If you are a front-end developer, you have surely used or heard about Tailwind CSS, a framework that allows you to speed up the development of web applications related to CSS (Cascading Style Sheets). It follows the utility-first pattern. What does this mean? By simply adding classes to our HTML elements we can modify their behavior without having a specific one to manage certain parameters. This way, a class will normally be related to a single property clearly linked to its name (flex, block, text-white, etc.).

All of this makes application development much faster, but it can overload our code with too many tags and even make it difficult to read.

But do you really need Tailwind CSS in your projects?

Vanilla CSS

To be a front-end developer, one of the parts about which we must have extensive knowledge and fluency is the one related to styling, despite the fact that many people think that it only manages the aspect of an application. Using CSS we can handle terms as diverse as animations or complex state changes of elements that are not strictly related to the look and feel. If we use preprocessors like Sass, we can programmatically add logic to dynamically generate styles and classes that help us, something that can be very useful if we want to create our own design system. In addition, modern features such as CSS custom properties or color systems like oklab will help make it more customizable and friendly.

But if CSS is so powerful and allows us to do so much, why are frameworks like Tailwind CSS so used?

Agility To Power

When we develop software for clients we know that the delivery of value should be as fast as possible and sometimes deadlines are reduced to minimum quantities. For this reason, it is always appreciated to have tools at hand that allow us to advance our tasks quickly and effectively. Regarding the prototyping of our applications, we have tools such as Bootstrap or Tailwind CSS. The first one would follow the basis of many others, offering classes that make easy the management of texts, colors, margins, paddings and layout distribution, among many others, in addition to having a variety of ready-to-use components such as buttons, menus or drop-downs simply by applying the specific classes. But the approach offered by Tailwind CSS is a game-changer and can help you create a highly configurable layout system quickly simply by adding classes that deal with properties atomically.

One of the things I have liked least about Tailwind CSS since its release is the dependency on JavaScript for its configuration. I think that a tool focused on managing CSS should be as close as possible to the language itself. That is largely solved with Tailwind CSS v4. It will no longer be necessary to have a configuration file to edit or create classes, manage which project files should be checked by the tool to analyze the classes used and decrease the project bundle, etc. Now we can edit and create new variables simply using CSS custom properties, something identical to what we would do with vanilla CSS. The analysis of the project files will be done automatically without any additional configuration.

With the new version it will simply be a matter of installing and using. CSS management will be the same as what we are used to. Simply add the classes to our HTML and deliver value.

Use Cases

But should I really use it in all my projects? It depends.

For small projects such landing pages or similar, I would not have any doubt. Yes. In most cases, this is something that will require a quick delivery time and will perish once its purpose has been completed.

For medium or large sized projects? That's where the doubts arise. The factors we should take into account are more extense. What deadlines are we talking about? How many developers will work at the project? Do we have enough muscle to create our own design system without sacrificing sensitive time to achieve the main goal of the project?

Not long ago I was part of a project with Vue.js that divided its front-end team into developers dedicated to the prototyping part more related to HTML structure and styles and those more dedicated to the implementation of the logic. They had generated their own style guide with a collection of classes that made the layout of templates and creation of components easier in an agile way once assimilated. That can lead to a problem: the learning curve. In the end, if you create something of your own, there will always be a process of understanding by all team members and a hard task of documentation and maintenance that not all companies can afford.

If we use a tool that already has its own documentation and many developers have already used, we will have saved that time to invest in other tasks. And we all know that in projects time is money.

Actually both approaches are valid depending on many factors and in the end the decision will be made by those responsible for the projects taking into account what has been mentioned.

Knowledge Base

Regardless of whether we build our own design system from scratch or use tools like Tailwind CSS, a developer who wants to have a strong front-end profile should be able to achieve the fisrt one in order to be able to use even better tools that help speed up work on certain projects.

So what do you think? I encourage you to try both!

