# Lucifier129/react-lite

An implementation of React v15.x that optimizes for small script size

Repository: https://github.com/Lucifier129/react-lite
Canonical: https://ross.abutalabs.com/products/react-lite
Language: JavaScript
License: MIT
License Family: permissive
Topics: react, optimizer, react-lite
Last push: 2019-03-29T05:26:10+00:00

## Health v2 (maintenance only)
Score: 23/100 (v2, computed 2026-09-02T17:46:02.011165+00:00)
- activity 0, release rhythm 8, longevity 100
- inputs: {"age_days": 3927, "days_push": 2714, "days_rel": null, "gap_med": null, "n_releases_24m": 0}
- flags: none
- formula: round(0.45*activity + 0.35*rhythm + 0.20*longevity); archived -> min(score, 10)

## Adoption (not part of the score)
Stars 1712, forks 95 (observed 2026-08-28T04:05:25.903445+00:00)

## What it is
react-lite is a lightweight JavaScript reimplementation of React v15.x core APIs, including Virtual DOM, optimized for minimal script size (~25kb minified). It works as a drop-in replacement for React in the browser via a webpack alias, but does not support server-side rendering or React v16.

## Use cases
- reduce bundle size when replacing react and react-dom in a webpack project
- build React-style component UIs without server-side rendering
- run existing React libraries like material-ui, react-bootstrap, ant-design, react-router, or redux with a smaller runtime
- ship React-compatible apps to IE9+ / ES5 environments

## When to choose
- you need a React-compatible API with a much smaller footprint than React 15
- your app is client-side only and never calls ReactDOM.renderToString
- you use webpack and can alias react/react-dom to react-lite

## When to avoid
- you need React v16+ features or compatibility
- you need server-side rendering (renderToString / renderToStaticMarkup)
- you want an actively maintained library - the project is unmaintained and preact is smaller and actively developed

## Facets
- artifact type: library
- maturity: abandoned
- function: frontend-framework, ui-components
- domain: web-development, frontend, performance
- platform: browser, cross-platform
- tags: react-implementation, virtual-dom, drop-in-replacement, small-bundle-size, webpack-alias, nodejs

## Member repositories
- Lucifier129/react-lite (main) score 23

## Provenance
- Observed fields: from GitHub, fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:25.903445+00:00.
- Health v2: computed from the inputs above; adoption is never an input.
- Inferred fields (summary, facets, guidance): AI-extracted, prompt v1, taxonomy v1, on 2026-08-30T03:34:45.879135+00:00, confidence not recorded.
  - readme: https://github.com/Lucifier129/react-lite (fetched 2026-08-28T04:05:25.903445+00:00, sha a331fd2893d8)
  - registry_npm: https://registry.npmjs.org/react-lite (fetched 2026-08-29T11:11:11.023009+00:00, sha 070a21bb37ec)
- Data as of 2026-08-30T08:39:29.467469+00:00.