Preact: Is Preact capable of replacing React?

Created on 3 Nov 2016 · 5Comments · Source: preactjs/preact

Sorry for stupid question, guys. Looks like Preact is really awesome, and I'm just starting to dig it.

Please tell me, wether it's possible to use all other react-components in npm within preact?
What are the possible caveats?

Thanks!

discussion documentation

Source

ilyadoroshin

Most helpful comment

What are the possible caveats?

Good question, many people have asked:

Unlike React, it does not normalize events across browsers. In other words, the argument passed to event handler props (eg. onClick) is the "raw" DOM event from the browser. This is less of an issue than it was in the past due to improved browser compatibility in this area, but something to be aware of.
If you want to use it as a drop-in replacement for React for an existing component which uses React APIs (mainly deprecated/legacy APIs) that are not available in Preact, you may need preact-compat
It doesn't have anywhere near the volume of developer warnings that React has. If you do something wrong in a lifecycle method, React will probably complain, Preact probably won't.
React has more users and much more extensive usage on large websites, combined with a larger test suite - so there is less likelihood that you'll run into edge cases with DOM APIs affecting only certain browsers or certain elements/attributes. For an example of the sort of issue I'm referring to, see https://github.com/developit/preact/issues/378 . On the other hand, the Preact codebase is very small so there is less surface area for defects.

Another way of looking at (1) and (4) is that Preact is "closer to the metal" of the web platform and the browser that you happen to be running on.

robertknight on 3 Nov 2016

👍11

it's not stupid question. have you looked preact-compat? https://github.com/developit/preact-compat

mehmetkose on 3 Nov 2016

👍1

What are the possible caveats?

Good question, many people have asked:

Unlike React, it does not normalize events across browsers. In other words, the argument passed to event handler props (eg. onClick) is the "raw" DOM event from the browser. This is less of an issue than it was in the past due to improved browser compatibility in this area, but something to be aware of.
If you want to use it as a drop-in replacement for React for an existing component which uses React APIs (mainly deprecated/legacy APIs) that are not available in Preact, you may need preact-compat
It doesn't have anywhere near the volume of developer warnings that React has. If you do something wrong in a lifecycle method, React will probably complain, Preact probably won't.
React has more users and much more extensive usage on large websites, combined with a larger test suite - so there is less likelihood that you'll run into edge cases with DOM APIs affecting only certain browsers or certain elements/attributes. For an example of the sort of issue I'm referring to, see https://github.com/developit/preact/issues/378 . On the other hand, the Preact codebase is very small so there is less surface area for defects.

Another way of looking at (1) and (4) is that Preact is "closer to the metal" of the web platform and the browser that you happen to be running on.

robertknight on 3 Nov 2016

👍11

That is a better list than I could have ever put together @robertknight 🙇