Create React App VS React Native Desktop

Compare Create React App VS React Native Desktop and see what are their differences

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Create React App

Create React apps with no build configuration

React Native Desktop

Build OS X desktop apps using React Native

Landing page //
2023-09-18

Landing page //
2023-09-30

Create React App features and specs

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 of Create React App

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.

React Native Desktop features and specs

Cross-Platform Code Sharing
React Native Desktop allows for code sharing between mobile and desktop platforms, reducing development time and effort. This promotes a unified codebase across iOS, Android, and macOS platforms.
React Ecosystem
Developers can leverage the extensive ecosystem of React and React Native, including libraries, tools, and community support, thus simplifying development and benefiting from existing solutions.
Hot Reloading
React Native Desktop supports hot reloading, which allows developers to see changes immediately without rebuilding the whole application. This greatly enhances development speed and productivity.
Native Performance
React Native Desktop aims to deliver a performance close to native applications on macOS, allowing for smooth user experience and efficient utilization of the system's resources.

Possible disadvantages of React Native Desktop

Immature Project
React Native Desktop is still a relatively young project compared to its mobile counterpart. It may lack some stability, advanced features, and support that are available in more mature frameworks.
Learning Curve
Developers familiar with only web development might find it challenging to adapt to React Native's paradigms and native coding patterns required for desktop applications.
Limited macOS-Specific Components
There might be fewer out-of-the-box components and libraries tailored for macOS when compared to those available for mobile, requiring more custom implementation work.
No Official Support
As an open-source project, React Native Desktop doesn't have official support from Facebook or a large organization, which might lead to slower updates and a greater reliance on community contributions.

Analysis of Create React App

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.

Analysis of React Native Desktop

Overall verdict

React Native Desktop can be a good choice if you are already invested in the React Native ecosystem and are looking for a way to expand your application's reach to desktop platforms without starting from scratch. It benefits from the familiar JavaScript and React syntax, as well as a large community of developers who contribute to its growth. However, depending on the project's specific needs and the level of maturity expected, it might lack some features or optimizations available in native desktop application frameworks.

Why this product is good

React Native Desktop is designed to allow developers to use React Native for creating desktop applications. It leverages the existing React Native ecosystem, which means that developers familiar with React Native can transition to desktop app development more easily. By allowing code sharing between mobile and desktop platforms, it can significantly reduce the development time and effort required to maintain consistency across platforms.

Recommended for

This framework is recommended for JavaScript developers who are already comfortable with React Native and want to leverage their existing skills to develop cross-platform applications that include desktop environments. It is suitable for projects that require rapid prototyping and consistent user experiences across mobile and desktop devices.

Create React App videos

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

React Native Desktop videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Create React App and React Native Desktop)

Create React App

React Native Desktop

Javascript UI Libraries

100 100%

Javascript UI Libraries

0% 0

Developer Tools

57 57%

Developer Tools

43% 43

Tech

0 0%

Tech

100% 100

JS Library

100 100%

JS Library

0% 0

User comments

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

Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Create React App seems to be more popular. It has been mentiond 121 times since March 2021. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Create React App mentions (121)

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, allowing us to focus on the image creation aspects. - Source: dev.to / about 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 world" for React could be challenging.[1] That project was depreciated and the popularity of the Next.js site framework for react projects (plus I certainly assume heavy lobbying... - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
Updating my website's tech stack in 2025
My website's previous iteration was built in 2021. It was bootstrapped using (the now deprecated) Create React App and it took approximately 2 months to build. The home page included a bunch of photos that I had taken myself of my desk and keyboard as background for several sections and it included most of the information on the website. In the middle of the page I put the SkillsTerminal (which also features in... - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
Micro-libraries need to die already
This is just a discourse based on "I need to churn out something, I need that fast and I didn't start in the web game when Backbone and E4X were a solid corporate choice". If you are not in a hurry, work in a solid team and have a good attention span, a lot of clickbait idiocy around JS may not happen. I'm presenting you one of countless examples: a lot of coding bootcamps teach React, maybe with TS, maybe with... - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago