There are different ways to connect react frontend and NodeJS backend. In this blog, I am going to tell you three ways how you can connect backend and frontend. These are the ways most developers prefer. Prerequisites Basic knowledge of React and NodeJS Let's Get Started 1. Single server The first way is having a single server that serves both Node API and React SPA under the same domain. Here data is still exchanged through JSON. As you can see in the above picture, all the routes which do not start with will be handled by React SPA. /api This is a simple way and you don't need to worry about those errors🥶. CORS Here's how you can do it: Copy folder files from react app and paste them in folder of NodeJS server. build public Now serve the static which is in the folder index.html public app.use(express.static(path.join('public')));
app.use((req,res) => {
   res.sendFile(path.resolve(__dirname, 'public', 'index.html'));
}); Pros Single server. No more CORS errors 😅 Ideal for small applications. Cons As both frontend and backend will be handled by the same server, you may face performance issues. 2. Two Separate Servers Here we need two separate servers. One server serve static React SPA and another server serve Node API. Data will be exchanged through JSON. Pros As we use two different servers for backend and frontend, we get better performance. Ideal for bigger applications. Cons Having to maintain two different servers. 3. Template engines The third way and the least preferred way is server-side rendering with template engines like , , etc... Here we don't create any REST API. ejs handlebars pugjs We render different HTML pages for different HTTP requests and use react to pre-render some parts of the page. This is not the preferred way to connect React and Node because we don't get the power of reactive user experience. Hope this helps you! Save for reference. You can follow me on where I share random useful stuff. Twitter First published here

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3 Most Common Ways to Connect your Node and React Applications

3 Most Common Ways to Connect your Node and React Applications

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