My interest in full-stack hybrid rendering and the corresponding tools was sparked by Rich Harris’ talk at Jamstack Conf 2021 titled “Transitional Apps” (you can find the transcription here, thanks to Geoff Rich). At the time, I was in the middle of my personal JavaScript fatigue (and SPA fatigue) escalation, and the ideas expressed by Rich resonated deeply with me. There wasn’t a sticky name for this approach yet, so “transitional apps” was a kind of first attempt at naming it.
Several years later, this idea is ubiquitous and is more or less consistently called “metaframeworks.”
As the name implies, a metaframework is something that’s built on top of a framework, yet it also represents the intrinsic essence underlying the conventional framework entity. Yes, I see you yawning already. Practically, it’s a set of tools that complement a UI framework (like React, Angular, Vue, or whatnot) with server-side functionality and deployment adapters. Sometimes, there are many more features included, but that’s the gist of it.
There are lots of tools in this category, and I’m pretty sure you’ve heard of them — if not used them already (or on a day-to-day basis, like myself).
There are also lots of opinions about them, with complexity and developer experience often sitting on opposite sides of the scale. The only objective truth is that metaframeworks are something we need to live with, whether we want to or not, and they are, in most cases, a great example of good engineering, with many open-source contributors participating.
What I personally love about the metaframework movement and its rise in popularity is the emphasis on progressive enhancement and the flexibility that new technologies bring, including the possibilities of building your own bespoke systems using battle-tested tools and templates.
I want to dig deeper into this whole metaframeworks story, and that’s why I’d like to humbly share with you two things I’ve just started to give myself a good kick into 2025.
The first is the open-source Encyclopedia of Metaframeworks in the form of an awesome-list, familiar to everyone. I’ve gathered the tools and links accumulated in my closet throughout the years, and I invite you to check it out and join the ride.
fyodorio
/
awesome-metaframeworks
A curated list of awesome resources related to software development with metaframeworks
Encyclopedia of Metaframeworks 
A curated list of awesome resources related to software development with metaframeworks.
Table of contents
- Metaframeworks
- Metaframework-like tools
- Meta-metaframeworks
- Building parts
- AI tools
- Auxiliary tools
- Metaframework heroes
- Comparisons and benchmarks
- Metaframework PROs
- Metaframework CONs
- Construction site
- OSS examples built with metaframeworks
- Newsletters
- Podcasts
Metaframeworks
- Next.js. React-based framework for building full-stack web applications.
- Remix / React Router. Web standards focused React metaframework.
- Nuxt. Vue-based framework for performant and production-grade full-stack web apps.
- Quasar. The enterprise-ready cross-platform Vue framework.
- SvelteKit. A framework for rapidly developing robust, performant web applications using Svelte.
- SolidStart. Fine-grained reactivity goes fullstack.
- TanStack Start. Full-stack React framework powered by TanStack Router.
- Analog. The fullstack Angular metaframework.
- Qwik City. Qwik-based set of tooling for building extremely performant full-stack applications.
- RedwoodJS. Batteries-included React- and RSC-based full-stack web framework for startups.
- Fresh. Deno-based full-stack web framework using…
The second is the Metaframeworks Weekly newsletter. This will be a regular, focused dive into the world of metaframeworks and the ecosystem around them — tools, news, releases, people, and so on. You’ll hardly find pompous odes to metaframeworks there; rather, you’ll find an unbiased view of the topic and objective, multifaceted opinions.
All in all, I hope some of these resources might be of use to you, and maybe you’ll even be willing to contribute to them — whether by providing insightful submissions for the encyclopedia or by dropping me interesting relevant findings from around the web via email.
With that, remember that the truth is always somewhere in the middle, and it tastes not like shiny Twitter influencer tarts but rather like your home-cooked, granny-recipe cakes.
Happy new year 🎄
The cover photo by Carter Yocham from Unsplash
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