This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Yevhen Kozachenko 
DOM is Dead? How React’s New Compiler Will Change Everything (And What You Should Do Now)
When React first launched, it revolutionized the way we built interactive UIs. Since then, we’ve seen hooks, Concurrent Mode, Suspense, and server components. But now, React is evolving again, and this time it’s not just an upgrade. It’s a paradigm shift.
What if I told you that the React you know—the one with the Virtual DOM and useEffect spaghetti—is going away?
Welcome to the next era: The React Compiler.
This is not a drill. The React Compiler promises to eliminate the Virtual DOM bottleneck, optimize your components intelligently, and even replace useEffect with something better.
In this post, we’ll explore what this new React Compiler is, how it works, what problems it solves, and how it might kill the DOM diffing model as we know it. You’ll also see hands-on code examples to get ready for this shift.
Backstory: Why the Virtual DOM Isn’t Enough Anymore
The Virtual DOM made React popular because it abstracted away the messy DOM manipulation and made UI updates predictable:
function Counter() {
const [count, setCount] = React.useState(0);
return <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>{count}</button>;
}
Every time setCount is called, the component re-renders, and React diffs the previous Virtual DOM against the new one to compute changes. This is a huge improvement over jQuery-style programming—but also inefficient and verbose for what should be a quick, memory-safe update.
As apps grow, performance debugging becomes a nightmare:
- useEffect dependencies go out of sync
- memo and useCallback patches bloat your redner code
- Even trivial components can create excessive re-renders
Is there a better way?
Enter the React Compiler 
What is the React Compiler?
The React Compiler is a brand-new experimental tool that analyzes your React components at build time, like a compiler in traditional programming languages.
It doesn’t wait until runtime to understand your app. Instead, it sees the code statically and generates optimal code paths tailored to your component logic.
This means:
- No more useMemo, useCallback, or memo() patchwork
- Smaller bundle sizes
- Fine-grained reactivity without a framework switch
If this sounds like Svelte or SolidJS-like behavior… that’s because it is. But inside React. 
Example: Code Before vs After Compiler
Take this code:
function Profile({ user }) {
const [name, setName] = React.useState(user.name);
const handleChange = useCallback((event) => {
setName(event.target.value);
}, []);
return <input value={name} onChange={handleChange} />;
}
With the React Compiler in place, you don’t need useCallback, useMemo, or even sometimes useState. The compiler tracks which parts of the function are reactive and which are pure.
You could simplify to:
function Profile({ user }) {
let name = user.name;
return <input value={name} onChange={e => name = e.target.value} />;
}
Yes, it looks like React code from 2014. But internally, the compiler handles all the smart updates and memory-safe closures—without the need for hooks or Virtual DOM diffing.
This brings React closer to reactive paradigm frameworks like Svelte, Solid, or Qwik—but in a way that is backward-compatible.
How It Works (Under the Hood)
The React Compiler uses static analysis to:
- Track reactive state variables
- Auto-generate update logic without hooks
- Avoid unnecessary re-renders
Instead of pushing the reactivity model onto the developer, the compiler infers intents and scopes. If a button receives props that will never change? It won’t re-render. Ever.
If only a part of a component changes (like a nested span)—then only that part will patch.
No Virtual DOM diffing, no setState dance, and no memoizing functions. It’s just:
<button>{count}</button>
—and React knows what to do.
Goodbye useEffect: Say Hello to Signals?
One of the biggest pains in React is useEffect. It’s fragile, often misused, and causes weird bugs with dependency arrays.
React Compiler might kill it.
Instead of wrapping logic in useEffect:
useEffect(() => {
fetchData().then(setData);
}, [id]);
The compiler might let you write declarative async logic in-line:
const data = use(fetchData(id));
This is very similar to the server component paradigm or Remix loaders. Though still experimental, we’re clearly moving toward a more understandable reactivity model.
Should You Use the React Compiler Now?
Not yet. It’s still experimental and under development by the React team. But you can prepare:
- Write cleaner, model-based components
- Avoid useEffect abuse
- Reduce state lifting and unnecessary component re-renders
- Explore reactive patterns native to the language (like static scope)
Once it’s stable, expect build tools like Vite and Next.js to incorporate the compiler pipeline automatically.
Big Picture: Is React Becoming SolidJS?
In many ways, yes. And that’s a good thing.
If the compiler succeeds, React can retain its massive ecosystem and developer base while adopting next-generation performance techniques from smaller frameworks.
We might see code like this:
<button onClick={() => count++}>{count}</button>
Which feels more like Vanilla JS—but under-the-hood, React handles DOM patching like a ninja.
Takeaways
- React is moving to compiler-driven reactivity
- The Virtual DOM may become legacy
- Cleaner, simpler code—without hooks bloat—is the future
- Developers should start preparing by ditching “memo hell”
Bonus: Try with React Turnstone 
Facebook’s research team has already toyed with compiling UI logic in their experimental project, Turnstone, and there are rumors about internal compiler demos. Right now Turnstone is for research, but it shows the trajectory is real.
Resources
If you care about performance, maintainability, and the future of React—you better keep watch. Because once the React Compiler is steady, the old way of writing React might become obsolete.
React as you know it is about to be rewritten.
Join the discussion: What’s your take on the React Compiler? Are you ready to throw away useEffect?
Happy compiling 
If you’re modernizing your UI and need help with cutting-edge web performance: We offer frontend development services
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Yevhen Kozachenko