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Bootstrap vs React: Choose the Right Frontend Framework

As the name of the title implies, both Bootstrap and React are front-end development technologies. However, selecting one technology is not easy. So you need to go through the Bootstrap vs React comparison table. These technologies are effective for the development of interactive user interfaces.

You can use Bootstrap with React because Bootstrap has in-built classes. Developers can implement elements and components of Bootstrap on the React app easily. Many companies are using Bootstrap with React. Our custom app development company also uses a combination of Bootstrap vs react components.

If you are confused about which JavaScript library to use for web development, this blog will clear your doubt. We are offering you the complete detail about the differences between Bootstrap and React for building web applications effectively.

Let’s begin the journey!

 

What Is Bootstrap? – An Overview

Bootstrap is a CSS framework for building web apps. It is an open-source front-end framework with useful UI components. Many development companies use this powerful, feature-packed, and robust front-end framework for their single-page applications. You can build fast and responsive websites using Bootstrap.

Many developers get confused between WordPress and Bootstrap. But these two platforms are completely different. If you want to know more about them read our blog on WordPress vs Bootstrap. It will clear your doubt.

If you know about bootstrap properly, it becomes easy to understand Bootstrap vs React components. Have a look at some of the crucial facts about Bootstrap in the next section.

Market Usage Statistics About Bootstrap

Market statistics about Bootstrap will let you know the market condition of the framework.

1. Bootstrap is used by more than 25% of all websites. And the market share is 25.9%
2. This JavaScript library has an efficient grid style that helps in the changing layout.

If I talk about Bootstrap vs React there is a huge difference between the market share of Bootstrap and React. Have a look at the image below.

Source

Top Websites Using Bootstrap

Many businesses find using bootstrap with react a suitable tech stack for their project. Top companies are using Bootstrap in their web apps’ tech stack. Here is the list of crucial websites for you.

1. Stripchat.com
2. cnn.com
3. t.me
4. m.cricbuzz.com
5. usps.com
6. telegram.org
7. Worldstar.com
8. namu. wiki
9. nlm.nih.gov

There are many other websites as well. So, the list could be longer than it is. You can visit these websites and check the source code to know about their frameworks, CSS, designs, and functions.

Features of Bootstrap

When you know the features of a technology you can understand for which type of applications and websites it is useful. Bootstrap is also full of effective features that you can use for the development of mobile-first websites. It offers you responsive design templates to build complex apps. You can get familiar with the JavaScript library easily after knowing about its features.

Here is the list of Bootstrap framework features

1. Bootstrap has a shallow learning curve that makes it easy to learn for anyone. Only basic knowledge of HTML and CSS is needed.
2. Responsive CSS of Bootstrap can adjust to desktops, phones, and tablets
3. Don’t worry about creating unique designs for the app because Bootstrap offers features for creating a customized product.
4. The most important feature of Bootstrap is browser compatibility. It supports Firefox, internet explorer, safari, and Opera.
5. Bootstrap offers a list of different components and features for effective web development.
6. A great grid system of Bootstrap has 12 column grids, layouts, and components.

You can find many other features of Bootstrap that will help you create a responsive design, an effective front-end framework template, external plugins, and others. When you build web apps make sure you are aware of the most important features of the UI framework.

Pros and Cons of Bootstrap

No technology is perfect. Bootstrap also has some cons that are important for you to know. Understanding the positives and negatives of technology to clear your doubt. It directly has a connection with developing impeccable software.

When and Why You Should Use Bootstrap?

Now you know what is Bootstrap, the facts about Bootstrap, the top websites that use Bootstrap, and the advantages and disadvantages of Bootstrap. This section is all about when and why you should use Bootstrap.

If you want to control rows and columns for customized designs, select Bootstrap. You should use Bootstrap when you have an extremely confined timeline. It is the most time-saving technology for even building complex apps in a short time.

You can nail your project effectively and build scalable websites. Simple HTML, CSS, and JavaScript components make it the easiest programming language for building user interfaces. Moreover, responsive grid point is a unique feature of the technology.

If you don’t know to program, hire a skilled dream team from the top app development company for robust and impeccable software. You can also go for a full-stack web developer over a team of developers as per your need.

