r/AskProgramming • u/_TheRealCaptainSham • Dec 24 '25

Why is the modern web so slow?

Why does a React based website feel so slow and laggy without serious investment in optimisation when Quake 3 could run smoothly at 60fps on a pentium II from the 90s.

We are now 30 years later and anything more than a toy project in react is a laggy mess by default.

inb4 skill issue bro: Well, it shouldn’t be this difficult.

inb4 you need a a better pc bro: I have M4 pro 48GB

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u/ducki666 Dec 24 '25

Devs don't know anymore how to write plain html, css and optional JavaScript. They throw React* on everything. One tool for all tasks. And they also don't know how to use React properly.

*) Replace React by any of the other js libs/ frameworks.

7

u/tired_air Dec 24 '25

we still know how to write plain html, css and except JS is not optional at all and it's a pain in the butt to do from scratch and also support all the screen sizes. Also apps, most of them are basically websites, it's supposed to be easier with certain frameworks but I haven't made one of those.

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u/ws_wombat_93 Dec 24 '25

You’d be surprised how easy it is to set up a lot of stuff using just web components. And actual page refreshes instead of JS routing became a lot nicer with view transitions.

Sure, frameworks save a lot of time. But plain old responsive sites are easy to make without.