ReactJS keeps gaining popularity as the preferred choice for web developers when creating dynamic and interactive user interfaces. As ReactJS applications grow in complexity and user expectations soar, the seamless transmission of data between components has become more crucial than ever.
In weighing the suitability of ReactJS for your project, it’s important to consider its capabilities and limitations in the domain of web development. This article will help you make an informed choice for your web development needs, whether to use ReactJS or not.
ReactJS is open-source JavaScript library
ReactJS is not a framework but an open-source JavaScript library.
ReactJS libraries offer more flexibility, allowing developers to set rules and modify the code structure to create entirely new products. They are also smaller and can be expanded by adding other components.
ReactJS frameworks, on the other hand, provide a structured environment with set rules that must be followed for everything to work correctly.
Use ReactJS when you need large ecosystem
Choose ReactJS when your app relies on a vast ecosystem. ReactJS offers one of the largest web development framework ecosystems, featuring valuable libraries like Material UI and React Spring.
With over 75,000 packages on NPM labeled with “React,” it surpasses other frameworks, such as Vue, by a considerable margin. Additionally, ReactJS boasts a mature and extensive community, providing abundant tutorials and guides covering diverse aspects of ReactJS.
Use ReactJS when you need widely adopted base
Choose React for a stable and well-established base. ReactJS’ maturity is evident through its years of use in production by major companies such as Facebook, Netflix, Uber and others. Facebook’s use of the latest releases on its platform ensures ReactJS’ stability. If you require a highly reliable and consistent app, ReactJS is a solid choice.
Skip ReactJS for concerns about app size
ReactJS can significantly increase your app’s size, adding over 121 kilobytes of code. This additional size can lead to slower website loading times. Compared to ReactJS, frameworks like Vue, Preact and Svelte offer smaller bundle sizes and less impact on website speed.
Moreover, when using approaches like Create ReactJS App, your entire JavaScript code must be downloaded before your website can start rendering. This is because ReactJS builds HTML dynamically using JavaScript instead of serving a pre-built HTML file, potentially affecting SEO and user experience.
However, solutions like Next.js can render HTML on the server, though it may still take time for the page to become interactive.
Avoid ReactJS when you require rapid rendering
For resource-intensive applications like games or demanding creative tools, ReactJS may not be the ideal choice. This limitation arises from its use of Virtual DOM (VDOM), which, while speeding up unoptimized DOM manipulations, might not suit these specific types of apps.
ReactJS can be slow because it takes time to parse and render the HTML. To address this, ReactJS employs a VDOM that keeps a memory of the document’s structure.
When you update the VDOM, it identifies what has changed by comparing the differences, allowing for small HTML changes. However, managing the Virtual DOM adds overhead, and it’s faster to start with optimized JavaScript from the beginning.
Avoid ReactJS when you want powerful markup language
JSX allows us to write HTML in ReactJS. It is user-friendly, but it can get wordy because it combines HTML and JavaScript. While JSX is simple to pick up because of its similarity to HTML, some markup languages like Svelte are more concise.
Svelte provides extra shortcuts, such as built-in conditional blocks and reactive variables. For instance, in ReactJS, you use “setState” to update, while in Svelte, you can directly modify the variable. Svelte enables you to write shorter, more efficient code with less effort once you become familiar with the new syntax.
You have several alternatives to ReactJS. For instance, Vue is known for its smaller bundle size and faster runtime, offering two API options. Svelte handles both markup language and performance issues by compiling to native JavaScript.
Preact is a lightweight ReactJS alternative, easily replacing ReactJS without code changes and offering improved speed. Solid is another fast-reacting tool with JSX and hooks, closely related to ReactJS.
In conclusion, the choice to use ReactJS depends on specific development conditions and project goals. ReactJS is advantageous for applications with significant visual content, offering better performance and developer tools. It provides code flexibility but is not a standalone solution, often requiring additional software.
For projects with minimal content and a simple user interface, alternatives like Vue.js or Angular may be more suitable.