Knowing These 10 React Libraries Distinguishes the Best Developers

Knowing certain React libraries can simplify some aspects of development and help you distinguish the best developers out of a crowded field of candidates. Since the IT industry is very fast-paced and products are being designed at a lightning-quick tempo, it can be hard to stay on top of every library or framework out there. This is why we would like to share with you some of the best and proven React libraries to date. While our web developers are well versed with many others, here are the ten best libraries that will help you differentiate the experienced specialists.

What is a React Library?

React itself is a JavaScript library used to create mobile and web interfaces. It contains standalone bits of code, called components, that you can combine with other libraries to create all kinds of features and functionalities. Below we have listed ten useful libraries that will contain all components needed to allow you to create the app of your dreams.

1. Lodash

This is a React JavaScript library that makes it a lot easier to work with the code. In fact, Lodash has more than 40,000 stars on GitHub, and it is clear why it is so popular. It provides a lot of modularity, performance and a lot of extras. Lodash is a library that is becoming absolutely indispensable in today’s development environment.

2. React Bootstrap

As you might have already guessed, this library has some bootstrap components that were created with React. If you are not familiar with the term Bootstrap, this is an open-source toolkit for building projects with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. In fact, this is a popular React component library for developers all over the world, so when you are hiring a front-end team, be sure that they are familiar with it.

3. React-i18next

If your product will be available in many different countries and you know that at some point you will need to localize it and make it available in many languages, then this is a good library to use. It has a lot of relevant functions and works well with server-side rendering.

4. React DnD

The letters DnD stand for “drag and drop.” This library is built with the modern HTML5 drag and drop API and can help you create advanced drag and drop interfaces. The visual part of the design is completely up to you. The goal of the library is to create the interface and keep all of the components decoupled.

5. Material UI

Everybody knows about Google’s Material design, right? Well, this library has the components required to implement it. It is trendy in the development community with more than 50,000 stars on GitHub and is considered by many to be the best React UI framework.

6. React Spinners

If you have been disappointed by your spinners in the past, we highly recommend this library. Not only is there a wide selection to choose from, but you can also change the properties to customize them to your taste. While this library is much smaller than some of the others on this list, it could really give the user experience a real boost.

7. Enzyme

This is a React JS library that makes it a lot easier to test assert and change React components. If your team does not have a whole lot of experience with testing React components, this can be a really useful library for you.

8. Create React App

This Create React App library makes it simple to create a React.js project. It has handy features that you will need at the very beginning of the development process to help you create the app much faster. It may save your team a lot of time because it eliminates a lot of manual work involved with setting up and configuring the app.

9. Styled Components

With this CSS tool, you can organize your project. It allows you to build small and reusable components responsible for the visual appearance of your app. Styled Components will work with React native as well. If you do not use this library and choose to develop with traditional CSS, you can run into the issue of overwriting the selectors. With Styled Components, you will not run into this problem.

10. MobX

MobX will help you minimize the number of bugs in the app by allowing you to make sure that everything is automatically extracted. It will save your team a lot of time and hassle since they will have to deal with fewer issues later in the development pipeline.

As we said in the beginning, there are a lot more libraries out there, but these are the ones that your development team should definitely be familiar with. They are also suitable for testing out the knowledge of the developers you plan to hire. If they know which libraries have the necessary components to build the features you are looking for, then they will be an asset to your company.