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Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →For Felipe Oñoro, avoiding a build step is a way to limit what he must maintain alone—not proof that build tools are bad or unnecessary. His current bookmark manager uses vanilla JavaScript in the browser and puts its backend on PostgreSQL, with PostgREST in front. The approach has kept the toolchain lean, but implementing a feature that a framework could have supplied took him several evenings.
Why Oñoro keeps his solo projects simple
Oñoro says he has managed IT departments for more than twenty years and has spent the last seventeen at the same organization on Costa Rica’s Pacific coast. Those are his own career details, shared in his August 30, 2026 essay, not independently verified industry data. His day job involves infrastructure and operations; outside work, he builds web applications alone on a VPS he administers.
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That experience shapes how he weighs architecture. As he puts it: “Every layer I add is a layer I’ll be debugging at 11pm in three years, alone.” The point is personal and practical: a toolchain is another system its maintainer may have to understand when something breaks, including long after the initial implementation.
What his current bookmark manager uses
In his account, the frontend is vanilla JavaScript with no framework, bundler, or build step. The backend uses PostgREST in front of PostgreSQL. He says PostgreSQL row-level security handles multi-tenancy, much of the business logic lives in SQL functions, and Python scripts run background work on cron. He says this arrangement has no application server of his own.
This is one person’s architecture, not a recipe established as best for every application. In particular, the essay does not provide a controlled comparison of performance, reliability, or maintenance effort against framework-based projects.
Why he reaches for browser features first
Oñoro’s argument is that capabilities built into the browser now cover some jobs for which he previously would have reached for libraries. His examples are fetch for HTTP requests, querySelectorAll for DOM selection, CSS grid and flexbox for layout, and CSS custom properties for theming.
Rank #2
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Those examples explain his preference; they are not a compatibility assessment or a claim that browser APIs replace every library. Whether they suffice depends on a project’s requirements and on the browsers it needs to support.
The cost of skipping a framework
A no-build setup does not eliminate implementation work. Oñoro says a framework’s drag-and-drop functionality would have saved time on his bookmark manager. He built the ability to reorder cards across topic columns by hand, and it took several evenings.
Rank #3
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That tradeoff is central to his account: reducing toolchain layers can leave more feature work to the developer. The essay gives an anecdote, not quantified totals for the time spent building features versus maintaining dependencies.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to decide whether no-build fits your project
Rather than treating “no build step” as a universal rule, weigh the work your project needs against the complexity you are prepared to maintain. These are decision questions, not conclusions tested by Oñoro’s essay:
Rank #4
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- How interactive is the application? A small interface may need little beyond browser APIs; richer interactions may make framework features worth adopting.
- Will pages repeat the same structure? Consider whether avoiding a framework would create enough duplication to make future changes harder.
- Who will maintain the whole system? Include both application code and any build tools, dependencies, database logic, and background jobs.
- Does a framework feature save more work than it adds? Compare the immediate effort it can spare with the additional tooling and maintenance it introduces.
Oñoro’s experience offers a grounded perspective for people who build alone and operate their own infrastructure. It does not show that build tools are harmful, that every project can avoid them, or that this architecture is safer or faster in general.
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