<span>developments in technology and the ever-growing number of web applications, it has become a necessity to create fast and scalable applications to cater to the current market. There are a plethora of frameworks available for web development, and a developer must choose the most appropriate framework for their use. In this paper, a detailed analysis of the history, prominent features and advantages of React, an open-source JavaScript library is presented. A discussion on React Native, a framework for building native applications is also given. This paper has provided an insight into the reason React is the leading web development framework in the world.</span>