Why You Should Use React For Web Development
Web app development welcomes new frameworks and tools faster than any other side and aspect of software delivery. It is no wonder that it is getting hard to navigate the ecosystem of technologies that keeps on evolving. However, there is a clear winner when it comes to creating highly responsive user interfaces for web applications.
As you might have guessed, we are talking here about React. Its popularity is surging among clients and developers alike. One in four developers wants to learn React according to Stackoverflow's survey 2021. Recognizable names like Netflix use the technology along with 2 million websites around the globe.
Those new to web development may wonder why use React.js instead of other popular web development frameworks. In this article, we are going to help you with understanding the reasons behind that trend. But first, let's overview the essence of this popular technology.
What Is React.js?
React is an open-source JavaScript library that provides extensive resources for building interfaces of web and mobile applications. It was developed by Facebook in an effort to enable a component-centric approach to UI development.
Back in 2011, as Facebook was looking to simplify front-end development workflow, they came to an idea to reuse easily debuggable code with elements not dependent on each other. Think of each element as a Lego brick that becomes a part of a larger construction. Each component has its own way of rendering and is based on its own internal logic.
Besides, it was necessary to avoid the limitations of the conventional DOM update flow. It is traditionally packed with roadblocks that affect the performance and slow down the rendering speed. This resulted in opting for virtual DOM (an in-memory virtual copy of the DOM tree that keeps track of any updates in real-time).
The core features we've discussed above explain why React has become a robust ecosystem on top of JavaScript development. Even though it was developed more than 10 years ago, it still attracts the attention of companies of different business focus. What are they?
Companies That Use React
More than 11,000 companies use React if we take a look at the data available on Stackshare. Here are the most prominent of them that choose this technology stack and a core part of their web development efforts.
- Facebook. As a company pioneering the introduction of React, Facebook is an obvious mention in this list. Their website employs React as the script inserted as a part of the code. As for their mobile app, Facebook uses React Native, which is one of the versions of the technology that we'll talk about in a while.
- Netflix is ranked as a top streaming application that boasts high loading speed and optimal performance under heavy load. The company has been quite open about the impact of using React in its projects. Particularly, it is successfully used on their Gibbon platform, which has become one of the top picks among the developer community.
- Instagram. The platform has been implementing a ton of features built on top of React. Its API proved to be successful over time, enabling fast response times, great performance, and usability. Thanks to React, their front-end web and PWA development needs were addressed completely.
- Twitter. The engineers working on the web version of the platform needed a lot of upgrades to make it stand out among other social media resources. They used React along with other modern web technologies to rewrite the entire website and enable a feature-rich UI.
- Khan Academy. If you wonder why use React for coding in the eLearning portal, you can compare its earlier version to the current one. The company turned to React.js to speed up the work of the internal editor, eliminate unnecessary re-renders, and consecutively save the overall development time.
Benefits of React for Web Development
Which advantages of React.js should you know about if you're considering using this open-source library? Here are a few notable pros.
Ease of Learning
A previous JavaScript background or basic programming knowledge can turn developers into React.js specialists. Unlike Angular or Ember, it has a fast learning curve thanks to straightforward syntax and the ability to write in plain JavaScript.
Consequently, this enables businesses to decrease time-to-launch for their digital products. As it is easy to learn, there are many available React developers on the market, which are ready to join a new project.
Reusability
One of the main advantages of React for web development is its ability to reuse components anywhere you need. It optimizes development efforts and enables companies to maintain the entire codebase without overspending. So, similar features can be written in the same code but with certain changes. It is worth stating that a slight change in one element won't affect other parts of the web app.
Dynamic Elements
React facilitates the creation of interactive content that doesn't affect the overall app's performance. With such cutting-edge technology, there is no need to redraw each node from scratch, but rather draw the changed nodes. As a result, it is possible to engage users with dynamic design elements, which respond to any manipulation without delays.
