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  5. React Starter Kit vs React.js Boilerplate

React Starter Kit vs React.js Boilerplate

OverviewComparisonAlternatives

Overview

React Starter Kit
React Starter Kit
Stacks75
Followers90
Votes8
GitHub Stars23.3K
Forks4.2K
React.js Boilerplate
React.js Boilerplate
Stacks403
Followers464
Votes18

React Starter Kit vs React.js Boilerplate: What are the differences?

Introduction

In the React ecosystem, React Starter Kit and React.js Boilerplate are popular choices for kickstarting projects. Understanding the key differences between the two can help developers make an informed decision on which to use for their projects.

  1. Project Structure: React Starter Kit has a more opinionated project structure, providing a set layout for organizing files and components, whereas React.js Boilerplate offers more flexibility in how developers structure their projects, allowing for greater customization.

  2. Dependencies: React Starter Kit comes with a predefined set of dependencies and tools, making it easier for beginners to get started without the need to configure additional packages. On the other hand, React.js Boilerplate allows developers to choose their preferred dependencies and tools based on project requirements.

  3. Server-side Rendering: React.js Boilerplate focuses more on server-side rendering capabilities, making it a better choice for projects that require SSR out of the box. React Starter Kit, while it does support SSR, may not be as optimized for this purpose as React.js Boilerplate.

  4. Community Support: React.js Boilerplate has a larger community following and ongoing support, with regular updates and bug fixes. React Starter Kit, on the other hand, may have a smaller community and fewer contributors, potentially resulting in slower updates and fewer resources.

  5. Configuration Management: React.js Boilerplate provides more advanced configuration options, making it suitable for complex projects that require extensive customization and fine-tuning. React Starter Kit, being more opinionated, may not offer as many configuration options, which could be limiting for certain projects.

  6. Ease of Use for Beginners: React Starter Kit is designed to be more beginner-friendly, with simpler setup and a more guided approach to starting a project. In contrast, React.js Boilerplate may have a steeper learning curve for beginners due to its flexibility and advanced features.

In Summary, understanding the differences between React Starter Kit and React.js Boilerplate can help developers choose the right tool based on project requirements, preferred project structure, flexibility, and community support.

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Detailed Comparison

React Starter Kit
React Starter Kit
React.js Boilerplate
React.js Boilerplate

React Starter Kit is an opinionated boilerplate for web development built on top of Facebook's React library, Node.js / Express server and Flux architecture. Containing modern web development tools such as Webpack, Babel and BrowserSync.

Quick setup for new performance orientated, offline–first React.js applications featuring Redux, hot–reloading, PostCSS, react-router, ServiceWorker, AppCache, FontFaceObserver and Mocha.

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Using react-transform-hmr, your changes in the CSS and JS get reflected in the app instantly without refreshing the page. That means that the current application state persists even when you change something in the underlying code! For a very good explanation and demo, watch Dan Abramov himself talking about it at react-europe.;Redux is a much better implementation of a flux–like, unidirectional data flow. Redux makes actions composable, reduces the boilerplate code and makes hot–reloading possible in the first place. For a good overview of redux, check out the talk linked above or the official documentation!;Babel is a modular JavaScript transpiler that helps to use next generation JavaScript and more, like transformation for JSX, hot loading, error catching etc. Babel has a solid ecosystem of offical preset and plugins.;PostCSS is like Sass, but modular and capable of much more. PostCSS is, in essence, just a wrapper for plugins which exposes an easy to use, but very powerful API. While it is possible to replicate Sass features with PostCSS, PostCSS has an ecosystem of amazing plugins with functionalities Sass cannot even dream about having. See this talk for a short introduction to PostCSS.;Unit tests should be an important part of every web application developers toolchain. Mocha checks your application is working exactly how it should without you lifting a single finger. Congratulations, you just won a First Class ticket to world domination, fasten your seat belt please!;react-router is used for routing in this boilerplate. Using the new, and currently unreleased, 1.0 version, react-router makes routing really easy to do and takes care of a lot of the work. Since the version is not officially out yet, the documentation is not fully finished, but by far finished enough to work for most needs.;ServiceWorker and AppCache make it possible to use your application offline. As soon as the website has been opened once, it is cached and available without a network connection. See this talk for an explanation of the ServiceWorker used in this boilerplate. manifest.json is specifically for Chrome on Android. Users can add the website to the homescreen and use it like a native app!
Statistics
GitHub Stars
23.3K
GitHub Stars
-
GitHub Forks
4.2K
GitHub Forks
-
Stacks
75
Stacks
403
Followers
90
Followers
464
Votes
8
Votes
18
Pros & Cons
Pros
  • 2
    BrowserSync and React Hot Loader integration
  • 2
    Great project structure for React.js applications
  • 2
    Server-side rendering
  • 2
    Universal (isomorphic) web app boilerplate
Pros
  • 4
    Nice tooling
  • 4
    Amazing developer experience
  • 3
    Easy setup
  • 3
    Easy offline first applications
  • 3
    Great documentation
Integrations
React
React
React
React
Mocha
Mocha
React Router
React Router
Redux
Redux
PostCSS
PostCSS

What are some alternatives to React Starter Kit, React.js Boilerplate?

jQuery

jQuery

jQuery is a cross-platform JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML.

AngularJS

AngularJS

AngularJS lets you write client-side web applications as if you had a smarter browser. It lets you use good old HTML (or HAML, Jade and friends!) as your template language and lets you extend HTML’s syntax to express your application’s components clearly and succinctly. It automatically synchronizes data from your UI (view) with your JavaScript objects (model) through 2-way data binding.

React

React

Lots of people use React as the V in MVC. Since React makes no assumptions about the rest of your technology stack, it's easy to try it out on a small feature in an existing project.

Vue.js

Vue.js

It is a library for building interactive web interfaces. It provides data-reactive components with a simple and flexible API.

jQuery UI

jQuery UI

Whether you're building highly interactive web applications or you just need to add a date picker to a form control, jQuery UI is the perfect choice.

Svelte

Svelte

If you've ever built a JavaScript application, the chances are you've encountered – or at least heard of – frameworks like React, Angular, Vue and Ractive. Like Svelte, these tools all share a goal of making it easy to build slick interactive user interfaces. Rather than interpreting your application code at run time, your app is converted into ideal JavaScript at build time. That means you don't pay the performance cost of the framework's abstractions, or incur a penalty when your app first loads.

Ant Design

Ant Design

An enterprise-class UI design language and React-based implementation. Graceful UI components out of the box, base on React Component. A npm + webpack + babel + dora + dva development framework.

Flux

Flux

Flux is the application architecture that Facebook uses for building client-side web applications. It complements React's composable view components by utilizing a unidirectional data flow. It's more of a pattern rather than a formal framework, and you can start using Flux immediately without a lot of new code.

Famo.us

Famo.us

Famo.us is a free and open source JavaScript platform for building mobile apps and desktop experiences. What makes Famo.us unique is its JavaScript rendering engine and 3D physics engine that gives developers the power and tools to build native quality apps and animations using pure JavaScript.

Riot

Riot

Riot brings custom tags to all browsers. Think React + Polymer but with enjoyable syntax and a small learning curve.

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