React, an opinionated JavaScript library developed by Facebook, allows for a declarative, component based method of writing user interfaces in JS, through their JSX syntax. Its virtual dom and unidirectional data flow was simple to reason about, and drew in a large community and ecosystem around it to great effect.

Not without its challenges, React has, since 2013, continued to morph and grow with industry trends, and consistently ranks as a top choice for front end development projects.

Working with React can be fast, and the plethora of libraries on npm make finding and integrating additional tools simple and robust.

I adopt React for a lot of my front end builds, particularly headless CMS builds. I also like React for complex UI in products, and on teams, where reusing components can aid in rapid, consistent development.

React is evolving yet again with new features like React Server Components, blurring the line between client and server.