A comparison between a React and Backbone password strength app

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A critical comparison of React and Backbone implementations of a password strength validator reveals that despite 15 years of framework evolution, the complexity trade-offs may not justify React's abstractions for most applications. While React appears cleaner, it introduces hidden complexity through reconciliation algorithms, stale closures, and dependency management that require deep framework knowledge to debug. Backbone's explicit, DOM-focused approach may be verbose but remains transparent and hackable. The piece questions whether modern frameworks have truly progressed or simply exchanged one set of problems for another, suggesting the industry needs simpler solutions for the 99% of apps that don't require massive-scale complexity.

React vs. Backbone in 2025

It begs the question whether this single example is showing the full difference. You cannot see React’s hooks in action, or create a custom one. The idea is nice, but the execution should cover more, perhaps a whole Todo app or another simple app of some sort.

As someone who used backbone for years before transitioning to React back in the day, the developer experience using React was (for me at least) far better. When we then moved away from class components towards functional components and hooks, again that developer experience improved substantially. At the cost of abstraction? Sure, perhaps. But I don’t see that as a bad thing.

I disagree with this afirmation;
<blockquote>
The interesting part is not how much better React is—it’s how little progress we’ve actually made.
</blockquote>
I would say “how little progress React actually gives”.
If we would to write this same app on other frameworks we can clearly see how much progress we’ve made.

As someone who has never used Backbone, I disagree. That code looks like crap.