#atest react development tools

The web and mobile app world is constantly changing with the introduction of React. Developers experiment with this technology to deliver excellent output to clients across the globe.

Well, one can expect the best result when the right development approach and tools are utilized. The same rule applies to React development. Several frontend development tools are introduced every day, and software engineers can’t be aware of all of them. Right? Therefore, we have made things a little more convenient for everyone reading this blog, listing the best React development tools for the frontend. Utilizing these tools in your projects can help you save more time and write cleaner code, adding to the outstanding output that every client expects from a React developer.

But before we dig more into the list of the most popular React development tools, let’s first go through a couple of words about the second most used framework in 2022 after Node.js. Yes, that’s true! According to the Statista survey, it was revealed that 42.2 percent of respondents reported using React.js after Node.js, which is used by 47.12 percent.

Let’s discuss more about React!

React- One of the Most Used Web Frameworks

React is a widely popular open-source tool used for frontend projects that are completely based on reusable components. Yes, this tool allows you to use components multiple times within a project, which increases its productivity.

React, also called ReactJS and React.js, is created by Facebook to build and enhance user interfaces (UI). It is widely known for its versatility. It makes the whole app and website development easy, helps create UI test cases, reuses existing website code on mobile counterparts, and improves the overall UI & web app performances.

If you want to add user-friendly features to your website or applications, hiring a React developer would be great as they are experts in this web framework and can meet your requirements.

React developers are alternately known as frontend developers because they are specialists who focus on everything users see on the screen and interact with on their applications and web browsers. Behind every winning look or interface of the software, there is a mind of a frontend developer.

When discussing React, many newbies get confused with related technical terms like React Native and React.js. It is imperative to be clear with these concepts in order to reach desired goals. React.js is a library used for creating web applications. On the other hand, React Native is a web framework used for building mobile applications.

List of Most Popular React Development Tools

There is a high chance you’ve gained a lot of clarity about these concepts. Let’s take a look at the most popular libraries, testing tools, and extensions that embrace the power to ease React development. We have compiled a list of top React development tools you must look at.

React Developer Tools

Reactide

React Testing Library

React Sight

Create React App

Storybook

Cypress

React Proto

Bit

Why Did You Render

1. React Developer Tools

The first on our list is React Developer Tools which one should include in the tech stack of React projects. Today, several frontend specialists appreciate this extension as it has made debugging easier and allows them to inspect the application thoroughly. Well, this is not it. This tool can do more things like

Viewing the component tree

Debugging performance issues in components.

Tracking the interaction of components in the hierarchy

Viewing the source code

Viewing the state and properties of each selected component

In order to reap the benefit of this React DevTools, all you have to do is to install this tool as an extension for Chrome, Firefox, or Microsoft Edge.

2. Reactide

Reactide is a cross-platform tool that features simple navigation, visual editing, and an extensive range of GUI controls of component styles and properties. Reactide is an IDE for web app development in React that is loaded with ultimate features you can take advantage of to optimize the development process. There’s something more you should know about this React development tool-

It features a real-time component visualization that displays your app’s architecture directly in the environment.

A built-in Node.js server is integrated with a custom browser simulator in this tool that eliminates the hardships of any configuration.

This tool is also associated with the hot reloading concept, which allows developers to make changes quickly and view the immediate result in the browser.

3. React Testing Library

A project must have a set of testing tools. And this is where React Testing Library helps. React Testing Library is not a heavy tool. It's a useful library to test the quality of your React codes without any issues. This library tool helps add functionality to the DOM Testing Library in which it is built.

4. React Sight

It’s a lightweight visualization tool released under the MIT license and works best in debugging complex projects. This tool can help you represent your app as a hierarchical tree of components like a flow chart. It is also equipped with a number of filters that allows you to shift your focus on the crucial components you need to interact with. Not only this but React Sight also gives you access to its source code in the GitHub repository because it was released under an MIT license.

5. Create React App

If you’re looking for the right tool to assist you in creating single-page apps in React, choose Create React App. It offers a convenient environment along with some latest JavaScript features that developers take advantage of to enjoy a comfortable experience during the app development process. It is important to note that Create React App can't handle any backend logic or databases. Yes, that’s true! This tool only offers commands in order to build the frontend. It means you can use it with any backend for the frontend creation. This tool also comes with Babel and a webpack that knows how to work well. Such tools help developers focus on coding rather than throwing away time on learning everything. Get started with this incredible React development tool using Node.js 14.0.0 or later and npm 5.6 or later on your machine. It works perfectly on macOS, Windows, and Linux.

6. Storybook

A Storybook is a renowned tool that embraces an interactive environment that helps frontend developers build and test UI components and view the components library and different states of components. But did you know the best feature of this tool? It can run separately from your app. New components don't depend on the primary project. The UI editor and a sandbox in this tool help develop and modify components and automate testing processes that speed up the development.

Another perk of Storybook is that you can expect the compatibility factor not only with React but with other frontend frameworks, including Angular, Svelte, Vue.js, etc., as well as with other testing tools such as Jest and Enzyme. Such a benefit makes this tool quite useful for several other projects.

7. Cypress

Cypress is a JavaScript framework used to write end-to-end tests in frontend projects like Angular, React, etc. The good part about Cypress is its documentation which is written in plain English, contains the API description, and has numerous useful guides. Using Cypress in your React development projects will make the whole development experience great.

8. React Proto

An application prototyping tool, React Proto enables the collaboration of developers and designers. When it comes to the visual interface, both developers and designers can plan the project structure, create several components and change their properties when required.

9. Bit

The next most popular React development on our list is Bit, an online collaboration platform to share React components. This tool benefits a developer in several ways.

First, this command line utility gives the teams complete freedom to work together on individual components. Adding more to it, the Bit tool also allows you to check component dependencies by testing them separately from the primary projects.  

Another thing that entices many developers about Bit is that it helps create modular applications eliminating the need to write everything from scratch. It saves development time, which is a plus point of choosing this tool for your projects.

10. Why Did You Render

The why-did-you-render library is an incredible React tool that sends notifications about repeated renders in your React code and finds out why they occurred. When you use this tool for your project, you can avoid re-renders and, consequently, boost the overall app performance.

Wrapping Things Up

React is a leading web framework, and today, developers and companies across the globe are reaping a number of benefits associated with this technology. This tech also comes up with a number of tools (listed above) that are designed to solve several issues while React development. From coding to visualization, testing to debugging, these tools can help every step of the React development project.