React, also known as React.js or ReactJS, is a free and open-source front-end JavaScript library that aims to make building user interfaces based on components more seamless. It is maintained by Meta – formerly known as Facebook – and a community of individual developers and companies.
It might be possible that React has overstayed its welcome. But, that is not the only viewpoint developers have. Let us explore why that is the case.
React can be used to develop single-page, mobile, or server-rendered applications with frameworks like Next.js and Remix. Because React is only concerned with the user interface and rendering components to the DOM, React applications often rely on libraries for routing and other client-side functionality. A key advantage of React is that it only re-renders those parts of the page that have changed, avoiding unnecessary re-rendering of unchanged DOM elements.
React has come a long way since it was first deployed on Facebook’s News Feed in 2011. As of currently, in the year 2025, there seems to be a dissonance forming between users. There are those who are of the view that React has overstayed it’s welcome and is no longer useful. And on the other side there are those of the view that React is just as relevant as it was a decade ago.
React.js has been many developers’ go-to framework for years. Having built countless projects with it. Ranging from tiny prototypes to enterprise-level apps. It’s been a journey filled with learning, late-night debugging, and the satisfaction of shipping great features. Yet there seems to be some underlying problems that have begun dissuading developers from it.
Ecosystem Fatigue
React’s ecosystem is huge. It has been its biggest strength for years. From offering React Router, state management tools like Redux, MobX, Zustand, or Context, and Next.js. for server-side rendering. But over time, this “choose your own adventure” style started to feel more like a maze. Users have complained about spending more time managing dependencies and figuring out how tools fit together than actually solving the problem you set out to tackle. It has proven to be exhausting.
Lost its Simplicity
React had initially started out with a mission to be simplicity. Earlier you could write class components, pass some props, and call it a day. Then React introduced Hooks. Introduced in React 16.8, they provided a simpler and more efficient way to manage component logic. And developers were quite happy with them in the beginning. But Hooks came with their own complexity. Suddenly, every blog post and tutorial became all about managing use Effect dependencies or battling React’s rendering lifecycle. And instead of making things easier by using React Server Components (RSCs), it just added yet another layer to an already complicated stack. At some point, React started feeling less like a library for building user interfaces for users and more like a convoluted framework trying to be everything at once.
Oversaturated Market
Standing out as a React developer has become incredibly hard. It can be contributed to the fact that everyone has caught up to learning React. This makes it difficult to find jobs for developers who know only know React. Meanwhile, newer frameworks are carving out niches where demand outpaces supply. Learning them feels like investing in a smaller, less crowded market where you have a better chance of making yourself known.
Better Alternatives to React
Alternatives to React have become the new shiny thing. The newer frameworks are like a breath of fresh air to some users. These frameworks are seen as simpler, faster, and often more intuitive than React. Even going as far as to say that it feels like coding in React’s early days, but without all the baggage that’s piled up over the years. SolidJS uses the same component-based architecture but with better performance and smaller bundle sizes. Or Qwik, that is rethinking how hydration and rendering work entirely. These frameworks are innovating in ways that make React feel rather old in developers’ eyes.
While all of these opinions remain true, many users would argue that the assertion that React is no longer a useful JavaScript framework is not extensively supported. React remains a highly popular and widely used JavaScript library for building user interfaces. Its core principles, such as component-based architecture and the virtual DOM, continue to provide a robust and efficient foundation for web development. The deprecation of CRA merely reflects the evolution of the React ecosystem, where comprehensive frameworks now offer a more streamlined and performant development experience for production-ready applications.
The demand for React developers remains strong, and the library continues to see active development and improvements, including features like Concurrent Mode and enhanced state management. While alternative frameworks and libraries exist, React’s extensive community, rich ecosystem of tools and libraries, and continuous innovation ensure its continued relevance in the JavaScript landscape.
Reusable Codes in React
React’s component-based architecture inherently promotes code reusability. This is a core principle of React development and a significant advantage of using the framework. React Hooks, introduced with functional components, provide a way to reuse stateful logic without creating class components. This enhances reusability by allowing common behaviours to be extracted and applied to multiple components. The concept of reusable components extends to creating component libraries or design systems. These collections of pre-built, reusable components ensure consistency in UI and functionality across large applications or multiple projects within an organization. These components allow developers to write less code, improve maintainability, and accelerate development time in React applications.
React Offers a Variety of Features
React, as a JavaScript library for building user interfaces, offers several advantages over using plain JavaScript or other JavaScript frameworks.
- Virtual DOM for Efficient Updates: React utilizes a Virtual DOM, a lightweight copy of the actual DOM. When state changes, React first updates the Virtual DOM, then efficiently calculates the minimal changes needed in the real DOM and applies only those specific updates. This significantly improves performance, especially in complex applications, by minimizing direct DOM manipulations.
- Component-Based Architecture: React encourages building UIs from isolated, reusable components. This modular approach promotes code reusability, simplifies development, and makes it easier to manage and maintain complex user interfaces.
- Declarative Syntax with JSX: React uses JSX, a syntax extension that allows writing UI components in a declarative and more readable manner directly within JavaScript code. This combines the power of JavaScript with the familiarity of HTML-like syntax.
- Unidirectional Data Flow: React enforces a unidirectional data flow, also known as one-way data binding. This makes it easier to understand how data changes propagate through the application, leading to more predictable and manageable application states.
- Strong Community and Ecosystem: React boasts a large and active community, providing extensive resources, libraries, tools, and support. This vibrant ecosystem contributes to faster development cycles, easier troubleshooting, and access to a wealth of pre-built solutions.
- SEO Friendliness: React supports server-side rendering (SSR), which allows rendering React components on the server and sending fully rendered HTML to the client. This improves initial page load times and enhances SEO performance, as search engine crawlers can easily index the content.
- Ease of Learning: While it has a learning curve, many developers find React relatively easier to learn compared to some other comprehensive frameworks, especially for those already familiar with JavaScript fundamentals.
Smooth Transitioning Abilities
Users have attested that they can shift from React to React Native easily. React Native isn’t a completely separate ecosystem. It borrows heavily from React’s core principles like component-based structure, reusable logic, and declarative UI, but adapts them for mobile platforms. For teams already working with React, moving to React Native usually feels like a small step, not a big change.
Small Learning Curve
React is largely considered easier to learn for those with some existing knowledge of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. While it has its own concepts like JSX, components, and state management, these become easier to grasp with repetition and familiarity over time. React’s unidirectional data flow and component-based structure also contributes to easier debugging.
Large Community
Even though some users see it as an old JS framework and find the market oversaturated due to it, that is not the general consensus. React is still a very reliable and easy to operate framework. Developers find it simpler than other frameworks because of its readable code, syntax, it is rich in Java Script libraries, and allows documentation with code as well. And there are plenty of developer jobs that rely purely on whether one has experience with React.
In conclusion, React is still an incredible tool for many developers and projects. If a developer is working on a large app with an established React codebase, there’s no reason to rip it out. If a developer is on the in their formative period and just starting their journey in web development, React can teach you a lot about modern front-end practices.
React is still a very useful JS framework. Yet its usability is always a factor that depends on its developers. For there will always be something new and flashier that would pride itself as a better component. And time claims many victims. But React has established itself as a firm base for many to stand on. Thus, its relevancy and usefulness as a JS Framework is going nowhere.
