7 Reasons Why You Should Be Using React
Tags: react, javascript, reactnative
Published: 2019-12-16 09:08:03

<h2><b>Few words about React</b></h2>
<p>If your still not yet fully familiar with <a href="https://reactjs.org/">React</a>, it is so far the hottest and the most wanted JavaScript framework, that enables you to build highly performant and extremely user-friendly interfaces.</p>
<p>Facebook released React as open-source in 2013. Since then the popularity of the framework was just emerging.</p>
<p>Many big names (Netflix, Uber, Airb&amp;b, <a href="https://stackshare.io/react">see more…</a>) chose to work with it as it was easy to pick up, more convenient to operate with and gave them a lot of freedom in the interface execution.</p>
<p>By “freedom in the interface execution” I mean you can literally <strong>deliver the ultimate user experience the way you want it.</strong></p>
<p>After a while, React has been gaining more and more contributors, fans, and users keeping it at the top of most loved and wanted frameworks to work with. But don’t believe me, ask <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019#technology">Stack Overflow</a>.</p>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pasted-image-0.png" alt="most loved web frameworks diagram with react on the first place" class="wp-image-1950"/>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/unnamed.png" alt="most wanted web frameworks diagram with react on the first place" class="wp-image-1951"/>
<p>How come React became so popular, and remains the hottest framework to work with?</p>
<p>Let’s see.</p>
<h2><b>1. Performance</b></h2>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/sebastiaan-stam-4lqMd_XBlfU-unsplash-1024x539.jpg" alt="picture with a car speedometer" class="wp-image-1953"/>
<p>In fact, every library and framework today is working hard to deliver the highest performance possible, but React still <a href="https://blog.pagepro.co/tag/comparison/">leads the way in this race.</a></p>
<p>You already know it’s been built for the most crowded place on the internet (Facebook), so if you want to keep such platform working, you have to use the most performant technology there is. Not only to make everything work correctly for yourself, but also to deliver a smooth and great experience to your users. </p>
<p>If React can handle Facebook, it can easily handle anything else and enables you to build the most sophisticated and high-performance platforms you will ever think of. </p>
<h2><b>2. Speed &amp; User Experience</b></h2>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/pasted-image-0-1-1024x576.png" alt="pablo escobar sitting sad on the swing" class="wp-image-1954"/>
<p>Nobody likes to watch a loading spinner for too long. </p>
<p>Did you ever use a very slow web page and being excited about the number of people using it with you? I really doubt it. </p>
<p>People treat the web personally and prefer to feel like they have been served individually.</p>
<p>If your page is slow, they won’t search for any excuse. They will probably leave discouraged or even angry, which is the opportunity for other, faster, and more competitive pages.</p>
<p>Luckily, React is here, and it’s ready to assist. </p>
<p>It is using a <strong>virtual DOM</strong>, which means it doesn’t have to generate all the HTML files from the bottom to the top, whenever the change appears. </p>
<p>Instead, he looks for the differences between the current and the old HTML and updating it accordingly, making all the loading experience feels like a blink of an eye.</p>
<p>More than that, there is something called <strong>React Fiber</strong>, which makes React not only “fast”, but “<strong>blazingly fast</strong>”!</p>
<p>Facebook also came up lately with <strong>Concurrent Mode</strong> and <strong>Suspense </strong>(on the day of writing this article they are still experimental) that will highly affect user experience. The plan is to <strong>enable React apps to be even more responsive</strong> by adjusting to the users’ device capabilities and the speed of the network.</p>
<p>It sounds crazy but remains true. Thanks to that, the future of Rect is even more interesting.</p>
<p><strong>Read also:<a href="https://blog.pagepro.co/2019/11/15/reasons-to-use-react-in-2020/"> Reasons To Use React In 2020. </a></strong></p>
<h2><b>3. Backward Compatibility</b></h2>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/cheryl-winn-boujnida-cqgnUEOaW00-unsplash-1024x680.jpg" alt="comparison of two family pictures with members from different years" class="wp-image-1904"/>
<p>Still, none of the other frameworks is able to be so easily compatible.</p>
