Solid is definitely in that “compile-to-direct-DOM” camp, and I think it’s awesome — it shows how far you can push the reactive model with JSX + fine-grained updates.

dagger.js is coming from the opposite direction: no compiler, no JSX, and also no signals. just plain HTML with attributes like +click / +load. You drop in a <script> from a CDN and it wires up behavior at runtime. It’s more about zero build friction and “view-source-ability”than squeezing out maximum perf.

So if Solid is about compiling React-like ergonomics down to efficient DOM transforms, dagger is about skipping compilation entirely and letting you glue components together with HTML. Two very different trade-offs, but complementary ends of the spectrum.