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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[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 2 points 6 days ago (6 children)

Svelte(Kit?) does look pretty nice. I guess I'll try it out, but even then there are many UI libraries and other libraries that need decisions. It seems like in the frontend world, I never run out of choices 😅.

[–] tyler@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago (5 children)

With svelte I’ve only found like two “component” libraries and I’m not sure I’m going to continue to use them. Essentially they just are drop in components so you don’t have to write them yourself. But svelte really seems to like it when you just write the css yourself. I’ve been using tailwind with it and I honestly think I’m going to stop, because it’s harder than just writing normal css that covers either a specific component or the whole app.

[–] SorteKanin@feddit.dk 0 points 6 days ago (4 children)

Interesting, my impression is very much that the days of writing "pure CSS" is at an end, and that UI libraries and CSS frameworks like Tailwind is the way forward. But that is just my impression.

[–] matsdis@piefed.social 3 points 6 days ago

My impression is that writing "pure CSS" has been replaced by writing !important selectors that undo all of your component library's auto-generated CSS, and then write your own CSS selectors on top, after trying to figure out the theming system for half a day... /rant

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