Why is ReactJS an ideal choice for SaaS product development?
React is an open-source, front-end, JavaScript library used for developing engaging and interactive user interfaces. Released in 2013 by Facebook, this front-end library is basically used for creating stateful and reusable UI components. ReactJS helps in creating UI interfaces specifically for SPAs.
ReactJS is popular due to its potential to build the most engaging, efficient, and fast web apps with minimal coding. React is the most preferred front-end framework for building interactive user-interfaces. Its simplicity and focus on user-experience have made React the most-loved framework with over 47,20,492 live websites globally.
Due to its flexibility, faster development process, elevated performance, and simplistic nature, ReactJS has become a trend for SaaS product development in 2021.
Key features of Reactjs that are worth your attention
With ReactJS, the web development process becomes simple and efficient. Check out the top 5 features of ReactJS that lead to a faster app development process.
1. Virtual DOM
Virtual DOM plays a major role in boosting the performance of modern ReactJS web applications. When the state of an object changes in a React application, the Virtual DOM is updated and then compares with its previous state. Only those objects are modified in the real DOM that was the outcome of the comparison between the two states. This feature made things move faster as compared to other front-end technologies.
2. JavaScript Syntax Extension (JSX)
JSX is a syntax extension to JavaScript that is used with React to describe the look and feel of the user interface. It is neither a string nor an HTML. Instead, it embeds HTML into JavaScript code. React with JSX helps in writing HTML structures in the same file that contains JavaScript code. Thus, JSX is responsible to understand and debug the code easily by avoiding the complex JavaScript DOM structures.
3. One-way data binding
A single-way data flow keeps everything modular and fast. On-way data flow means while developing a React app, the developer nests child components within parent components. This helps the developer to track the error, having a better control over the web app.
4. Component-based architecture
Any ReactJS application consists of building blocks known as components, and a single app has multiple components. Each component owns a specific set of logic. Basically, a component is a piece of user interface. The user interface is splitted into independent, reusable parts that are processed separately.
5. React Native
React Native helps in creating native apps with optimal user experience. It creates platform-specific apps that use a single, shareable codebase. React Native offers native components like view, text, and image that map directly to the platform’s native UI building blocks. React is the base abstraction of React Native with all the benefits that are offered by ReactJS.
Due to the similarities between React Native and ReactJS, it results in a seamless transition from web to mobile. Therefore, to validate the app ideas, SaaS companies use React Native to build and launch a quicker MVP.
Business benefits of using ReactJS for developing SaaS products
Let’s dive into the details of how using ReactJS for SaaS product development benefits your business.
ReactJS is a performance booster
While developing SaaS products, it is essential to remember that your SaaS app should carry out multiple functions simultaneously with minimum lag time. Therefore, to improve the SaaS user-experience, the time-saving re-rendering approach is one of the methods that help in reducing the lag time.
Virtual DOM plays a major role in the speed optimization of modern web applications.
Virtual DOM helps in the logical tracking of components that require re-rendering as per the user’s interaction. This further leads to a systematic and efficient allocation of resources leading to a much-reduced lag time.
Virtual DOM eliminates the usage of JQuery and other bootstrapping libraries. With the elimination of code-heavy frameworks, SaaS applications deliver enhanced performance.
Moreover, React helps in creating fabulous and user-friendly front-end designs.
React’s superfast rendering capabilities with such awesome front-ends lures businesses to utilize its services for SaaS app development.
Seamless SEO Integration
The most undeniable fact for online businesses is ‘content is king.’ To boost traffic on your website, SEO is vital. React’s faster-rendering speed reduces the page load time and adapts its performance in real-time based on current user traffic.
Reduction in page loading time is essential as it welcomes more traffic to your website. The more traffic on your website, the more the revenue of your business.
Thus, effective use of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will boost the app’s ranking on Google search.
Simplified Migration
When developers and project managers decide to migrate their existing technological infrastructure to a new one, certain concerns arise regarding the task. The time to migrate, the effort, and the cost required in this process are the major areas of concern.
