The main difference between react-engine and template engines occurs only when the browser allows the user to interact with the browser page. However, it is important how machines have access to individual data.
Assuming we want to run a simple web page. Just scrolling and plain text information. Using template mechanisms such as Handlebars.js , as a rule, when a browser request hits the server, it tries to understand how to respond and what to do. However, the template engine may reference existing extracted data from files stored in a local and accessible source. They load all the specific data regarding the site template file (i.e. head , meta , title , etc.) with an incomplete HTML line render . This HTML is then sent back to the browser and displayed.
react-engine , on the same side the same rendering mechanism is used. However, instead of the semantic mechanism of the template, it uses JSX , or if we want, we can also use JavaScript . JSX is therefore wider than boilerplate. The great article by Hajime Yamasaki Vukelich agrees to separate issues from a different angle between JSX and HTML templates .
With template engines, you feed the library a string (usually, but not necessarily HTML), which is then converted to a piece of JavaScript code that generates virtual DOM structures at runtime. When designing time, templates are just strings, so we don’t have direct access to the surrounding code. For example, we cannot import helper functions, or call methods. These things are possible only through abstractions (and possibly other names depending on where you are coming from). Directives are the glue between HTML and JavaScript.
So far so good, there is no difference between the two solutions. Links to the next or previous simple web page are just <a href="/webpage>Next</a> elements.
At the moment, when we decide to implement some interactions, the winner will be the react-engine . While react-engine rendering does not require JavaScript to run on the client side, it will allow SEO search.
Templates also have SEO support, but with less impact. We cannot run all of the JavaScript for rendering HTML here . Even libraries, such as jQuery , require direct access to the browser window object, which cannot be easily mocked on the server side. Thus, template engines become less efficient.
In conclusion, template engines can do the same thing as react-engine rendering. Perhaps no less easy or equally fast, but both tools are qualified. You can also read another great topic on this topic.