Top 9 Reasons for Using React in Web Development

With so many libraries and frameworks to choose from, it often becomes difficult for businesses to pick the most suitable ones for web development. But we have an answer for you. Around 8,000 global businesses have gone with React for web app development. So, in this blog, we will give you reasons why you should use React in web development.   

What is React.js?

React.js is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces (UIs). Used to develop single-page apps, this library allows businesses to create complex UI and reusable UI components. It also controls the view layer in web applications.

The key concept of this library is virtual DOM, which is a tree based on JavaScript components. It is created with React and mimics a DOM tree. The least amount of DOM manipulations possible is carried out in order to keep React up to date.

It was created back in 2011 by Facebook for internal use. Soon after, Instagram also adopted it in 2012. Eventually, in 2013, React.js was made an open-source library. While there were initial apprehensions by developers around its use, with time, many companies and professionals embraced the library. Multiple contemporary Fortune 500 companies and others are using React.js.   

This library offers solutions to some of front-end programming’s most perplexing issues. It facilitates the smooth creation of dynamic, and interactive web programs. Moreover, this library has strong community support and the backing of the social networking giant, Facebook.   

Companies like NASA, Tesla, Netflix, Airbnb, New York Times, CNN, Uber, etc., use React.js for mobile, apps, homepages, and other web pages.  

And with Facebook’s full-time React.js team regularly using the library to release bug fixes, add improvements, blog posts, and documentation, this library, we feel, is worth exploring and investing in.

Top Reasons to Use React.js in Web Development

React.js allows developers to easily create fast UIs for websites and web apps alike as well as provides an optimized development interface itself.

It is further a platform that is easy to use, has unambiguous abstractions, and renders DOMs faster than its counterparts. In fact, Statista reports that React is the second most used web framework with 40.6% of software developers voting for it worldwide.   

Most used web frameworks among developers worldwide, as of 2023  

Let’s look at the other benefits of web development in React that make this library so much loved globally.     

1. Easy to Learn

React.js is an easy framework to learn. This is one of the key benefits of React in web development. It helps save a lot of time that goes into training the teams for web development.   

React is an easy library to learn for new entrants as well, it just requires the basic knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. It allows businesses to launch projects smoothly and rapidly as it is simpler to learn and work with. This accelerates the development process and gives timely and optimal results.

2. Reusable Components

Another one of the key reasons for the use of React.js in web development is the reusability of components. This means that an element needs to be defined just once but could be used multiple times. Once created, a developer gets a unique object that can be incorporated into a different project, based on its compatibility with React-based code.   

This accelerates the development process, increasing productivity and achieving scalability. It helps to optimize the resources for each project as well as reduces costs and effort.   

3. Fast Rendering

Structure definition is required while developing a complex, high-load app for smooth performance. In simpler terms, as the DOM is a tree structure, even the slightest change at the ground level can have an impact way up on the UI of the app. This is why virtual DOM was introduced.   

It’s a virtual representation of DOM and allows testing each change to the virtual DOM first to identify the potential risks with every modification. This helps to ensure better app performance and user experience (UX)  

4. Flux and Redux Power

One of the reasons why businesses/developers choose to do web development in React is due to the Flux and Redux capabilities it offers out-of-the-box. Introduced by Facebook, the Flux-based software architecture was the first to enter the market. It improved the basic React components with tendencies of unidirectional data flow, thus offering a more efficient action structure.   

As a result, the integration of created actions is done, and the store is updated by the central dispatcher. The views are also updated in accordance with store changes and all the data is stored. No duplicates are generated, allowing the developers to maintain well-synced model data throughout the app without going deeper into it.  

However, Flux can not be used as a whole library. Thus, here Redux acts as a Flux implementation. It makes underlying data management manipulations easy by offering a single store object to manage all application data.    

5. Highly Flexible

React in web development is a highly flexible option. A developer needs to have knowledge of a single technology that could be used across multiple platforms with ease. Being a natural library, React facilitates the creation of multiple different web design elements and components. In fact, any element in the online process, such as a Grid, Text, Label, or Button, can be used as a React component. 

Moreover, with the support of such an extensive community, React developers could create desktop solutions and mobile apps, manage server rendering, build static websites, and integrate emerging technology concepts into web solutions.   

Read also: Angular vs. React for web development

6. JSX Syntax for Extended HTML

React.js allows developers to use the declarative HTML syntax directly in JavaScript code. For displaying the user interface, browsers decode the HTML codes. This is done through the building of DOM trees, which are then manipulated using JS to develop interactive UI.  

With the help of virtual DOM and JSX, React.js apps are enhanced more effectively. Additionally, more frameworks and libraries could be leveraged using JSX.   

7. SEO Friendly

Search engine optimization or SEO is required for every web or mobile app. It is what helps a brand create its online visibility and enhance engagement. React is an SEO-friendly library.  

It runs over and also returns virtual DOM requests at the time of browsing. This enables the web pages to be lighter for the search engine crawlers to crawl through them and makes the web app/site easier to rank.  

8. Extensive Tool Kit

One of the benefits of using React.js in web development is the great developers toolkit offered by the library. There are a wide variety of tools available such as extensions, frameworks, and libraries for simplifying a developer’s work and creation of a great app.   

Facebook has added both React as well as Chrome development tools into their React JS framework. These tools allow developers to identify child and parent components, and monitor component hierarchies and components’ present state and props.

Also read: React vs. Vue

9. Facebook’s Support/Resources and Community Support

Facebook has a dedicated React development team that leverages the library for the app, and website as well as the subsidiary, Instagram. With more than 50k React components in Facebook’s production environment, the team ensures to maintain blogs that consistently give out information for each release.   

Moreover, whenever breaking change occurs in the library, Facebook provides Codemod, a command-line tool that automates the change to the codebase.   

Furthermore, React.js has a strong community support. It currently has around 213k stars on GitHub and around 38.9k active contributors. There are multiple React tutorials on YouTube as well as informative and explanatory articles on the internet from professionals and experts.   

A basic Google search for “Free React tutorial” shows around 10 million results. Additionally, doubts regarding the library are also solved on Stack Overflow and Quora by professionals.   

Conclusion

React.js is perfect for web development when a business needs to build large-scale, cross-platform, high-performance applications with complex UIs. The library is easy to learn, offers reusable components, renders fast with the help of virtual DOM, and has strong community support for a smoother development process.   

Moreover, it is a flexible library that accelerates the web app development process and allows businesses to create an SEO-friendly website/web app for maximum brand visibility.   

Businesses should definitely explore React for custom web development and leverage its extensive benefits!