Having debate between React vs WordPress for a website. Any thoughts?

Depends on what are requirements.

@localhost nothing complex or fancy. A standard website with client having the ability to change content from control panel.

@tahnik sounds like WordPress would be more user friendly then

How can either of these things relate?

Wordpress.

@SnowyLoli "user friendly" - this word came up a lot in the debate. How does WordPress necessarily make the website user friendly? Isn't the website as user friendly as we make it? Thanks

@jsemander They are two different frameworks for building website. Although react itself doesn't give you everything but usually some other packages are used along with it to make a complete website

@tahnik the website you make will be user friendly to the average user. however the client will be making changes in WordPress which is very streamlined to not be confusing, making WordPress user friendly.

@SnowyLoli The client won't be changing the website from WordPress. we'll just give them a custom built control panel if you know what I mean

@tahnik React doesn't even handle sessions. Wordpress is literally a website out of the box. React, although very powerful, shouldn't be compared to a CMS

@tahnik why? just give them limited access to WordPress's dashboard

seems like an awful lot of work to create a new dashboard when one is already pre-made.

@jsemander by react I meant a full stack along with redux, token based middleware etc

Why you want to reinvent wheel when Wordpress already provide you what you looking for?

I am so confused by why this is even being compared. WordPress is a fully operational CMS with almost everything provided. React is a JavaScript framework for building components with state which can build websites (providing you also write a CMS and API...), this sounds more like a "can we get the client to pay for us to use the new shiny tool"

@localhost mostly because I just learned react and I want to apply it in my upcoming projects. This will help me to create reusable components for any projects in future that might need a webapp or real-time website. Also speed is another reason

@luciam91 Sorry to confuse you.I explained later that by react I meant a full stack including redux, react router etc. I should have mentioned it in the post

Even if you've worked with react and it's stack in the past it will take a lot longer to setup a similar level of coverage that Wordpress ships with. If you're going to stick longer with them and want to reiterate on the project in the future go for it, but if you just want to give your client X and move on, chose the simplest path.

@tahnik you should choose your stack based on the needs of the project, not your personal favourite tools overall.
If you start building all web sites with React just because you tried it before and you liked it, you might be over-engineering or even digging yourself a hole.

As everyone said before, React and Wordpress don't even compare, they have very different goals. Worpress is meant to be for managing a web site's content easily and out of the box, while also showing that content out of the box. React is a view manager, it just gives you the tools to update the information on the page according to the data that you have.

You can even have a web site built with Wordpress for content management and using a React-based template. But if you are going to custom build the CMS, then I see no point in using Wordpress.

I would advise to look at this issue from the client perspective, that is manageability and maintainability of the system. WordPress is a complete off the shelf CMS solution. If you're going for ReactJS, you will definitely have to built the UI for the customer for him to do his stuff. Just my 2 cents.