Since the launch of the Gutenberg editor in 2018, React has steadily reshaped WordPress development—from powering the block editor’s dynamic interfaces to enabling full-site customization.
Tools like Advanced Custom Fields demonstrate that PHP-based block development is viable, with ACF Blocks offering a familiar path for building custom blocks without diving into React. However, as WordPress accelerates into the era of Full Site Editing (FSE), headless architectures, and real-time collaboration features, React is emerging as a strategic asset for developers aiming to push boundaries.
This article explores React’s current integration in WordPress, projects its trajectory into 2025, and explains why—while not strictly mandatory—mastering React unlocks advanced capabilities, aligns with WordPress’s long-term vision, and future-proofs your skillset in an evolving ecosystem.
React in WordPress Today
WordPress integrates React primarily through FSE (AKA Gutenberg, AKA the Block Editor). React is used to create modular content blocks, allowing dynamic, real-time editing and reusable components. Each block functions as a React-based interface, enabling features like live previews, drag-and-drop reordering, and interactive settings panels.
Beyond the editor, React is leveraged in custom plugins and themes for complex UIs, such as interactive dashboards, page builders, or dynamic forms. Developers use tools like WordPress’s official @wordpress/scripts (a preconfigured build setup for React) and @wordpress/element (a package that provides utilities to work with React components and elements) to streamline development.
For headless setups, React powers decoupled frontends (i.e., headless WordPress) that pull data from WordPress via REST API or WPGraphQL, enabling fully custom interfaces while retaining WordPress as a backend. While WordPress still uses PHP, React is central to modern features, emphasizing scalability and interactivity for self-hosted sites and plugin/theme developers.
The Future of React in WordPress
React’s influence on WordPress is likely to deepen, driven by the platform’s commitment to modernizing both user and developer experiences.
Gutenberg Phase 3 aims to transform WordPress into a real-time collaborative platform, drawing inspiration from tools like Google Docs. Anticipated features include live co-editing, granular user permissions, and content staging. While these workflows will likely leverage React’s state management capabilities, the underlying synchronization technology (e.g., WebSockets, CRDTs) remains speculative. If implemented, such systems could redefine teamwork in multi-author environments, though architectural decisions are still under active exploration.
FSE will expand its design capabilities through React-powered blocks, offering users finer control over site-wide elements. Expect advancements in theme-building tools—such as dynamic typography controls, responsive spacing adjustments, and visual template editors—while maintaining compatibility with classic themes. React’s component model will remain central to these improvements, though widespread adoption of React 18+ features like server components would require significant backend rethinking due to WordPress’s PHP foundation.
As React 18+ features mature, WordPress may selectively adopt compatible optimizations like selective hydration to reduce client-side JavaScript overhead.
The Interactivity API exemplifies WordPress’s pragmatic approach to blending PHP with modern JavaScript. Introduced in WordPress 6.5, this API enables lightweight frontend interactivity (e.g., dynamic search filters, instant form validations) without mandating React. By providing a standards-based bridge between server-rendered PHP and client-side interactivity using declarative HTML directives, it ensures backward compatibility while accommodating developers who prefer vanilla JavaScript or newer frameworks.
The Challenges of React in WordPress Development
React’s expanding role in WordPress—powered by the Block Editor and newer tools like the Interactivity API—offers significant potential, but there are several challenges developers should keep in mind.
Ecosystem Shift and Tooling Complexity
Adopting React often requires a shift away from WordPress’s traditional PHP-first workflow. Historically, WordPress themes and plugins relied on server-rendered HTML enhanced with lightweight jQuery scripts. React introduces modern JavaScript tooling like Webpack, JSX, and npm packages, which can overwhelm developers unfamiliar with build processes or component-based architectures. However, tools like @wordpress/scripts abstract much of this configuration, simplifying setups like bundling and transpilation.
This transition also highlights the tension between React’s client-side rendering (CSR) and WordPress’s emphasis on server-generated HTML. To mitigate SEO and performance concerns, WordPress employs a hybrid approach: server-rendered blocks generate initial HTML via PHP, which React then hydrates for interactivity. Striking this balance demands understanding both server-side rendering (SSR) and client-side logic, as well as leveraging WordPress-specific workflows like the @wordpress/element package for gradual React integration without abandoning PHP templating.
Backward Compatibility and Legacy Code
Integrating React into existing WordPress projects often means managing hybrid systems. Legacy themes or plugins built with PHP templates or jQuery may clash with React components, leading to maintenance challenges. Dependency management becomes critical here: while WordPress core bundles React via wp.element, third-party plugins or themes that load their own React versions risk version conflicts. Best practice dictates using the core-provided React instance to ensure compatibility.
Learning Curve and Best Practices
React introduces patterns that differ sharply from PHP or jQuery workflows. State management requires a mental shift from PHP’s synchronous server logic or jQuery’s direct DOM manipulation. Hydration, the process of syncing server-rendered markup with client-side React, adds complexity, as mismatched DOM structures can break interactivity. Debugging these issues often requires tools like React DevTools or WordPress-specific plugins like Query Monitor to trace discrepancies.
Performance Trade-offs
While React excels at managing complex interfaces, overuse can harm performance. Heavy JavaScript bundles from plugins or themes may slow page loads, especially on low-powered devices. Performance optimization strategies like code-splitting or lazy-loading components become essential. Moreover, React isn’t always the right tool. Simpler interactivity, such as toggling a button’s state, might be better handled with vanilla JavaScript or WordPress’s Interactivity API.
Security Considerations
React’s client-side rendering model introduces risks absent in traditional PHP workflows. For example, improperly sanitized dynamic content in JSX can expose sites to XSS attacks, bypassing PHP’s native sanitization functions like esc_html(). To address this, developers should sanitize data using WordPress functions like wp_kses_post() before passing it to React components. Heavy reliance on npm packages also increases exposure to supply-chain threats—malicious code in third-party dependencies—a concern less prevalent in WordPress’s historically self-contained plugin ecosystem.
Additional Considerations
React-driven UIs often depend on the WordPress REST API for data fetching, which introduces challenges around authentication, endpoint security, and performance tuning. Additionally, while React adoption in WordPress is growing, documentation gaps remain. Developers frequently rely on generic React resources, which may overlook WordPress-specific practices like leveraging core libraries or aligning with the Block Editor’s design patterns.
Conclusion
React’s integration into WordPress has transformed the platform from a PHP-centric CMS into a hybrid ecosystem where JavaScript and component-driven architectures play a central role. While WordPress maintains backward compatibility with PHP-based workflows like ACF Blocks, the evolution of Gutenberg, Full Site Editing, and headless architectures positions React as a strategic advantage for developers tackling complex, modern projects.
However, WordPress’s strength lies in its flexibility. Not every project requires React, and PHP remains a reliable choice for many use cases. The key is to stay adaptable: explore React incrementally and prioritize learning resources that bridge WordPress and modern web development trends.