RankingsWeb
AI build cost by JS framework, top 10
The median cost of Claude Code building the same app five times in each JS framework, ranked from cheapest. The 10 cheapest at a glance.
- 1Hono+htmxRange $2.23–$3.19, 8.6 min$2.67Official site
- 2AstroRange $2.16–$3.63, 8.2 min$2.76Official site
- 3NuxtRange $2.39–$4.25, 9.0 min$2.82Official site
- 4Vanilla (Vite)Range $2.24–$3.37, 10.1 min$2.98Official site
- 5Next.jsRange $2.58–$4.13, 10.9 min$3.14Official site
- 6QwikRange $2.35–$3.80, 10.7 min$3.27Official site
- 7TanStack StartRange $3.11–$3.96, 10.3 min$3.54Official site
- 8SolidStartRange $2.84–$4.81, 11.2 min$3.79Official site
- 9React RouterRange $2.82–$3.97, 12.5 min$3.81Official site
- 10SvelteKitRange $3.59–$4.65, 10.8 min$4.28Official site
Nolan Lawson had Claude Code (Opus 5.5) build the same Pokémon app five times in each of 12 frameworks. By median, Hono+htmx is the cheapest at $2.67, followed by Astro ($2.76) and Nuxt ($2.82). SvelteKit in tenth place ($4.28) costs about 1.6 times as much as first. Gracile+Lit and Angular placed eleventh and twelfth, and are left out because this table shows only the top 10. Their numbers are in the original post.
The spread within a framework is larger than the gaps between ranks. The most expensive run for Hono+htmx in first place ($3.19) cost more than the cheapest run for Next.js in fifth ($2.58), so a gap of a place or two is best read as a tie. It is one app and one agent. Cost is converted from API prices, not money actually spent. The author states the same limits and suspects the current MCPs and skills may do more harm than good. The code and results are in the benchmark repository.
Which framework do you use when you hand a front end to AI? Tell us in the comments.