What is React and what are its top alternatives?
Top Alternatives to React
- Angular 2
It is a TypeScript-based open-source web application framework. It is a development platform for building mobile and desktop web applications. ...
- Vue.js
It is a library for building interactive web interfaces. It provides data-reactive components with a simple and flexible API. ...
- Ember.js
A JavaScript framework that does all of the heavy lifting that you'd normally have to do by hand. There are tasks that are common to every web app; It does those things for you, so you can focus on building killer features and UI. ...
- NativeScript
NativeScript enables developers to build native apps for iOS, Android and Windows Universal while sharing the application code across the platforms. When building the application UI, developers use our libraries, which abstract the differences between the native platforms. ...
- jQuery
jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. ...
- Xamarin
Xamarin鈥檚 Mono-based products enable .NET developers to use their existing code, libraries and tools (including Visual Studio*), as well as skills in .NET and the C# programming language, to create mobile applications for the industry鈥檚 most widely-used mobile devices, including Android-based smartphones and tablets, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. ...
- Preact
Preact is an attempt to recreate the core value proposition of React (or similar libraries like Mithril) using as little code as possible, with first-class support for ES2015. Currently the library is around 3kb (minified & gzipped). ...
- Bootstrap
Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS, and JS framework for developing responsive, mobile first projects on the web. ...
React alternatives & related posts
- It's a powerful framework100
- Straight-forward architecture49
- TypeScript42
- Great UI and Business Logic separation41
- Powerful, maintainable, fast39
- Amazing CLI37
- Great mvc31
- Powerfull Dependency Injection24
- Easy to build18
- Opinionated, batteries-included approach14
- All in one Framework12
- Schematics9
- Solid Standard Setup.8
- Performance7
- Structured7
- Complex4
- Only for single page applications4
- Builders3
- Ng upgrade2
- RxJS2
- React0
- Overcomplicated9
- Large overhead in file size and initialization time9
- Ugly code2
- Cringe2
- CLI not open to other test and linting tools2
related Angular 2 posts
When Redash was created 5 years ago we chose AngularJS as our frontend framework, but as AngularJS was replaced by Angular 2 we had to make a new choice. We decided that we won't migrate to Angular, but to either React or Vue.js. Eventually we decided to migrate to React for the following reasons:
- Many in our community are already using React internally and will be able to contribute.
- Using react2angular we can do the migration gradually over time instead of having to invest in a big rewrite while halting feature development.
So far the gradual strategy pays off and in the last 3 major releases we already shipped React code in the Angular.js application.
From my experience of the early startup world, a majority of companies these days use Node.js. Python and Go are the next biggest languages, but significantly smaller than Node.
However, if you're having trouble with the front end aspect of Django, using Node probably won't make that easier for you. You'll have a lot more options between front end frameworks (React, Vue.js, Angular 2) , but they'll definitely take more time to learn than Django's templating system.
Think about whether you want to focus on front end or back end for now, and make a decision from there.
- Simple and easy to start with286
- Good documentation222
- Components189
- Simple the best125
- Simplified AngularJS95
- Reactive86
- Intuitive APIs71
- Javascript51
- Changed my front end coding life47
- Configuration is smooth44
- Easy to learn33
- So much fun to use31
- Progressive22
- Virtual dom18
- Faster than bulldogs on hot tarmac14
- It's magic9
- Component is template, javascript and style in one9
- Best of Both Worlds8
- Without misleading licenses7
- Perfomance7
- Application structure7
- Elegant design7
- Light Weight6
- Intuitive and easy to use6
- Easy to integrate to HTML by inline-templates4
- Good command line interface4
- Logicless templates4
- Like Angular only quicker to get started with3
- Small learning curve3
- Single file components3
- Customer Render ending eg to HTML3
- Intuitive2
- Lots of documentation2
- Component based2
- Vuex2
- Bridge from Web Development to JS Development2
- Concise error messages2
- Supports several template languages2
- High performance2
- One-way data flow2
- GUI1
- React0
- Less Common Place7
- YXMLvsHTML Markup3
- Don't support fragments1
- Only support programatically multiple root nodes1
related Vue.js posts
I've used both Vue.js and React and I would stick with React. I know that Vue.js seems easier to write and its much faster to pick up however as you mentioned above React has way more ready made components you can just plugin, and the community for React is very big.
