Why The Hate ❇ React
Jun 8, 2024 ∙ Updated Jan 11, 2026
First of all, I can’t say that I hate React, as hate is a strong emotion. However, I don’t cherish it either; it’s definitely not the most fun-to-work-with framework/technology. I’ve interacted with React, Next.js and React Native through Expo in many, many projects where getting results, building a product was the only justification to endure the React ecosystem.
It breaks, maybe not often but if you are away from the codebase for 2 weeks, good luck. It definitely doesn’t help with boilerplate, and the antics of writing an “application”.
Let’s see what people say:
React is not “simple and lightweight” but primitive and dumb.
Indeed the basics are easy to learn, but try to do anything meaningful and you’ll find yourself installing dependencies, trying and throwing them away by the dozen.
Over the past few years, React continues to experience breaking changes to the most basic of framework components, such as routing. It’s concerning when you still have not figured out routing/state after a decade.
React projects always run the risk of becoming highly disorganized.
The syntax is terrible, it’s like learning new javascript and new CSS and new HTML. Starting with inline styles to little different things like onClick, that makes it hard to remember those small changes.
Even good code is sort of ugly. This has no impact, other than on your aesthetic feelings. Some other libraries/frameworks feel like art or feel very disciplined while ReactJS feels like a frat party. It’s just crass.
I don’t want a tool. I want a philosophy. A philosophy that makes development easier, faster, and requires me to make less decisions. So I can focus on my idea.
Can’t find a single React-TypeScript-MobX tutorial or github that is not broken due to library changes.
A developer who uses React is one step away from a Wordpress blogger.
React is the epitome of what’s wrong with all front-end development these days, a tornado of libraries, driven by hype, and every-time you complain about anything, some asshole will just recommend another library for you.
… how because of React’s sheer popularity, newcomers learn it before they properly learn the web platform.