 <p>"Really only useful" is a little subjective, don't you think? If you're asking about whether it's more important to pre-compile templates used server-side as opposed to client-side, it usually is, simply because a server is going to have to render them potentially several thousand times a second so it's wasteful to have to compile them each time they're rendered.</p> <p>In a client-side app, the main concern is whether there's any user-noticeable slowdown associated with rendering templates. There usually isn't, and if there is, generally only a few (maybe partial templates used to build large list views) are responsible. So in most client-side apps, pre-compiling templates is a form of premature optimization.</p>