Should I learn React?

Last updated

This post is also available in different formats so you can read on the go or share it around!

If you want to build interactive user interfaces on the web then React is a great tool to help you do just that. It's not the only option but it's mature and has a great ecosystem and community that support it.

Learning React is a great way to build interfaces that offer a rich user experience. The skills you'll learn are transferrable to related technologies including React Native, for building user interfaces on mobile devices, and without too much trouble you can pick up other declarative UI frameworks like Vue and Svelte. The choice is yours.

I personally like React because it's has a large ecosystem of technologies that can fit within your workflow. This blog uses GatsbyJS so I can write pages in React and generate a static website. You could use Next.js which enables you to create an entire web app with static or server generated pages or even the backend API. By learning React, you're enabling yourself to take advantage of these great tools and more. Almost anything you can create on the web has libraries which are compatible with React and if you find something that isn't, React is a powerful tool for authoring your own.

So, what are you waiting for? Start learning and even if you don't settle on React, you're sure to gain something from the experience.

Seth Corker

A Fullstack Software Engineer working with React and Django. My main focus is JavaScript specialising in frontend UI with React. I like to explore different frameworks and technologies in my spare time. Learning languages (programming and real life) is a blast.