Learning React in 2025 isn't as easy as it used to be. While React enjoyed a period of stability following the release of Hooks in 2019, the landscape is shifting once again—this time, potentially more drastically. In this article, I'll compare two approaches to learning React in 2025: the library-first approach and the framework-first approach.
To put things more into context: The new React documentation released in 2023, recommends using React within a fully integrated framework. It advocates for a (meta) framework like Next.js rather than treating React as a standalone library within a bundler like Vite or Parcel. In 2025, the documentation was overhauled again to provide a more nuanced perspective on React's usage as a library or framework.
My approach has been to ease this transition by continuing to recommend a broader range of React starters before fully integrated frameworks become the default. There's still value in exploring different ways to get started with React before committing to a full-stack solution.
"We have come full circle ..."
Who hasn't heard this phrase from senior developers, mocking the inevitable shifts in technology? Yes, we create, we learn, we adapt. That's how it has always been. It's the nature of the feedback loop.
Developers say the same about the current state of web development. From roughly 2000 to 2010, we built web applications as server-side applications (SSR -- server-side rendering and routing) in PHP, Java, C#, and later Ruby on Rails. Over time, more and more JavaScript (via jQuery, MooTools, Dojo, etc.) was introduced to enhance client-side UX.
Around 2010, the tide shifted toward client-side applications (CSR -- client-side rendering and routing), commonly referred to as single-page applications (SPAs). These emerged as full-fledged JavaScript solutions:
- First generation: Backbone, Knockout, Ember, Angular
- Second generation: React, Vue
- Third generation: Svelte
- Fourth generation: Solid, Qwik
Today, some argue that SPAs were a historical misstep in web development.
However, I'd argue that SPAs have their place. They were a necessary step in the context of history for JavaScript (and later TypeScript) to evolve into full-fledged web application frameworks. They also laid the groundwork for the eventual return of SSR with JavaScript/TypeScript on the server. The underlying tech (e.g. missing HTTP streaming) had previously prevented us from fully realizing this approach until now.
React on the Server
Anyway, this status quo of web applications as SPAs reigned roughly for 10 years ...
The circle closes now, because we are going back to SSR with React and many other frameworks, each of them (Vue, Svelte, Solid, Qwik, Angular) influencing one another.
While many none native JavaScript developers are mocking this transition as "just going back to how it has always been" (see 2000 - 2010) or "JavaScript is inventing PHP", they miss all the improvements (e.g. performance with partial/selective hydrations, server components, resumability, islands) compared to the previous circle.
It's JavaScript (better: TypeScript) as first-class citizen for SSR web applications.
It will be the next decade of how we implement web applications ...
... before AI takes over (tongue in cheek).
But enough rambling about why this will be the inevitable next stage of web development. Let's speak React and how to learn it in these turbulent waters.
Learning React as a Library
From its release on, React has been used as a library for nearly a decade. React developers have been using it with many complementary libraries from a rich ecosystem. React Router was one of these popular synergies, because it enabled client-side routing for React in a world of SPAs.
Most of the learning material for React out there teaches it as a library. The new React documentation does it, the most read React book called The Road to React does it, and many other online tutorials, videos, and courses.
When it comes to learning React as a library, you will not be distracted from a framework. You can fully focus on learning React's fundamentals with ...
- Elements vs Components
- React Hooks
- Custom Hooks
- Function Components
- Event Handlers
- Forms
- Refs
- Conditional Rendering
- Props
- ...
... before integrating complementary third-party libraries like React Testing Library, Drag and Drop or Styled Components (or any other React styling solution).
Usually you will learn React with a bundler like Vite. While the bundler disappears in the background, you will learn how to create a client-side routed/rendered SPA with React.
These days many React beginners are unsure about learning React as a library though, because the current narrative tells us about frameworks. While I agree that one potential way forward will be fully-integrated frameworks, you are not learning anything wrong when focusing on React and its fundamentals first.
Beginners will also not miss out on SSR, because that's just another skill on top. There will also be plenty of React jobs with applications running without a framework. In the future you may be blessed having the historical knowledge of how to create client-side applications which consume remote tRPC/REST/GraphQL APIs. It will be a fundamental skill -- especially working with APIs.
Learning React as a Framework
Going forward React will immerse as a library providing essential building blocks to frameworks. While developers have been able to always use React's features in the past themselves, it will not be this way moving towards a future of React as a framework.
For example, React Server Components heavily integrate into routing and data fetching. While frameworks will implement this architectural building block against a well-defined specification provided by React itself, the day to day React developer will only use them as a feature provided by the framework, because they are not expected to implement them against a specification themselves.
And for a good reason, because we want the framework to deal with the details while React developers can focus on implementing the actual business logic of their domain.
When learning React as a framework, the biggest bet would be learning Next.js. It comes with file-based routing, many rendering techniques (CSR, SSG, ISR, SSR) with SSR as the first-class citizen, built-in image, SEO, and font support. It also comes as close as it gets to using React as a framework, because the Next team heavily collaborates with React team on features like React Server Components. In addition, several React core developers are now working for Vercel (Next.js) now.
Learning React as a library or framework does not have to be an exclusive decision. Here comes my recommendation for React beginners:
Learn React as a framework while not neglecting its fundamentals as a library. For example, you could get started with React as a framework. Most likely you will implement a route transition from page to page first with a framework like Next. This feature is fully provided by the framework and not React itself. However, once you touch React fundamentals like Hooks, it's always a good incentive to come back to React's fundamentals as a library.
One way of learning React in 2025: Take React's documentation next to Next's documentation for implementing an application about a domain which interests you (e.g. sports, anime, gaming, e-commerce, productivity, music).
You will start with Next's documentation. But whenever you hit a React fundamental, come back to React's documentation. Focus on where the both entities (framework and library) meet and which tools they provide you.
If you want to learn React's fundamentals with a complementary learning resource on the side, check out a course, video, or a book (e.g. The Road to React). These may offer a different perspective on React as a library and its fundamentals.