I have always felt a little jealous about back-end development if you talk from a front-end perspective. Not so long ago developers did not have to deal with so many devices like they have to do today. Not to say that users have became more and more demanding. A big part of humanity is used to handle all kind of things from their smartphones, computers, etc. And this represents a big challenge for developers. Manage banking operations, ask for food delivery, watch your favorite tv shows… I am sure that you take into a lot of value that all these applications offer a great user experience.

It is our job as developers to take into account an infinite number of factors to build solutions that scale in a proper way while still offering a fluid experience. And it is difficult. Very difficult.

Focusing on the front-end part of these solutions, we have different frameworks/libraries to help us. Let’s talk about their state in 2025.

Angular

Nineteen. That is the number of the major versions that the Angular Team has released. A long journey until today.

This framework has had always a heavy weight on its shoulders since the appearance of AngularJS, first version that has nothing to do with all the following that came after.

Angular v17 was named by its dev team as Angular Renaissance. It has to mean something. They have been adding very useful features to increase the dev experience and I have to admit that they caught my attention.

The adding of Angular Signals, the zoneless change detection, control flow on templates, the new resource API, etc. Everything is going in the same direction: offer new tools that can help developers to handle different complex aspects the simplest way they can.

This year looks very promising. The Angular team is working on adding signals to forms, selectorless components, and maybe one of the most interested ones in my opinion: replace Karma as testing tool. I have to admit that maybe I am not the biggest fan of this tool. I think there had been another ones more prepared for testing in the market for a long time, and this could be a great time to change that. They have been working with Web Test Runner, Jest and Vitest so we can only expect good things to happen.

React

Nineteen. Same number as Angular versions. Coincidence? I leave it in your roof. React started as a tool for building component libraries in a friendly way having a good understanding of JavaScript. But this has been changing during all this years. The complexity of modern apps has increased and developers need to handle more complex tasks.

Not long ago, React changed its documentation and started to recommend the use of Next.js, meta-framework created by Vercel. It helps us to use SSR (Server-Side Rendering), structure our pages by folders, use layouts on a simplest way, etc. On the other hand, it has become more complex on every version released and developers have started to claim that this is far from the original intention that React had at the beginning.

In my opinion, React has lost a little its way. As a developer, we have a lot of tools based on the library for different purposes that may seem a little overwhelming. And the number has been increasing year by year. « If you want SSR, go for Next.js or Remix, if you want a simple app, Vite with React, if you want a blog, Gatsby », etc. And different options like React Start that seems quite promising keep appearing on scene, offering similar advantages than the rest.

It seems a little complicated to choose the right one to build a project for someone not familiar with the library. Maybe other tools like Angular or Vue offer a more unique solution to achieve all of this. I am not saying that this is necessarily bad, but having to learn a new framework based on the same technology every year seems unnecessary. I know that something similar happens inside every framework’s ecosystem, but we start from the same base in those cases.

On the other hand, precisely this freedom to choose between different tools has made React one of the most flexible libraries that we have in our hands to build any kind of project.

Vue

I have liked Vue since I had the chance to use it. I think it sets a middle point between Angular and React. Not so difficult to learn as the first and not so simple as the second.

Vue has great things like composables to reuse logic across your application, computed properties to handle reactivity easily, powerful directives, a solid Composition API, Pinia as a great help to handle state, etc.

It can even be more boosted with a meta-framework like Nuxt, something similar to Next.js for React. Imagine all the Vue’s power, with SSR, routes handled as folders, native middlewares, autoimports, and a dedicated server technology with Nitro. You can build an entire app (frontend and backend) with Nuxt if you want. Maybe it is not the recommended way for a production-grade solution, but can be welcome to mock data and other similar purposes.

Other Kids On The Block

Angular, React and Vue are by far the most used front-end technologies for building applications. As we have seen, they can even handle back-end tasks to build a complete solution, but I would not recommend this way for a business purpose.

But there are more actors in this movie, maybe not as famous as the other ones, but with enough potential to become new kings in the future.

