Benefits of Using React.js for SaaS Applications and Products

As a Stack Overflow survey from 2019 revealed, React.js is the most loved and wanted frameworks out there. Launched in 2013, it has been gaining popularity ever since. But what is React.js?

It is an open-source JavaScript library designed to develop scalable web applications with roughly 1 million websites using it across the globe. React.js development for SaaS products lets you build user interfaces for web and mobile applications. On top of that, these UI components are reusable, which will significantly simplify your next project. SaaS apps developed with React.js allow you to create complex applications that are able to update information without reloading the page.

Why is React framework for SaaS applications so beloved, and which benefits does it bring to your business?

In this blog, we come up with six reasons why you should use React.js for your SaaS app. Keep reading to find out!

Multiple reviews from developers show that React.js is the best framework for SaaS applications. Why do engineers prefer to build SaaS with React? Below are the main features of this JavaScript library that improve the business and development cycle.

JSX is the syntax that allows developers to write components much easier and faster. Since merging HTML markup with client-side data is a challenging task, developers use JSY as a declarative approach to uniting HTML and dynamic data.

This approach to data flow organization makes the tracking and detection of potential mistakes or unwanted side effects much more effective. One-way means that data is passed in one direction — from components to their children. This is why, after making some changes, developers can identify the source and fix the potential problem quicker than ever.

Another perk of using React to build a SaaS app is access to the virtual DOM. Think of it as a replica of the actual DOM that can be updated and modified more often. You can check your changes in the virtual DOM first to make sure they work properly and modify the original one afterward.

Finally, React Native framework is used to build cross-platform mobile applications with native performance. It gives developers access to a pool of native interface components for Android and iOS apps. React Native helps you build one mobile app, not two separate apps, that can be quicker and more efficient.

How do the above-mentioned outstanding features add to the overall performance? What makes React.js SaaS products so efficient and popular among developers? See why React.js is a great option to build your next SaaS.

How does building SaaS web applications using React.js increase the productivity of your development process? React's structure consists of blocks where every element is responsible for a certain function or feature. When you rearrange the building blocks, you get a more sophisticated and complex system. By reusing these elements for later projects, you reduce the development cycle duration and don't waste time starting over from scratch every time. Due to the declarative nature of React.js, developers can concentrate on business logic and take advantage of seamless UI design.

One of the best traits of React.js is its flexibility. You can easily apply the React.js code to existing SaaS infrastructure without having to shut down the system or scale down its functionalities. As opposed to React.js, Angular, for example, did not ensure an easy migration when they released Angular 2. The compatibility issues were extremely serious which made the process of migration unnecessarily complex and long.

According to Moz — a company that builds SEO tools and helps businesses grow — short page load time and fast rendering facilitate higher Google ranking. Although for most SaaS products SEO is not highly important, if needed, you can add cost-effective server-side rendering (SSR) to your application which will promote your app to Google top.

A decent developer toolset will help engineers shorten the learning curve and begin using React.js in SaaS faster and smoother. Due to gaining a lot of traction, React.js managed to build a huge community around the framework.

Even though there is more than enough information about React.js, if you are new to it, you might get overwhelmed by the amount of data. However, companies like Aspirity offer their own packages that help you advance your skills faster. For example, Aspirity developed a UI Kit within the EasyDev project. The UI kit entails the best practices that the company has gathered after using the framework for multiple projects. When working with Aspirity, you can be sure that we base their decisions on years-long experience and real-life scenarios.

Having a rich variety of documentation, training, and tutorials, React.js ensures an extremely short learning curve. Developers don't have to spend weeks and months learning the process and can almost immediately dive into the development process. Anyone who has worked with JavaScript before and has enough experience with it will understand React's structure in no time.

Delivering applications quicker, easier, and more efficiently, React.js has attracted a number of big players. Companies like Tesla, Airbnb, Yahoo, Netflix, PayPal, Reddit, and many more have adopted this library. What other top companies use React.js for SaaS apps and what they have gained from it will be covered in the next part.

Netflix is the biggest video content platform in the world that is constantly expanding to more and more countries. If you've been enjoying your favorite TV shows and movies on the fast-performing Netflix platform, it is all thanks to React. As Netflix developers put it, they have implemented this framework to enhance the speed of execution, boost performance, and simplify the code.

Khan Academy has revolutionized modern education by giving access to a massive amount of sources to everyone with an internet connection. After adopting a piece of React.js code, Khan Academy developers noticed an improvement in the performance. In their shared story, developers mention the elimination of unwanted re-renders and changing UI elements. The company has also started building an eLearning SaaS platform using React.

Why did the Yahoo team go with React and not its counterparts Angular or Ember? First of all, they truly appreciated React's one-way data flow that can be utilized to enhance UI application interactions as well as virtual DOM for faster rendering. Additionally, the Yahoo team valued the simplification of their code as and React's ever-growing community.

Dropbox is the world leader in personal and business file storage and sharing. Growing bigger and bigger, they felt the need to make changes and decided to adopt React.js for their development processes. The Dropbox development team went with React because of its innovative virtual DOM and huge community support.

Aspirity is a front-end development company with a focus on UI and UX design. We have a strong team of over 35 professionals who will help you enhance your website's productivity and performance and modernize your UI/UX design. With a large focus on UI/UX and React.js front-end development, we are the perfect partner when it comes to creating a SaaS app with React.

Let's take a closer look at our cases:

Tasket is a project management tool that aims to create a consolidated application where users get a clear overlook of their work tasks as well as personal goals. In addition, the Tasket executives wanted to integrate all the tasks and incoming data into apps like Todoist or Microsoft To Do.

The client wanted us to rewrite its UI from Angular to React.js. We chose React because of its stability and flexibility that both allowed for an easier structure and maintenance. On top of that, React is the fastest growing framework that has been and still is gaining more and more attention and growing a bigger community. And a larger community of React specialists makes it easier to find the much-needed developers.

EasyDev is a source of dashboard templates for any business purpose. You can get an online marketing dashboard to monitor page views, bounce rate, and website visits. To learn more about your audience you can break it down into categories like location, browser, device, etc. The library of EasyDev's dashboards is very rich: eCommerce, finance, booking, analytics, fitness, and more.

Why did we choose React for our template library?

Socely is an internal product developed by Aspirity that strives to enable easier communication via LinkedIn by allowing to launch mailing campaigns, set personalized configurations as well as full access to statistics. The idea was to create a service that provides information based on specific factors like industry, job position, location, and level of connection. An ideal solution for Socely was to create a React SaaS platform that would automatically execute the above-mentioned tasks.

Our main objective was to build an intuitive interface to manage the communication flows. We had to build a SaaS app using React.js that would enable users to customize the search features, add new options as well as eliminate others. As a result, we have increased lead generation and automated monotonous tasks of manually sending requests.

Our three main outcomes:

All in all, Aspirity is a company that will help you understand the true value of React and upgrade your web and mobile applications. We know how to build a SaaS application with React and how to help you better your business. Contact our team of experts to receive the first consultation and ask unanswered questions.

The React framework for SaaS applications can be summed up in three words: advanced, responsive, and non-risky. The original idea was to build large-scale apps that allow data to be repeatedly modified over time. The React designers have fully succeeded by implementing the virtual DOM, providing easier UI creation, and offering a component-based structure. All of the above points to the fact that React.js for SaaS applications is an ideal solution for every company: from a small startup to a huge corporation.

Building custom software or have an existing one?

Aspirity is an offshore web development agency. We specialize in management, admin, and dashboard software.

If you have a custom software project — contact us for a confidential consultation or just read more from our blog.

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