The latest “State of React” survey suggests that while some developers are racing ahead with major recent features like React Server Components, others are content to stick with the traditional SPA (Single Page Application) for which it was first designed.
Josh W. Comeau, software engineer and React educator, predicted in the conclusion to the survey that “in 2028, there will be two Reacts in wide circulation with roughly equivalent usage. The ‘full-stack’ version, with Server Components and Server Actions, and the client-only Single Page App (SPA) version.”
His reasoning is based on examination of the usage of Server Components and Server Side Rendering, as reported by the 13,000 respondents. Server Components have been used by 29 percent, of whom just over half expressed a positive desire to use them again. Server-side rendering (SSR) is used by 63 percent of respondents, but from Comeau’s perspective, “37% of survey respondents have never even used SSR, even though it’s been an option for over a decade now.”
In contrast, 86 percent use React for SPAs and only 27 percent in multi-page applications. Note that as with most figures in this survey, percentages sum to more than 100 because of the ability to select multiple options.
The survey authors note that the data was collected between October 27 and November 15 2023, before the release of React 19, and since Server Components were only fully supported in the context of Vercel’s Next.js, that 29 percent take-up is arguably impressive. Server Components also top the list of new features developers are excited about, at 40 percent, followed by new documentation at 31 percent and React cache at 30 percent.
Next.js also tops the list of frameworks based on React, used by 76.3 percent of respondents and with generally positive sentiment. No other framework comes close, unless one counts the raw (and deprecated) Create React App, used at some point by 91.7 percent but with only 13 percent intending to use it again. Astro is bubbling under, with 18.8 percent that have used it, two-thirds of whom wish to continue.
Where do React users host their applications? According to this survey, Vercel is the first choice (59 percent), followed by AWS (53 percent), GitHub Pages (42 percent) and Netlify (41 percent). We suspect that this reflects in part the community most aware of the survey and motivated to complete it, rather than the entirety of React users, but nevertheless this will add to the suspicions among some that Vercel has too tight a hold on Next.js and React.
Is React too complicated? There is mixed evidence. Pain points identified in the survey show “excessive complexity” cited by 9 percent for main APIs, 7 percent for hooks, and 12 percent for new APIs. In no case though is it the top pain point. Developers struggle more with individual features like fowardRef, memo, useEffect, and (unsurprisingly) Server Components.
Another notable statistic is that most developers (89 percent) continue to use webpack for building React applications, followed by Vite (82 percent), esbuild (52 percent) and Rollup (42 percent). Only 29 percent have used Turbopack, a replacement for webpack built in Rust.
The full survey is here.