JH Logo

Creating a React App: Vite vs CRA

5min
Creating a React App: Vite vs CRA

Creating a React App

When starting a new React project, developers often turn to Create React App (CRA) due to its simplicity and ease of use. However, a new contender, Vite, has been gaining traction for its speed and modern build features. Let's explore both tools, their pros and cons, and why Vite might be the better choice for your next project.

Introduction to Create React App (CRA)

Create React App is a popular tool developed by Facebook that sets up a new React project with zero configuration. It bundles a development server, build scripts, and a comprehensive set of defaults to get you up and running quickly.

Introduction to Vite

Vite, developed by Evan You (the creator of Vue.js), is a next-generation front-end tool that emphasizes speed and performance. It offers a fast development server, optimized build process, and a modern approach to handling dependencies.

Pros and Cons of Create React App (CRA)

Pros:

  1. Ease of Use: CRA abstracts away complex configurations, making it ideal for beginners.
  2. Comprehensive: Includes a range of features out of the box, such as testing, linting, and service workers.
  3. Community Support: Widely used with extensive documentation and community resources.

Cons:

  1. Performance: CRA can be slower, especially for large projects, due to its reliance on Webpack.
  2. Limited Flexibility: Customizing the configuration requires ejecting, which makes future updates harder.
  3. Dependency Bloat: CRA includes many dependencies that might not be necessary for all projects.

Pros and Cons of Vite

Pros:

  1. Speed: Vite's development server is significantly faster, leveraging ES modules and native browser support.
  2. Modern Build Tools: Uses Rollup for production builds, resulting in smaller and more efficient bundles.
  3. Flexible Configuration: Easily customizable without needing to eject, allowing for tailored setups.

Cons:

  1. Less Mature: Vite is newer and might lack some of the extensive community support and plugins available for CRA.
  2. Learning Curve: Developers accustomed to CRA might need to adjust to Vite’s different approach and configuration style.

Why Choose Vite?

Superior Performance

Vite’s hot module replacement (HMR) is almost instant, providing a seamless development experience. The initial server start time and file reloads are significantly faster compared to CRA, which enhances productivity.

Modern Development Experience

Vite takes advantage of modern browser capabilities and ES modules, which simplifies the development process and reduces the overhead traditionally associated with bundling.

Flexibility and Customization

With Vite, you can easily extend and customize your configuration without the need for ejecting. This flexibility makes it suitable for both small projects and large, complex applications.

Creating a React App with Vite

Compatibility Note

Vite requires Node.js version 18+ or 20+. However, some templates require a higher Node.js version to work; please upgrade if your package manager warns about it.

To quickly set up a new React app using Vite, you can choose one of the following methods:

Method 1: Create Project with Prompts

Create a New Vite Project: Open your terminal and run:

1npm create vite@latest
2# or
3yarn create vite
4# or
5pnpm create vite
Copy

This command will prompt you to enter the project name and select a framework. Follow the prompts to complete the setup.

Method 2: Create Project with Template

Create a New Vite Project: Open your terminal and run:

1# npm 7+, extra double-dash is needed:
2npm create vite@latest my-react-app -- --template react-ts
3# or
4yarn create vite my-react-app --template react-ts
5# or
6pnpm create vite my-react-app --template react-ts
Copy

You can use . for the project name to scaffold in the current directory.

Conclusion

While Create React App remains a solid choice for React development, Vite offers compelling advantages in terms of speed, modern tooling, and flexibility. For developers seeking a more performant and customizable setup, Vite is the superior choice. Its modern approach aligns with the evolving front-end ecosystem, making it an excellent tool for contemporary web development.

By choosing Vite, you can enjoy a faster, more efficient development experience that scales effortlessly from small projects to large applications, setting a new standard for front-end tooling.

Back to Blog