Single Page Application: When and Why You Should Use Them

Originally published at www.scalablepath.com by Rafael on November 29, 2017.

Selecting the correct technology stack can make or break a project. Sometimes, the desire to use the next ‘hot’ technology leads stakeholders (both technical and non-technical) to make unwise decisions in this department.

Twitter is a high profile example of this phenomenon. In 2010, the social giant shipped a new Single Page Application (SPA) architecture that pushed all the UI rendering and logic to client-side JavaScript. This resulted in slow initial page-load times, as the entire client-side library had to be loaded up front. The SPA also transferred the bulk of the processing power from the server to users’ machines, which resulted in an inconsistent user experience across browsers. Twitter quickly reversed the decision, re-architecting the application to render most of the page content on the server side. You can find out more on their blog.

While SPA frameworks have been around for years, they continue to evolve, with new versions generating buzz within the development community. The above Twitter example shows that, while developing an SPA may sound like an exciting option, it may not be the right one for your project.