This post is an expanded version of a presentation I gave at the recent WebAssembly CG meeting in Munich. WebAssembly has come a long way since its first release in 2017. The 1.0 version of WebAssembly was already a great fit for low-level languages like C and C++, and immediately enabled many new kinds of applications to efficiently target the web.

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Mozilla Hacks

WebAssembly remains a second-class citizen on the web because it lacks direct integration with the web platform, requiring JavaScript glue code to access Web APIs and a cumbersome loading process. This creates a steep learning curve, language-specific toolchain complexity, performance overhead (measured at ~45% slower DOM operations), and forces developers to understand JavaScript even when using other languages. The WebAssembly Component Model is proposed as the solution: a standardized, self-contained executable format that multiple languages can target, supports direct Web API access without JS glue, and enables cross-language interoperability. Mozilla is actively implementing ESM integration for Wasm and working with the WebAssembly CG on the Component Model, with Google also evaluating it.

Making WebAssembly a first-class language on the Web