React, React, React

2025-09-01

Everywhere I look these days, React seems to be the go-to technology. And the more I’ve explored it, the more I understand why.

For work, I want to be able to quickly create web applications, desktop apps, and eventually mobile apps for my company. React feels like the common thread that ties all of these together.

React on the Web

On the web, React powers Next.js, which has quickly become my framework of choice. I like how it uses React across the stack: from rendering pages on the server, to client-side interactivity, to API routes for backend logic. It’s opinionated, but in a good way—pushing me toward clarity, consistency, and maintainability.

With Next.js, I can build ecommerce sites, dashboards, or internal tools, and have them ready for deployment on Vercel within minutes. That speed of iteration is exactly what I need in a business environment where ideas and requirements change quickly.

React on the Desktop

Desktop apps have always been trickier. In the past, I’d worked with older tech like Windows Forms, which got the job done but didn’t exactly inspire excitement.

Now, with tools like Electron (Node.js) or Wails (Go), I can bring React and modern web technologies into desktop apps. They’re automatically cross-platform, and they look so much better than the dated UIs I was used to.

It’s exciting to think that the same component-driven logic I use on the web can also be applied to internal desktop tools that run on Windows, macOS, and Linux without any extra effort.

React on Mobile

And then there’s React Native. Once you’ve picked up the React mindset, it translates naturally into mobile development.

I can see React Native being useful in two main ways:

  • Ecommerce extensions: a companion mobile app for an online store, cross-platform from day one.
  • Internal tools: mobile apps for the company I work for, making data and processes accessible anywhere.

The idea of reusing skills, patterns, and even chunks of code across web, desktop, and mobile feels incredibly powerful.

React in the Console

Even the command line isn’t off limits. With the Ink package, React can power console applications that look and feel far beyond basic text scripts.

Ink lets you write CLI apps using JSX and React components, rendering text, lists, tables, and interactive prompts inside the terminal. It feels familiar—state, props, and hooks all work the same way—but the output is ASCII instead of HTML.

That opens up the possibility of building rich developer tools or automation scripts that don’t just spit out text, but give you interactive UIs right in the terminal. For someone already fluent in React, it’s a surprisingly natural leap.

One Skillset, Endless Possibilities

I don’t know of any other technology or framework that offers such breadth of scope. With React at the core, I can move fluidly between platforms without having to completely relearn new ecosystems every time.

  • Web: Next.js + Vercel
  • Desktop: Electron or Wails
  • Mobile: React Native
  • Console App: Ink

It feels like a unifying layer in modern development.

What’s Next?

For now, I’m doubling down on React—building up my experience not just in writing components, but in designing entire systems that can live across platforms.

It’s not often a single technology spans web, desktop, mobile, and console in a meaningful way, but React does. And that makes it the most exciting part of my developer journey right now.

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