Ten Years of React
React, the user interface library developed and maintained by Meta, turns ten years old on May 29. In that time, it has become one of the most widely used open source projects in software development and a defining influence on how modern interfaces are built across the web and native platforms.
The library's longevity comes from its flexibility. React functions not just as a component library but as a broader platform that underpins a large share of applications on the web and beyond. Its design has raised the baseline for UI development across the industry, pushing forward patterns that many other frameworks have since adopted.
For teams building on top of React, the library has also served as a foundation for further tooling. Next.js, for example, grew directly out of ideas shaped by React's model of UI composition, and the library continues to inform decisions about building performant, scalable web experiences.
A Community Effort
React's success is not only a product of the core team at Meta. Over the past ten years, a large number of individual contributors and community members have shaped the project, from documentation and design to feature development and ecosystem tooling.
As the library enters its second decade, the focus shifts to what comes next. The trajectory of the last ten years—marked by continuous evolution in rendering, concurrency, and server-side capabilities—sets the stage for the next wave of innovation in interface development. The foundations laid by React's first decade remain central to how developers will build the next generation of applications.
