Misago dumps React for HTMX to kill the double-render problem in its forum

The Misago forum project is tearing out React.js in favor of HTMX, arguing that a server-rendered architecture with sprinkles of client interactivity fits forum software far better than a full single-page app. The current setup renders every page twice — once as a Django template and again as React components that hydrate from JSON embedded in the page — which forced the team to build each view, API, serializer, and translation string in two places. That duplication bloated download sizes, slowed response times as data was pre-serialized for the client, hurt performance on low-end mobile devices, and confused theme customizers who saw their Django template edits flash on screen before React overwrote them.

HTMX offers a lighter path. The library lets developers mark regions of a page as dynamic “islands” that swap in fresh server-rendered HTML on interaction, so the backend only needs to return the fragment for the changed island rather than a full page or a JSON payload. For a forum, the author notes, interactivity is inherently localized — moderation actions, replying, watching threads, poll voting, notifications — none of which require a heavyweight JS framework. The maintainer frames HTMX as a declarative version of the jQuery $.get("url", "#outlet") pattern developers used two decades ago, or Rails Turbolinks, and concludes it’s the pragmatic choice for keeping forum software simple.