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Life & fun · January 15, 2021

FJ

Forgo.js – a 4kb React alternative based on plain JS and DOM APIs

Forgo.js – a 4kb React alternative based on plain JS and DOM APIs launched on January 15, 2021 with 110 votes, #321 of 3,157 launches that month and more than 90% of that year's launches. The site was still online in September 2026, 5 years on.

Visit forgojs.org ↗Alternativestop 10% of January 2021

In plain words

Forgo.js is a lightweight JavaScript framework that provides an alternative to React with just 4 kilobytes of code. It builds on plain JavaScript and browser DOM APIs rather than introducing a custom abstraction layer. The framework is designed for developers who want component-based UI development without the overhead of larger libraries. Forgo.js is suitable for small projects, performance-sensitive applications, or anyone preferring minimal dependencies while maintaining modern development patterns.

written from the facts on this page · September 2026

From the sources

Forgo is a 4KB library that makes it super easy to create modern web apps using JSX (like React). Unlike React, there are very few framework specific patterns and lingo to learn. Everything you already know about DOM APIs and JavaScript will easily carry over. The easiest way to get started is with the 'create-forgo-app' utility. This relies on git, so you should have git installed on your machine. Forgo components are functions that return a Component instance, which has a render() method that returns JSX. Components hold their state using ordinary variables held in the closure scope of the function (called a Component Constructor). Forgo likes to keep things simple and explicit. It avoids…from forgojs.org

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