Why We Bet on Vue.js (The Engineering Case for the "Quiet Giant")

In the custom software world, picking a technology stack is like picking a foundation for a skyscraper. If you get it wrong, you don’t notice until the 50th floor, when the whole thing starts to sway.

If you look at job boards or bootcamps, you will see one name dominating: React. It is owned by Meta (Facebook), used by everyone, and is the “safe” default.

At Ryse Software, we are not contrarians for the sake of it. We use React when a client specifically mandates it or when we need the React Native ecosystem. But for 90% of our greenfield, high-performance web applications, we choose Vue.js.

This isn’t a preference based on “vibes.” It is a decision based on benchmarks, architectural stability, and long-term maintenance costs.

Here is the detailed engineering reality of why Vue.js wins.

1. The Governance: Community vs. Corporation

This is the most overlooked factor in software strategy.

React is owned by Meta. Its roadmap is dictated by the needs of Facebook.com. If Facebook needs a feature that complicates the framework for everyone else, they add it (e.g., the complexity of React Server Components).

Vue.js is independent. It is community-driven and crowdfunded. It is built for us—the developers and businesses building products—not for an infinite-scroll social media feed.

This independence means Vue’s API changes are deliberate, stable, and focused on developer experience, not corporate KPIs.

2. The Performance: Proxies vs. The “Guessing Game”

To understand why Vue is faster, you have to understand how modern frameworks update your screen.

React: The “Diffing” Engine

React uses a Virtual DOM. When you change a piece of data, React doesn’t know exactly what that data touches. So, it re-renders the entire component tree (and often its children) to create a new “picture” of the UI. It then compares (diffs) the new picture with the old one to find the changes.

• The Cost: This is computationally heavy. Developers spend hours writing manual optimizations (useMemo, useCallback) to stop React from re-rendering things unnecessarily.

Vue: The “Dependency” Engine

Vue 3 uses JavaScript Proxies. It works like an Excel spreadsheet. If Cell A1 changes, Excel knows exactly which other cells reference A1 and updates only those. Vue knows precisely which text node or button depends on your data. It doesn’t need to re-render the whole component tree to “guess” what changed. It goes straight to the target.

3. The Benchmarks (Stefan Krause)

In the engineering world, the gold standard for frontend performance is the Stefan Krause JS Framework Benchmark. It tests frameworks on raw speed, memory usage, and startup time.

Consistently, year over year, Vue.js outperforms React in critical areas:

• Memory Allocation: Vue apps are significantly lighter. On low-end laptops or older phones, React apps often bloat RAM, causing sluggishness. Vue remains lean.
• Startup Time: Because Vue’s code is smaller and its initialization is more efficient, the “Time to Interactive” (TTI) is faster.
• Bundle Size: A standard Vue core is ~33kb. React (with ReactDOM) is significantly heavier. Over 4G networks, this difference is money.

4. The Ecosystem: “Apple” Integration

React is a library, not a framework. It gives you the rendering engine, but it forces you to go shopping for the rest.

• Need a router? Find a 3rd party library.
• Need state management? Choose between Redux, MobX, Zustand, Recoil…
• The Risk: If the solo developer maintaining your Router library quits, your multi-million dollar app is now relying on abandonware.

Vue takes the “Batteries Included” approach.

• Vue Router: Official, maintained by the Vue team.
• Pinia (State Management): Official, maintained by the Vue team.

They update in sync. They don’t break each other. This “Apple-like” integration saves us hundreds of hours in “dependency hell” over the life of a project.

5. Developer Experience: Code That Humans Can Read

Finally, there is the code itself.

React uses JSX, which mixes HTML and JavaScript into a single chaotic flow. It is powerful, but it often leads to “Spaghetti Code” where logic is hidden inside the layout.

Vue uses Single File Components (SFCs). It forces a clean separation of concerns:

1. Template: The HTML (What it looks like).
2. Script: The Logic (How it works).
3. Style: The CSS (How it is styled).

<template>
  <div class="user-card">
    <h1>{{ username }}</h1>
    <button @click="updateProfile">Save</button>
  </div>
</template>

<script setup>
  // Logic lives here, isolated from the view
  import { ref } from 'vue';
  const username = ref('Zach');
  function updateProfile() { ... }
</script>

Why this pays off for you: When we hand over code to your internal team, or when we onboard a new developer to your project, they can understand the structure in minutes, not days. Readability equals maintainability.

Summary: We Choose Efficiency

We don’t use Vue because it’s “cool.” We use it because:

• It is faster (Fine-grained Proxy reactivity).

• It is lighter (Better memory management).

• It is safer (Official, synchronized ecosystem).

In a business environment where efficiency and stability are the only metrics that truly matter, Vue.js is the professional’s choice.