At the recent React 2025 conference, the React team announced a monumental shift: React is officially becoming a foundation. This news is a massive positive for the average React developer, addressing core concerns about the framework’s longevity, governance, and transparency that have lingered for years.
The move to a foundation model answers critical questions about control and funding, signaling the start of a stable, second era for React [03:34].
Here are the three key reasons why the React Foundation is excellent news for the entire developer community:
1. Guaranteed Financial Security and Longevity
The most immediate benefit of the foundation is its commitment to securing React’s financial future for years to come.
- Multi-Million Dollar Backing: Major tech companies, including Meta and Microsoft, have committed to multi-million dollar annual contributions [00:25]. This funding guarantees that full-time developers will be paid to work on React, ensuring it remains maintained and innovative [00:34].
- Skill Security: For developers, this provides confidence that your valuable React skills will last [00:41]. You no longer have to worry about external factors like Meta-internal layoffs potentially sidelining the core team or abandoning the project [01:03]. The foundation ensures the framework’s future is “set in stone” [01:08].
2. Transparent and Collaborative Governance
For years, a legitimate concern has been that Meta might drive React’s direction in a way the broader community did not want, leading to “fear, uncertainty, and doubt” (FUD) [01:15]. The debate over features like React Server Components (RSC) highlighted the perceived lack of community input [01:29].
The foundation model fundamentally changes this dynamic:
- Community Input: Governance now moves from being controlled by Meta alone to a broader, more collaborative model where the community has real input on React’s direction [01:49].
- Transparency in Decisions: Major decisions will be more transparent and collaborative, a long-awaited shift that brings open decision-making to a technology used by millions [01:56].
3. Full and True Open Source for React and React Native
The foundation is committing to making React—and, critically, React Native—fully open source [02:01].
- React Native Parity: It has long been a point of friction that the source of truth for React Native was kept within Meta’s internal codebase, not the public open-source version [02:09]. This is now changing, bringing both React and React Native into a state of full transparency [02:22].
- Preventing Release Stalls: Developers will have full visibility into all in-flight Pull Requests (PRs) and branches [02:29]. This is crucial for preventing scenarios like the one where an internal suspense change stalled a major React release for months, with the community only finding out after the fact [02:38]. Everything will now be clearly visible and open for public input.
This foundation not only secures the framework’s funding but resolves critical questions about control and direction [03:34]. It opens the door for React to evolve and innovate in ways previously unimaginable, creating a more stable and community-driven ecosystem for everyone involved.
Leave a Reply