Not Just Another Routing Library

If you're a developer searching for the next big thing in React routing, you'll want to check out React Router v7 – if you haven’t already. With the Remix team now fully focused on React Router, v7 integrates key features that were once only found in the Remix framework. But what's the fuss all about? What makes React Router v7 special compared to other options in the React ecosystem? Let's take a closer look at its benefits and ideal use cases.

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Fullstack-Like Features Integrated

There are many benefits to using React Router v7. React Router v7 brings many concepts from Remix back into React Router, such as server-side rendering, data loading, and nested routing to ensure an optimised, resilient user experience. Let’s unpack what this means for developers and end users.

First, React Router v7, with the merger of Remix features, is more than just a routing library. It allows you to build both the front-end (the client side) and back-end (the server side) aspects of web applications. As a developer, you will spend less time on switching files and environments, and more on actually developing.

Second, React Router v7 leverages Remix-inspired server-side rendering. Server-side rendering is a process in which the server generates the HTML for a web page rather than the client. In other words, there is a separation of the source code from the content and data. This will improve performance as it separates the flow of sending requests for static assets (such as JavaScript and CSS files). The webpage will be able to function without those assets if needed as well. As a result, your application will load quickly, regardless of the device or platform your user is on.

Because the HTML file is generated by the server, there are also benefits for Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Search engines will be able to already analyse your website’s content beforehand. If you used a framework that did not feature server-side rendering, they would have to fill in the content after the website has been loaded.

React Router v7, now incorporating Remix's strengths, offers a powerful combination of performance and resilience.

Other benefits

Nested routing is another key feature. Using React Router v7, you can create routes that are nested within other routes, which allows your application to be broken down into smaller, more manageable pieces. This makes development easier, because you can focus on one part of the application at a time. Nested routes also make loading and transitioning pages almost instant. React Router v7 can get the required data and assets by analysing the URL, so it does not need to run any code beforehand.

React Router v7, with inspiration from Remix, follows a low-level, standards-based approach. As we like to put it: React Router v7 works with the foundations of the web, not against it. For developers, this means that your elementary knowledge of browsers, and HTML will not go to waste. It also makes it easier to use actions to react to functions, like an HTTP call. From the user’s perspective, React Router v7 uses JavaScript to augment their experience by emulating browser behaviour.

Thanks to dynamic reloading, React Router v7 is also extremely fast and easy to use. React Router v7 automatically updates your application in real-time as you make changes, so you can be sure that you're always working with the latest code. This makes React Router v7 a great choice for developers who want a fast, responsive development experience.

Dynamic reloading means that coding errors will be less frequent, but React Router v7's characteristics also help to make it less prone to errors. Errors are less likely to happen when transmitting data.

React Router v7 is built on top of the latest web technologies and standards, which means that it has been tested and optimised for compatibility with the latest browsers. And when errors do happen, they are easier to solve. React Router v7's error boundaries help to prevent unexpected errors from crashing your entire application.

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Use cases

While React Router v7 offers many benefits, it is certainly not a one-size-fits-all solution. We’ve made quite a few web applications with it, and we think it definitely has its uses. We would recommend React Router v7 for small to mid-sized applications where the user experience (UX) makes the difference. Some great examples of this are webshops and other web applications that have to handle a lot of data.

In general, React Router v7's server-side rendering capabilities make it a great choice for projects that require high performance and fast loading times. Its parallelised loading means that website components can be loaded and shown to your users much quicker. And of course, React Router v7 shines for websites with many pages that rely on dynamic data, such as the webshop example above.

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The Future of React Router v7

All in all, React Router v7 is an excellent choice for developers looking for a robust and feature-rich React routing solution. By integrating the strengths of Remix, it offers superior performance, resilience, and developer experience. We’re excited to see where React Router is heading next!