Comparing The Top React Frameworks

Introduction

When learning React, we all start with the CRA(create-react-app) library. It is a good place to begin the journey of React but using it for building a project today is not a good idea. Here are some of the reasons to avoid CRA today:

• Build time is slower when compared with alternative
• Limited control over build customization
• Lack of Server-Side Rendering(SSR)
• Outdated as there has been no major update to CRA since 2021.

As you can see, there are many reasons to switch from traditional CRA to the modern framework of React, which can offer many more features. There are various alternatives based on your requirements such as SSR, performance, etc.

Today, we are going to look into some of the top alternatives that you can use instead of CRA. We are going to discuss

• Each alternative
• Their features and Best suites for which kind of application development
• Some performance metrics such as dev server time, build time, deployment time, and first contentful paint.

I hope this excites you. Now, let’s begin.

NextJS

Next.js by Vercel is the full-stack React framework for the web.

NextJS has been my go-to CRA alternative. I have been using it for a long time. With every update, NextJS keeps on improving. They provide a ton of features that can make it easy for developers to build projects with Nextjs.

Features:

• Server Side Rendering: Performance can be improved by using the SSR, with pre-rendered pages for faster load times.
• API Routes: With API routes, we can integrate full-stack development in NextJS.
• Automatic Code Splitting: By following the recommended project structure, we can have better code splitting. Thus improving performance.
• Easy Integration with Vercel: NextJS was built by the Vercel team. So, it became easy to deploy with Vercel.

It is best suited for building a Serverless application that has no or little integration with the server.

Note:
Server-Side Rendering: Server-Side Rendering (SSR) is a web application rendering technique where the HTML of a page is generated on the server each time a user requests it.

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ViteJS

Get ready for a development environment that can finally catch up with you.

Vite is more focused on performance for building projects that are quick and have less loading time. In contrast to traditional bundlers like Webpack, Vite uses a development server that provides near-instant hot module replacement (HMR) without needing to bundle the entire application. In this way, they can have a faster development server.

Features:

• Faster Development Server: With native ES modules and modern browser capabilities it provides a faster development server.
• Rich Plugin Support: Vite has flexible plugin support. You can easily integrate different plugins to extend the capabilities of Vite.
• Optimized Build Process: Tree shaking, code splitting, and other performance enhancements are implemented at build time.
• SSR and SSG: Vite also supports Server Side Rendering and Static Site Generation for better performance.

Vite best suites for developing a portfolio or blog website with better performance.

Note:
SSG: Static Site Generation (SSG) is a method where the HTML pages of a website are pre-rendered at build time, generating static HTML files for each page.

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Remix

Remix is a full-stack web framework that lets you focus on the user interface and work back through web standards to deliver a fast, slick, and resilient user experience.

Remix focuses on building a better user experience. It can be used to build a full-stack application. If you're familiar with server-side MVC web frameworks like Rails and Laravel, Remix is the View and Controller.

Features:

• Data Loading: It uses loaders to fetch data on the server before rendering the page. 0
• Easy Routing: It provides a file-based routing system. It provides routing based on the directories you are going to create. This feature is also supported in NextJS.
• Server Side Rendering: It also supports the SSR for providing better performance.
• Forms and Actions: Remix includes built-in support for form handling and actions. This helps manage form submissions and actions efficiently.

It is best suited for building a project that requires advanced routing, SSR, and a focus on performance.

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Gatsby

Gatsby is a React-based open-source framework with performance, scalability, and security built-in.

Gatsby is another framework based on React that is focused on building fast, secure, and optimized websites. It is primarily used for creating static sites but also supports dynamic content through APIs and integrations.

Features:

• Server Side Generation(SSG): It also supports Gatsby and pre-renders content to static HTML files.
• Progressive Web App: Gatsby has built-in PWA capabilities, enabling fast, offline-ready web experiences with native app-like functionality.
• JAMstack: JavaScript, APIs, and Markup let you build websites by serving static files from a CDN and using APIs.
• Content Management System: In Gatsby, it serves as a backend where content is authored and Gatsby pulls this content into its static site build process.

Best suites for building a blog using a Content Management System through Gatsby.

Performance Comparision

We have looked at each framework with its features and what kind of content is best suited. Now let’s look into some of the performance metrics such as time taken for the development server to start, build time, deployment time, and first contentful paint.

I used an animation using CSS that contains images and JSX elements to create this project in each of the frameworks. Now, the content remains the same that’s makes it easy to evaluate the performance.

Development Server

Note: The number next to the name of the framework is the time taken. It is in seconds.

As you can see in the graph, ViteJS is quite fast to run the server and Gatsby was the slowest. It goes with the fact that ViteJS claims to be one of the fastest frameworks.

Build Time

Here too the ViteJs is the quickest to complete the build process. Gatsby still has the slowest time taken for the build. NextJS comes quite close to being the slowest.

Deployment Time

All the framework is deployed on the vercel.

Vite is the fastest with 12 seconds and NextJS and Gatsby are the slowest. Remix has maintained the second position in each of the metrics.

First Contentful Paint - Desktop

While the overall score of each of the frameworks on the Desktop is at 100. There is a slight difference in the first contentful paint.

Here Nextjs and Gatsby became quickest while ViteJs and Remix took the slowest. The difference is as low as 0.1s between those.

You can take a look at each of the PageSpeed Insight in detail here:

• Vercel
• ViteJS
• RemixJS
• Gatsby

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Conclusion

In conclusion, while Create React App (CRA) has been a great starting point for many developers, it's clear that there are now more advanced and feature-rich alternatives available. Each of the frameworks we reviewed—NextJS, ViteJS, Remix, and Gatsby—offers unique strengths tailored to different use cases.

• NextJS is perfect for developers looking to build server-rendered applications with seamless Vercel integration.
• ViteJS shines in its performance, particularly with development speed, and is an excellent choice for projects that prioritize fast build times.
• Remix provides a robust solution for full-stack applications, focusing on advanced routing, server-side rendering, and a rich user experience.
• Gatsby remains a strong contender for static site generation, especially for content-heavy sites that benefit from its built-in performance optimizations and PWA capabilities.

Ultimately, the choice of framework depends on your specific project needs—whether it's performance, server-side rendering, ease of deployment, or full-stack capabilities. Moving beyond CRA to one of these modern alternatives can greatly enhance your development experience and project outcomes.

I hope this article has helped you learn CRA alternatives that you can use in your next project.

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