SEO-Friendliness
Another benefit of using React.js for web development is its ability to reduce page load time and ensure fast rendering. It overcomes common limitations of modern web browsers and streamlines read operations for JavaScript-heavy web pages.
Ease of Debugging
A test-friendly web app is a must when it comes to creating competitive products for a highly dense market. And React copes fairly well with designing a clear codebase, which enables you to track outputs, functions, and events when something goes wrong.
Strong Community Support
Backed by individual contributors, the React.js community is ready to provide immediate help for newcomers and experienced developers alike. It also receives the much-needed support from Facebook and Instagram core engineers.
A Rich Ecosystem of Tools
Another good reason why React.js is so widespread is that it comes with proper tooling. Robust debugging, documentation, and design tools can be accessed as Chrome or Firefox browser extensions.
Among them are Flux and Redux JS libraries, which complement the React's components and provide developers with simple workflows:
- Flux resides on the concept of unidirectional data flow. It contains multiple 'stores', which are updated by a central dispatcher. The main idea is to eliminate duplicate updates by triggering only relevant stores.
- Redux is similar to Flux, but it lets you store all application data within a single object.
Native Approach
The list of benefits of React would be incomplete without mentioning React Native web development. It enables developers to combine JavaScript and React to build feature-rich UIs for native apps on Android and iOS.
High Performance
React.js ensures minimum steps required for code updates by applying virtual DOM and server-side rendering. As we already stated above, this method makes resource-intensive apps run extremely fast.
When to Use React for Your Project
Having examined the major advantages of React for both developers and clients, we can move to equally crucial issues. Let's see which use cases can welcome this web development framework.
- Data visualization. Interactive dashboards built with React give the freedom to build reusable components without extra setup. Moreover, all the data in the charts can be updated 24/7 without delays. As for other perks that are associated with React.js development and data visualization services, developers use separate parts of the dashboard on both the client-side and the server-side.
- Social media platforms. That's another common example of utilizing React for dynamic websites that need to serve thousands of concurrent users at a time. Relying on WebSockets to connect the client and server, React-based apps and websites support real-time data processing and leverage asynchronous I/O.
- E-commerce web apps. The principles of component reusability and modularity enable clients to decrease time-to-market for their digital stores. Besides, React supports efficient component state management and lets you render different results.
- Cross-platform mobile apps. Any web-based online business will eventually have to target mobile users on iOS or Android. That's where React.js shines as it allows developers to build cross-platform applications, leveraging previously used architecture with React Native. Thus there is no need to reinvent the wheel but rather reuse the same UI blocks to write native apps.
Why We Use React for Web Development
React.js enables us to speed up the development of clear UIs for data visualization, web and custom mobile applications, SaaS apps, high-load systems, education portals, CRM, and ERP software solutions. In our portfolio, there are a variety of use cases that owe their success to this robust front-end development tool.
Here's what we find especially useful when it comes to using React.js development and why we provide React development services:
- a component-oriented architecture, which helps us to reduce development efforts;
- its progressive nature, which helps us to respond to ongoing changes in a web development world;
- its scalability, which helps us to write easily expandable front-ends of web apps;
- its predictability, since the data flows only in one direction;
- its extensive community support, which lets us maintain code easier;
- its ability to reuse the same code base for multiple software solutions, which simplifies QA testing and workflows.
Conclusion
In this article, we explored the essence and the core functionality of React.js as an efficient front-end development tool. The technology has many strengths, which teleport it to the list of the most loved JavaScript tools among developers.
But for businesses willing to get ahead of the competition, React can become the number one element of an efficient and progressive tech stack. However, if you need some direction for a particular project and wonder if React can reach the targeted goals, we are here to help. Get in touch with our experts, we'd be happy to provide you our custom web development services and help you choose the most appropriate technology! Upsilon has helped numerous early-stage startups and growth-stage startups build successful products, and we use agile sprint-based pricing too.
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