The web used to feel like a messy bazaar of competing ideas, half-broken libraries, and duct-taped solutions pretending to be standards. Then came frameworks, strutting in like saviors, promising order.But something curious is happening now: the browsers themselves are absorbing many of those framework superpowers directly into the platform.Frameworks aren’t dead, but their monopoly over developer experience is cracking, and the standards movement is sharper than it has been in a decade. The fight isn’t between React and Angular anymore, as the two have joined forces against a new foe: browsers.Frameworks Were Always a Patch, Not a CureFrameworks earned their dominance because the web was frankly unprepared for modern application development. Developers needed routing, state management, templating, component isolation — all of which browsers weren’t offering.React and Angular didn’t just become popular by hype; they filled massive gaps that standards had ignored for too long. But let’s be honest: they were always stopgaps. Their APIs bent the web into something workable, but often at the cost of performance and complexity.Think about React’s virtual DOM: a clever hack to make DOM manipulation less painful. Or Angular’s two-way binding, which looked magical until you saw the mess it created at scale. These ideas thrived because the platform was lagging behind.The dirty secret of frameworks is that they built castles on sand, and browsers are finally paving the ground solid beneath them.Yet in 2025, do we really need those layers of indirection when the platform itself offers solutions like template literals, Shadow DOM, or the new Web Components APIs? The dirty secret of frameworks is that they built castles on sand, and browsers are finally paving the ground solid beneath them. This pivot has the potential to improve release management, code upkeep and so much more.The Rise of Native Platform FeaturesStandards are eating features that were once exclusive to frameworks, and it’s happening faster than many realize. Shadow DOM now provides true component encapsulation without the need for third-party libraries. ES modules killed the dependency spaghetti of script tags, giving us native imports and exports. Add to that fetch, async/await, and streams — features that once required polyfills or full-blown libraries — and the platform looks like a different beast than it was a decade ago.Take routing, long the jewel in the crown of frameworks. The Navigation API and View Transitions API allow developers to create fluid, native-like navigation effects with minimal code. State management?The message is clear: frameworks are no longer the gatekeepers of modern web building blocks.Signals and reactive primitives are landing directly in standards discussions, with the same ideas frameworks popularized being rewritten into the DNA of browsers. And when you combine all that with the Web Animations API, CSS container queries, and the steady march of performance APIs, the web platform starts to feel less like a half-finished product and more like a first-class OS.This isn’t theoretical. Major apps are already leaning on these native capabilities, cutting down on bundle size and maintenance debt. The message is clear: frameworks are no longer the gatekeepers of modern web building blocks.Why Frameworks Still Won’t DisappearIt would be lazy to claim frameworks are finished. They still solve hard problems, especially around developer ergonomics, scaling large teams, and opinionated architectures.Frameworks provide conventions, and those conventions save hours of bickering in code reviews. Standards, for all their progress, are designed to be flexible and minimal — they rarely prescribe how to actually organize your code.Consider React’s ecosystem: the libraries, the tooling, the conventions around state, and its massive developer base. Even if the browser offers equivalents to Hooks or Context, the sheer familiarity keeps React sticky. Angular still thrives in enterprise because it’s a full battery-included solution. And newer frameworks like Svelte or SolidJS keep innovating on ergonomics rather than raw feature parity with standards.The real shift isn’t frameworks vanishing. Instead, it’s frameworks being forced to justify themselves.The real shift isn’t frameworks vanishing. Instead, it’s frameworks being forced to justify themselves. Ten years ago, you needed a framework to build a serious app. Today, you need a framework if you want strict conventions, ecosystem lock-in, or if your team values certain ergonomics. That’s a fundamental difference: frameworks are moving from necessity to preference.The Performance Argument: Native vs. FrameworksFor years, frameworks carried the excuse that the web was too chaotic, so the trade-off in performance was worth it. Developers tolerated bloated bundles, hydration headaches and runtime hacks because the developer experience seemed worth it. That argument is weaker now.Native solutions often outperform framework equivalents. It’s as simple as:Custom elements render faster than many virtual DOM abstractions.CSS container queries eliminate entire classes of layout hacks once handled with brittle JavaScript.The Navigation API replaces heavy client-side routers that demanded kilobytes of code just to mimic native navigation.Even more brutal is the impact on performance-sensitive environments. Mobile-first apps, emerging market connectivity, and edge computing demand efficiency. A React SPA bloated with dependencies looks foolish next to a lean, standards-based app that loads instantly and runs smoothly.Browser vendors are practically daring developers to stop shipping megabytes of JavaScript and use the tools already built in. And in this context, frameworks look like a performance liability rather than a productivity tool.The Politics of Developer MindshareThe fight here isn’t purely technical — it’s political. Frameworks have massive marketing machines, backed by corporations with vested interests. Meta props up React because it powers their empire.Google props up Angular because it keeps developers tied to their ecosystem. Standards, in contrast, are slow-moving committees and working groups. They lack the branding and hype cycles that frameworks thrive on.But something is changing: browser vendors are increasingly aware that frameworks can’t be allowed to dictate the direction of the web forever.Standards are being designed to compete directly with framework features, not lag behind them.Standards are being designed to compete directly with framework features, not lag behind them. And the rise of communities like Open Web Components shows there’s an appetite for collaboration without corporate gatekeepers.Still, the cultural inertia is real. Universities teach React, boot camps push Angular, and job listings are written in framework-specific language. Standards have a PR problem.They need evangelists willing to show developers that the modern platform is powerful enough without an extra layer of bloat. Until then, frameworks will hold on through sheer mindshare, even if their technical moat is shrinking.Final ThoughtsFrameworks once saved the web from its own incompetence. Today, they’re starting to look like middlemen at a party the browser now hosts. If you’re still writing code as if the browser can’t handle it, you’re ignoring the most important shift in frontend development in twenty years.Frameworks won’t vanish tomorrow, but their dominance is already eroding. The standards movement is the sharpest it’s been in decades, and browsers are devouring framework cakes slice by slice.Developers who cling blindly to frameworks risk shipping bloated, outdated apps while the rest of the web races ahead. The message is simple: it’s time to take the browser seriously again.The post Stop Ignoring the Browser: The Biggest Frontend Shift in a Decade appeared first on The New Stack.