Why React.js in 2024? 10 Compelling Reasons for Web Dev

A Brief History of React.js

Creation and Early Use (2011-2012)

• 2011: Facebook created React.js for internal use.
• 2012: Instagram, a subsidiary of Facebook, started using React

Open Source and Initial Reception (2013-2014)

• 2013: React.js was open-sourced by Facebook. Initially, it faced rejection due to its unconventional approach of combining markup and
• JavaScript in a single file. However, the component-centric approach for separating concerns gained acceptance over time.
• 2014: Many large companies began using React.js in production environments.

Expansion and Stabilization (2015-2016)

• 2015: Facebook open-sourced React Native, a library allowing native mobile app development using React.js.
• 2016: React.js adopted Semantic Versioning with version 15, signaling increased stability.

Current Status

• Today, React.js is used by numerous Fortune 500 companies.
• Facebook has a dedicated team for React development, ensuring regular updates, bug fixes, and documentation.

Why Should You Use React?

React is Flexible

Versatility Across Platforms

• React’s flexibility allows developers to build quality user interfaces for a variety of platforms, including web, mobile, and desktop.
• Tools like Gatsby enable static site generation, while React Native is used for mobile app development.
• Desktop applications can be created using Electron, and server rendering is supported by Next.js.

Incremental Adoption

• React can be integrated into existing applications incrementally.
• This allows developers to update small parts of their app using React and gradually transition the entire application.

React Has a Great Developer Experience

• Simple API and Rapid Development: React’s API is straightforward, making it easy to learn and use. Its small size and simplicity enable rapid development.
• JSX Syntax: JSX enables developers to write HTML-like code directly within JavaScript.
• This results in clean, readable, and maintainable code, unlike traditional frameworks that require adding JavaScript into HTML.
• Component-Based Architecture: React's component-based approach promotes reusability.
• Components can be developed independently and reused across different parts of an application or even in different projects.

React Has Facebook's Support/Resources

• Corporate Commitment: React is heavily used and supported by Facebook,
• with over 50k React components in their production environment. The top contributors on GitHub are Facebook employees.
• Consistent Updates and Codemods: Facebook provides consistent updates, bug fixes, and enhancements.
• They also release Codemod tools for automating codebase updates to align with new React specifications.

React Also Has Broader Community Support

Active Community and Extensive Resources:

• React has a massive, active community with over 164k stars on its GitHub repository and millions of weekly NPM downloads.
• Platforms like StackOverflow have over 250k React-related questions, ensuring ample support for developers.

Component Libraries and Related Projects

• Numerous component libraries, such as Fluent UI, Material-UI, and React-Bootstrap, are available.
• Additionally, tools like React Router, Redux, MobX, Jest, and GraphQL enhance React’s capabilities.

React Has Great Performance

• Efficient DOM Manipulation: React minimizes DOM changes by using a Virtual DOM, which keeps a copy of the DOM in memory.
• When a component’s state changes, React calculates the most efficient way to update the real DOM, resulting in faster rendering and improved performance.
• Lightweight Library: React’s library is small (less than 6kb), which is significantly smaller than its competitors, contributing to faster load times and better performance on mobile devices.

React is Easy to Test

User-Friendly Testing Environment

• React’s design facilitates easy testing. Traditional UI browser testing setups
• are cumbersome, whereas React components can be tested quickly using the command line with minimal configuration.

Testing Tools

• Tools like Jest and Enzyme simplify writing and maintaining tests for React components.
• Various JavaScript testing frameworks, such as Mocha, Jasmine, and AVA, are also compatible with React.

Mature and Simple-to-Grasp Development Workflow

• ReactJS offers an optimized development interface and a lightweight API, reinforced with fast performance capacities.
• This ensures a hassle-free, rapid development workflow.
• Unlike other frameworks like Angular or Vue, React does not overwhelm developers with extra HTML attributes. Instead, by integrating JSX into JavaScript, React ensures cleaner, more readable, and maintainable code.

Ultimate Flexibility and Compatibility

• ReactJS’s flexibility allows developers to use it across various platforms. Its primary purpose is to create separate web design elements
• and components, making it a versatile tool for web, mobile, and even VR/360 view applications.
• The extensive React ecosystem supports desktop solutions, static websites, server rendering, and advanced tech concepts, all adhering to simple React development principles.