<p>If you use <a href="https://blog.pagepro.co/2019/05/27/react-vs-angular-a-quick-comparison/">Angular</a>, there is a big chance that instead of upgrading it to the new version you will have to write your app from scratch with the new public API.</p>
<p>Whenever a new version of React is coming out, the public API remains almost totally the same. This helps Facebook refresh it’s code and still be able to work on his old pieces at the same time.</p>
<p>In other words, you don’t have to learn React again and again after each and every launch, and you can be sure your older version remains compatible with all the new components.</p>
<h2><b>4. Development Speed</b></h2>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/giphy.gif" alt="kermit the frog from seasam street typing on an old typewriter" class="wp-image-1957"/>
<p>React been also built with developers in mind.</p>
<p>The coding itself allows you to create web and mobile apps way much faster than any other framework.</p>
<p>The great advantage of React is that you can just code it once, and use it on the different platforms. You can hire one good React developer and he will be able to <a href="https://pagepro.co/react-development.html">build web apps, mobile apps, and even apps for a tablet.</a></p>
<p>To start working you can simply use the “Create React App” - an official Facebook start-kit, which lets you set up a web app by running one command with no build configurations.</p>
<p>Next to this, thanks to the short learning curve and the rich ecosystem, you can already find and implement many ready-to-use solutions.</p>
<p>It is also very easy for you to connect with other services, like <a href="https://www.netlify.com/">Netlify</a>, which additionally makes you work way much easier and faster.</p>
<h2><b>5. Popularity</b></h2>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/gatsby-1024x636.jpg" alt="leonardo di caprio as a gatsby holding a glass of champagne with fireworks at the back" class="wp-image-1958"/>
<p>React’s ecosystem is one of the most rapidly growing open-source environment in web development history. </p>
<p>The number of projects built around this technology increase exponentially each month.</p>
<p>Thanks to this popularity and heavy usage, <a href="https://insights.stackoverflow.com/survey/2019?utm_source=so-owned&amp;utm#technology">React is becoming the number one front-end choice</a> even for many big projects, and many big players (like <a href="https://www.sitecore.com/">Sitecore</a>, or <a href="https://www.meteor.com/">Meteor</a>).</p>
<p>Because of lots of contributors and extremely active community, React documentation is getting better each and every day, and most of the issues that have been ever reported are fixed now.</p>
<p>This makes React a very stable and mature technology and attracts many open source initiatives.</p>
<p>Take <a href="https://www.gatsbyjs.org/">Gatsby</a>, for instance, which <a href="https://pagepro.co/gatsby-development.html">builds the fastest static websites so far</a>, thanks to the combination of best React and GraphQL features.</p>
<h2><b>6. Effective Testing</b></h2>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/giphy-1.gif" alt="man is calculating in his mind" class="wp-image-1959"/>
<p>Testing of React applications is straightforward thanks to one-way data flow and single responsibility rule embodied in its components. </p>
<p>Predictable data flow and functional programming concepts widely used in React development make error detection possible at an early stage of development. </p>
<p>All of this results in effective teamwork and project maintainability.</p>
<h2><b>7. Modularity</b></h2>
<img src="https://blog.pagepro.co/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/la-rel-easter-KuCGlBXjH_o-unsplash-1024x683.jpg" alt="child is building a tower from the color blocks" class="wp-image-1961"/>
<p>Building an interface with React components allows us to really embrace an agile approach to ever-changing business requirements. </p>
<p>One component can be seamlessly modified without breaking the others. </p>
<p>Thanks to this, we are able to deliver products that suit the needs of our customers without unexpected delays and errors.</p>
<h2><b>Summary</b></h2>
<p>Each and every technology seems to have the same goal – doing things easier, faster, and ultimately, better.</p>
<p>However, React developers have access to a lot of innovative, polished solutions used across the world, that help them work more efficiently and cost-effectively than any other developers.</p>
<p>Such a tendency is the best guarantee of long-term support and further development of this framework.</p>
<p>Did I miss something? Let me know!</p>