Svelte

If you know any developer that has had the chance to work with Svelte, they will have probably want to use it again in future projects. This is the feeling that I get from any colleague I talk about this tool. Maybe at this moment its use is not very extended, but features like these can change the game in the future: labeled statements, automatic component exports, unused CSS checks, clear nomenclature, global state management by default, #await blocks, etc. Lots of things that make developer’s experience nicer than other frameworks. And they have its own meta-framework: Sveltekit, something similar to Next.js or Nuxt.

Astro

One of the big discoveries talking from a front-end perspective. It is meant to be focused on building content-driven websites as its website claims. It is focused on offering the chance of rendering sites on the server side leaving away all the unused code, loading data from practically any source.

Its flexibility is quite remarkable. Are you a React, Preact, Vue, SolidJS, Alpine.js or Svelte developer? No problem. You can use components of this libraries simply importing them.

Not to say, the power of Astro Islands to improve performance, web vitals and SEO only executing parts of the code when it is necessary.

I will give it a try this year to test its capabilities.

What To Learn

All this tools may seem a little too much if you are someone who wants to start learning front-end development, so I would focus on getting a solid base with HTML, CSS and JavaScript before learning how to use them. Give JavaScript more power with the use of TypeScript, superset that boosts even more the language that web browsers understand.

When the moment comes and you want to learn some of these tools, you can choose two paths: the one with a less steep learning curve and the opposite. I personally started with Angular long time ago and it has helped me set lots of good practices that I apply to others. If you want to set a more friendly starting point, I would go with React. It lets you use JavaScript/TypeScript directly in your code and makes building things from the beginning easier.

Another point that may seem not so important at the beginning is the creators and community behind every tool. Angular is supported by Google. They joined forces with Wiz, internal framework to build front-end apps used by YouTube, so it shows the importance they want to give to their framework. You can say that its community is quite big. On the other hand, Vue was created by Evan You, former worker at Google who wanted to solve things differently than Angular did based on his experience. With React we have so many options to choose. Maybe too many. Which one is the best? You decide. The library was created by Meta, but they have been recently working with Vercel’s team to make Next.js the default choice to build full-stack solutions. Remix, another great tool for making use of SSR, is supported by Shopify, and they are working hard to beat Next.js. Apps like ChatGPT migrated from Next.js to Remix some months ago. TanStack is another group behind great tools like TanStack Query, TanStack Start, TanStack Router, etc. They are doing an amazing job helping developers in things like dealing with API resources. It depends on how you see this variety of React tools. They don’t put things easy at the beginning to choose a solid set to create apps. Which library do I choose to handle routing? Handle state management? Do testing? Handle HTTP requests?

Conclusion

I would try at least to get familiar with two frameworks/libraries to see how they handle different aspects. This would make easier learning any other one. Today we have three main actors, but nobody knows which one will be the winner in the future, so get ready.

Let me introduce myself. My name is Oscar. I am a software architect born in A Coruña, a beautiful town located in the northwest of Spain. At this moment I am working as a Software Architect and Head of Front-End at Cívica, company based in Granada (Spain).

How have I ended up writing this first post? Because I have always loved writing about things that I like. As simple as that. And I also love creating solutions, being close to people that have all kind of needs.

All this love for problem solving started when my parents gave me my first computer when I was 10 years old. This literally blowed my mind. I had not known until then that so much could be created with just a keyboard and a mouse.

MS-DOS and then Windows 95 were my friends at the beginning. I started to feel interested in how everything I used had been created, so I started to study things like Visual Basic to create my own.

Not so much time later, a good friend of my father showed me the things that can be created using 3D graphics, and it blowed my mind again. Just a few years after, the first internet connection arrived to our home and it was, as for the whole world, the event that definitely change our way of living. A new world opened before us.

All this interest in the world of software creation led me to direct my studies to the science area. But I have knowledge about a lot of different terms like computer science, photography, graphic design, 3D modelling or video editing. I am even an ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) in Photoshop. All of them have helped me to work in different roles throughout my career.

My professional path began when I did an internship at R Cable (telecommunications company based in Galicia, Spain) to finish my studies in Multiplatform Application Development.

