The state of modern web development is a mess

2026-02-19 11:00:00 (0)

By Vanilla_JS_King

I just tried to start a new project. I was told I need:

  • A meta-framework (Next.js/Nuxt/SvelteKit)
  • A styling library (Tailwind/Uno/CSS-in-JS)
  • A state management library
  • A query library
  • A validation library
  • 4000 npm dependencies

What happened to just index.html, style.css, and a bit of script? We've over-engineered the web into oblivion. 📉

Frontend_Frank 2026-02-19 11:20:00 (0)

@Vanilla_JS_King Try building a real-time collaborative dashboard for 10,000 users with just index.html and let me know how that goes. The complexity exists because the demands on web apps have skyrocketed. We aren't just making "web pages" anymore, we're making software. 🛠️

Backend_Ben 2026-02-19 11:35:00 (0)

The problem isn't the tools, it's the people who use them for simple blogs. If your site is 90% text, you don't need a 200KB JS bundle. Site speed is a user experience, too. ⚡

Vanilla_JS_King 2026-02-19 11:50:00 (0)

@Frontend_Frank Fair point, but most sites don't need that level of complexity. We’ve normalized using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Just look at the average news site—it loads 15MB of trackers just to show 500 words of text. It's ridiculous.