I'm currently developping a fairly large (containerized) Django app. It's growing in use and I'm starting to need to make the UI more fluid with dynamic elements.

So far, we have overhauled the templates with lot of jQuery. That makes it possible to update the DOM and the database without reloading every page. A lot of our Django views are called via AJAX, accomplish some actions and return JSON responses.

jQuery is beginning to feel wonky and unstable, as we are dealing with asynchronous calls, constant tinkering with the DOM, and such.

I was considering upgrading to a more complex JS Framework.

It seems Vue.js would be a good fit but lots of options would not work with a simple CDN approach? It seemes made for handling *all* of the frontend, but that would need a radical switch of the app toward a separated front and back. Or would it not?

Alpine.js comes across as a lightweight option, that could be a nice next stepping stone. But would it be so much better than jQuery and justify that switch?

Which would you recommend, and why? Or do you have any other suggestions?

Many thanks!