As full-stack developers we undertake or assist with large-scale web app projects, often using React for the front end, and, when acceptable, Meteor or GraphQL for the back end. We have experience in the more common Rest scenarios, too.
Besides architecture, we have a particular interest in automated testing (TDD where possible), creating a sound test harness: unit, integration and end-to-end tests.
While our current focus is React, we maintain an awareness of alternatives and add-ons - anything in the service of accelerating your project and contributing to its robustness, maintainability and usability.
Real World
In 2015, I chose React for a personal project - “Commerce”, an online accounting system. I’ve since sidelined the project and confess to oversized components, but it allowed me to see the React scales well in the complexity domain.
I recommended React to Eva for their crypto-currency Identification web app and successfully integrated React with a government-approved Soap-based identification API. I created a plain javascript object, PJO, wrapper around the Soap API and was pleased to discover React plays well with PJOs.
In our dozen other React client projects, the architecture was set when we arrived.
On the other hand, we don’t follow the trends blindly. Take Redux. We recommended that AKQA change course and not use it. Thus we were able to implement a React-based Point of Sale proof-of-concept on time and budget. With Redux that would have been unlikely.
The Back End
We note that no clear winner has emerged as a standard back end for React. Companies continue to use Rest with Java or other back ends, which is fine but, in our experience, seems to cause a schism between the front-end team and the back end team.
Currently we find Meteor to be the only real full-stack contender. In The sizzling hype of its early days did little for its long-term standing. However Tiny’s recent acquisition has breathed life into it.
We also feel GraphQL has potential in many scenarios, especially when combined with Apollo (created by the Meteor Team). GraphQL’s friendliness toward incremental adoptions helps.
We would love to discuss your project with respect to its full stack.