Share: Why I’m Writing Pure HTML & CSS in 2025

I came across the article Why I’m Writing Pure HTML & CSS in 2025 from Joel Dare in the latest Frontend Focus email. The mindset of Joel is exactly the same as mine and the article runs through the benefits of stripping back the complexity of building things with over-complex JavaScript first frameworks, and for me, the joy of building robust, semantic and accessible experiences with HTML and CSS.

As software engineers, I think we have a tendency to over-engineer things. If you’ve built web pages recently, you probably used HTML and CSS, but you probably also used a complex framework, over-engineered JavaScript, crazy deployment routines, and more.

By contrast, for me, building pure HTML and CSS pages is a breeze and a joy.

Programming with HTML is relatively easy, the browser is very forgiving. However, writing good HTML is a skill that is undervalued and under appreciated in my experience. Being aware of the semantics of elements you are choosing, and how they will affect peoples experiences consuming your content with different asstive technology.

I also enjoyed Joel's summary/mantra on his homepage

Modern software is too complicated. I focus on minimal software and pursue simplicity—sometimes to the point of absurdity. Here, you’ll find ideas and tools for building systems that are easier to understand, maintain, and scale.

Alongside this, I liked the idea of having a future articles section, where you post articles in progress that may otherwise not get published (I have a few of these) and think it's a nice idea to have them somewhere for accountability and so that work that goes into them isn't totally wasted. So I'll be adding something similar to my site soon.