this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2025
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Web Development

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As a backend developer, where do I even start with frontend? Feeling major choice paralysis (feddit.dk)
submitted 6 days ago by SorteKanin@feddit.dk to c/webdev@programming.dev
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I'm an experienced backend developer. To me, the backend world seems super simple compared to the frontend world.

It seems like there are a million options and I don't have the experience to say what's good and what's not. I'm hit with major choice paralysis, basically.

I don't have any special requirements - I "just" want to build a pretty standard, responsive, modern-looking UI. Ideally without too much boilerplate, in a framework that "feels good", in a way that might at some point attract other contributors as well, if I get to the point of open sourcing.

Of course I could just reach for the most popular thing i.e. React, but that doesn't seem to be the "hip" thing to use nowadays (or maybe I'm wrong? What do I know, I'm a backend dev).

But even if I choose a framework, there's a million other libraries out there to choose as well. For instance, which UI library to choose? What about observability and state management and authentication and so on?

Sorry if this is a bit ranty. I am honestly just looking for an experienced frontend developer to point me in some direction (i.e. some set of frameworks/libraries; a "stack" if you will), so I can get out of this choice paralysis.

What would be your go-to stack for a new frontend project today?

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[–] dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world 5 points 6 days ago

I'll jump on the bandwagon and say that while I haven't used Svelte or Quik, I have used React, NextJS, and a lot of older tech like AngularJS, ASP, PHP, JSP, JQuery, YUI, vanilla JS, ...

I agree. React is over-engineered, and tries to solve the same thing Angular does: optimize for the most efficient DOM updates possible. As a result, your code is compressed into hard-to-debug pretzel shapes. Its cousin, NextJS, confuses front and backend in such a way that you'd need to be experienced with the separation before being able to navigate it. Neither is starter tech by any stretch of the imagination.

I've dabbled a bit with HTMX. I really like this one since it more closely resembles the dynamic web we had before JS and heavy-clients took over. You wind up with a lot more chatter between the browser and server, but each of those conversations can be engineered (more or less) in isolation from the rest of the app. Meanwhile, you avoid round-trips that update the entire page - the very thing that these other stacks try so hard to avoid. You can build an HTMX application one component at a time, instead of all-or-nothing. This makes troubleshooting a lot easier, so it's likely an easier place to start.