<table> element is much more complex to process than a <div>. <table> is one of the few elements that actually have a dedicated "Processing model" section in th

<table> element is much more complex to process than a <div>. <table> is one of the few elements that actually have a dedicated "Processing model" section in the spec: https://www.w3.org/TR/html52/tabular-data.html#tabular-data-processing-model https://www.w3.org/TR/html52/tabular-data.html#tabular-data-... It is not neccessarily a bottleneck, as long as your datagrid library uses the browser's ability to render the table. But if you want a custom look and feel, such as overlapping cells, irregular shaped cells, animated cells, it's far better to do it based on <div>s instead of fighting the browser engine.