What are the differences between SolidJS and React? How to choose the right framework?

SolidJS and React are both modern frontend frameworks, but they have significant differences in design philosophy and technical implementation:

Core Architecture Comparison:

Feature	React	SolidJS
Rendering	Virtual DOM + Re-render	Fine-grained Reactivity + Direct DOM Update
Component Execution	Re-executes on state change	Executes once only
State Management	useState, useReducer	createSignal, createStore
Side Effects	useEffect (needs dependency declaration)	createEffect (auto-tracks)
Derived State	useMemo (needs dependency declaration)	createMemo (auto-tracks)
List Rendering	map + key	For, Index components
Conditional Rendering	Ternary, &&, ||	Show, Switch components

Code Comparison Example:

javascript
// React
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);
  
  useEffect(() => {
    document.title = `Count: ${count}`;
  }, [count]);
  
  const doubled = useMemo(() => count * 2, [count]);
  
  return (
    <div>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <p>Doubled: {doubled}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(c => c + 1)}>+</button>
    </div>
  );
}

// SolidJS
function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = createSignal(0);
  
  createEffect(() => {
    document.title = `Count: ${count()}`;
  });
  
  const doubled = createMemo(() => count() * 2);
  
  return (
    <div>
      <p>Count: {count()}</p>
      <p>Doubled: {doubled()}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(c => c + 1)}>+</button>
    </div>
  );
}

Performance Comparison:

• SolidJS performs better in large list rendering
• SolidJS has smaller memory footprint
• React has more mature ecosystem
• React has richer learning resources

Use Cases:

• Choose React: Team familiar with React, need rich ecosystem, large enterprise applications
• Choose SolidJS: Pursuing extreme performance, need fine-grained updates, reactivity-first applications

Migration Suggestions:

• React developers can quickly get started with SolidJS
• Concepts are similar but implementation differs
• Need to change mindset (from re-render to reactive update)