What Is React?- An Overview

React is also called ReactJS. It is an open-source JavaScript framework. You can use React for mobile, desktop, and web application development. Developers find this technology effective for building cross-platform applications in a short time. It is a component-based framework because it uses components instead of web components as building blocks.

This product of Facebook was initially developed for iOS app development. But later this frontend framework was updated and made suitable for all operating systems.

Market Usage Statistics About React

React is used by 3.3% of all websites. Although the percentage is lower than Bootstrap, it is still a popular technology. You can read more market statistics about React below.

Have a look at the image. It shows the most used web frameworks among developers worldwide. 42.62% of respondents reported using React JS framework.

Many big companies use the top React developer tools for the development of their projects. If you are also planning for the same, check out the features of React. You can hire developers for a robust and error-free product. They use CSS and JavaScript codes to build impressive sites.

Top Websites Using React

React is a popular front-end framework for building a user interface. However, many developers say that React is just a library, not a framework. Whatever the name can be but many businesses use React components in their websites and applications for the interactive user interface. Developers build responsive website content with the help of this technology for various brands and businesses.

Let’s know about some of them in the space below.

1. Paypal
2. Facebook
3. Adroll
4. Airbnb
5. BBC
6. Twitter
7. Netflix
8. Asana
9. Cloudflare

Features of React

React is gaining quick popularity because of its wide range of features and components. React applications are developed under the front-end ecosystem. There are many things about React that you must know if you want to develop react applications.

The crucial features of React are as follows.

1. JavaScript XML is a JavaScript syntax XML. It is HTML-like syntax.
2. React components are popular for their rich uses for the user interface. Each component of React application is crucial for building user interfaces.
3. React follows unidirectional data flow or supports one-way data binding. This is to provide you with better control over the application.
4. The simplicity of React code attracts most developers. React applications can be easily customized because of simple code.
5. React manages virtual DOM which makes React application development easy. It also helps in high performance.

Pros and Cons of React

Why a new technology comes? It is to overcome the drawbacks of the previous one. Every technology has some negatives and positives so as React. Find out about the pros and cons of the React Native framework in the space below.

When and Why You Should Use React?

App development is a long process because developers have to focus on various things and research thoroughly. A complete app takes around 3-6 months to get ready. If you are thinking of React app development, it can be yours in a short time. It is because most businesses choose React to save tremendous time and cost for impeccable and interactive user interfaces.

So, if you want to develop web applications with effective user interfaces go for React. A lower level of the algorithm makes it easy for the developers to write every line of code. React developers use interactive elements for effective web applications. Many enterprises compare React with Angular. If you are confused about which technology to choose, read why developers select React over Angular.

Bootstrap vs React: A Detailed Comparison for Web Development

How will you find accurate information about Bootstrap vs react? Some criteria set by our professional developers will make the process easy for you. So that you can understand the difference between both technologies effectively.

Meanwhile, have a look at the image below. It shows 25.9% of websites use Bootstrap and only 4.0% use React. You can check out the percentage of websites broken down as per ranking.

Source

Now move ahead to know a detailed comparison of Bootstrap and React. Here is the list of criteria to make the process of understanding differences easy.

1. Performance Comparison
2. Scalability
3. Application Architecture
4. Ease of Testing
5. User Experience
6. Security
7. Learning Curve
8. Development Speed
9. Application Size
10. Hiring Developers

1. Performance Comparison

Since performance is an important criterion, you should read about it first. Whether the project is small or large, the technology you choose should be high performing.

• Bootstrap Performance

When it comes to Bootstrap, developers often complain about its performance. It has a vast library and many resources that were never utilized by developers.
Unnecessary features and libraries slow down the speed of the Bootstrap platform. However, extensive customization features help in the app’s performance. You can use the source code instead of using the entire library to reduce the bulk on the website.

If you follow the best practices, it will generate a lower full loading time of 2.1 seconds for a page size of 1.3 MB. Moreover, using workarounds like compressing images, and CDN for high performance, and moving the server closer to the audience are the best practices.

• React Performance

React is a lightweight framework for building user interactions. The latest react versions are high performing than Bootstrap. The component-based framework works in a fine functional manner.

