How Solid.js Stacks Up Against Popular Frameworks: A Deep Dive

Outcome-first: By the time you finish this article you’ll be able to judge when Solid.js is the right tool for your next project - and why it often wins on raw update speed and runtime efficiency while trading off ecosystem breadth. You’ll also get practical guidance for migrating or picking a framework based on real-world concerns.

Quick summary (what you’ll learn)

• Why Solid’s fine-grained reactivity leads to very fast updates and low memory overhead.
• How Solid compares to React, Vue, and Svelte on common benchmarks and what those benchmarks actually measure.
• Developer-experience tradeoffs: DX, tooling, TypeScript support, and ecosystem availability.
• Clear guidance: when to pick Solid, when to stay with React/Vue/Svelte, and how to adopt Solid in production.

Architecture at a glance - the fundamental differences

Understanding performance and DX starts with architecture.

• Solid.js: fine-grained reactive primitives (signals, memos) + compiled JSX. No virtual DOM. Updates are targeted at the minimal DOM nodes affected by a signal. See the official overview: https://solidjs.com/docs/latest
• React: component-driven + virtual DOM diffing; reconciliation with Fiber scheduler, hooks for state. Mature patterns and huge ecosystem: https://reactjs.org/
• Vue (3): reactive system based on proxies, single-file components, and a VDOM. Good ergonomics and progressive migration path: https://vuejs.org/
• Svelte: compiler-first - produces imperative DOM-manipulating code at build time. No runtime VDOM. Works like a framework that disappears at runtime: https://svelte.dev/

Short takeaway: Solid and Svelte remove the VDOM, but via different approaches (fine-grained runtime in Solid vs. compile-time generated code in Svelte). Vue and React rely on virtual DOM strategies and larger runtime responsibilities.

Real-world performance: what benchmarks tell us

Benchmarks can be useful - when interpreted correctly.

The most referenced cross-framework benchmark is the js-framework-benchmark: https://krausest.github.io/js-framework-benchmark/current.html This benchmark measures several common metrics: initial render time, update throughput (rows or elements updated), and memory use. Results change over time as frameworks evolve and as test implementations vary in fidelity.

High-level results (consistent trends):

• Solid often ranks at or near the top for update throughput and memory efficiency.
• Svelte also performs extremely well in both bundle-size and update benchmarks.
• React and Vue generally show higher runtime cost in the raw update throughput tests, mainly due to VDOM diffing and more runtime work.

Important caveats:

• Benchmarks focus on micro-interactions (lots of small updates) and initial render; they may not reflect complex real-world apps (routing, server rendering, data fetching, third-party libs).
• Implementation fidelity matters. Small differences in how each framework’s test app is written can skew results.

Recommended reading and sources:

• js-framework-benchmark: https://krausest.github.io/js-framework-benchmark/current.html
• Solid’s docs / explanations: https://solidjs.com/docs/latest/what-is-solid

What the metrics actually mean for your app

• Update throughput: If your app updates many tiny DOM nodes very frequently (live data dashboards, high-frequency UIs), Solid’s fine-grained signal-based model tends to be superior because it avoids redundant recalculations.
• Initial render & bundle size: Svelte and Solid (when used with optimal build setups) can produce very small runtimes; Svelte’s compile-time generation often yields leaner bundles. React apps can be optimized (tree-shaking, code-splitting) but the core runtime and ecosystem libraries often inflate size.
• Memory usage: Fine-grained reactivity usually uses fewer allocations during updates compared with VDOM-based diffs, which reduces garbage collection pressure.

Bottom line: Benchmarks confirm that Solid is among the fastest frameworks for runtime updates and memory usage, with Svelte close behind on bundle size and competitive performance. React and Vue trade some raw performance for ecosystem, patterns, and broader tooling.

Developer experience (DX)

Performance matters, but DX often decides adoption. Let’s compare key DX areas.

1. Learning curve

• React: Moderate. Hooks changed the mental model but are ubiquitous. Lots of tutorials and patterns.
• Vue: Gentle. Single-file components and a clear CLI make onboarding smooth.
• Svelte: Simple to start; component syntax is declarative and compact.
• Solid: Familiar JSX for those coming from React, but you need to learn signals and fine-grained reactivity concepts (createSignal, createEffect, memos). The mental model is different from React hooks even though code may look similar.

2. Tooling and DevTools

• React: Mature devtools and great ecosystem integrations (React DevTools, Next.js, CRA/Vite templates).
• Vue: Vue DevTools and official scaffolding (Vite + VueCli/Nuxt).
• Svelte: Svelte DevTools and SvelteKit for app scaffolding.
• Solid: Solid Devtools exist (https://github.com/solid-devtools/solid-devtools), and Vite-based templates give a good DX, but plugin/adapter availability is smaller than React/Vue.

