On Qwik

Last updated on 2023-07-23

Ecosystem

Like any new framework, the thing working against Qwik is the size of its ecosystem. It's nowhere close to what React or even Solid has. The form library being pushed on the Qwik site is Modular Forms. It's a great form library, but it's really a Solid library that supports Qwik. The Modular Forms API is pretty much the Solid Start API for forms. It works, but it doesn't use Qwik City's built-in <Form /> component and it doesn't feel Qwik-native. Qwik also lacks a good headless component library. React has React Aria Components and even Solid has Kobalte.

The seemingly most popular option for Qwik is QwikUI, but it's not at all ready for use and it lacks the polish of both React Aria and Kobalte. The community of people working on QwikUI seems to be passionate about the project, so I'm hoping they pull this thing off. There also isn't a great option for JS-backed animations with Qwik. React has Framer Motion (along with dozens of other libraries). Solid has an official integration for the WAAPI library, Motion One. Qwik doesn't have an integration, and the Motion One team has no interest. There's a PR sitting around that would add partial Motion One support for Qwik, but it's in purgatory as of now.

A Qwik feature that makes it easy to adopt Qwik, but also might prevent developers from building Qwik-native libraries, is Qwik's qwikify$ function. It turns a React component into a Qwik component. It means you could bring over React Aria Components or Framer Motion into Qwik (if you're okay with doing hydration on those components).