I read "The Frontend Treadmill" (https://polotek.net/posts/the-frontend-treadmill/) and it makes me think a lot.
I used to be a backend developer, and most of my experience is there. For frontend, last time I used jQuery and it was OK for me. Simple and worked fine. Now I want to build new side project and I think maybe vanilla JS is best? JavaScript has many good features now and browsers can do many things.
1. Can vanilla JS work for medium-sized apps in 2025? 2. What small libraries would you add if needed?
I don't want to rewrite everything in 2-3 years when frameworks change again. This seems like a waste of time. Has anyone here stopped using big frameworks and feels better about it?
That article is a bit misleading.
Your frontend framework will not magically get "outdated" after a few years. React has been going strong for since a decade now. Moreover, even "dead" frameworks such as Ember are actively maintained.
I would suggest using Next.js on the frontend for a medium-sized app.
It always depends on what kind of project you're going to work on. My projects usually falls on the CRUD side.
For that, I keep using Django + Unpoly (check it out) + Bootstrap and I always get a SPA like app that works very fine.
And I keep my stack very lean. I'm also a backend developer so frontend stuff is just an annoyance. New language, new build pipelines, multiple deploys (frontend/backend) etc.
HMTX is also something you should take a look.