Bootstrap is sometimes referred to as an open-source front-end toolkit, whereas Reactjs is a JavaScript library for building UI. Bootstrap has gained so much popularity in recent years and has become a great competition against React with an emerging market share of Bootstrap. 

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Both frameworks have their different features, characteristics, and qualities. The most crucial question is, "Which among the frameworks is the optimal framework for your project?"

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We have developed a comprehensive guide on Bootstrap vs. React and a comparison of the principal criteria that would let you choose the most suitable framework for your web application development.

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"Bootstrap vs. React" has been an intense debate for quite some time. Organizations torn between the two front-end technologies would benefit from a side-by-side comparison of all the parameters. This comprehensive discussion of Bootstrap vs. React covers the top parameters that will help businesses pick the best framework for their app development.

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What is Bootstrap?

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Bootstrap was an open-source product launched on GitHub in August 2011 and is currently the most adopted CSS, HTML, and JavaScript framework for building mobile-friendly and responsive websites.

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Additionally, Bootstrap is free to download and use. Typically, it is a front-end framework for faster and easier web development. Bootstrap builds upon CSS and HTML-based design templates for tables, forms, modals, buttons, navigation, and more.

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Using JavaScript plugins, Bootstrap allows developers to create responsive designs.

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What is React?

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Developed in 2011, React can be described as a perfect JavaScript library built to help developers create user interfaces. Its creator used to work at Facebook as a software engineer, where he developed React to support Facebook's newsfeed.

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While Facebook still uses this library, most users frequently use React as a platform to create SPAs or mobile applications.

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React Vs. Bootstrap

The comparison between Bootstrap and React is crucial for developers when choosing the right tool for front-end development.

Bootstrap, a popular CSS framework, offers a range of pre-designed components and a responsive grid system to quickly build visually appealing websites. React, on the other hand, is a powerful JavaScript library focused on building interactive user interfaces with reusable components.

This section explores the key differences and advantages of both, helping you decide which one best suits your project needs.

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When and why You Should Use Bootstrap?

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Over 12 million websites are built using Bootstrap, making it ideal for creating aesthetically useful front-end apps.

• ‍Rapid Development: Developers with an introductory knowledge of CSS or HTML can develop an application quickly.
• ‍Easy To Use: Bootstrap's primary audience is beginners, unlike other frameworks built for more expert coders. 
• ‍UI Components: Bootstrap provides a vast range of user interface components ideal for developers to create valuable front-ends.
• ‍Responsiveness: Bootstrap is ideal for building responsive websites that quickly adapt to multiple browsers and platforms.
• ‍Grid System: Because of its use of Flexbox, the responsive grid system in Bootstrap is the most adopted and valuable for developers. Column alignment, rowing, and numbering are made responsive for all screen sizes by the grid system. 

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When and Why You Should Use React?

• ‍Form A Complex UI: Developers can combine distinct user interface elements from a web page into a single unit to create a sophisticated user interface.
• ‍Quicker Reloads: Reactjs is more efficient in updating data on a web page, which makes it ideal for building dynamic websites where the displayed data needs to change regularly. 
• ‍Codes Are Easy To Debug: When one component is changed, development and QA teams can be guaranteed that the rest of the app's features will continue to function because each component on a page is independent and can be changed easily without affecting the others.

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Performance Comparison

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Considering the performance factor while developing complex and more extensive projects becomes essential. Therefore, let's closely look at the comparison between both frameworks in terms of performance.

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The user-centric ease of creating websites and developing applications makes Bootstrap unique. But, one has to watch it closely when it comes to performance. Sometimes developers prefer to avoid this framework due to its vast library and unutilized resources, which leads to slower performance.

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The performance of React apps is faster and better than Bootstrap, a lightweight performance in user experience with individual components working in an exemplary functional manner.

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Reacts' component-based architecture enables the development of robust single-page apps while code reusability removes clutter and reduces DOM manipulation, speeding up page loading.

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Application Architecture

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It is essential to go for flexibility while choosing a framework to avoid any strict enforcement of architecture and guidelines. A framework is more of a guide than methods and standards. Let's compare Bootstrap vs. React to see how flexible these frameworks in terms of architecture are.

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Bootstrap's architecture relies on using two components for building the Logic Layer and the View Layer; the views component focuses explicitly on the visual displays, and the view controller defines the visual components' behavior within the framework. 

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Unlike other libraries and frameworks, React does not have a predetermined built-in architecture. The internal architecture of React is based upon components that work as functions that render the user interface as the data changes, in a continuous interaction between user actions and the state of the application components.

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Ease Of Testing

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Your app development project requires a series of tests to guarantee compliance with the UI standards, compatibility, and usability to avoid glitches under any circumstances like high load or growing market expectations. Let's see how these two frameworks stand out in terms of testing.

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Since there are no internal components within Bootstrap for running tests, third-party plugins and compatible tools can be used for testing Bootstrap apps or websites. The perks of using this framework are that it eliminates cross-browser bugs due to its single reusable coding component and requires no repetition.

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Reactjs provides key test runners, and the development process becomes more manageable with the help of these tools. Popular test runners' like Jest, Mocha, and more allow QA teams to identify issues in actual browser environments.

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Scalability

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Frameworks influence the scalability of the web application significantly. So, it is essential to choose the proper framework. Let's see how these frameworks stand out in terms of scalability.

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Bootstrap is a mobile-first development framework, so one can rely on this framework for developing scalable websites and applications. With Bootstrap, responsive website content can be scaled up or down based on the user's browser, application, or screen. 

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Since React apps are built on javascript, developers can count on traditional ways to organize the code to make the project more scalable. React is an outstanding framework for building scalable UIs according to virtual DOM and component reusability.