It might be a bit more of a steep learning curve for your friend to learn React over Vue.js but I think in the long run its the better option.
I find using Vue.js to be easier (more concise / less boilerplate) and more intuitive than writing React. However, there are a lot more readily available React components that I can just plug into my projects. I'm debating whether to use Vue.js or React for an upcoming project that I'm going to use to help teach a friend how to build an interactive frontend. Which would you recommend I use?
- Elegant124
- Quick to develop96
- Great community82
- Great mvc81
- Great router72
- Values conventions, there is one-true way to organize51
- Open source49
- Components44
- Mvc framework34
- Handlebars.js28
- Htmlbars13
- Yehuda katz11
- Tom dale10
- Great logo10
- Glimmer: react-like rendering engine5
- manages large data sets on the front end easily5
- Convention over Configuration5
- It's NOT Google or Facebook5
- Intelligent4
- It rocks4
- Organized4
- Enterprise4
- Fast4
- IE8 support3
- Good docs3
- Fastest spinning circles3
- Easy and Quick to develop2
- Documentation is finally active and updated2
- Great for big apps/many devs because its organized1
- Growing community1
- For building ambitious Web apps1
- Dependency Injection1
- Comprehensive1
- Flexibility1
- Business wins1
- Very little flexibility2
- Too much convention, too little configuration2
- Hard to integrate with Non Ruby apps1
- Hard to use if your API isn't RESTful1
related Ember.js posts
Simple controls over complex technologies, as we put it, wouldn't be possible without neat UIs for our user areas including start page, dashboard, settings, and docs.
Initially, there was Django. Back in 2011, considering our Python-centric approach, that was the best choice. Later, we realized we needed to iterate on our website more quickly. And this led us to detaching Django from our front end. That was when we decided to build an SPA.
For building user interfaces, we're currently using React as it provided the fastest rendering back when we were building our toolkit. It鈥檚 worth mentioning Uploadcare is not a front-end-focused SPA: we aren鈥檛 running at high levels of complexity. If it were, we鈥檇 go with Ember.js.
However, there's a chance we will shift to the faster Preact, with its motto of using as little code as possible, and because it makes more use of browser APIs. One of our future tasks for our front end is to configure our Webpack bundler to split up the code for different site sections. For styles, we use PostCSS along with its plugins such as cssnano which minifies all the code.
All that allows us to provide a great user experience and quickly implement changes where they are needed with as little code as possible.
Choosing a framework be it angular, react, ember or vue is personal preference. I would say start with each and build something that utilise state management (todo list perhaps?) and see which style you are comfortable with.
If you wants to get employed, React is a wiser choice. It also helps you build native mobile apps with react-native . If you are building enterprise app with alot of client-side data, nothing beats Ember.js ember-data.
If you are like me who is prototyping light-weight startup and would like to move fast and missing your first front-end learning (angular 1), go with Vue.js . NativeScript-Vue is the binding to build mobile native apps with it.
