Honestly, I wasn’t sure this article would even get written. It’s easy to hype shiny new tech, but 2024 felt more like facing reality than chasing excitement.
The last few years have been a journey into uncharted territory. We kicked off this year with excitement, sure it was time to polish these advancements. And they have. One thing is clear: platforms like 22Bit show that progress isn’t about hype. It’s about seeing what works and knowing where to focus next.
Our pursuit of simplicity hasn’t actually made web development any simpler.
Yes, certain tasks have gotten easier, but the landscape hasn’t become less complex. We already knew this. Something changed in 2024. The global economy tightened budgets and pressured solutions to stay on a safe path. It seems clear now that there’s no magic solution — no silver bullet that fixes everything. Difficult problems are difficult to solve.
The real challenge isn’t complicated tools; it’s the complexity of the problems themselves. t’s been tough, running into obstacles at every turn. I’ve had to go back to basics, only to find I’m reinventing the wheel. Still, I’m returning to that essential place.
It’s a sobering realization, but it also gives me hope that 2025 will be a year to pause, reflect, and reset. And that starts with reflecting on 2024.
The Promise of the Server
Over the past five years, “server-first” has dominated the conversation in frontend development. This isn’t a new idea. The web started on the server. But after ten years of client-focused single-page apps, it became clear that the balance had tipped too far. Websites that need fast page loads didn’t see much enjoyment in more interactivity.
Combining all these features can get messy fast. It’s unclear if we’re even solving the original problems.
Measuring real success in this space has proven extremely difficult. We’ve seen benchmark failures:
Too often, performance gains have been credited to shiny new tech when the actual cause lay elsewhere.
If 2021/22 was a reset to basics, a return to our roots, 2024 showed us that simple isn’t enough.
Compilation to the Rescue
Compilation is now a regular part of JavaScript development. It’s involved in almost everything we do. When we face an obstacle, like browser support or tricky syntax, we create a compiler to solve it.
The React Compiler is an auto-optimizing tool. It changes the code to cut down on unnecessary re-execution, all without manual input. It works on principles very like the Svelte 3 compiler that first appeared in 2019. Svelte 5 Runes offers sweet syntax on top of a fine-grained Signals renderer. This is like what SolidJS introduced in 2018.
We still don’t know if these choices will pay off, but what’s clear is that the shared foundation is only getting more complicated. This happens as we try to find solutions to make development easier.
AI and Dev Tools
Compilation and bundling are essential. They are key for providing AI with the tools to create dynamic solutions in the future. Each year, these tools make a noticeably bigger difference in how developers work. But, AI hasn’t changed JavaScript frameworks much yet.
If tasks are complex and core tools are intricate, supporting tools need to adapt and improve. This goes beyond the “shift left” idea — the demand now stretches across the entire development pipeline. Biome (and before it, Rome) aimed for this goal. Fresh entrants like VoidZero, created by Vue/Vite’s Evan You, prove that this groundwork is critical for what comes next.
Looking Forward
Server-second
By mid-2024, we’re starting to see the pendulum swing back. SPA modes are emerging in SvelteKit, SolidStart, and Remix.
Signal Growing Pains
It’s well known at this point that nearly all non-React frameworks rely on Signals. Some time has passed, and developers now see the tradeoffs involved. I think these are minor issues, but I expect people to gain a new appreciation for React.
Conclusion
I don’t see a big tech breakthrough coming in the next year. The community isn’t quite ready. We’ve shifted from discussing Resumability to exploring Partial Hydration. Now, we’re back to debating templating syntax. It feels like we’re in a pause — a time to reflect, not to leap forward. And that’s okay.
At the moment, complexity is the name of the game. The ingredients for the next big leap exist — they haven’t been unified into something simple. But no single solution has combined them into a simple, usable format. In chasing simplicity, we’ve actually added new layers of complexity.
No one framework solves it all. HTMX is useful but won’t take over the world. React isn’t harder than other tools. Async and client/server interactions are tricky by nature. Compilers can’t fix everything — but they can solve quite a lot.
