Hi everyone,
Sarah here! After seeing Evelyn publish one post after another, I wanted to share some of my own experiences too — so here we go.
My history with React
Back in high school, one of my classmates introduced me to React.
I still remember the horror on my face when he asked me to write a React frontend for our smart mirror app — right in the middle of a hackathon — even though I’d never seen React before. We suffered a crushing defeat, but I was fascinated by the technology. Until then, I’d only worked with C#, PHP, and jQuery. That experience pushed me to shift my focus from desktop development to web technologies.
Bye React, Hi Svelte
Years went by, and I used React in almost every project. Sometimes I thought about switching to Vue, but I always came back to React — until Svelte came along.
At first, I was hesitant, but after a bit of experimenting, I fell in love with it. It was simple, fast to learn, and even faster to build apps with. So, I decided to go all-in on Svelte.
When Svelte 5 came out, I wasn’t thrilled about the new runes, but I got used to them, and honestly — they’re not that bad. Still, I started noticing a different problem: SvelteKit.
I really love Svelte, but I just can’t stand SvelteKit. I tried to build a few projects with it, but every time, I ended up going back to “plain” Svelte with Vite and a Node.js backend communicating via REST API.
Why? I’m not even sure — it just feels like SvelteKit keeps getting in my way. I’d call it more of a personal preference than a logical reason.
Next comes Next?
A few days ago, my Crowdin subscription expired. I decided not to renew it and to move to a self-hosted platform instead. But which one?
After trying a few alternatives and not being satisfied, I figured — why not build my own?
The main problem was laziness. I didn’t feel like building a whole API; I just wanted to write a nice UI on top of a simple database with some light logic. What to do then? Use SvelteKit? Nope.
I decided to try Next.js. I’d never used it before, but since I knew React, it shouldn’t be a problem, right?
After setting up the project, I ran into two issues:
- I was used to the old class components, not functional ones.
- It was a bit confusing to figure out what runs on the client and what runs on the server.
But I got the hang of it pretty quickly.
Now, just two days into building my localization platform, it’s clear to me that React has really come a long way since I last used it. I’m genuinely excited to use it in more projects.
What now?
I’m pleasantly surprised by both Next.js and React in general. I’m not planning to immediately replace my whole stack, but in future projects, I’ll probably decide which technology to use based on the project’s needs.
Most importantly, this experience has reignited my long-lost curiosity for trying out new tools and frameworks. I might even give Vue and Nuxt another shot.
Bye for now!
— Sarah :3