ReactJS and JavaScript are both popular technologies for scalable web and app development. JavaScript is the primary programming language for designing scalable websites, while ReactJS is a JavaScript package that simplifies and streamlines the development of graphic user interfaces for web and mobile applications. This blog will discuss ReactJS and JavaScript and explore which technologies to choose for your web or app development.
With the advent of emerging technologies and tools, it has become crucial to build robust websites or applications that leverage modern technologies and offer personalized experiences to customers. Both React JS and JavaScript are the most popular technologies in website development. ReactJsx style guide makes it easy for developers to display error and warning messages while JavaScript leverages the alert () function to get the same job done faster.
Both programming languages are highly scalable and popular among the developer community, making it crucial for businesses to understand their significant differences, advantages and disadvantages, and key features before making a final decision. Whether you are a business or IT professional wondering which is better, React JS vs JavaScript, continue reading this blog further.
Table of Content
What is ReactJS?
Developed by Facebook, React or ReactJS is the most popular JavaScript library for developing various user interfaces for single-page applications that require a dynamic and interactive experience. ReactJS allows developers to design numerous types of large-scale web applications that are easier to update and render based on data changes.
ReactJS is a front-end open source and a JavaScript front-end library for developing the most intuitive user interfaces for websites and web applications. Due to its popularity among a large community of developers, there has been a long debate over how React Native is different from ReactJS. ReactJs relies on a component-based architecture and a virtual DOM for performance optimization.
What is JavaScript?
JavaScript, also known as plain JavaScript or vanilla JavaScript is a web development technology for creating complex, functional websites of all sizes. JavaScript is a scripting language for building successful web pages. It allows developers to design and develop a dynamic and interactive web page that offers seamless user interactions and performs complex actions more efficiently.
JavaScript is a high-level, dynamic programming language popular for designing and building dynamic web pages. It helps users to load the content into a document without refreshing or reloading the entire page. JavaScript developers can rely on external libraries to build scalable, highly customizable applications with ease & convenience.
Advantages of ReactJS
React JS offers numerous advantages, including high performance, a large community, an easy learning curve, an extensive range of third parties, SEO Friendliness, and more. Let’s explore them in more detail:
1. Reusable components
React JS allows developers to design and develop reusable components that are easier to manage and update in no time.
2. Cross-platform development
React JS widely supports cross-platform and enables developers to share components and codebase across multiple platforms, reducing overall time and money.
3. Virtual DOM
React JS offers a robust virtual DOM that makes the actual DOM lighter and allows developers to build and optimize user interfaces for scalable performance.
4. Community support
React JS has a large community of active developers and technology professionals who share solutions, insights, and resources to help others keep up with modern technology.
5. SEO capabilities
React JS is a package of JavaScript library, which leverages the ultimate search engine optimization (SEO) capabilities to optimize your website for search engines.
6. Code stability
React JS has a downward data flow which makes sure that it won’t affect the parent structure when changes are made to a child structure.
Drawbacks of ReactJS
Although React JS also has so many advantages, there are some drawbacks associated with it:
1. Steep initial learning curve
React JS has a steep initial learning curve, which makes it a little bit difficult for beginners.
2. Poor documentation
It has poor documentation which causes developers to spend extra time and effort for further quality enhancements.
3. Additional libraries
React developers may need to leverage additional libraries for creating successful web and web applications.
4. Fast development pace
It is common for React JS to release new versions or updates several times a year, which makes it difficult for developers to learn and apply new concepts on time.
Advantages of Javascript
JavaScript offers various advantages, versatility, performance, environment support, rich UI, extended functionality, all browsers compatibility, and more. Let’s explore them in more detail:
1. Interoperability
JavaScript has greater interoperability, making JS code work together without any hassle, no matter who wrote it. This feature allows you to quickly manipulate web page elements, providing instant access to browser features.
2. Asynchronous programming
JavaScript provides an asynchronous programming model for non-blocking operations to enhance the performance and scalability of applications.
3. Easy to learn
JavaScript has an easy learning curve, making it good for beginners who want to learn or get started.
4. Rich interface
JavaScript provides rich interfaces that are used to create features like sliders, drag-and-drop, and more to improve the overall user experience on the site.
Disadvantages of JavaScript
Here are some drawbacks of using JavaScript, which are included:
1. Rendering problems
Experiencing a single error in JavaScript code can hinder the complete website from rendering.
2. Security
JavaScript has no security model, so it’s not best for those businesses looking to store or protect anything important or secret. However, React has built-in security features to keep your data safe and secure.
