Introduction

Many great ideas fail because of the underestimation of the total development cost. In short, it looks like this – after talking with an agency or developer, we receive an estimation that looks fine, and we accept it. But later, during the development process, many problems occur, which haven’t been taken into account before by the contractor.

As a result, the cost of development and maintenance consistently rises, and the building process of application is sometimes postponed. At some point, the whole investment becomes uneconomical, which means the suspension of the project.

Then we start looking for a cheaper option, but handing over the code isn’t as simple as it should be. Another possibility is that we change the idea slightly, but adding new functionalities means additional, and sometimes huge cost.

Looking for the solution to this situation may discourage us from finishing the project, so it’s better to think about it before we even start with the development process.

The truth is that building MVP doesn’t have to be as complicated and estimating as well as planning may be much simpler. This article will show you how React, a JavaScript library, makes it easier to plan and build the app, which ultimately leads to reducing the development cost.

What is React?

Long story short, React.js is a JavaScript library used by developers to build user interfaces. It was created and released by Facebook as an open-source framework in 2013. Since then, React has become one of the most loved and wanted frameworks mostly because of its focus on great user experience, development efficiency, and simplicity.

As you can read on the React official website, its three main features are:

Declarative style – creating interactive user interfaces with React is painless because React will automatically update and render just the right components after any update to data.
Component-based architecture – you can start small and then build even complex applications out of simple blocks called components and subcomponents.
“Learn Once, Write Anywhere” rule — you can re-use existing code or components whenever and wherever you need, i.e. to build new features. React can also use Node.js to render on the server and React Native to boost mobile application development.

Best use cases for React

You can build many things with React, but there are some cases where it really shines, and developers can use its full potential. With React, you can build:

Single Page Application (SPA)
Cross-platform mobile applications (with React Native)
Dashboard or Data Visualization tools
eCommerce or retail websites
Enterprise Web Apps
Messaging app
Personal or professional blogs (with Gatsby)
Social network

Factors affecting development cost

Before getting to the bottom line, let’s take a moment to look at the main factors affecting development cost. Among them are:

Project type and size
Complexity of the project
Expected time of completion
Number of custom features and functionalities
Third-party integrations
UI/UX design

React benefits that reduce the development cost

The great thing about React is that it can cut a development cost significantly, and is also able to quite simply explain how it’s going to happen.

Below you will find a list of React benefits that translates into lower development cost.

Faster time to market

With React, you don’t have to build the whole application and spend a lot of time and money doing so. Instead, you can start small by building your MVP quickly, and then develop it over time. It lowers the development cost (as you don’t have to build an app with all features) or at least spreads it over time.

Ready-to-use components

React was built with the component-based approach in mind. In short, React apps consist of single components, which can be divided into subcomponents. Each one of them is responsible for just one small piece of the whole app. What’s more, these components and subcomponents can be reused so developers can build a complex application using simple blocks.

Thanks to it, instead of creating such components from scratch (which means more development time in the payslip), developers can use what is already available.

Reusability

Reusability is not only about ready-to-use components that come with React but also components that developers create in a particular project. This way, they save time because they can use the copy-paste method, and it saves money because it boosts the development process a lot.

Scalability

Thanks to the modularity, it’s easy to scale applications built with React. Start small, i.e. by creating a simple MVP, get feedback about what users really want and then build your app up from there. With React, you can go from MVP to comprehensive Single-Page Application (SPA) like Facebook.

Accelerated setup

Apart from offering ready-to-use components, React also provides a starter kit to build applications called Create React App. It saves you from the time-consuming setup and configuration of the development environment. All developers have to do is to run a single command which will set up tools needed to start building a new project.

Help-on-demand

React is an open-source project started by Facebook with a great number of contributors and a growing community, which also translates into huge popularity. Therefore, if developers are struggling with some coding problems, they can be sure that most of their problems are already solved. Instead of wasting time (and money) trying to solve a riddle, all they have to do is ask or check repositories.

Also, it’s easy to find React developers and hand over a project to them.

Easy to learn and use

Wait a moment before outsourcing the React-based project. If you already have an in-house team of JavaScript developers, it won’t take them long to learn React. And such an option will be a cheaper option than hiring external developers to do the job.

Backward compatibility

Some frameworks require developers to rewrite the code after upgrading the framework to its latest version. Well, not in the case of React. Since the public API remains almost the same every time, it’s easier for React developers to refresh code while using its old pieces. Again, it saves time and money.

Future-proof

It’s a tricky one because it saves you the costs of development in the future. Let me shortly explain how: as React is still evolving, its community is growing and so is demand for it, all these things make React stable and mature technology. Rest assured that it won’t vanish in one or two years.

The thing is actually contrary – in a few years, React will probably still be one of the most popular frameworks used by many businesses and developers. Therefore, you won’t have to worry about your website or application becoming outdated. Consequently, you won’t have to migrate to another framework or technology which would mean additional costs.

How React JS Can Cut a Development Cost?