Express and React are different technologies from the same ecosystem! Both have Javascript at their core, with Express built on Node.Js, and React a JS library. Yet, comparing them is like outlining the differences between a Jumbo Jet and Jet Ski because both of them are different. One is a backend framework, and the other is a front-end library.

The popularity of these frameworks and the fact that they come from Javascript makes them privy to comparisons. Here we will have a detailed differentiation of both the Javascript-based technologies based on different aspects like performance, scalability, ease of testing, and others. It will help you decide whether to go with either of them based on suitability to your projects and if you’re having doubts and need professional assistance to do it for your project, consider browsing through Simform’s web app development offers.

What is Express? – An Overview

What is React?- An overview

Reactjs is an open-source Javascript library to build web apps with rich user interfaces. React offers developers the flexibility to create reusable custom components that encourage rapid development processes. Furthermore, its ability to allow quick rendering of a web page makes it more search engine friendly. All in all, it’s a great library that promotes the development of lightweight and complex business applications. 

Here are some cool market usage statistics for React js:

• React js is used by 40.14 percent of the developers, according to the 2021 State of Developer worldwide. 

• React is at 4th in the list of “Most loved frameworks of Stackflow 2021” for almost 69.28 percent and features “Topmost wanted frameworks” by StackOverflow at 25.12 percentage. 
• The framework boasts over 187k Github stars along with the continuously progressive community.  

Use cases of React

• Web apps (React.js)
• Video streaming platforms
• Media sites
• Software as a Service tools 
• Mobile apps (React Native)
• Desktop Apps (React + Electron.js)
•  Progressive Web Apps (React + Ionic)
• JAMstack sites (Gatsby.js)

What popular apps are built with React?

• PayPal- The renowned Finance organization used Reactjs to improve the navigational workflows, bookmarks, and initial rendering of their payment gateway application.
• BBC– The well-known British public service broadcaster BBC news channel used Reactjs in building their web more navigational towards a mobile-first page, offering super-fast user experience and making their website super accessible across all the devices. 
• Facebook– The largest social media network website globally uses Reactjs currently in their Facebook Ads Manager; however, the Facebook web app is built with more than 20000 Reactjs components. 
• Netflix- The famous video streaming website used React in fixing the performance issues and minimizing processing times for a blazing startup speed and seamless user experience. 
• Twitter– The largest American microblogging and social networking service website uses React to update content, improve user experience, and create browser-based UI. They renovated their site front-end architecture with React and came up with the progressive web app version.

Pros of React 

• Efficient web pages: React apps save a lot of time and increase web pages’ efficiency by refreshing the user interface to update the data, eliminating the need to reload the web pages.
• Better user experience: Organizes the code for future optimization and increases the readability of the code. Hence, easy dead code elimination results in a better user experience and loading speed. 
• Reusability of Components: Separate logic and controls help build reusable components. Making application development faster and easier, more comfortable nesting of components to build complex functionalities.  
• High Performance: It eliminates the need to update data in the real structure and uses a virtual structure to update the data. This mechanism produces high-performing React apps, no need to take the extra load while loading the web pages, faster response times, and a smooth client-side experience. 
• Large Community: React js possess a robust community worldwide. From beginners to experienced developers, everyone enjoys building apps with maximum reusability of components that React offers.

Cons of React

• Continuous updates: React is frequently associated with the latest updates on all versions and contributions around the world. Hence, the Javascript library is less conventional and more evolving in coding practices. 
• Increased complexity of code: JSX is an extension of the syntax used by React js that combines Javascript and HTML. It’s a little old school, an intricate pattern for developers. Also, it is a bit hard to learn as compared to learning plain Javascript. 
• Only focuses on View: Building an application with Reactjs will only focus on the view layer from the model, view, and controller architecture. So you’ll have to use an additional platform for the other parts of the application. It means further integration of tools such as routing or APIs.