I embarked on my Qwik journey and wish to share my initial experiences in using it to build my personal website. In this article, I won't delve into the intricate technical details of the framework; instead, I'll focus solely on my first impressions.
Let's begin with a critical aspect – the learning curve. As Miško Hevery, the creator, emphasized during the Milan Codemotion 2023 conference, an event I had the privilege to attend
if you're familiar with React, you're already acquainted with Qwik
Indeed, the pages are written in JSX, or for those, like myself, who use TypeScript, in TSX. This makes Qwik feel like a well-established and easily learnable platform.
In just about eight hours, equivalent to a full workday, and with the assistance of Tailwind, I created a blank Qwik project, designed my first page, and constructed the initial components. It became quite addictive, driving me to create more pages. In a remarkably short span, with minimal reference to Qwik's documentation (although I recommend perusing it, as it contains some intriguing insights), I effortlessly fashioned a showcase website. I even found myself losing track of time while crafting playful kitten animations.
Another aspect that I found notably commendable, besides the initial humor during Qwik's setup, was the guidance provided by the terminal in its development mode, particularly in relation to SEO. Thanks to this guidance, my very first Google Lighthouse audit yielded a perfect 100/100 SEO score.
In the upcoming days, you will be able to access the site I've developed at this web address. Spotting a Qwik-powered site is easy - just look for the "Made with Qwik" label in the footer. Since my previous site is hosted on Firebase, I'll endeavor to continue using it for publishing, instead of Vercel (which I've been using recently). I found a helpful guide directly on the Qwik website.
Finally, but certainly not less important, are performance considerations. I can't offer a comprehensive evaluation until the site is published, as the documentation explains that development performance may differ from production. Nonetheless, the development stage is already promising, and I eagerly anticipate the opportunity to test it in a production environment.
One drawback, however, is the limited availability of packages for use with Qwik. Currently, if you require something that isn't included in the framework, you'll need to build it from the ground up. Is this limitation a result of Qwik being a brand new framework, or might it continue to be overlooked by the community in the future? Only time will reveal the answer. Personally, I'm optimistic that Qwik has a bright future, as it possesses significant potential, and with time, the community will begin to contribute more actively.
In summary, my initial encounter with this genuinely innovative framework left a positive impression. I'll certainly continue to use it for simple projects until it achieves greater stability and garners increased community support. The concept I admire most about Qwik is its resumability, which offers incredible loading times for users.
With that said, all that remains is to be patient, observe its growth, and, why not, continue to utilize it in the future!
UPDATE
I recently launched my website, and I'm genuinely excited about the results. Surprisingly, I achieved excellent scores on Google Lighthouse with virtually no effort. You can see the details in the screenshot below:
One aspect that I found particularly commendable is the npm run qwik add command, which makes adding various integrations and deployment options incredibly straightforward. So far, I've successfully tried both Firebase and Vercel deployments, and I must say that both work exceptionally well. I am extremely pleased with the work done by the entire Qwik team.
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