Create React App (CRA):
CRA is your best choice when you need to keep things simple and easy, you don’t have to worry about a single thing when using Create-React-App or CRA for short. CRA gives you a React-ready setup that you use to code directly, CRA becomes a perfect choice for anyone who likes keeping things simple.
This sounds too good to be true, Na? Like they always say, if it’s too tempting then there must be some sort of catch as well, so with CRA. The only catch with CRA is that it can become prolonged and laggy as the size of your React app grows. And has longer build time(s) during development. It’s like driving a family car in a race show when you really must be driving a sports car.
But CRA works just fine when you’re working with small-sized apps.
While CRA is super easy to use and set up, it doesn’t offer much room for customization.
CRA has been in the game for a while now, resulting in a large community of developers using it and having an extensive library of supported plugins. This is really helpful when you’re troubleshooting your app.
CRA has a stable and well-established development environment with tools like Jest for testing and some super useful scripts to handle everyday tasks.
Create React App (CRA) uses Webpack as its default bundler. When you run "npm run build" or "yarn build," CRA bundles your React application for production. Webpack combines and minifies your JavaScript, CSS, and assets into optimized bundles, ready for deployment. These bundles are stored in the "build" directory and are typically named with hashes to facilitate cache management.
VITE:
VITE is known for its lightning-fast development server and minimal configurations. Getting started with VITE is as simple as ordering a coffee at a barista.
VITE's USP is its speed. It leverages native ES modules for extremely fast development builds. If your primary goal in your React app is performance then VITE is the answer.
Unlike CRA which is super easy to use, VITE offers a more granular control over the configurations, this allows you to customize your react app as per your taste/requirements.
Vite is relatively newer than CRA, but its popularity is growing rapidly.
Vite’s development server provides a smoother and faster experience, making the development process more enjoyable. It’s a tool tailored for modern web development practices.
Vite is a build tool that uses ES modules for fast development. It doesn't bundle your code in the traditional sense during development. Instead, it serves individual modules as needed, resulting in faster reloads
When you're ready to bundle for production, you can use the "vite build" command. Vite will then perform tree-shaking and create a production-ready bundle using tools like Rollup or Build, optimizing your code for performance.
Comparison:
Summary:-
Create React App (CRA) is a straightforward and widely adopted tool that abstracts away many configuration details, making it excellent for beginners and smaller projects. Vite, on the other hand, is known for its speed and flexibility, making it a good choice for more complex projects or those where performance is a critical concern. The choice between CRA and Vite largely depends on your specific project requirements and your level of comfort with configuration and customization.