I've been very happy recently with using the Vue.js ecosystem with the standalone vue.js and a few others directly <script>'ed from my applications. Usually vue.js, vuex.js, vue-resource.js and maybe vue-router.js are all dependencies I'll have to add. This avoids the npm circus with the (from my point of view acceptable) downside of, for example, not having single file components. The advantage is a minimal set of dependencies of ~70kb compressed JS added in total and a community where most of the question I had are answered somewhere.