Framework churn
Rewriting the same product surface every eighteen months because the frontend framework shipped a new blessed stack, not because users asked for anything new.
Framework churn is the tax of living on the hype curve of UI and full-stack fashion. Backbone to AngularJS to React to Next; jQuery plugins to SPA-overkill; Bootstrap to Tailwind — each migration feels like progress because the old code is embarrassing and the conference talks are slick.
The failure mode is not that new frameworks are bad; many are genuine improvements. The failure mode is treating migration as product work. Users rarely notice your bundler; they notice missing features and broken flows during the rewrite. Teams burn quarters achieving parity on buttons while competitors ship behavior.
Enterprise saw the same with Silverlight and Flash: rich UI runtimes that demanded full rewrites when vendors pivoted. The web platform absorbed the use cases, but the pattern repeats on JavaScript every cycle because npm makes starting over feel cheap — until you sum the salaries.
Discipline looks like boundaries: separate domain logic from presentation, ship incremental UI changes, and skepticism toward "we must rewrite to hire." Framework fatigue is real because vendors need releases; your product needs stability. Those calendars are not aligned — and that misalignment is the business model.
Exhibits
Framework · 2010–2021
AngularJS (1.x)
Two-way binding magic that became a migration tax. Angular 2+ was a rewrite; the 1.x apps lingered for years.
Framework · 2013–now
React
Components and unidirectional data. Won the front-end by being good enough and having a gravitational ecosystem.
Framework · 2010–2016
Backbone.js
Minimal structure for early client MVC. Taught the browser to think in models before React rewrote the rules.
Framework · 2006–2018
jQuery
DOM peace treaty for a fractured browser world. Mission accomplished — then frameworks ate its job.
Practice · 2014–2023
SPA for Every Page
Client-side apps as the only architecture. Great for apps; absurd for brochures.
$ Marketing sites and docs portals shipped multi-megabyte JS bundles for content that wanted HTML. SEO and performance teams spent years unwinding "modern" defaults.
Framework · 2007–2013
Silverlight
.NET in the browser via plugin. Netflix used it; the web moved on anyway.
$ Enterprises built internal dashboards and streaming pilots on Silverlight just as HTML5 and iOS said no to plugins. Migration projects burned budgets Flash already warned them about.
Platform · 1996–2020
Adobe Flash
Animations, games, and video in a plugin the web learned to hate. Steve Jobs wrote the obituary; HTML5 dug the grave.
Framework · 2016–now
Next.js
React with routing, SSR, and deployment opinions — App Router gravity and vendor lock-in as the default web stack.
Framework · 2011–2020
Ember.js
Convention-over-configuration SPA framework. LinkedIn and Discourse kept the faith; everyone else went React.
Platform · 2020–now
Vite
ESM-native dev server that made webpack feel instantaneously obsolete for new projects.
Platform · 2012–2023
Webpack
The bundler that taught JavaScript developers what suffering means. Still under legacy apps; Vite owns greenfield.
Framework · 2017–now
Tailwind CSS
Utility classes in markup upset purists and accelerated shipping. Design systems without meeting paralysis.
Framework · 2014–now
Vue
Progressive framework with a friendlier learning curve. Steady share without the cult volume.
Framework · 2016–now
Svelte / SvelteKit
Compile away the framework. Less runtime theater, more shipped HTML — including this site.
Framework · 2020–now
Hypermedia / htmx
HTML as the engine of application state — a deliberate counter to SPA maximalism. Peak backlash; now a plateau, not a climb.