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Suitability For Building Complex Applications

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Official documents, third-party libraries, guidelines, plugins, and open-source projects are offered by both Bootstrap and React for the support of developers during the development process. Let's compare Bootstrap vs. React in terms of developing complex applications.

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Being amongst the popular HTML/CSS/JS front-end frameworks, Bootstrap quickly passes off for developing complex applications.

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The framework offers a variety of in-built components, themes, templates, themes, and other resources that are useful during the development process depending on the project's requirements.

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React js supports the development of highly interactive single-page applications. Also, it provides support from external server-side rendering architecture such as Flux, Redux, and SSR frameworks like Next.js. 

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Security

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The implementation and compliance with security controls within an organization are guided by technology and framework. Hence, it is vital to offer best practices for building a secure app. Let's now compare Bootstrap vs. React in terms of the security provided by them.

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Security vulnerabilities are widespread in front-end frameworks, and Bootstrap also falls on the list that is prone to threats. Specifically, Bootstrap is prone to XSS vulnerabilities through the data-target attribute, and this issue was reported earlier by the developers, even with the updated versions.

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The applications that are React-based are more prone to threats like XSS vulnerabilities, SQL injections, Server-side rendering attacks, and a few more. Now it ultimately is in the hands of developers to implement the best practice that will protect your app from such security threats.

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User Experience

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Another essential element for selecting the correct framework for your project is the user experience it will offer. Let's compare Bootstrap vs. React in terms of the user experience provided by them.

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Twitter Bootstrap aims at being a web-responsive front-end framework to provide a standardized and best user experience. The responsive design of the framework offers web users, viewers, and developers consistency across all platforms which will help you to increase the trust and boost the value of your application. 

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React applications offer a high-quality user interface and fast rendering of web pages, making them more likely to be adopted by users. React apps offer smooth third-party integrations and user experience.

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Rapid Development

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There are projects where we need to consider Low Time to Market, so we need to select a framework that offers rapid development. Let's see how Bootstrap and React compare in terms of rapid developments.

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The front-end framework is famous for quickly developing applications and saving time with the help of its extensive documentation. Bootstrap is development-friendly, and its libraries consist of several class components that make it a framework that does not require coding knowledge to develop the applications.

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The Bootstrap implementation requires a basic understanding of the markup language HTML and styling basics like CSS preprocessors.

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React requires in-depth knowledge when designing the router system, defining configurations, and a general problem-solving approach at various stages of the project lifecycle. You will find React more quickly and efficiently if you have a skillful resource team with experience on several projects.

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You will get excellent results using React if you aim for short-term goals.

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Application Size

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The framework you choose affects the application. If the project is large, then the size of the app should dominate the framework's scope. Let's differentiate between Bootstrap vs. React in terms of application size.

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The supplication sizes of Bootstrap vary according to the content of the design and presentation. A comprehensive and straightforward Bootstrap application could have a minimum footprint regarding the file size of JavaScript and CSS files.

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React is just a library, not a featured front-end framework like Angular. From this point of view, it should make an application smaller than those frameworks, but the app sizes of React are even bigger comparatively. 

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Code Maintainability

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The framework that you select should be easy to maintain and adapt. For any application development, the term maintainability refers to the ease provided to the developers in analyzing the code and moving ahead to fix any errors, thus offering the correct functionality. 

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Bootstrap is a UI framework that helps in developing responsive web applications. The ready-made class components, templates, and utility packages are already available for use without the need to write the code for development. The availability of reusable code omits the rewriting process for separate devices. 

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React's architecture is component-based. It focuses on building UI components, custom functionalities in a user interface, and optimally using logic to build meaningful functionalities.

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Once you start developing your application with React, you are developing functional and individual code snippets. These code snippets are reusable to other applications and different modules of the application.

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Learning Curve

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The organizations understand the time frame required for the project development with the aid of a learning curve. It helps the developers to become proficient in the given framework. Let's differentiate between Bootstrap and React in terms of a learning curve.

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Bootstrap provides a developer-friendly framework. A slight learning curve exists for developers with more experience with CSS and HTML basics. The task becomes easy by learning about the CSS classes and Bootstrap components.

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Also, it uses an entirely different approach than other frameworks, i.e., developing mobile-centric applications, and developers may have to adapt to the new style.

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Developers having experience with Javascript can quickly learn React. It takes very little time for experienced developers to learn about the workflow and architecture of React because of their thorough understanding of API structures and data flow in Javascript.

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Short learning makes establishing a team easier, as any beginner or experienced developer can join the team. 

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Examples of websites using Bootstrap or React

Here are examples of well-known websites built using Bootstrap and React:

Websites using Bootstrap

• Twitter: Initially developed by Twitter, Bootstrap is still used for responsive design and consistent UI elements.
• Spotify: Leverages Bootstrap for its clean, responsive design across devices.
• LinkedIn: Uses Bootstrap for layout and UI consistency, especially in its web interface.

Websites using React

• Facebook: Developed by Facebook, React is a core part of its web interface for dynamic and fast UI updates.
• Netflix: React powers Netflix’s user interface for a seamless and responsive viewing experience.
• Airbnb: Uses React to create an interactive and fluid user experience on its platform.

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Bootstrap or React: which is a better Javascript framework?

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Bootstrap and React frameworks are high in demand and close competitors when designing and customizing the best UI for web applications. React is a component-based framework, whereas Bootstrap is a template-based front-end framework that provides ready-made templates for building applications. You can choose the best framework per your project requirements, considering the unique features and facilities provided by both.

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Need help deciding on the best framework for your application's development? Drop us a line!

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