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Before building a React app around an API, decide what platform it serves, how its routes and data fit together, and where it will run. Those choices affect whether a framework can handle routing and rendering for you, which data-fetching tools fit the API, and how much infrastructure you need to maintain. Use these eight decisions to shape the app before its first component grows into an architecture.
1. Should you use a framework or start from scratch?
For a new app or website, React recommends starting with a framework. Frameworks can connect routing, data loading, rendering, code splitting, and deployment rather than leaving you to assemble each pattern. React’s current guide presents Next.js and React Router for web projects, and Expo for projects targeting native Android or iOS as well as web. React’s guide to creating a React app explains the options.
Starting from scratch can make sense when you need a client-only single-page app, have requirements a framework does not suit, or want to learn the underlying pieces. React describes Vite, Parcel, and Rsbuild as build-tool options for this path. They do not supply routing or data fetching by themselves, so plan to choose and maintain those separately. React’s from-scratch guide suggests React Router or TanStack Router for routing.
2. Is the app for the web, native devices, or both?
Set the platform requirement before choosing a framework or data library. A browser-based app and a native mobile app have different runtime and interface needs; a product meant for both may benefit from a framework designed to target those platforms.
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- Web: React’s current guidance points to Next.js and React Router.
- Native Android or iOS, with web also in scope: React points to Expo.
- Web only with a deliberately client-rendered interface: a from-scratch setup is an option, provided you account for routing, data fetching, and other application patterns.
3. What API contract does the backend expose?
Identify the API shape before selecting a client library. For most backends and REST-style APIs, React suggests TanStack Query, SWR, or RTK Query. For GraphQL, it suggests Apollo or Relay. These are alternatives, not a requirement to adopt a particular package: compare them against the backend’s contract and the needs of the app.
Write down what the UI must request and how the API represents it. That gives you a basis for deciding whether to fetch by route, reuse cached responses, and model server data separately from local interaction state.
4. How will loading, errors, caching, and prefetching work?
An API-driven interface needs more than a successful response path. React notes that fetching involves handling loading and error states as well as caching, and that fetching directly inside components can create network waterfalls. A waterfall occurs when one request must finish before another can begin, delaying the data needed by a page. React’s guidance on synchronizing with Effects discusses these fetching pitfalls and alternatives.
Choose where data loading belongs: a framework or router loader can load data as part of navigation, while a client-side data library can manage fetching and reuse cached results. Plan which data should be prefetched when a user is likely to navigate next, and what the interface should show when data is pending or unavailable. The right choice depends on how the app’s routes and data relate; there is no single fetching pattern that fits every app.
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Separate state by purpose instead of putting every value in one global store. React advises keeping state intentional and warns that redundant or duplicate state is a common source of bugs. React’s state-management guide explains how to organize it.
- Server data: information owned by the API, such as records fetched for a page.
- URL state: route parameters and search parameters that should be reflected in a shareable or navigable address.
- Shared client state: client-owned values needed by multiple parts of the interface.
- Local UI state: interaction details used in one component or a small part of the app.
For each value, decide which category it belongs to and whether another value can be derived from it. Avoid maintaining a second copy of API data or UI state without a clear reason.
6. Which rendering model fits the product?
Client rendering, static generation, server-side rendering, and React Server Components solve different needs. React says a framework can support client rendering and static generation, with server rendering applied per route where appropriate. Choose based on how each page needs to be produced, rather than assuming the entire app must use one rendering mode.
Client rendering
The browser renders the interface. This may suit an app whose main experience is interactive after it loads, but the framework and data-loading choices still affect routing, code splitting, and when API requests happen.
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Static generation and server rendering
Static generation produces pages ahead of requests. Server rendering produces them on the server, with the choice available on a per-route basis in framework setups described by React. Consider which routes need server-produced output and whether the deployment environment can support that runtime.
React Server Components
Server Components can run at build time or per request and, in some architectures, access a data layer without a separate API endpoint. They cannot use interactive APIs such as useState; when a page needs client-side interaction, compose Server Components with Client Components. React’s Server Components reference describes these boundaries.
7. How should URLs represent pages and data?
Map the app’s pages and the data each needs before implementing navigation. Decide which information belongs in nested paths, route parameters, and query parameters. For example, a route parameter can identify a particular resource, while query parameters can represent a filter or sort choice that users may want to preserve in a link.
Routing is not just a navigation layer: React connects it with data loading and prefetching, code splitting, and rendering. A route plan can therefore clarify where requests start, which code loads for each page, and whether a page is rendered on the client or server.
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8. Where will the app deploy, and what runtime does it need?
Choose hosting after narrowing the framework and rendering model. React says Next.js can be deployed to Node.js or Docker-capable hosts and also supports static export. Static apps can be deployed to a CDN or static hosting. Match the deployment target to the app’s actual runtime and operational needs rather than assuming one hosting provider is universal. React’s app-creation guide outlines these deployment paths.
Before committing, confirm whether the chosen approach requires a server at request time or can produce static output, and whether the host supports that requirement. This avoids selecting a deployment target that conflicts with the rendering strategy.
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