You can build robust single-page applications with React.

Frontend technologies like React remove the code clutter. It has reduced DOM manipulation that speeds up the page loading speed. An entire page doesn’t reload whenever necessary changes

happen to the page. You need to do only some practice for developing responsive mobile-first websites on React.

2. Scalability

Scalability is crucial to handle huge data or traffic on the application or website. Software should be capable of evolving as per your business needs.

• Bootstrap Scalability

Bootstrap is a mobile-first framework and is used for building scalable websites. You can create responsive website content with the help of Bootstrap. It means the content can go up and down as per the browser and application screen size.

The technology removes cross-browser bugs and compatibility issues. It can alter the content according to the screen size. So, whether you are developing an app for mobile, desktop, or website, there is a uniformity of user interface.

• React Scalability

React is a JavaScript-based library. So developers can use traditional ways to write codes easily. Many developers use React to build scalable user interfaces. They use the concept of virtual DOM and component reusability for a scalable product.

3. Application Architecture

A flexible and simple-to-use technology makes the development process easy. Using a framework as a guide, not a method or standard, will give you the best results.

• Bootstrap Architecture

Bootstrap architecture is a view-view-controller architecture because it uses two components-A Logic layer and a View layer. The View focuses on visual displays whereas the View Controller controls all the visual components’ behavior within the framework. The logic layer has twelve components while the View layer has only six modules. In web application development the framework will serve as the view component.

• React Architecture

React doesn’t have a built-in architecture pattern. The View layer of React is made up of React components. However, these components are effective when you want to build an app with limited functionality and scope. However, rapid rendering and rapid development are possible in React because of external libraries like Flux, MobX, RefluX, and others. You can also read about the top React libraries and frameworks in our blog.

4. Ease of Testing

Technology should provide easy ways to find bugs and errors. Easy testing saves time and effort. Let’s find out how easy is the testing in Bootstrap and React technologies in the space below.

• Bootstrap Testing

For the testing of Bootstrap mobile apps external plugins and compatible tools are used because of the lack of internal components. Moreover, you can eliminate cross-browser components that are reusable.

It happens because of a single coding component. It requires no repetition. You can find out about the application’s consistency and uniformity across different browsers.

• React Testing

A development process becomes easy because of test runners of React. Some examples of test runners are Jest and Mocha. They help in generating test suits that make the process of identifying bugs easy for developers. It has many benefits like a shorter time to market, speeding up the deployment of apps, and more.

5. User Experience

The best user experience is an important element that every enterprise wants in its website. When we compare Bootstrap with React we get crucial information. A meaningful user experience defines the customer’s journey of accessing a site.

• Bootstrap User Experience

Bootstrap framework provides consistency across all platforms. Responsive designs, uniformity in features, and flawless functions on any type of browser and platform give an incredible user experience. Bootstrap UI HTML Kits like Get shit done, shards dashboard Lite react, and stream are helpful.

• React User Experience

Most developers use React because of its fast rendering and high-quality user interface. The rich user interfaces and high-performing functions of React make it the most popular framework among developers. You can incorporate buttons, forms, text boxes, and others very well in React apps.

6. Security

The best security practices make an app or website robust. Since the cases of data breaches and online threats are increasing, robust software is necessary. Read about Bootstrap vs React and understand the differences based on security.

• Bootstrap Security

A security vulnerability is a common thing, but if a platform is prone to it more than normal, there is an issue. Bootstrap is prone to XSS vulnerabilities. Some updated versions also have this type of issue. Tooltip data viewport attribute, data target property, data-target attribute, and affix configuration target property, are some vulnerability threats.

Insufficient validation of user-supplied input is responsible for the vulnerabilities. However, developers can come out of this problem using JavaScript sanitizer. It allows whitelisted HTML elements in the data attribute. You can audit security reporting workflows with the help of a content security policy.

• React Security

Unfortunate but true that React apps are more prone to threats like SQL injections, server-side rendering attacks, and XSS vulnerabilities. You can implement measures to secure your app from all these threats or some selected threats. It will not only let you secure your app from exploiting script injection flaws but also serialize the JavaScript module.

