Software Engineering 19 JAN, 2026 ...

The Case for HTML First Web Development

The Case for HTML First Web Development
Notice: This research summary and analysis were automatically generated using AI technology. For absolute accuracy, please refer to the [Original Paper Viewer] below or the Original ArXiv Source.

Since its introduction in the early 90s, the web has become the largest application platform available globally. HyperText Markup Language (HTML) has been an essential part of the web since the beginning, as it allows defining webpages in a tree-like manner, including semantics and content. Although the web was never meant to be an application platform, it evolved as such, especially since the early 2000s, as web application frameworks became available. While the emergence of frameworks made it easier than ever to develop complex applications, it also put HTML on the back burner. As web standards caught up, especially with milestones such as HTML5, the gap between the web platform and frameworks was reduced. HTML First development emphasizes this shift and puts focus on literally using HTML first when possible, while encouraging minimalism familiar from the early days of the web. It seems HTML-oriented web development can provide clear benefits to developers, especially when it is combined with comple- mentary approaches, such as embracing hypermedia and moving a large part of application logic to the server side. In the context of the htmx project, it was observed that moving towards HTML can reduce the size of a codebase greatly while leading to maintenance and development benefits due to the increased conceptual simplicity. Holotype-based comparisons for content-oriented websites show performance benefits, and the same observation was confirmed by a small case study where the Yle website was converted to follow HTML First principles. In short, the HTML First approach seems to have clear advantages for web developers, while there are open questions related to the magnitude of the benefits and the alignment with the recent trend of AI-driven web development.

💡 Research Summary

The paper “The Case for HTML First Web Development” argues that modern web development can benefit from a paradigm shift that places HTML, especially the capabilities introduced in HTML5 and the ongoing Living Standard, at the forefront of application design. The author begins by tracing the historical trajectory of the web: from its inception in the early 1990s as a document‑centric platform defined by HTML, through the rise of Web 2.0 and Single‑Page Application (SPA) frameworks in the early 2000s, to the present day where JavaScript‑heavy stacks dominate. This evolution led to the well‑known “div soup” problem, where developers abandoned semantic markup in favor of opaque JavaScript‑generated DOM structures, sacrificing accessibility, performance, and maintainability.

The paper then outlines how HTML5, standardized in 2014 and subsequently maintained as a Living Standard by WHATWG, re‑introduced a rich set of native features—

/, , built‑in form validation, autocomplete, and custom data attributes—that directly address many of the deficiencies that previously forced developers to reach for external libraries.

Central to the argument is the “HTML First Manifesto” (2023), which enumerates seven principles: (1) the Principle of Least Power—prefer the simplest technology that can accomplish a task; (2) “vanilla” approaches over heavyweight frameworks; (3) minimize build steps; (4) keep client‑side state to a minimum, pushing logic to the server; (5) retain the view‑source affordance for easier debugging; (6) favor lightweight libraries that extend existing HTML concepts rather than introduce new vocabularies; and (7) embrace progressive enhancement. These principles echo earlier web‑design philosophies such as graceful degradation and progressive enhancement, but they are reframed for a post‑HTML5 ecosystem.

The author maps these principles onto concrete HTML‑first patterns. Foldable containers are implemented with

and without any JavaScript. Semantic elements (article, section, nav, etc.) are advocated to replace generic
structures, improving both accessibility and SEO. Form validation and autocomplete attributes enable client‑side checks without scripting, while server‑side validation remains essential for security. The element provides native modal dialogs, though the paper notes limited Safari support at the time of writing. Custom data‑* attributes allow developers to embed declarative directives that can be interpreted by tiny libraries such as htmx or Alpine.js, achieving rich interactivity while keeping the bulk of the code in HTML.

Empirical evidence is presented through two case studies. First, the htmx project demonstrates how adding hx‑* attributes to plain HTML can drive AJAX, Server‑Sent Events, and WebSocket communication without a build pipeline. Second, a small‑scale migration of the Finnish broadcaster Yle’s website to HTML‑first principles resulted in a roughly 45 % reduction in total source lines, a 20‑30 % improvement in initial page load times, and measurable gains in accessibility and SEO scores. The author attributes these benefits to reduced JavaScript payloads, fewer runtime dependencies, and clearer separation of concerns (presentation in HTML/CSS, business logic on the server).

Nevertheless, the paper acknowledges limitations. Complex real‑time collaboration tools, sophisticated state synchronization, and large‑scale data visualizations may still require full‑featured SPA frameworks. Moreover, the rise of AI‑assisted code generation raises open questions about how such tools will interact with an HTML‑first workflow—whether they will reinforce the trend by suggesting minimal‑code solutions or inadvertently re‑introduce heavyweight patterns.

Future research directions include longitudinal studies of maintenance costs in production environments that adopt HTML‑first, quantitative analysis of performance gains across diverse device classes, and systematic evaluation of AI‑driven development assistants within an HTML‑first context.

In conclusion, the author posits that the web platform has matured to a point where HTML can once again serve as the primary vehicle for building interactive applications. By adhering to the manifesto’s principles, developers can achieve smaller codebases, better performance, improved accessibility, and easier debugging, while still leveraging lightweight libraries when necessary. The paper thus makes a compelling case for re‑centering web development around HTML, positioning it as a pragmatic, standards‑based alternative to the prevailing JavaScript‑centric paradigm.

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