Best Practices for Building Scalable and Performant React Applications

Use Cases

Use it to inspect props, state, and hooks, and to profile your application's performance in a user-friendly manner.

Drawbacks

As it's a browser extension, it might not be as precise or robust as standalone performance profiling tools.

React.memo()

React.memo() is a higher order component that memorizes the output of a component's render function.

How to use it?

Wrap your component with React.memo() to prevent unnecessary re-renders when the props are unchanged.

Use Cases

Use React.memo() for functional components that render often with the same props, in order to optimize performance.

Drawbacks

It should be used sparingly as overuse can lead to memory bloat and, in turn, impact performance negatively.

Bit.dev

Bit.dev is a component hub that helps in sharing, collaborating, and reusing components across projects.

How to use it?

Install Bit and use it to organize, share, and manage components across different projects.

Use Cases

Use Bit.dev to share components across projects, reducing rework and boosting productivity and React scalability.

Drawbacks

Bit.dev requires a shift in the development mindset to a component-driven architecture, which might be challenging initially.

Why-did-you-render

why-did-you-render is a library that notifies you about potential unnecessary re-renders.

How to use it?

Install the library and set it up in your project. It will log unnecessary re-renders in your console.

Use Cases

Use it during the development phase to catch performance issues early, thereby adhering to React architecture best practices.

Drawbacks

It should be removed in the production build as it can impact performance if left in.

Performance timeline (Browser profiling)

Performance timeline, an integral part of Chrome DevTools, provides detailed information about your application's runtime performance.

How to use it?

Open Chrome DevTools, go to the 'Performance' tab, start the recording, and interact with your application. Chrome will record the operations and present an interactive timeline.

Use Cases

Use it to get a detailed visual representation of where your application is spending its time, such as JavaScript parsing and execution, layout, and painting.

Drawbacks

The Performance timeline can be overwhelming for beginners due to the amount of information presented.

React's Perf

React's Perf is a standalone add-on that provides performance-related insights for your React applications.