Why is React so popular?
The History of ReactJS.
Since its conception in 2011, React has taken the front-end development world by storm. It was really a revolution in the space. Throughout these 10 years, a lot has changed about React, causing it to grow exponentially. But what caused it to grow that fast? That’s why it’s important to study React’s history, to see what it did well and what it did wrong.
What exactly is React?
According to Wikipedia, React (also known as React.js or ReactJS) is an open-source, front end, JavaScript library for building user interfaces or UI components. It is maintained by Facebook and a community of individual developers and companies. React can be used as a base in the development of single-page or mobile applications. However, React is only concerned with state management and rendering that state to the DOM, so creating React applications usually requires the use of additional libraries for routing.
In other words, it’s a simpler way for building web and mobile apps than vanilla front-end development.
What other options are there?
There are a couple of frameworks developed by other companies and individuals that serve the same purpose. First of all, there is Angular, which has been developed and is maintained by Google, and there is Vue which was created by Evan You and is currently open-source. React on the other hand was brought to life by Facebook who still maintains it.
Why was React developed in the first place?
Back in 2011, Facebook started adding an ever-increasing number of features in their app. This meant that the code structure was becoming much more complex until it turned out difficult to work with. Their original solution was to hire more engineers, and that’s what they did. For a while, it worked, until they had to hire more. That was the point where they realized that a more permanent solution had to be found. React was born.
The Early Stages.
In 2013, the source code of React got released to the public. At first, the audience was skeptical, and most thought that React was actually a huge step backward. This happened as mostly ‘early adopters’ were trying the React framework, while Facebook was targetting ‘innovators’. Fortunately, Facebook realized the mistake in time and decided to start a ‘React tour’ later on to turn haters into advocates. That year, React was also available on JSFiddle, Ruby on Rails, and Python.
The Expansion.
React had gradually gained its reputation and started to go through to the ‘early majority’ of its potential users. At this point, they needed a new message instead of solely relying on its technical benefits, and it is: how is React stable? By focusing on this, they aimed to appeal to enterprises, like Netflix. Another big milestone of the framework is when React Developer Tools got added as an extension in Chrome Developer Tools, which further solidified the language.
The Growth.
2015 was a big year for React. A lot of platforms that we use today liked React, and some even started using it. Also, we saw the start of React Native. To start, Flipboard released React Canvas, if you’re not familiar with why Canvas is important, you can read more in this article. Also, Netflix was interested in React and was planning to implement it in their service, even though they hadn’t done it yet. Furthermore, Airbnb developed their whole application in React. Lastly, we saw the release of React Native for iOS, at the start of the year, and React Native for Android towards the end.
Solidifying itself.
React is now a substantial player in the space. For Facebook, there was not much more to do. They introduced some minor features, like React’s Error Code System. They also organized React.js Conf 2016 in San Francisco, and ReactEurope to show React to a bigger audience. From now on, React grew exponentially, to reach the point where it is now.
Note: There are a few more things that happened after, but they were mostly minor.
Why did React win over their competitors?
Taking into account how much Google tried to push their own framework, Angular, React’s success is at the very least, unexpected. Why though? Well, React has some key advantages. The first one being that React is very simple to comprehend and work with, as well as having ample documentation. On the other hand, Angular was overly complex and hard to work with.
Then there is also Vue. The simple reason why React won over Vue is that it was pushed by the Facebook team so much, that Vue was unable to compete with.
What can we learn from this story?
React is a great example of a success story, and as with every success story, there are some key points to take away.
The first one is educating your audience. The people who tried React at its start, we very critical about it. However, Facebook realized this, and they launched hundreds of conferences around the world, to change the public’s opinion. By educating them, the developers realized the true potential of React, and they started incorporating it into their projects. Facebook knew what they had in their hands, and they knew the value of it. That’s why they pushed through with React and managed to make it the most popular framework.
This brings me to my next point, having a good product. A big part of React’s success is due to the fundamentals. React was the first in a category of frameworks that is now irreplaceable. Not to mention it’s the best.
Lastly, good support and documentation are important! React has ample documentation to read for days. This is also a big part of the project’s success. Developers can learn whatever they want, just with a quick Google Search, without going through weird youtube videos or support tickets.