- Access to the entire native api75
- Support for native ios and android libraries47
- Support for javascript libraries46
- Angular 2.0 support46
- Native ux and performance44
- Typescript support37
- Backed up by google and telerik35
- Css support29
- Cross-platform declarative ui and code27
- Fully open source under apache 2.0 license25
- Vuejs support11
- 60fps performance9
- Powerful data visualization with native UI6
- VS Code integration5
- No need for Mac to build iOS apps in Telerik Platform5
- Angular, typescript and javascript support5
- Extended CLI support4
- Cloud builds as part of Telerik PLatform4
- Truly Object-Oriented with Typescript4
- On-device debugging4
- Extensibility4
- Access to entire native api3
- 0 day support for new OS updates3
- Easiest of all other frameworks3
- Easy to learn3
- Backed by google3
- Live reload3
- Publishing modules to NPM3
- Vue.js support out of the box2
- VueJS support2
- Svelte support2
- Powerfull mobile services as part of Telerik Platform2
- Native ui with angular2
- Vue support2
- Playground1
- Hot Reload1
- HMR via webpack1
- Very small app size1
- Write once, use anywhere1
- Easy to use, support for almost all npm packages1
- Rich ecosystem1
- Compile to Apple/Google Stores via CloudCompiler1
- Has CSS ;-)1
- It works with Angular1
- Code reuse with your website1
- Dart0
- Lack of promotion5
- Slower Performance compared to competitors1
related NativeScript posts
So, i am preparing to adopt NativeScript.
For years my hybrid projects used Apache Cordova.
"Let's avoid to maintain two teams and double the deliver velocity".
It was good for a few years, we had those september issues, (i.e. apple broke some backward compatibility) , but for the last years, things seems to be losing the grip faster.
Last breaking changes, for instance, seems to have a workaround, however that growing feeling that simple things can not rely on so fragile webviews keeps growing faster and faster.
I've tested nativescript not only on it's "helloworld", but also on how do they respond on issues.
I got tweed support. I opened an github issue and got answers on less than 10 hours (yes i did it on another timezone and very close to a weekend). I saw the faulty docs get corrected in two days.
The bad news is i only can adopt nativescript on newer projects, since there is no budget to revamp the current solutions.
The good news is i can keep coding on Vue.js , without vou router, but that's ok. I've already exchanged vanilla html for real native app with background magic enabled, the router can be easily reproduced.
- Cross-browser1.3K
- Dom manipulation957
- Power806
- Open source660
- Plugins610
- Easy458
- Popular395
- Feature-rich350
- Html5281
- Light weight227
- Simple92
- Great community84
- CSS3 Compliant79
- Mobile friendly69
- Fast67
- Intuitive43
- Swiss Army knife for webdev42
- Huge Community35
- Easy to learn11
- Clean code4
- Because of Ajax request :)3
- Used everywhere2
- Just awesome2
- Powerful2
- Nice2
- Widely Used1
- Improves productivity1
- Open Source, Simple, Easy Setup1
- It Just Works1
- Industry acceptance1
- Allows great manipulation of HTML and CSS1
- Javascript1
- Easy Setup1
- Sometimes inconsistent API5
- Large size5
- Encourages DOM as primary data source5
- Live events is overly complex feature2
related jQuery posts
The client-side stack of Shopify Admin has been a long journey. It started with HTML templates, jQuery and Prototype. We moved to Batman.js, our in-house Single-Page-Application framework (SPA), in 2013. Then, we re-evaluated our approach and moved back to statically rendered HTML and vanilla JavaScript. As the front-end ecosystem matured, we felt that it was time to rethink our approach again. Last year, we started working on moving Shopify Admin to React and TypeScript.
Many things have changed since the days of jQuery and Batman. JavaScript execution is much faster. We can easily render our apps on the server to do less work on the client, and the resources and tooling for developers are substantially better with React than we ever had with Batman.
#FrameworksFullStack #Languages

























I'm planning to create a web application and also a mobile application to provide a very good shopping experience to the end customers. Shortly, my application will be aggregate the product details from difference sources and giving a clear picture to the user that when and where to buy that product with best in Quality and cost.
I have planned to develop this in many milestones for adding N number of features and I have picked my first part to complete the core part (aggregate the product details from different sources).
As per my work experience and knowledge, I have chosen the followings stacks to this mission.
UI: I would like to develop this application using React, React Router and React Native since I'm a little bit familiar on this and also most importantly these will help on developing both web and mobile apps. In addition, I'm gonna use the stacks JavaScript, jQuery, jQuery UI, jQuery Mobile, Bootstrap wherever required.