7. Learning Curve

A shallow learning curve of a programming language helps developers to understand the language easily and effectively. An organization has to figure out whether the developers need training or not. Let’s read about the learning curve of Bootstrap vs React frameworks.

• Bootstrap Learning Curve

If you are well-versed in HTML and CSS frameworks you will not have to struggle to learn Bootstrap. You should be aware of CSS classes and other basic features of the framework to learn Bootstrap fast.

The extensive documentation of Bootstrap makes it quick and easy for building web applications. Moreover, you can get learning guides from a large community of developers.

• React Learning Curve

If you have experience with the JavaScript library, React is easy to learn. The Workflow and architecture of React are easy to understand for developers who know the basics of React. The concepts of API structures and data flow in JavaScript have a shorter learning curve. It makes adding a new member to a team easy whenever needed.

8. Development Speed

If you have a low time to market, you need to choose a technology that is helpful in rapid development. It is crucial for a team to complete the project on time so that the client can use it as soon as possible for his business. Let’s find out, how the development speed of Bootstrap and React differs.

• Bootstrap Development Speed

The extensive documentation of the front-end framework helps to understand the Bootstrap components effectively. This way, developers can easily and quickly build an application. You require basics of coding, and knowledge of several class components. Moreover, an understanding of markup language and CSS help in the rapid development of Bootstrap.

• React Development Speed

Skilled resources who have worked on many projects can build React applications in a short time. Many project managers select React for the team for faster and more productive results. Various businesses have their projects completed with this technology for good development speed.

9. Application Size

The type of framework you use decides the size of the application. It also depends on your requirements for the application. Let’s know about Bootstrap vs React differences based on their application sizes.

• Bootstrap Application Size

Bootstrap application size depends on the content, design, and presentation. 49MB is the size of a simple application in JavaScript while 137MB is the CSS file size. Developers need to be careful about the unnecessary libraries that bulk up an app. If you downloaded the Bootstrap source code and minimized the presentation images, it will reduce the site’s weight.

• React Application Size

Since React is not a fully featured framework like Angular, it makes smaller applications than other frameworks. You can find the size of an existing React app using the Web pack-bundle-analyzer.

10. Hiring Developers

Bootstrap vs React comparison is incomplete without knowing about the development team, who is on the team, how to hire developers, and the cost of developers.

• Hiring Bootstrap Developers

It is easy to hire Bootstrap developers because it is a popular platform for building web applications. It is adopted by startups and established companies worldwide. A large community of developers makes it easy for businesses to find a development team. A Bootstrap developer costs $45-$55/hour in the USA. You can hire Bootstrap developers from one of the leading software development companies Technource.

• Hiring React Developers

Since React is based on JavaScript so hiring JavaScript developers is far easier than Bootstrap. React developers can build interactive web applications in a short time. They use React components that update the underlying user interface. A React developer costs around $35-$40/hour.

Bootstrap or React: Which Is A Better JavaScript Framework?

The selection of the right framework depends on various factors. Many of them you have read in this blog. If you are clear about the business model, type of app you want, features, and most importantly, differences between Bootstrap and React, you can decide which platform would be the best choice for your app.

If you are going to hire developers make sure you read this blog thoroughly. So that you can decide on the most suitable technology, the cost of development, and many other things related to Bootstrap vs React to make the right decision.

Wrapping Up

I hope now you can decide which technology is suitable for your application. Read the blog thoroughly to clear all your doubts. If still, you face problems and need suggestions and any consultation, contact the world-class experts of Technource. They will guide you and answer all your questions related to application and website development.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does React stand out in terms of performance?

The concept of virtual DOM makes React a powerful library to build a high-performing application. React is lightweight, therefore also it stands out in terms of performance.

Which one is more popular Bootstrap or React?

Bootstrap is more popular than React. It has a large community of developers and requires fewer coding skills than React.

What kind of architecture does Bootstrap support?

Bootstrap supports View-View-Controller architecture.

How convenient is it to maintain code in React apps?

React code is easy to maintain because it is lightweight and flexible due to its modular structure.

How good is the learning curve of Bootstrap for developers?

Bootstrap has a little learning curve. But you need to know the basics of HTML and CSS to learn Bootstrap quickly.