3. TypeScript support

• React: Excellent first-class TypeScript support.
• Vue 3: Improved TypeScript integration versus Vue 2.
• Svelte: TypeScript supported via preprocessors; SvelteKit improves DX significantly.
• Solid: Designed with TypeScript in mind; strong typings for core APIs.

4. Patterns and ergonomics

• React’s component model and hooks give a very flexible but sometimes verbose pattern surface.
• Vue’s single-file components (SFC) and composition API are ergonomic for many teams.
• Svelte’s reactive statements and compact templates are delightful for small-to-medium apps.
• Solid’s signals and fine-grained computations let you write highly efficient components but can require a different approach to state and side-effects compared to React’s component-local state.

Ecosystem maturity & production readiness

• React: Massive ecosystem, many battle-tested solutions (routing, SSR, forms, state mgmt). Best choice when you rely on third-party integrations or teams with React expertise.
• Vue: Strong ecosystem, especially in the web app / SPA world. Nuxt provides SSR and app-level tooling similar to Next.js.
• Svelte: Growing rapidly. SvelteKit provides full-stack capabilities and server-side rendering. Ecosystem fewer packages than React/Vue but growing.
• Solid: Younger but production-ready. There are routing libraries, state helpers, SSR adapters (Solid Start), and increasingly mature patterns for apps. See Solid Start for app scaffolding: https://start.solidjs.com/

If ecosystem breadth and hiring pool matter most, React remains the safe bet. If you want a modern small-runtime approach with server-side rendering and a nice developer story, Svelte/SvelteKit or Solid/Start are compelling.

Code ergonomics - small examples

Solid counter (JSX + signals):

import { createSignal } from 'solid-js';

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = createSignal(0);
  return (
    <button onClick={() => setCount(count() + 1)}>Count: {count()}</button>
  );
}

React counter (hooks):

import { useState } from 'react';

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  return <button onClick={() => setCount(c => c + 1)}>Count: {count}</button>;
}

Svelte counter (single-file):

<script>
  let count = 0;
</script>

<button on:click={() => count += 1}>
  Count: {count}
</button>

Notice how Solid looks like React at a glance (JSX) but the reactive primitives behave differently: Solid tracks dependencies at the expression level (count()), enabling granular updates.

When to choose Solid (practical guidance)

Choose Solid when:

• You need the fastest possible runtime updates with minimal memory pressure (live dashboards, high-frequency UI updates).
• You want a modern JSX-based developer experience but prefer a fine-grained reactivity model instead of React’s rerender-based approach.
• You’re building a performance-sensitive widget or component library where update cost and memory really matter.

Consider other options when:

• Your team relies heavily on ecosystem packages or hiring talent experienced in React/Vue.
• You need a framework with plug-and-play hosting integrations or a very large plugin ecosystem.
• You prefer a non-JSX templating style (Svelte or Vue’s templates might be preferred).

Migration & adoption tips

• Start with a small module or widget: Replace one component with Solid to measure gains and identify integration friction.
• Use Solid Start for app-level concerns (routing, SSR): https://start.solidjs.com/
• Invest in teaching signals/effects to your team; patterns differ from React hooks especially around when computations run and how to avoid unnecessary tracking.
• Watch third-party integration points (UI libraries, analytics scripts). Interop is usually doable but sometimes requires adaptation.

Common pitfalls to watch for

• Overuse of global signals for everything can make debugging harder; prefer localized signals where appropriate.
• Misunderstanding how reactive computations track dependencies (you must call the signal inside computations to create the dependency).
• Relying on a specific benchmark claim without reproducing it for your workload. Measure in your context.

Final verdict - a balanced view

Solid brings a compelling combination of JSX ergonomics and fine-grained reactivity that frequently yields best-in-class runtime performance and low memory overhead. Svelte offers similar runtime advantages with a different, compiler-first approach that often yields the smallest bundles. React and Vue provide broad ecosystems, battle-tested integrations, and familiar mental models for large teams.

If your primary constraints are runtime efficiency and minimal GC pressure, Solid is an excellent choice. If you prioritize ecosystem breadth and hiring scale, React (or Vue) might be the safer option. If you favor a compiler-first minimal runtime with compact syntax, Svelte is hard to beat.

Decide based on: your app’s performance profile, team expertise, and required ecosystem integrations - and measure.

Further reading and sources

• js-framework-benchmark: https://krausest.github.io/js-framework-benchmark/current.html
• Solid documentation: https://solidjs.com/docs/latest
• React: https://reactjs.org/
• Vue: https://vuejs.org/
• Svelte: https://svelte.dev/
• Solid Start (app framework for Solid): https://start.solidjs.com/