Perhaps no industry in the world changes as fast and as often as the tech industry in the 21st century. With new developments and leaps of growth every month, popular frameworks sometimes end up outdated and obsolete in just a few years… Often to be replaced by the tech world’s new shiny object.

But that is definitely not the case for React.

Based on the classic Javascript framework, React has enjoyed immense popularity as the choice for front-end framework among developers for the past 9 years.  And in 2015, it was joined by React Native to make React an undisputable industry leader across segments. Also created by the tech giant, Facebook, React Native was released as an open-source framework for hybrid apps and has skyrocketed in popularity.

But the question still stands. Is React still relevant in 2022?

The answer. A resounding yes.

We’ll let the worldwide stats speak for themselves.

React has been downloaded over 15 million times in the past year alone.

According to the 2021 annual survey by states, React is still rising in popularity, with 84% of users saying they want to use it again.

And according to Statista’s report. React overtook jQuery to become the world’s most used web framework.

Around 40.14% of developers around the world are using React js, giving it a lion’s share of the framework market.

Among cross-platform frameworks, React Native is the second most preferred choice of framework, with 38% of developers relying on it to build web apps.

Not to mention the massive and loyal React community across the world, with over 102,000 stars for React on Github.

And with the likes of Instagram, Netflix, Uber, Airbnb, NYT, Shopify, Amazon, Pinterest, and more building their empires with React, you know it’s not a name to be forgotten just yet.

And over 33% of businesses are looking to hire react developers for their upcoming or current projects!

But what makes React such a popular choice for both developers and businesses even in 2022?

1. Learn once, write anywhere

React’s simplicity is among its most endearing features for both businesses and developers. Businesses can get their project off the ground fast, and developers can invest less time in picking up the skill.

React is incredibly easy to learn. Not only is it based on the popular javascript framework, but is also among the easiest frameworks to get a grasp on among other javascript-based frameworks too.

It tends to have a simpler file tree and a very flexible component model. Plus, it also generally has a substantially shorter dependency list.

2. Declarative framework for simplified coding

React reduces a significant chunk of a developer’s effort with declarative programming. It also makes your code more predictable and easier to debut down the line.

But what exactly does declarative mean? Simply put, it means that you don’t have to tell the computer “how” to do it, you just have to tell it “what” to do. It will figure out the best way to execute it and make it happen.

3. Easy to create dynamic web apps

React is an extremely intuitive framework to use and easily adds interactivity to the layout of any UI.

It solves the issues of complex coding with HTML strings. It uses the JSX (Javascript extension) to reduce the amount of coding needed to give functionality.

Plus, it also supports the building of machine-readable codes.

4. Reusable components for reduced development time

When you use React to build a web app, you can create multiple components, each with its own logic and controls. Now instead of recreating each component every time, you can simply reuse them across your project.

Not only does this save your time and keep your app looking consistent, but it also helps make your apps easier to maintain.

5. Virtual DOM for higher performance and better UI

Apps that demand high user interactions and frequent data updates require extensive DOM manipulation. And that level of DOM (Document – Object – Model) manipulation often results in lowered performance levels.

These ripple effects reduce with a virtual DOM.

As the name suggests, the virtual DOM exists only in memory and is a direct representation of the actual DOM. So any view changes are first executed on the virtual DOM, and only optimized changes are then made to the real DOM.

With React, you get reduced processing time, faster rendering, better UI, and thus better performance.

6. Better for Search Engine Optimized websites

This improved performance isn’t just good for your users, it’s also good to make your website or app more SEO-friendly.

As we know, the faster a page loads, the better it is for Google.

The reduced page load time and faster rendering also help in adapting to real-time user traffic demand.

7. Improved code stability with one-way data flow

React comes with the ability to create parent and child components for better code stability. So a change made to a specific section doesn’t impact the structure of the rest of the web app. You can modify child components without affecting the parent components at all. Unlike most other frameworks, one change can alter the entire application.

8. Create a website and a hybrid web application with the same code

React and React Native are both based on components that create a complete UI when developed. So under the hood, React Native used the same components as what is used for websites.

The result? You can reuse most of the source code from your website to build a cross-platform web app on both iOS and Android. And vice versa too!

A convenient cross-over that is used by companies like Meta, Skype, Microsoft, Tesla, etc.

9. Stress-free license usage

Finally, React is an open-source library and hence has no use limitations.

Thus making it an extremely easy and affordable option for developers all around the world. Anyone can instantly download the code, make improvements, and share it with others to expand and improve the library.

And the massive community of React developers is always available to support, brainstorm and troubleshoot any tricky development situation you find yourself in.

But having said all this, where exactly is React best used?

When should you use React in your business to get the best product build?

• Single page applications: SPA’s built with React have better code coverage, are more sturdy, and offer high performance. Plus, they need very little development time, so your application will be released much faster.
• Dynamic websites: React is the best option for building dynamic websites with multiple users and high interaction. The virtual DOM in React helps keep even the most high-demand website running fast, smooth and responsive.
• Cross-platform native mobile apps: React Native’s success as the go-to choice for building cross-platform web apps is almost universally known. Not only does it let you reuse up to 80% of the code across platforms, but it also creates apps that look and feel 100% native.
• Data visualization tools: Dashboards and other data visualization tools need frequent data updates. With React you can reduce load time and improve render speed by implementing the same code on both the server and client-side.
• High-ranking, SEO-friendly websites: Your website performance is crucial to making your website more SEO friendly. Using features like pre-rendering and virtual DOM can help reduce the load speed of your website to a great extent.