core frustration wasn't React itself but the exhausting ecosystem decisions surrounding it — state management, meta-frameworks, routing, data fetching patterns. For a data-heavy CRUD dashboard, HTMX's server-first HTML-swap model eliminated build tooling overhead and simplified the mental model significantly. The post honestly covers tradeoffs: complex client-side interactivity, real-time features, and ecosystem maturity still favor React. The takeaway is a call to question defaults — React remains the right choice for large, complex, team-built consumer apps, but smaller internal tools have been pulled into full React setups out of habit rather than necessity. Astro and SvelteKit are also mentioned as lighter alternatives worth watching. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### When should I use HTMX and Alpine.js instead of React for a project? HTMX and Alpine.js work well for data-heavy, interaction-light applications like internal admin dashboards with CRUD tables and forms, where a single developer needs to maintain the codebase without a build pipeline. HTMX handles server round trips by swapping HTML fragments, while Alpine.js manages small local UI state like dropdowns. React remains better suited for complex client-side interactivity, drag-and-drop interfaces, rich text editors, and real-time features using WebSockets. _Weighing HTMX against React for your next dashboard? daily.dev surfaces developer takes like this to sharpen that decision._ ### What are the downsides of using HTMX instead of React? HTMX's round-trip-to-the-server approach adds latency that feels wrong for complex multi-step forms with real-time validation or heavy local state synchronization. Real-time features are less established since HTMX's Server-Sent Events support is newer territory compared to React's well-documented WebSocket patterns. The ecosystem is also smaller, so hitting an edge-case problem often means solving it without established guides or component libraries. _Anyone comparing HTMX's tradeoffs against React benefits from developer experience reports like this on daily.dev._ ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@fabianletsch** · 7 upvotes > Even if the content is good, the AI generation is obvious. At this point please just show me the prompt. **@jenueldev** · 1 upvotes > The strongest part of this comparison is matching the architecture to the interaction model: CRUD-heavy internal tools benefit when the server remains the source of truth. The tradeoff I’d watch is where cross-screen client state and concurrent edits appear—once those grow, HTMX can shift complexity into partial-response contracts rather than eliminate it. **@markozakrajsekgeozs** · 0 upvotes > Before I continue reading ... was AI used for translation, or was the entire article used to write it? As @fabianletsch mentioned. Just that we know what to expect. **@dalerace** · 0 upvotes > this stack is all over the place lately.. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Please Just Fucking Try HTMX](https://daily.dev/posts/please-just-fucking-try-htmx-1mpfjamcy) · Hacker News · 254 upvotes · 45 comments - [HTMX and Signals: Modern Frontend Without JavaScript Frameworks](https://daily.dev/posts/htmx-and-signals-modern-frontend-without-javascript-frameworks-fotyevidi) · SitePoint · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Modern Frontend Complexity: essential or accidental?](https://daily.dev/posts/modern-frontend-complexity-essential-or-accidental--yrurnb4gq) · Lobsters · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [We chose React to learn it. The AI wrote it for us.](https://daily.dev/posts/we-chose-react-to-learn-it-the-ai-wrote-it-for-us--f4wiwrbv2) · R-bloggers · 2 upvotes · 0 comments - [The front-end architecture trilemma: Reactivity vs. hypermedia vs. local-first apps](https://daily.dev/posts/the-front-end-architecture-trilemma-reactivity-vs-hypermedia-vs-local-first-apps-tmledjdds) · InfoWorld · 19 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#javascript](https://daily.dev/tags/javascript), [#react](https://daily.dev/tags/react), [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#htmx](https://daily.dev/tags/htmx) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/after-8-years-of-building-with-react-i-started-my-last-project-without-it-niszlr77n) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"After 8 Years of Building With React, I Started My Last Project Without It","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/after-8-years-of-building-with-react-i-started-my-last-project-without-it-niszlr77n","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/after-8-years-of-building-with-react-i-started-my-last-project-without-it-niszlr77n"},"datePublished":"2026-07-18T06:18:53.696Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:44:36.968Z","description":"A developer with 8 years of React experience shares why they chose HTMX and Alpine.js over React for a new internal admin dashboard. 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At this point please just show me the prompt.","datePublished":"2026-07-18T17:58:59.025Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/NisZlr77n#c-CaYc9ja4h","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Fabian Letsch","url":"https://daily.dev/fabianletsch","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocKR6BVy_wn23EoOKq7-BlszlcXcLmASlnb7l-GtS-q1bePnkaJf=s96-c"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"The strongest part of this comparison is matching the architecture to the interaction model: CRUD-heavy internal tools benefit when the server remains the source of truth. 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Just that we know what to expect.","datePublished":"2026-07-19T05:17:52.609Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/NisZlr77n#c-iJYYlFzAX","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Marko Zakrajsek","url":"https://daily.dev/markozakrajsekgeozs","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--slY3-STy--/f_auto/v1783585373/avatars/avatar_SbncGJHaRHf7KoebEkT1L?_a=BAMAMicg0"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"this stack is all over the place lately…","datePublished":"2026-07-22T07:58:19.525Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/NisZlr77n#c-k5IDMI2UH","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"dale race","url":"https://daily.dev/dalerace","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/after-8-years-of-building-with-react-i-started-my-last-project-without-it-niszlr77n#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"When should I use HTMX and Alpine.js instead of React for a project?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"HTMX and Alpine.js work well for data-heavy, interaction-light applications like internal admin dashboards with CRUD tables and forms, where a single developer needs to maintain the codebase without a build pipeline. 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