Service: I have planned to use Java as the main business layer language as I have 7+ years of experience on this I believe I can do better work using Java than other languages. In addition, I'm thinking to use the stacks Node.js.
Database and ORM: I'm gonna pick MySQL as DB and Hibernate as ORM since I have a piece of good knowledge and also work experience on this combination.
Search Engine: I need to deal with a large amount of product data and it's in-detailed info to provide enough details to end user at the same time I need to focus on the performance area too. so I have decided to use Solr as a search engine for product search and suggestions. In addition, I'm thinking to replace Solr by Elasticsearch once explored/reviewed enough about Elasticsearch.
Host: As of now, my plan to complete the application with decent features first and deploy it in a free hosting environment like Docker and Heroku and then once it is stable then I have planned to use the AWS products Amazon S3, EC2, Amazon RDS and Amazon Route 53. I'm not sure about Microsoft Azure that what is the specialty in it than Heroku and Amazon EC2 Container Service. Anyhow, I will do explore these once again and pick the best suite one for my requirement once I reached this level.
Build and Repositories: I have decided to choose Apache Maven and Git as these are my favorites and also so popular on respectively build and repositories.
Additional Utilities :) - I would like to choose Codacy for code review as their Startup plan will be very helpful to this application. I'm already experienced with Google CheckStyle and SonarQube even I'm looking something on Codacy.
Happy Coding! Suggestions are welcome! :)
Thanks, Ganesa
- Power of c# on mobile devices120
- Native performance80
- Native apps with native ui controls77
- No javascript - truely compiled code71
- Sharing more than 90% of code over all platforms67
- Ability to leverage visual studio45
- Many great c# libraries44
- Mvvm pattern43
- Amazing support36
- Powerful platform for .net developers34
- GUI Native look and Feel19
- Nuget package manager15
- Free11
- Backed by Microsoft9
- Enables code reuse on server9
- Faster Development8
- Easy Debug and Trace7
- Use of third-party .NET libraries7
- It's free since Apr 20167
- Best performance than other cross-platform7
- Open Source7
- Mac IDE (Xamarin Studio)6
- Xamarin.forms is the best, it's amazing6
- Power of C#, no javascript, visual studio5
- C# mult paradigm language5
- Compatible to develop Hybrid apps4
- Microsoft backed4
- Microsoft stack4
- Great docs4
- That just work for every scenario4
- Well Designed3
- Small learning curve for Mobile developers3
- Ability to leverage legacy C and C++2
- Ionic2
- Build times9
- Visual Studio5
- Complexity3
- Scalability3
- Price3
- Nuget2
- Maturity2
- Build Tools2
- Support2
- Maturidade0
- Performance0
related Xamarin posts
Finding the most effective dev stack for a solo developer. Over the past year, I've been looking at many tech stacks that would be 'best' for me, as a solo, indie, developer to deliver a desktop app (Windows & Mac) plus mobile - iOS mainly. Initially, Xamarin started to stand-out. Using .NET Core as the run-time, Xamarin as the native API provider and Xamarin Forms for the UI seemed to solve all issues. But, the cracks soon started to appear. Xamarin Forms is mobile only; the Windows incarnation is different. There is no Mac UI solution (you have to code it natively in Mac OS Storyboard. I was also worried how Xamarin Forms , if I was to use it, was going to cope, in future, with Apple's new SwiftUI and Google's new Fuchsia.
This plethora of techs for the UI-layer made me reach for the safer waters of using Web-techs for the UI. Lovely! Consistency everywhere (well, mostly). But that consistency evaporates when platform issues are addressed. There are so many web frameworks!
But, I made a simple decision. It's just me...I am clever, but there is no army of coders here. And I have big plans for a business app. How could just 1 developer go-on to deploy a decent app to Windows, iPhone, iPad & Mac OS? I remembered earlier days when I've used Microsoft's ASP.NET to scaffold - generate - loads of Code for a web-app that I needed for several charities that I worked with. What 'generators' exist that do a lot of the platform-specific rubbish, allow the necessary customisation of such platform integration and provide a decent UI?