Hassle-Free Reusability of Components

• ReactJS excels at creating reusable components. Once a React component is created, it can be reused in different parts of an application or in entirely different projects.
• This reusability reduces development effort, ensures consistency, and makes scaling and maintaining applications more manageable.

Powers of Flux and Redux

• React’s architecture includes Flux and Redux, which enhance data management with unidirectional data flow.
• Flux’s central dispatcher orchestrates actions and updates stores, while Redux simplifies data management with a single store object.
• This ensures all model data remains well-synced throughout the application.

Extensive Toolset Available

• React offers a robust toolset, including React Developer Tools and Redux Development Tools.
• These tools help developers inspect component hierarchies, check dispatch actions, view state changes, and debug efficiently.
• Additionally, React’s ecosystem includes a variety of content management tools and visual editing capabilities.

Powers of React Native

• React Native extends React’s capabilities to mobile app development, allowing developers to create native applications for iOS and Android.
• This makes React an excellent choice for cross-platform development, offering a seamless transition from web to mobile development.

Vast Community and Market-Defining Resources

• React has one of the largest communities among web development frameworks.
• Supported by Facebook and many Fortune 500 companies, React’s ecosystem is rich with resources, tutorials, and community support.
• This extensive backing ensures continuous improvements and a wealth of knowledge available to developers.

Unique React Hooks

• Introduced in React 16.8, Hooks allow developers to add state and other functionalities to function components.
• Hooks simplify state management, data transfer between components, and grouping of related logic, making React development more straightforward and flexible.

SEO Friendliness

• React can be rendered on the server side using frameworks like Next.js, making it more SEO-friendly.
• Server-side rendering (SSR) improves the chances of your content being indexed by search engines,
• and can also lead to faster initial load times, enhancing the user experience, particularly for users with slower internet connections.

React vs Vue vs Angular

Simplicity and Ease of Learning

• React: It features an intuitive API and a gentle learning curve, especially with its JSX syntax that allows HTML-like code to be embedded directly into JavaScript. Its component-based structure enhances code reusability and maintainability.
• Vue: Incrementally adoptable and known for its flexibility, though the structure of single-file components may be overwhelming for some.
• Angular: Features a steep learning curve with TypeScript and verbose syntax, which can be challenging for newcomers.

Flexibility and Ecosystem

• React: Provides a highly flexible ecosystem where developers can choose their preferred libraries for state management (e.g., Redux), routing (e.g.,
• React Router), and server-side rendering (e.g., Next.js).
• Vue: Offers an integrated ecosystem with Vuex for state management and Vue Router for routing, providing convenience but potentially limiting flexibility.
• Angular: A comprehensive framework with built-in solutions for state management, routing, and more, which may reduce flexibility but ensures a cohesive development environment.

Performance and Optimization

• React: Utilizes Virtual DOM for efficient updates and rendering, enhancing performance by minimizing direct manipulation of the real DOM.
• Vue: Also employs Virtual DOM and a reactive system optimized for performance, with a smaller bundle size contributing to faster loading times compared to Angular.
• Angular: Uses real DOM, which can impact performance in applications with frequent updates, and its comprehensive nature may result in heavier bundle sizes.

Community and Support

• React: Boasts one of the largest and most active communities, backed by Facebook, ensuring robust support, frequent updates, and a wealth of resources.
• Vue: Features a rapidly growing community primarily maintained by Evan You and enthusiasts, offering strong support but with less corporate backing compared to React.
• Angular: Supported by Google, Angular benefits from strong enterprise support, regular updates, and a focused community.

Development Speed and Productivity

• React: Facilitates rapid development with tools like Create React App and Next.js, offering features like hot module replacement for efficient iteration.
• Vue: Known for its developer-friendly environment and clear documentation, Vue enables quick startup and development cycles through single-file components.
• Angular: Offers structured development with Angular CLI for scaffolding and maintaining projects, although its opinionated structure may initially slow down development.

Conclusion

1. Versatility and Adoption
2. Developer-Friendly Features
3. Corporate and Community Support
4. Performance Optimization
5. Extensive Ecosystem
6. SEO Benefits
7. Powers of React Native