Exploring Preact.js: A lightweight alternative to React

At just 3kB, Preact is the lightweight alternative to React; delivering the same modern API in a fast and efficient JS framework. Preact include:

- A feature rich API that attempts 100% compatibility with React,
- A command line interface for spinning up new projects and testing environments,
- Zero configuration SSR and rehydration mechanisms, and
- Project templates for netlify, embedded delivery, typescript, and material design.

PreactJS ranks in the top 5 JS frameworks for developer interest and satisfaction. The project has become especially popular with progressively decoupled projects where JS components are embedded within existing CMSs; and with organizations that do not want to be tightly hitched to a Facebook-maintained project.

In this session we will discuss the pros and cons of using Preact and look at reasons to choose this framework. We will review code examples of migrating a React project to Preact and show off tools for automating the code migration process.

This session is for technical decision makers interested in exploring an emerging JS framework. An understanding of JS frontends or React is helpful but not required for participating in this session.

Demo project: https://github.com/nJim/tictactoe-js