I've placed my colours to the Quasar Framework mast. Oh dear, that means Electron desktop apps doesn't it? Well, Ive had enough of loads of Developers saying that "the menus won't look native" or "it uses too much RAM" and so on. I've been using non-native UI-wrapped apps for ages - the date picker in Outlook on iOS is way better than the native date-picker and I'd been using it for years without getting hot under the collar about it. Developers do get so hung-up on things that busy Users hardly notice; don't you think?. As to the RAM usage issue; that's a bit true. But Users only really notice when an app uses so much RAM that the machine starts to page-out. Electron contributes towards that horizon but does not cause it. My Users will be business-users after all. Somewhat decent machines.
Looking forward to all that lovely Vue.js around my TypeScript and all those really, really, b e a u t I f u l UI controls of Quasar Framework . Still not sure that 1 dev can deliver all that... but I'm up for trying...












We are developing an AWS IoT app for large boats. The IoT devices have sensors all over the boat for engine oil pressure, position, water depth, fuel level, crew location, etc. When the boat has internet, we interact with AWS cloud using lambda and Amazon DynamoDB. When the boat is offshore, the captain and crew still need normal and emergency alerts and real-time sensor information. The crew might have an Android or IoS phone or a Windows or macOS PC to receive alerts and interact with sensors. We may use the AWS GreenGrasss edge computing solution and either MQTT or HTML for that function.
Question: We want to develop a cross-platform client to run on Windows, Mac, Android, IOS, and possibly Linux. We are primarily Python programmers, so PyQt or Kivy are options for us, but we have heard good things about React Native, Flutter, Xamarin, and others. We think an AWS Greengrass core on an RPI4 could communicate to the client with MQTT or a local webserver with a client web interface.
Any thoughts would be much appreciated.
- Lightweight13
- Drop-in replacement for React4
- Props/state passed to render3
- Performance3
- ES6 class components1
related Preact posts
Simple controls over complex technologies, as we put it, wouldn't be possible without neat UIs for our user areas including start page, dashboard, settings, and docs.
Initially, there was Django. Back in 2011, considering our Python-centric approach, that was the best choice. Later, we realized we needed to iterate on our website more quickly. And this led us to detaching Django from our front end. That was when we decided to build an SPA.
For building user interfaces, we're currently using React as it provided the fastest rendering back when we were building our toolkit. It鈥檚 worth mentioning Uploadcare is not a front-end-focused SPA: we aren鈥檛 running at high levels of complexity. If it were, we鈥檇 go with Ember.js.
However, there's a chance we will shift to the faster Preact, with its motto of using as little code as possible, and because it makes more use of browser APIs. One of our future tasks for our front end is to configure our Webpack bundler to split up the code for different site sections. For styles, we use PostCSS along with its plugins such as cssnano which minifies all the code.
All that allows us to provide a great user experience and quickly implement changes where they are needed with as little code as possible.
The first and most important premise is that should be fast.. really fast. This premise was basically because this is an PWA project, and the main goal of this project are be more efficient on restaurant.
So I ended up choosing Preact instead React .
This made the app (PWA) more faster, not only when navigating but improve TTI and data usage.
