VKontakte Switches to New Architecture: Site Speed Significantly Increased

The VKontakte team has completed the migration of the website's main sections to a new Single Page Application (SPA) architecture. According to the developers, this update has accelerated the initial page load time by 25% and reduced the average transition time between sections by 3.5 times. Ixbt.com reports this.

These changes cover key user scenarios, including the news feed, profiles, communities, messenger, friends, clips, photos, and market sections. Prior to the transition to the new architecture, many processes in the web version operated on a classic model: when opening a section, the page waited for a server response before fully rendering on the screen.

Now, VKontakte displays the page structure—such as the top panel, navigation, and section skeleton—to the user faster, subsequently filling it with content. This allows users to start interacting with the service sooner and avoids encountering blank screens during transitions between sections.

The changes also impacted the software development process: the team integrated a component-based approach based on the VKontakte design system. This enables assembling interfaces from ready-made blocks, ensuring faster release cycles and a consistent style.