Software Alternatives & Startups

Create React App VS React Boilerplate

Compare Create React App VS React Boilerplate and see what are their differences

Create React App

Create React apps with no build configuration

Rating
0 reviews
React Boilerplate

Offline-first, highly scalable foundation for your next app

Rating
0 reviews

Which is more popular?

Based on our record, Create React App seems to be a lot more popular than React Boilerplate. While we know about 121 links to Create React App, we've tracked only 10 mentions of React Boilerplate.

social mentions
121 vs 10
Javascript UI Libraries popularity
100% vs 0%
alternatives listed
89 vs 83

Base details

Website, pricing, platforms and company facts side by side.

Create React App
React Boilerplate
Website github.com github.com
Listed in

Features and specs

What each product offers, as listed by its team.

Create React App 7 features
React Boilerplate 6 features
  • Ease of Setup
    Create React App provides a simple command to quickly set up a new React project. This reduces the time required for initial configuration.
  • Zero Configuration
    The tool comes with a large set of defaults out of the box. You don't need to configure Webpack, Babel, or other build tools manually.
  • Best Practices
    It encapsulates a lot of best practices for building React applications, ensuring you start off on the right foot.
  • Development Server
    Includes a local development server with hot-module reloading powered by Webpack, which improves the development experience.
  • Community Support
    As a Facebook-backed project with a wide user base, Create React App benefits from extensive documentation and community support.
  • Testing Setup
    Initial Jest configuration is included, providing a straightforward way to start writing and running tests.
  • Production Optimizations
    Built-in optimizations for production builds, such as code splitting and minification.

Possible disadvantages

  • Limited Customization
    While the zero-configuration approach is convenient, it can be limiting if you need to modify the underlying configurations (Webpack, Babel, etc.).
  • Monolithic
    Create React App is a single monolithic package, which can make it difficult to understand or change certain aspects without ejecting.
  • Eject Complexity
    Ejecting from Create React App exposes all underlying configurations, which can be overwhelming and increase the complexity of your project.
  • Dependency Management
    Because it abstracts away many details, you may not be aware of what dependencies are being used in your project.
  • Less Control
    Advanced users may find Create React App restrictive as it abstracts many details and does not easily allow for deep customization.
  • Performance Overhead
    For very small applications, the built-in tooling might be overkill and add unnecessary complexity and performance overhead.
  • Established Structure
    React Boilerplate provides a well-organized and consistent project structure, making it easier for developers to follow best practices and maintain a scalable codebase.
  • Advanced Configuration
    The boilerplate offers a comprehensive setup with support for modern JavaScript features, including Webpack, Babel, and ESLint, reducing the need for manual configuration.
  • Redux Integration
    React Boilerplate comes with built-in support for Redux, helping manage application state efficiently and seamlessly.
  • Performance Optimization
    The boilerplate includes performance-focused tools and configurations such as code splitting, which helps in optimizing the application's performance.
  • Community and Documentation
    Being a popular project, React Boilerplate has extensive documentation and an active community, providing plenty of resources and support.
  • Testing Setup
    It includes testing frameworks like Jest and Enzyme, which facilitate writing and running tests for your React components and applications.

Possible disadvantages

  • Complex Initial Setup
    The extensive initial setup and configuration process might be daunting for beginners or developers unfamiliar with advanced React and Webpack configurations.
  • Overhead for Small Projects
    For small or simple projects, the boilerplate might feel like overkill, introducing unnecessary complexity and overhead.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    Due to its comprehensive nature and numerous built-in features, there can be a steep learning curve for developers who are new to the ecosystem.
  • Maintenance
    Keeping up with updates and changes in all included libraries and tools can be time-consuming and may require regular maintenance to ensure compatibility and security.
  • Customization Difficulties
    Altering the default configurations and structures to fit unique needs can sometimes be challenging and may require in-depth knowledge of the underlying tools.

Analysis

An editorial look at what each product does well and who it suits.

