Life & fun · alternatives · 2026

24 alternatives to Brutal.JS – markup as functions of state

Brutal.JS is a JavaScript library that treats markup as functions of application state. Rather than managing separate templates and state, developers write UI elements as functions that respond to state changes. The… Below are 24 products that do a similar job, ranked by how close each is in meaning and then by launch-day votes. Brutal.JS – markup as functions of state launched in 2019; newer entries below may have overtaken it.

1. 1
   Brutal.js – a small framework for building brutalist web applications▲62

   2018 · github.com · its alternatives →

2. 2
   RoughJS – Create hand-drawn graphics using JavaScript▲1,087

   Rough.js is a light weight javascript library that lets you draw graphics with a hand-drawn, sketchy, appearance.

   2018 · roughjs.com · its alternatives →

3. 3BJ
   Behave.js – Coding Behaviors for textarea elements▲180

   2013 · jakiestfu.github.com · its alternatives →

4. 4
   Brutal.js – A crazy-small framework for building brutalist web apps▲6

   A crazy-small framework for building brutalist web applications - crisdosaygo/brutal.js

   2022 · github.com · its alternatives →

5. 5
   Hammer.js▲193

   Add touch gestures to your site

   2015 · hammerjs.github.io · its alternatives →

6. 6
   RoughNotation – create and animate hand-drawn annotations on a web page▲696

   A small JavaScript library to create and animate hand-drawn annotations on a web page

   2020 · roughnotation.com · its alternatives →

7. 7
   Pts.js – A library for visualization and creative coding▲611

   Pts is a javascript library for visualization and creative-coding.

   2018 · ptsjs.org · its alternatives →

8. 8
   Editor.js▲723

   A block-styled editor with clean JSON output

   2019 · editorjs.io · its alternatives →

9. 9AI
   An Isomorphic JavaScript Framework Faster Than React▲337

   2015 · jsblocks.com · its alternatives →

10. 10
    JSX.Design▲413

    The dev friendly no-code editor for React development

    2024 · its alternatives →

11. 11
    Grumbles.js – Detects when your users swear out loud▲91

    With Ken Powers Comes Ken Responsibility

    2016 · knpw.rs · its alternatives →

12. 12
    Polished – A lightweight toolset for writing styles in JavaScript▲106

    A lightweight toolset for writing styles in JavaScript ✨ - styled-components/polished

    2017 · github.com · its alternatives →

13. 13
    Strapdown.js - Instant and elegant Markdown documents▲79

    The most important thing is to decide on the direction of development - games, websites, software. Then make a choice of language.

    2012 · strapdownjs.com · its alternatives →

14. 14SJ
    Scratch.js – Interactive JavaScript Scratchpad▲169

    2020 · hole.dev · its alternatives →

15. 15TD
    thin.dev, back end for making realtime, typesafe React Apps▲147

    2022 · thin.dev · its alternatives →

16. 16
    Rough Charts▲145

    A responsive react charting library with a hand-drawn style.

    2019 · github.com · its alternatives →

17. 17
    CalDOM: An agnostic, reactive and minimalist JavaScript UI library▲107

    An agnostic, reactive & minimalist (3kb) JavaScript UI library with direct access to native DOM.

    2021 · caldom.org · its alternatives →

18. 18AJ
    A JavaScript UI library for imperative JSX▲41

    I've been building a web UI library for a side project of mine. I thought it might be useful to others, so I'm releasing it as open source. To put it simply, I realized that most of my pain points with React come from its declarative model ui=f(state). So I'm trying something that I'm calling "imperative JSX." Instead of treating JSX as the source of truth for your UI, it essentially becomes a query interface for DOM manipulation. I first had the idea for it a few months ago, and only began writing it in earnest last week, so it's extremely early and nowhere near production-ready. Still, I'd…

    2024 · npmjs.com · its alternatives →

19. 19
    Mizu.js – Lightweight HTML templating library for any-side rendering▲225

    Hey HN, I'd like to share a fun project I've been working on: mizu.js. It's a js library that add functional attributes support into your html, designed to be a simple and flexible alternative to fully-fledged web frameworks (such as Vue, React, and Angular), while offering more capabilities than other lightweight options (like Alpine.js and htmx). As it's written using modern ES features and due to its isomorphic nature, it can be run in both browsers and runtimes (Node, Deno, Bun) without any changes. This makes it ideal for client-side and server-side rendering, as well as static site…

    2024 · mizu.sh · its alternatives →

20. 20
    Matches.js -- Powerful Pattern Matching for Javascript▲96

    Powerful pattern matching for Javascript. Contribute to natefaubion/matches.js development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2012 · github.com · its alternatives →

21. 21
    js.spec, a JavaScript implementation of clojure.spec▲96

    clojure.spec for Javascript. Contribute to prayerslayer/js.spec development by creating an account on GitHub.

    2016 · github.com · its alternatives →

22. 22SV
    Styletron – Virtual CSS▲109

    Ryan Tsao's personal website and blog

    2016 · ryantsao.com · its alternatives →

23. 23AD
    A DOM text-selection highlight renderer▲93

    A simple and fast zero-dependencies-library to transform text-selections into serializable markings.

    2015 · bowlingx.github.io · its alternatives →

24. 24
    Grains.js▲11

    Reactive states library for HTML

    2025 · github.com · its alternatives →

Ranked by how close each launch is in meaning, then by votes. Prices were read from each product’s own site when checked and can change. Refine with your own description →