Fast React Alternatives That Don't Suck

React's virtual DOM was magic back in 2013. jQuery spaghetti was everywhere and React's "just describe what you want" felt revolutionary. But that was 2013. It's 2025 now and we're still pretending the virtual DOM is an optimization when it's actually the thing making your apps slow.

React's Virtual DOM Performance Problem

Every state update, React has to:

• Build a brand new virtual DOM tree
• Diff it against the old tree, node by node
• Figure out what changed
• Finally update the DOM

Your trading app gets a price update for AAPL and React rebuilds a virtual representation of your entire app just to change one number in one cell. For basic CRUD forms? Fine, whatever. But real-time data with thousands of updates? React spends more time diffing than actually updating.

Hit this wall with a trading dashboard last year. Every market update would lock up the browser. Traders watching their positions freeze while prices moved, kept sending me screenshots of missed trades with "fix your shit" messages.

React 19: Lipstick on a Pig

React 19 came out in December 2024. Been testing it for a few months now and... it's better than React 18 but still not fast enough for real-time stuff.

The React Compiler helps with some re-renders but doesn't touch the core virtual DOM bottleneck. Server Components just move the work to your server instead of the client - great, now I need to scale servers instead of fixing the real problem.

The virtual DOM is still there doing the same expensive diffing on every update.

When I Got Fed Up

Three different projects, same React performance nightmare:

That trading dashboard - every price tick froze the UI. Not just slow, actually frozen. Traders threatening to use the competitor's platform.

Some admin panel where typing felt like dial-up internet. Every keystroke triggered cascading re-renders through nested components.

Mobile app that took 8 seconds to load on 3G. Users in developing markets just gave up.

Same optimization dance every time:

• React.memo() everything
• useMemo() and useCallback() spam
• Hours staring at React DevTools flame graphs
• Restructuring state to avoid re-renders

Months of optimization work for maybe 15-20% improvement. Still not fast enough.

What Actually Works Instead

Tried three alternatives that don't have React's virtual DOM baggage:

SolidJS - JSX and hooks like React but no virtual DOM. When state changes, it directly updates the DOM nodes that care. Not everything.

Svelte - Compiles to vanilla JS at build time. No runtime framework, smaller bundles, way faster execution.

Qwik - Ships almost no JavaScript initially, loads stuff on-demand. Even works on terrible networks.

Migrated all three projects. The trading platform doesn't freeze anymore. Admin panel typing feels normal. Mobile app loads in under 3 seconds.

React's fine for lots of stuff - MVPs, teams that need the ecosystem, apps where "good enough" performance is actually good enough. But when users are bouncing because your shit is slow, these alternatives solve the problems React created.

SolidJS fixes React's biggest problem - the virtual DOM performance tax you pay on every update. Same JSX, similar hooks, but way faster when you actually need speed.

Ryan Carniato built SolidJS after hitting the same React walls I did. Keeps JSX and hook-like patterns but ditches the virtual DOM entirely.

Instead of React's "rebuild everything then diff to find changes," SolidJS uses signals that directly update only the DOM nodes that changed. React touches everything, SolidJS touches what matters.

Signals vs React State

Signals replace React's useState. When a signal changes, SolidJS knows exactly which DOM nodes care about that signal and updates only those. No diffing, no reconciliation, no re-rendering whole components.

SolidJS builds a reactive graph at compile time mapping signals to DOM nodes. Signal updates? Only those specific nodes change. Rest of your app stays untouched.

// React: entire function re-runs on every click
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  return <div><h1>Count: {count}</h1></div>;
}

// SolidJS: only the text node updates
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = createSignal(0);
  return <div><h1>Count: {count()}</h1></div>;
}

React re-runs the whole function every click. SolidJS just updates the text node. That's it.

The Trading App Migration

That React trading app I mentioned? Way too many instruments, every market tick would freeze the browser while React figured out what changed.

Tried all the React optimization tricks:

• React.memo() on everything
• useMemo() and useCallback() spam
• Table virtualization
• State restructuring

Got freezes down a bit but not enough. Traders still complained.

SolidJS migration took 3 months but fixed it. Price updates directly patch the changed table cells. No virtual DOM, no freeze. Bundle dropped from huge to way smaller.

Memory Doesn't Explode

React apps eat more RAM over time. Leave a React dashboard running all day, watch memory climb way up.

SolidJS components initialize once and stay put. No constant virtual DOM object creation/destruction. Trading dashboard runs all day, memory stays reasonable.

Learning Curve Is Minimal

SolidJS looks like React with better performance. Same JSX, similar hooks. I could read SolidJS code immediately.

• createSignal() works like useState() but faster
• createMemo() works like useMemo() but doesn't suck
• createEffect() works like useEffect() but more predictable
• JSX, props, components all identical

Smaller Bundles

SolidJS runtime is ~8KB. React DOM alone is 47KB.

My apps:

• React: big framework + my code = pretty huge
• SolidJS: tiny framework + my code = way smaller

Noticeably smaller before optimization. On mobile, loads way faster.

Ecosystem Is Smaller But Fine

SolidJS ecosystem is smaller than React's. Has routing (Solid Router), full-stack framework (Solid Start), testing library, UI components.

What's missing? Some niche libraries, fewer Stack Overflow answers, smaller community. You'll build more stuff yourself.

Migration Timeline

Month 1: Learned signals with toy apps. JSX looks identical so concepts clicked fast.

Month 2: Migrated simple components - buttons, modals, forms. Went smooth.

Month 3: Hard stuff - data tables, real-time feeds. Had to rethink some React patterns but performance gains were obvious.

Month 4: Polish and remove React deps. Everything worked better.

This was part-time while maintaining React version. Full-time team could probably do it in 6-8 weeks.

Don't Switch If...

• Your React app is already fast enough
• You use React Native heavily (no SolidJS equivalent)
• You're under tight deadlines (migrations take time)
• Your team is junior (signals require understanding reactivity)

Bottom Line

SolidJS gives you React's developer experience without the performance tax. Migration takes 3-4 months for decent-sized apps, but it's not reinventing everything.

Ecosystem is smaller, community is smaller, you'll build more stuff yourself. But when users stop rage-quitting on slow dashboards, when mobile works on 3G, when traders stop sending death threats about UI freezes - those trade-offs are worth it.

The 3-month migration was worth it just to stop getting "your app is garbage" messages every morning.