Create React App
React Boilerplate

Overall verdict

  • Create React App is a good choice for developers looking for a straightforward way to start React applications without delving into setup configurations. It's a robust, flexible tool for beginners and those who appreciate productivity and ease of use over micromanaging build setups.

Why this product is good

  • Create React App is widely appreciated for streamlining the setup of new React projects. It abstracts away the complex configurations of tools like Webpack and Babel, allowing developers to focus on building applications rather than managing build processes. It offers a strong development environment with features like hot reloading, a development server, and support for the latest JavaScript features. Additionally, it provides a sensible set of defaults and is maintained by the React team, ensuring compatibility and access to the latest React updates.

Recommended for

  • Beginners who are new to React and want to start building projects quickly.
  • Developers who want to focus on app development rather than configuration details.
  • Teams that require a standardized project setup to streamline the development process.
  • Projects that do not require a highly customized build process, as Create React App might be restrictive for advanced use cases that need significant flexibility.

Overall verdict

  • React Boilerplate is a solid choice for developers looking to kickstart their React projects with a robust and comprehensive setup. It is particularly beneficial for projects that require scalability and performance optimizations from the start. However, it might be overkill for small or simple applications, where a lighter setup could be more efficient.

Why this product is good

  • React Boilerplate is considered good by many developers because it provides a well-structured framework for building scalable and maintainable React applications. It includes best practices and optimizations out of the box, such as Redux for state management, code splitting for performance, and built-in tools for testing, linting, and transpiling. This allows developers to focus more on building features rather than configuring and setting up the infrastructure.

Recommended for

    React Boilerplate is recommended for mid to large-scale React projects, teams that value architecture and maintainability, and developers who want to enforce coding standards and best practices from the beginning. It's also ideal for projects that anticipate a need for additional features, as its modular structure allows for easier expansion.

Videos

Walkthroughs and reviews on video.

Create React App 2 videos + Add
React Boilerplate 1 video + Add

Why You Should Stop Using Create React App | React.js Todo List | Code Review #4 Part 2

More videos

  • - Create React App Explained

React Boilerplate com Redux e TypeScript

Category popularity

How often each product is chosen within a category, 0–100% relative to the other.

Score bands 0–20 21–40 41–50 51–60 61–100
Create React App
React Boilerplate
100% 100%
0% 0%
65% 65%
35% 35%
0% 0%
100% 100%
100% 100%
0% 0%

User comments

Share your experience with using Create React App and React Boilerplate. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

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Social recommendations and mentions

Recommendations tracked on public social media and blogs since March 2021.

Create React App 121 mentions
React Boilerplate 10 mentions
  • Understanding Docker multi-stage builds
    Let's start by preparing a sample application that we want to place in a Docker image. This will be a web application created using the React framework and its create-react-app tool. It will generate a code template and configuration,... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • Those Golden Era of React...👩‍💻☺️
    This project was bootstrapped with Create React App. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
  • You should know this before choosing Next.js
    I could totally see how you'd arrive there. Backstory: create-react was a starter boilerplate for React built and maintained by Facebook. This was when webpack was the standard and just getting a local development environment to "hello... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago

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  • Redux developers, please stop doing this!
    I worked on a React project in 2019, I believe it was built on top of the react-boilerplate template, and the developer experience with Redux was so bad that I became a Vue developer. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
  • Top 5 React Boilerplates to Know in 2023
    2 React Boilerplate is a reliable and well-designed boilerplate in the Javascript UI Libraries, with 28.2k ratings on GitHub. The super-rich component and font base, together with Redux, Mocha, Redux-Saga, Jest, React Router, PostCSS,... - Source: dev.to / almost 4 years ago
  • Redux Sagas firing multiple times if injected in different containers
    We are using https://github.com/react-boilerplate/react-boilerplate and have a classic store layout with multiple components. Source: over 4 years ago

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Alternatives to Create React App and React Boilerplate

When comparing Create React App and React Boilerplate, you can also consider the following products.