Why I Dumped JavaScript, Python, and NPM for Rust (And You Should Too)

Source: Dev.to

The Breaking Point

It was 3 AM. I was staring at my screen, watching npm install crawl through its 47,000th dependency. My React app needed one simple date picker. One. The node_modules folder? 1.2 GB. The actual code I wrote? 200 lines.

That’s when I decided: enough is enough.

The JavaScript Nightmare Everyone Pretends is Normal

Let’s be honest about what we’ve normalized:

• “Just run npm audit fix” — Translation: play Russian roulette with your dependencies and pray nothing breaks.
• “Works on my machine” — Because somehow, in 2025, we still can’t reliably reproduce builds.
• “Add @ts-ignore here” — TypeScript’s way of saying “I give up, you’re on your own.”
• “node_modules is only 800 MB” — Said with a straight face, as if that’s acceptable for a todo app.

We’ve gaslit ourselves into thinking this is fine. It’s not fine. It’s insane.

Python: The Slow Train to Frustration Station

Python developers love to brag about “simplicity.” Let me tell you about Python simplicity:

def calculate_total(items: List[Item]) -> float:
    return sum(item.price for item in items)

Beautiful, right? Now watch this:

calculate_total("not a list")          # Runtime error! 💥
calculate_total(None)                  # Runtime error! 💥
calculate_total([None, "lol"])         # Runtime error! 💥

Those type hints? Pure decoration. They’re suggestions. Your code will cheerfully ignore them and explode in production at 2 AM.

And let’s talk about the GIL—Python’s charming way of making sure your “multi‑threaded” code actually runs on a single core. In 2025. On your 16‑core machine.

Then I Met Rust

I was skeptical. “The learning curve is steep,” they said. “The borrow checker is annoying,” they warned.

Know what’s actually annoying? Debugging a null‑pointer exception at 3 AM because JavaScript decided undefined and null are two different things.

Before (React + TypeScript)

• Bundle size: 220 KB (minified)
• node_modules: 1.1 GB
• Build time: 45 seconds
• Runtime errors: Yes
• Vulnerabilities: 47 (12 critical)

After (Rust + Leptos)

• Bundle size: 52 KB (WebAssembly)
• Dependencies: Downloaded once, cached forever
• Build time: 2 minutes (first time), 10 seconds (incremental)
• Runtime errors: Literally impossible
• Vulnerabilities: 0

The Rust Difference

Memory Safety Without Garbage Collection

No more mystery crashes. No more “memory leak somewhere.” If it compiles, it works. Period.

Real Type Safety

fn add(a: i32, b: i32) -> i32 {
    a + b
}

add(5, "hello"); // Won't compile. Not a linter warning. Compile error.

Actual Performance

I benchmarked the same algorithm in Python and Rust. Python: 450 ms. Rust: 5 ms. That’s 90× faster. Not a typo.

One Compiler, One Package Manager, One Lock File

No webpack, Babel, Rollup, Parcel, Vite, Turbopack, esbuild, Snowpack drama. Just cargo build. It works every time, on every machine.

“But Rust is Hard!”

Is it though?

• What’s harder: learning Rust’s borrow checker once, or debugging “cannot read property of undefined” for the 10,000th time?
• What’s harder: writing explicit error handling with Result, or wondering why your Python script silently failed in production?
• What’s harder: dealing with Rust’s compile errors, or dealing with JavaScript’s “it compiled fine but crashes at runtime” nonsense?

Rust is hard like brushing your teeth is hard. Yeah, it takes effort. But the alternative is rot.

The Ecosystem Actually Makes Sense

Cargo vs NPM

• Want to add a dependency? cargo add serde — Done.
• Want to update? cargo update — Done.
• Want to check security? cargo audit — Done.
• Want to know what broke? Cargo tells you, in detail, at compile time.

No npm audit showing 1,000 vulnerabilities you can’t fix because updating breaks everything. No package-lock.json merge conflicts. No “delete node_modules and pray” rituals.

Real Talk About Web Development

I just shipped a production dashboard using Rust for both backend (Axum) and frontend (Leptos + WebAssembly).

• Zero JavaScript. Not “minimal JavaScript.” ZERO.
• The backend is blazingly fast.
• The frontend is reactive, type‑safe, and compiles to WASM that’s smaller than most JavaScript frameworks.
• WebSocket connections handle real‑time updates flawlessly.

Could I have done this with React and Node.js? Sure. Would it have been 4× slower, 10× buggier, and 100× more frustrating? Absolutely.

The Bottom Line

I’m not saying JavaScript and Python are useless. They have their place.

I’m saying their place is not in my life anymore.

Rust taught me that:

• Reliability isn’t a luxury, it’s a baseline.
• Performance matters.
• Your tools should help you, not fight you.
• “It compiles” should mean something.

If you’re tired of:

• Debugging obvious errors at runtime
• Wrestling with build tools (npm install taking longer than writing your code)
• “Works on my machine” syndrome
• Type systems that are suggestions, not guarantees

Learn Rust. It’s not as hard as they say. The compiler is your friend. The community is helpful. And once it clicks, you’ll wonder why you ever put up with the madness.

Your Move

Still running npm install and hoping for the best?
Still adding @ts-ignore and calling it a day?
Still pretending that the GIL doesn’t matter?

The Rust compiler is waiting. And it actually has your back.

🦀 Rust: Where “it compiles” actually means something.