React is a lightweight framework with JavaScript standards wrapped around, making the life of ReactJS developers easy. Incorporating React code anywhere into the existing infrastructure is quite easy. It doesn’t require shutting down of the system for maintenance and has less dependency.
Faster SaaS application development
The biggest challenge for SaaS application developers is writing the code from scratch with every new project. This hassle of rewriting the code from scratch is resolved with ReactJS’s code reusability feature.
ReactJS has small building blocks called components. When you consult a leading ReactJS development company or hire a ReactJS developer, they can beautifully carve a complex yet efficient and robust SaaS application for your business by mixing and matching these blocks in a stipulated time period.
These components are holding an independent logic. Each component owns a separate set of actions. These components are reusable and avoid the “domino effect”. Domino effect is a term used when codes from different sections get affected by each other.
With such reusable components, SaaS application development becomes quite easier using the ReactJS framework. Another benefit of using ReactJS for developing SaaS products is less expensive and hassle-free app maintenance.
Eases the transition from web to mobile
To gain higher engagement rates, a mobile app is an absolute necessity, even for SaaS applications. To experience a smooth transition from single-page web applications to mobile apps, React Native is well-suited for this purpose.
React Native platform uses JSX syntax. ReactJS developers seamlessly implement mobile-optimized JS components in the native version and continue to develop on them as the foundations of both React Native and ReactJS are the same.
SaaS app development with ReactJS is cost-effective as ReactJS is simpler and lightweight, unlike other complex JS frameworks. Thus, ReactJS leads over its competitors wherein web and mobile app developers require complex knowledge of various syntax for the transition.
Popular SaaS applications crafted with ReactJS
Here’s a list of top 5 popular SaaS applications that have chosen ReactJS for its development.
Netflix
ReactJS proves to be a boon for SaaS apps like Netflix that requires rendering high-definition videos without lag. Netflix processes a huge amount of data regularly without any glitches and is the second-highest bandwidth user worldwide.
So if you’re wondering why Netflix is so fast, ReactJS’s fast rendering feature is the reason behind it that helps in achieving this huge amount of data.
Facebook is behind the formulation of ReactJS. It initially used ReactJS in 2011 for developing its news feed. In 2013, FB made ReactJS open-sourced for public use.
Facebook leverages the competitive features of ReactJS in the news feed, Messenger, Ads, and several other areas in the website. Further, the company utilized the JS library in apps like Instagram and Whatsapp.
DropBox
The main reasons why Dropbox switched to ReactJS was:
- Enhanced reliability
- Faster rendering
- Improved SEO capabilities
Though Dropbox doesn’t require any introduction, this SaaS app is used to store high-quality videos, photos, and other files of millions of users worldwide and the data are accessible immediately from any device. Thanks to ReactJS’s fast performance and data efficiency capabilities.
ReactJS’s features like code components increase the efficiency of code development phenomenally. Undoubtedly, ReactJS has proven to be a boon for this SaaS application that boasts more than 600 million users with managing over 1.2 billion uploads every day.
This popular SaaS application is a well-known platform for photo collection. Pinterest has 200 million active monthly users and is favored mostly for content sharing. ReactJS is used for developing components like pin, follow button and profile widget.
Airbnb
Airbnb is a popular example of ReactJS website. Airbnb is a booking engine for vacation and rental marketplace that offers its users to list, explore, and book accommodations. The front-end of Airbnb’s website is developed using ReactJS because:
- For acquiring customers at a fast pace
- Maintaining quality of code
- Overall user-experience and developer satisfaction
- Supports writing of code only once
Wrapping it up!
While developing a SaaS product, the main requisites are a user-friendly UI and faster performance. Betting on ReactJS for your SaaS app development will not only facilitate these benefits but also, accord your SaaS business app with various advantages for higher customer engagement and revenue.
ReactJS for SaaS will see major adoption in 2021 and is set to become a trend this year though brands like Netflix, Dropbox, Shopify, MailChimp have already sworn in.
Fortunesoft is a leading ReactJS development company that holds expertise in crafting high-end and robust SaaS applications for your business catering to your requirements and goals. If you have an idea and are looking to build a high-performing SaaS app for your business, get in touch with us today!