Bootstrap
- Responsiveness1.6K
- UI components1.2K
- Consistent943
- Great docs779
- Flexible678
- HTML, CSS, and JS framework467
- Open source410
- Widely used374
- Customizable367
- HTML framework242
- Easy setup77
- Mobile first77
- Popular77
- Great grid system58
- Great community51
- Future compatibility38
- Integration34
- Very powerful foundational front-end framework28
- Standard24
- Javascript plugins23
- Build faster prototypes19
- Preprocessors18
- Grids14
- Clean8
- Good for a person who hates CSS7
- Easy to setup and learn4
- Rapid development4
- Love it4
- Great and easy to use3
- Powerful grid system, Rapid development, Customization2
- Great customer support2
- Popularity2
- Easy to use2
- Provide angular wrapper2
- Community2
- Clean and quick frontend development2
- Great and easy2
- Sprzedam opla2
- Great and easy to make a responsive website2
- Love the classes?1
- Felxible, comfortable, user-friendly1
- The fame1
- Easy setup21
- Painless front end development1
- So clean and simple1
- Reactjs1
- It's fast1
- Geo1
- Boostrap1
- Pre-Defined components1
- Not tied to jQuery1
- Numerous components1
- Responsive design1
- Material-ui1
- Design Agnostic1
- Recognizable1
- Intuitive1
- Frefsd0
- Javascript is tied to jquery25
- Every site uses the defaults16
- Grid system break points aren't ideal15
- Too much heavy decoration in default look14
- Verbose styles8
- Super heavy1
related Bootstrap posts

























I'm planning to create a web application and also a mobile application to provide a very good shopping experience to the end customers. Shortly, my application will be aggregate the product details from difference sources and giving a clear picture to the user that when and where to buy that product with best in Quality and cost.
I have planned to develop this in many milestones for adding N number of features and I have picked my first part to complete the core part (aggregate the product details from different sources).
As per my work experience and knowledge, I have chosen the followings stacks to this mission.
UI: I would like to develop this application using React, React Router and React Native since I'm a little bit familiar on this and also most importantly these will help on developing both web and mobile apps. In addition, I'm gonna use the stacks JavaScript, jQuery, jQuery UI, jQuery Mobile, Bootstrap wherever required.
Service: I have planned to use Java as the main business layer language as I have 7+ years of experience on this I believe I can do better work using Java than other languages. In addition, I'm thinking to use the stacks Node.js.
Database and ORM: I'm gonna pick MySQL as DB and Hibernate as ORM since I have a piece of good knowledge and also work experience on this combination.
Search Engine: I need to deal with a large amount of product data and it's in-detailed info to provide enough details to end user at the same time I need to focus on the performance area too. so I have decided to use Solr as a search engine for product search and suggestions. In addition, I'm thinking to replace Solr by Elasticsearch once explored/reviewed enough about Elasticsearch.
Host: As of now, my plan to complete the application with decent features first and deploy it in a free hosting environment like Docker and Heroku and then once it is stable then I have planned to use the AWS products Amazon S3, EC2, Amazon RDS and Amazon Route 53. I'm not sure about Microsoft Azure that what is the specialty in it than Heroku and Amazon EC2 Container Service. Anyhow, I will do explore these once again and pick the best suite one for my requirement once I reached this level.
Build and Repositories: I have decided to choose Apache Maven and Git as these are my favorites and also so popular on respectively build and repositories.
Additional Utilities :) - I would like to choose Codacy for code review as their Startup plan will be very helpful to this application. I'm already experienced with Google CheckStyle and SonarQube even I'm looking something on Codacy.
Happy Coding! Suggestions are welcome! :)
Thanks, Ganesa
For Etom, a side project. We wanted to test an idea for a future and bigger project.
What Etom does is searching places. Right now, it leverages the Google Maps API. For that, we found a React component that makes this integration easy because using Google Maps API is not possible via normal API requests.
You kind of need a map to work as a proxy between the software and Google Maps API.
We hate configuration(coming from Rails world) so also decided to use Create React App because setting up a React app, with all the toys, it's a hard job.
Thanks to all the people behind Create React App it's easier to start any React application.
We also chose a module called Reactstrap which is Bootstrap UI in React components.
An important thing in this side project(and in the bigger project plan) is to measure visitor through out the app. For that we researched and found that Keen was a good choice(very good free tier limits) and also it is very simple to setup and real simple to send data to
Slack and Trello are our defaults tools to comunicate ideas and discuss topics, so, no brainer using them as well for this project.