R Cable Studies Internship (2014)

The goal of my internship at R Cable was basically create an application in charge of handling CRUD operations in all the databases that the company had for the employees (and they were truly a lot). I had to develop the software all alone, but I could not feel more lucky about the users involved in all the process. Some of them are very friends of mine today.

It showed me that I could be capable of creating solid and professional solutions by my own for a medium scale company at that moment.

R Cable Internship (2014-2015)

After the end of my 3 months internship to end my studies at R Cable, I left my CV to them and a couple of weeks later they offered me a new one at the web department with a duration of one year.

I loved this experience because it was my first contact with web applications at a company. I had done things related with web development before, but always for small clients and by my own. This literally changed everything.

It helped me to increase my experience in terms like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP or Drupal dealing with internal developments, from content handling or email creation for all kind of campaigns, to get familiar with SEO or handle the transition between banners created with Flash to HTML5 based on the knowledge that I have about these subjects.

Cinfo (2015-2016)

When I finished the internship of one year at R Cable, they offered my a role as web developer at Cinfo, company that worked for them in different areas and specialized in multi-camera video management. I basically had to play the same role, but in a different place with some extra tasks.

That time felt really good and it helped me to make all the skills that I gained in R Cable even stronger.

I will always feel grateful to Cinfo. They were a key step in my career.

Zara Home (2016-2019)

A year and a little later after having joined Cinfo, a recruiter reached out to me to offer me the opportunity of being part in a selection process for Zara Home (Inditex). I have to admit that at first I thought they were joking.

Inditex was (and still is) one of the most important Spanish companies in the world, so you can imagine the challenge. I started the process keeping in mind that it would surely end with nothing. I just wanted to test myself and know which were the things that these companies considered important for their employees to have.

Luckily for me, it ended the best way it could. I got into the IT department of Zara Home as a front-end developer.

Maybe it has been one of the most complete professional experiences that I have had. I have to thank a lot to them for the person that I am today. It boosted my way of being. The fact of having to deal with such a great amount of people and tasks and do it in real-time for a e-commerce that was selling products at that moment in 40 countries was one of the greatest challenges that I have had to face.

Of course, in the technical part was an important improvement too. It helped me a lot for future steps.

Bysidecar (2019-2020)

When I was almost reaching 3 years at Inditex, a former colleague contacted me to ask about my situation. At that moment I was not looking for a new job actively, but I also knew that my professional growth was maybe reaching the top at the company.

Bysidecar was a marketing company that was born shortly before and they were doing really nice things. He had to insist several times and it was maybe one of the most difficult decisions that I have had to take in my career.

New company, similar position. At the beginning I thought that one part of my job was going to consist of creating custom solutions based on technologies that I loved like Angular, React, etc. But this ended up being less than the half of all the job. We had to work a lot with tools like WordPress, Joomla, etc. Honestly, it is not the part of development that I like the most.

Cívica (2020-Present)

And the pandemic arrived. The event that changed the way we work until now. At that moment I was still thinking about my role and the technologies I have to use everyday.

It was when Cívica appeared. Nothing expected, specially at that moment when everybody was trying to adapt to work remotely and other things derived from the pandemic.

They offered me to use technologies that I considered at that moment more adapted to create custom solutions for all kind of clients, so I accepted the challenge.

It is 2025 and I am still working with them, which is the best sign.

The first project I got involved with them showed me that you can create a team with colleagues working in totally different places and build first-class software. From that moment on I have been involved in multiple projects and all the people I have worked with have confirmed one of the most important things when you are a member of a team: the main thing is that it is made up of good people. Not necessarily the best technically, but people you can trust.

I have grown at Cívica to become the Head of Front-End and be part of a group of architects in search of innovative solutions for all clients. And there is still much more to come. Stay tuned!

From Now On

Time to talk about other things. The main goal of this blog is to share knowledge, and I will try to do it based on my experience. I would love to hear about a lot of things based in yours.

I will talk about multiple terms, mostly related with software development. I am more focused on front-end development, just only because I like being more close to users experience, but it does not mean that everything is going to be about this topic.

I just want you to feel welcome and free to share your experience. So… let’s get started!