Skip to main content

Use Create React App

After landing on our decision to use React for this project, we wanted a template to start from that would provide as many sane defaults as possible.

Considered Alternatives​

  • Rolling our own React Setup

Decision Outcome​

Create React App (or CRA) is a well-supported option for application bootstrapping that works on macOS, Windows, and Linux. Still actively maintained by Facebook, CRA spares us from having to set up Webpack and also includes Jest, a popular testing framework, with no additional setup. A React-approved and widely used file structure is immediately created when the app is created, and yarn test is immediately available for automated testing. CRA is well documented and widely used, providing valuable support as the team trains up on React. We can also eject the app if we later decide to change the defaults provided by CRA, so a later change in approach is relatively simple.

Pros and Cons of the Alternatives​

Rolling Our Own React Setup​

  • + Infinitely customizable
  • - Infinitely customizable
  • - Have to make choices we may not be ready to make yet