A Brief History
2011 — Designed and createcd in Facebook for internal use.
2012 — Instagram Started using it.
2013 — Open-sourced.
2015 — Open-sourced React Native for building native iOS and Android apps.
React is a library, not a framework
Its library approach has allowed React to evolve into such a great tool.
The main advantage is that Libraries are lightweight, and there is a freedom to choose different tools.
The Framework creates an entire ecosystem to build an app, and you don't have an easy way to use tools outside of it.
It is Flexible
Once you've learned React, you can use it for a vast variety of projects.
- Generate a static site using Gatsby;
- Add server rendering with Next.js;
- Build mobile apps with React Native;
- Create a virtual reality website for 360 experiences using React VR.
Great Dev Experience
Rapid development and small API combined create a fantastic developer experience. The API has very few concepts and is very simple to learn.
You just need to import the React library and create a component that accepts props and returns JSX, which converts API calls and renders HTML.
Supported by Meta
React is heavily used in Meta's apps like Facebook and Instagram. That's why Meta is deeply committed to it.
The top four React contributors on GitHub are full-time Meta employees.
The React team maintains a blog that gives you details for each release.
Broad Community Support
Since 2015, React's popularity has grown steadily. It has a massive active community and its GitHub Repository has over 183k Stars.
It is one of the Top 5 Repositories on GitHub.
Have you used the React library to build something?
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