How to See Performance of a React App: Different Ways

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Vishal Yadav

As a React developer, ensuring your application runs smoothly and efficiently is crucial. Monitoring and improving the performance of your React app can significantly enhance user experience. In this blog, we’ll explore various ways to measure and analyze the performance of your React app, providing you with the tools and techniques to optimize your code effectively.

Why Measure Performance?

Before diving into the tools and methods, it’s essential to understand why measuring performance is important:

• User Experience: A faster app leads to a better user experience, reducing bounce rates and increasing user satisfaction.
• SEO: Performance is a key factor in search engine rankings, particularly for mobile searches.
• Resource Management: Efficient use of resources can reduce operational costs and improve scalability.

Key Performance Metrics

• First Contentful Paint (FCP): The time it takes for the first piece of content to be rendered on the screen.
• Time to Interactive (TTI): The time it takes for the app to become fully interactive.
• React Component Render Time: The time it takes for individual React components to render.
• JavaScript Bundle Size: The size of the JavaScript files downloaded and executed by the browser.
• Memory Usage: The amount of memory used by the application.

Tools and Methods for Measuring Performance

1.Chrome DevTools

Chrome DevTools is a powerful set of web development tools built directly into the Google Chrome browser. It provides a wealth of features for analyzing and debugging web applications, including React apps.

Steps to Use Chrome DevTools:

1.Open your React application in Google Chrome.
2.Right-click on the page and select “Inspect” or press Ctrl+Shift+I (Windows/Linux) or Cmd+Opt+I (Mac).

1. Navigate to the “Performance” tab. 4.Click the “Record” button and interact with your app to capture performance data. 5.Stop the recording and analyze the timeline, looking for long tasks, layout shifts, and rendering issues.

2.React Developer Tools

React Developer Tools is an extension available for Chrome and Firefox that allows you to inspect the React component hierarchy, monitor component state and props, and measure component render times.

Steps to Use React Developer Tools:

1.Install the React Developer Tools extension from the Chrome Web Store or Firefox Add-ons.
2.Open your React application and the developer tools (Ctrl+Shift+I or Cmd+Opt+I).
3.Navigate to the “Components” tab to explore the component tree.
4.Use the “Profiler” tab to record and analyze component render times. Click “Record,” interact with your app, and then stop recording to see the performance insights.

3.Lighthouse

Lighthouse is an open-source, automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. It provides audits for performance, accessibility, progressive web apps, SEO, and more.

Steps to Use Lighthouse:

1.Open Chrome DevTools and navigate to the “Lighthouse” tab.
2.Click “Generate report” to run the Lighthouse audit.
3.Review the report for performance scores and recommendations for improvements.

4.Web Vitals

Web Vitals is a set of metrics defined by Google to quantify essential aspects of user experience. These metrics include Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), First Input Delay (FID), and Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

Using Web Vitals:

1.Install the web-vitals library in your React project:

   npm install web-vitals

2.Create a reportWebVitals.js file in your src directory:

   import { getCLS, getFID, getLCP } from 'web-vitals';

   function reportWebVitals(onPerfEntry) {
     if (onPerfEntry && onPerfEntry instanceof Function) {
       getCLS(onPerfEntry);
       getFID(onPerfEntry);
       getLCP(onPerfEntry);
     }
   }

   export default reportWebVitals;

3.Import and use reportWebVitals in your index.js:

   import React from 'react';
   import ReactDOM from 'react-dom';
   import './index.css';
   import App from './App';
   import reportWebVitals from './reportWebVitals';

   ReactDOM.render(
     <React.StrictMode>
       <App />
     </React.StrictMode>,
     document.getElementById('root')
   );
   reportWebVitals(console.log);

5.Code Splitting and Lazy Loading

Code splitting and lazy loading help reduce the initial load time by splitting the application into smaller chunks and loading them only when needed.

Implementing Code Splitting:

1.Use React’s React.lazy and Suspense:

   import React, { Suspense, lazy } from 'react';

   const SomeComponent = lazy(() => import('./SomeComponent'));

   function App() {
     return (
       <div>
         <Suspense fallback={<div>Loading...</div>}>
           <SomeComponent />
         </Suspense>
       </div>
     );
   }

   export default App;

2.Use Webpack’s dynamic imports to split code:

   import('./SomeComponent')
     .then(({ default: SomeComponent }) => {
       // Use SomeComponent
     });

Conclusion

Monitoring and optimizing the performance of your React app is essential for providing a seamless user experience. By leveraging tools like Chrome DevTools, React Developer Tools, Lighthouse, and Web Vitals, you can gain valuable insights into your app’s performance and identify areas for improvement. Additionally, implementing techniques like code splitting and lazy loading can further enhance your app’s efficiency. With these strategies in place, you’ll be well-equipped to build high-performance React applications that delight your users.

This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Vishal Yadav