Building a React App from Scratch Using Webpack and Babel

S SELVA GANESH — Tue, 30 Jun 2026 19:52:22 +0000

When learning React, most tutorials start with Vite or Create React App. While these tools make development fast, they also hide the build process. This time, I wanted to understand what actually happens behind the scenes, so I built a React application from scratch using Webpack and Babel.

Why Build It Manually?
site Link : https://react-component-communication-git-main-selvas-projects-3f2231e8.vercel.app/
Github Link : https://github.com/selva2006-GM/react-component-communication
Portfolio : https://selvacodes.online/

Instead of relying on pre-configured tools, I wanted to learn how React applications are bundled, how JSX is converted into JavaScript, and how the browser finally renders everything.

What I Learned

During this project, I explored:

Setting up a React project without Vite or CRA.
Configuring Webpack from scratch.
Using Babel to transpile modern JavaScript and JSX.
Loading CSS using style-loader and css-loader.
Creating production builds with Webpack.
Managing state with useState.
Passing data between components using props.
Communication between parent and child components.
Deploying the application to Vercel.
Debugging build and deployment issues.
Challenges I Faced

Like every project, this one came with a few challenges.

I encountered problems related to CSS loaders, incorrect Webpack configuration, Babel version compatibility, Vercel deployment, and React-specific issues like using class instead of className. Solving each of these helped me understand not only what to do, but why it works.

Key Takeaways

The biggest lesson was realizing that React is only one part of the development process. Tools like Webpack and Babel play a huge role in transforming source code into something browsers can execute efficiently.

Understanding these tools gives me much more confidence when debugging errors or configuring projects from scratch.

What's Next?

I'll continue exploring React by building more projects while diving deeper into routing, state management, APIs, and performance optimization.

Thanks for reading! If you're learning React, I highly recommend building at least one project without a starter template—it gives you a much better understanding of how everything works under the hood.

react #javascript #webpack #babel #webdevelopment

DEV Community: S SELVA GANESH

Building a React App from Scratch Using Webpack and Babel

react #javascript #webpack #babel #webdevelopment