What the Hell Is React(.js)?
I tend to forget that a lot of Vibe coders are getting into tech with no prior knowledge of web development—and the hellscape it's been for the past four years.
For the uninitiated, web apps traditionally have two parts: a back end and a front end. The front end handles all the fun interactive stuff, and the back end handles the boring but important stuff like logins, payment gateways, etc.
The front end uses three languages:
- HTML (think Word doc),
- CSS (think Photoshop),
- JavaScript (think about your loved ones... hold them close).
JavaScript was originally meant to add interaction to a webpage. Today? It's everything. Fifteen years ago, it was hard to write JS because there were no standards and browsers all behaved differently.
Then came jQuery—press a button, open a thing. Send a form, show a message. Simple.
But we wanted our apps to feel like native mobile experiences. So we started building the entire front end with frameworks like React.
React was created by Facebook to make their site feel faster without full page reloads. But like Facebook itself, it went too far. Now it’s part of the reason the modern internet feels broken.
React said:
"I'll take care of everything."
Developers replied:
"But... everything’s more broken and complicated now. This isn’t how I learned front end..."
React whispered:
"Shhhhh... don’t worry about it."
The Current Landscape
Today, every shitty product is built with React.
Is it the only player? God no. There are plenty of others—Vue.js, HTMX, etc. And honestly, you probably don’t need a library at all.
But React isn't going anywhere. It has become a full front-end and back-end framework, complete with complex build steps and tooling—all to make a form open when you press a button.
Got a problem React created? Don’t worry—there’s a library for that.
Why It's Used So Much
Because there's more training data on React.
Because “web developer” is now synonymous with “React developer.”
Because some “Senior” dev made a bad call and now the company is vendor-locked into a giant pile of technical debt.
But here’s a more thoughtful answer:
According to w3techs.com, jQuery still leads with a 90.6% market share. React sits at just 6.6%. Surprised?
Well, jQuery has been around since 2006. React came out in 2013. Time in the market matters.
Vue? 0.8%.
HTMX? 0.1%.
But get this: Vue and HTMX are used by more high-traffic sites than React. How does that make sense?
Because React has the most tutorials, libraries, and StackOverflow answers. It's perfect for junior devs, and AI.
Loveable is built with React. Ask it to make a full app and it’ll say: “Nope.”
Bolt.new (props to them) lets you choose different tech stacks.
But because of the metric shit-ton of apps being pumped out by AI, React will probably continue its reign—unless a new framework optimized for AI emerges. That’s a convo for another day.
Point is: if you want to know what the hell is going on with your Vibe app—or even just understand what you made—there are better options.
Want to Get Away From React?
Ohhh... so glad you asked.
Like we said, there are alternatives. And no, you don’t need to know all this stuff to build something interesting with AI.
If you’re just messing around, that’s totally fine. But when you're ready, we’ve got resources to help you build with:
- Vue.js (great for interactive apps)
- 11ty (perfect for simple sites or non-app content)
For now, just learn the basics. That way, you can at least debug the AI slop you accidentally created.
Want Our Help?
We get it, React is confusing, the internet is full of conflicting advice, and you just wanted to make something fun that actually works. We've built real apps and we offer 1-on-1 consulting to help you go from “What did I just make?” to “Hey, this is actually kinda awesome.”
If you want help, reach out to us and just say: “I want to build better apps.”
That’s it!
We love you.