November 6, 2025
Reactpocalypse: All Hail or Bail?
Dead Framework Theory
AI crowned React king — coders split between doom and relief
TLDR: A buzzy essay says AI tools are locking in React as the default way to build websites, creating a loop that sidelines rivals. Commenters split between “this kills choice,” “this reduces chaos,” and “not so fast—React’s complexity and DIY options mean the crown isn’t glued on yet.”
Did AI just pick a winner? The article claims React—a popular way to build websites—has become “the platform” thanks to a feedback loop between LLMs (AI writing tools), developer habits, and code editors. Tools like Replit and Bolt allegedly nudge AI to spit out React by default, because that’s what most people can maintain. Numbers get tossed around—BuiltWith sees tens of millions of new React sites, while HTTP Archive shows smaller counts but similar trends. Even OpenRouter token growth is waved around like a smoking gun: more AI code, more React. Cue the drama.
The comments lit up. One user screamed “AI apocalypse”—not killer robots, but killing choice. Another just sighed: “That was depressing as—well, you know.” Yet the contrarians aren’t buying it. simonw says the friction of React’s extra build step is a dealbreaker, arguing there’s still room for simpler tools. timinou flexes: they built their own mini-framework, and AI learned it from their code anyway—so maybe the future isn’t locked. Meanwhile, practical folks cheer: tow21 hopes this ends the endless churn of JavaScript flavor-of-the-months and the “tutorials already outdated” meme. The thread became a tug‑of‑war: “Reactpocalypse” vs “finally some peace and productivity”, with plenty of “one framework to rule them all” jokes in between.
Key Points
- •The article argues React functions as the dominant platform, with tools and LLMs defaulting to React output for maintainability.
- •BuiltWith data cites over 13 million new React sites outside the top 1 million in the past year and 55 million origins overall.
- •HTTP Archive reports approximately 1.2 million mobile origins using React across a dataset of 12–16 million origins; top 1M detection aligns at ~140k vs ~160k (BuiltWith).
- •Token growth observed via OpenRouter for programming tools coincides temporally with increased React deployments, though correlation is not causation.
- •The author outlines two feedback loops—training-data and tooling—creating barriers for new frameworks absent from LLM corpora or developer expectations.