3. Mobile app development
JavaScript is popular among developers and software programmers, however, it has limited capacity for mobile app development.
React JS vs JavaScript: Understanding The Key Differences
To help you understand and make the right decision between ReactJS and Javascript, let’s understand the key differences:
1. Learning Curve
As opposed to JavaScript, ReactJS provides a steeper learning curve and improves component-based architecture and JSX syntax. It offers well-crafted React documentation and community support, allowing beginners to quickly get started with the platform and create more complex applications once they grasp the technology.
On the other hand, Javascript offers a shallow learning curve which means you need to spend extra time and effort to learn & get started with JS. However, once you have a solid understanding of JS, getting started with other frameworks and libraries will be much easier.
In addition, it’s always a good idea to learn plain JS before getting started with React or ReactJS.
2. Popularity
According to a recent survey by Statista, JavaScript maintains its dominance with over 62.3% of software developers worldwide actively using it. JavaScript’s popularity is widespread in web development, making it the best technology for building dynamic and interactive web applications.
On the contrary, over 35.9% of developers worldwide use React.js which is much lower than JavaScript. ReactJS servers as a package of JS libraries to build intuitive user interfaces within JavaScript applications. ReactJs is widely used in modern web application development as it allows software developers to develop efficient and scalable interfaces using robust tools more efficiently.
3. Performance
The performance of JavaSript mainly depends on how the code is written and optimized. JavaSript offers direct DOM manipulation which shows poor performance when compared with libraries that optimize the overall rendering process. Developers need to rely on manual optimization techniques, such as throttling, debouncing, and efficient event handling when working with JS.
In the same way, ReactJS leverages Virtual DOM which makes the real DOM lighter and enhances the overall app performance. It improves the overall efficiency of the ReactJS pipeline by only updating those parts of the DOM that have changed. Additionally, it offers built-in performance optimizations and tools like React Profiler to optimize web app performance.
4. JavaScript
When it comes to security, developers often experience customer-side flaws like cross-site scripting (XSS) when working with JavaScript. It is therefore important to implement some security techniques and standard procedures to minimize such bottlenecks more efficiently.
In spite of the fact that React does not solve all security problems, it indirectly contributes to the prevention of some issues by facilitating the use of DOM simulations and fostering a one-directional flow of data.
5. Community Support
JavaScript has a diverse and large community, given its status as one of the core technologies of web development. The ecosystem of JS is not as centralized as that of ReactJS. Developers may need to leverage more on general-purpose libraries and core language features for different tasks, leading to multiple options and requiring significant effort to find the right solutions.
ReactJS has an active community of software developers and contributors, providing a rich ecosystem that contains third-party tools, libraries, and resources. With ReactJS’s ecosystem, it is pretty easy to find solutions to the most common problems. Furthermore, it provides regular updates, bug fixes, and enhancements to the React framework.
6. Nature and Usage
JavaScript is a general-purpose, high-level, and versatile programming language widely used for object-oriented and functional programming. The main objective of JS is to manage events, manipulate the DOM, perform calculations, and more. Moreover, it can be used on both the client side (in browsers) and the server side (through Node.js).
ReactJs is a JS library designed to create different user interfaces for web and web app development. It mainly focuses on component-based architecture and ensures fast and efficient rendering. ReactJS can be utilized with JavaScript, allowing developers to create UI components more efficiently.
7. Ease of Use
The flexibility of JavaScript allows developers to write code explicitly without requiring any additional modules or frameworks for minor projects or those with fewer complex goals. With ReacJS, users can easily manage complicated user interfaces due to its component-based architecture and interchangeable user interface components, which also increase accessibility and code adaptability.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that both are the most popular programming languages for dynamic web and mobile application development. Both technologies work best, but ReactJS stands out first to win the development universe due to its lucrative features and benefits. ReactJS allows developers to create a fast and efficient web application and help businesses scale up in the fast-paced world.
Javascript is also one of the most popular programming languages among developers and contributors, however, it fails to provide faster and scalable results than ReactJS. Ultimately, the choice between ReactJs and JavaScript mainly depends on the specific project needs, complexity, core features, functionality requirements, third-party API integration, customization, and more.
If you are planning to build a web or mobile app and don’t know which technologies to use, it’s always a good idea to consult a reputable software development firm like Crest Infosystems. We at Crest Infosystems offer web and mobile app solutions tailored to your unique business requirements. Get in touch with us today!
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