VanJS: The Smallest Reactive UI Framework in the World
Enable everyone to build useful UI apps with a few lines of code, anywhere, any time, on any device.
VanJS is an ultra-lightweight, zero-dependency and unopinionated Reactive UI framework based on pure vanilla JavaScript and DOM. Programming with VanJS feels like building React apps in a scripting language, without JSX. Check-out the Hello World code below:
// Here we capitalize the first letter to follow React conventions.
const Hello = () => div(
p("Hello"),
ul(
li("World"),
li(a({href: "https://vanjs.org/"}, "VanJS")),
),
)
van.add(document.body, Hello())
// Alternatively, you can write:
// document.body.appendChild(Hello())
You can convert any HTML or MD snippet into VanJS code with our online converter.
VanJS helps you manage states and UI bindings as well, with a more natural API:
const counter = van.state(0)
return div(
" ", counter, " ",
button({onclick: () => ++counter.val}, ""),
button({onclick: () => --counter.val}, ""),
)
}
van.add(document.body, Counter())
Why VanJS?
Reactive Programming without React/JSX
Declarative DOM tree composition, reusable components, reactive state binding - VanJS offers every good aspect that React does, but without the need of React, JSX, transpiling, virtual DOM, or any hidden logic. Everything is built with simple JavaScript functions and DOM.
Grab 'n Go
No installation, no configuration, no dependencies, no transpiling, no IDE setups. Adding a line to your script or HTML file is all you need to start coding. And any code with VanJS can be pasted and executed directly in your browser's developer console. VanJS allows you to focus on the business logic of your application, rather than getting bogged down in frameworks and tools.
Ultra-Lightweight
VanJS is the smallest reactive UI framework in the world, with just 1.0kB in the gzipped minified bundle. It's 50~100 times smaller than most popular alternatives. Guess what you can get from this 1.0kB framework? All essential features of modern web frameworks - DOM templating, state, state binding, state derivation, effect, SPA, client-side routing and even hydration!
Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery, Airman's Odyssey
Easy to Learn
Simplicity at its core. Only 5 functions (van.tags, van.add, van.state, van.derive, van.hydrate). The entire tutorial plus the API reference is just one single web page, and can be learned within 1 hour for most developers.
Performance
VanJS is among the fastest web frameworks, according to the results by krausest/js-framework-benchmark. For SSR, Mini-Van is 1.75X to 2.25X more efficient compared to React.
TypeScript Support
VanJS provides first-class support for TypeScript. With the .d.ts file in place, you'll be able to take advantage of type-checking, IntelliSense, large-scale refactoring provided by your preferred development environment. Refer to the Download Table to find the right .d.ts file to work with.
Want to Learn More?
- Get Started (CDN, NPM or local download)
- Learn from the Tutorial
- Learn by Examples (and also Community Examples)
- Get bored? Play a fun game built with VanJS under 60 lines
- Convert HTML or MD snippet to VanJS code with our online HTML/MD to VanJS Converter
- Check out VanUI - A collection of grab 'n go reusable utility and UI components for VanJS
- Want reactive list, global app state, server-driven UI, serialization and more? Check out VanX - The 1.2kB official VanJS extension
- Want server-side rendering? Check out Mini-Van and Hydration (the entire vanjs.org site is built on top of Mini-Van)
- Debugging complex dependencies in your app? checkout VanGraph
- For questions, feedback or general discussions, visit our Discussions page
- How did VanJS get its name?
- Ask VanJS Guru - a VanJS-focused AI to answer your questions
IDE Plug-ins
See Also
A Guide to Reading VanJS Codebase
Support & Feedback
VanJS aims to build a better world by reducing the entry barrier of UI programming, with no intention or plan on commercialization whatsoever. If you find VanJS interesting, or could be useful for you some day, please consider starring the project. It takes just a few seconds but your support means the world to us and helps spread VanJS to a wider audience.
In the name of Vanilla of the House JavaScript, the First of its name, Smallest Reactive UI Framework, 1.0kB JSX-free Grab 'n Go Library, Scripting Language for GUI, GPT-Empowered Toolkit, by the word of Tao of the House Xin, Founder and Maintainer of VanJS, I do hereby grant you the permission of VanJS under MIT License.
Contact us: @taoxin / tao@vanjs.org / Tao Xin
Community Add-ons
VanJS can be extended via add-ons. Add-ons add more features to VanJS and/or provide an alternative styled API. Below is a curated list of add-ons built by VanJS community:
| Add-on | Description | Author |
|---|---|---|
| Van Cone | An SPA framework add-on for VanJS | b-rad-c |
| van_element | Web Components with VanJS | Atmos4 |
| VanJS Prerender | SSR support for VanJS (alternative to Mini-Van) | Binh Tran |
| VanJS Feather | Feather Icons for VanJS | thednp |
| van_dml.js | A new flavour of composition for VanJS | Eckehard |
| van-jsx | A JSX wrapper for VanJS, for people who like the JSX syntax more | cqh963852 |
| vanjs-router | A router solution for VanJS (README.md in simplified Chinese) |
Ou Yang Peng |
| VanJS Routing | Yet another routing solution for VanJS | Kwame Opare Asiedu |
| VanJS Form | Fully typed form state management library (with validation) for VanJS | Kwame Opare Asiedu |
| vanjs-bootstrap | VanJS Bootstrap Components | Willi Commer |
| vanrx | An ultra-lightweight Redux addon for VanJS | Meddah Abdallah |
| VanFS | 1:1 bindings from F# to VanJS | Ken Okabe |
| Van-wrapper | A tool that facilitates the rendering of VanJS elements within other popular frameworks | Zakaria Elalaoui |
| Create VanJS | The fastest way to kickstart your first VanJS Project: npm create vanjs@latest |
thednp |
| Vite Plugin for VanJS | A mini meta-framework for VanJS featuring routing, metadata, isomorphic rendering and JSX transformation | thednp |
| Vite VanJS SVG | A Vite plugin to transform SVG files to VanJS components on the fly | thednp |
| VanJS Lucide | Lucide Icons for VanJS | thednp |
| P5.wrapper | A p5.js wrapper for VanJS built on top of ZikoJS | Zakaria Elalaoui |
| Van-Mdx | A Markdown preprocessor for VanJS | Zakaria Elalaoui |
| Van-Server | Server-side rendering for VanJS with file-based routing and client-side hydration | Zakaria Elalaoui |
| Ufbr | Universal client side file based routing for VanJS and others | Zakaria Elalaoui |
| Van I18n | Reactive i18n provider for VanJS apps | Zakaria Elalaoui |
Contributors (68)
If I miss anyone's contribution here, apologies for my oversight , please comment on #87 to let me know.