Farewell Create React App
- The React team is looking to sunset “Create React App” as a project scaffold
- They are leaning towards turning it into a “launcher” which would suggest a list of recommended frameworks
- This is part of a greater shift away from client-side rendered applications
I learned React while attending a coding bootcamp in 2017. With the help of Create React App, I was able to learn the syntax and features of the library without needing to understand Webpack or Babel. It was a valuable tool for learning React, and I’m thankful that it existed.
Today I rarely spin up new React applications – even for pet projects. But if I did, I would use Vite instead of CRA. The ecosystem for front-end project scaffolds has changed significantly in the last six years, and CRA hasn’t kept up with the times. I think that it makes sense for the React team to move on from it and let the community solutions and frameworks pick up the slack.
The discussion also mentions that server-side rendering and static-site generation are two critical areas of front-end development going forward. The use cases for client-side rendered apps are limited, and the weaknesses are now well documented. Instead of the React team having one official approach (CRA) and a bunch of official ones (Next, Astro, Vite, etc.) for using the library, they want to be more agnostic. This is a good move for the health of the web.
Thank you for your service, Create React App. Enjoy retirement.