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AI coding tools are now a normal part of developer work, but that does not by itself show they changed which framework a team chooses. Published surveys can show how widely these tools are used and how large the framework ecosystem has become. They cannot show why a particular project kept or dropped a particular framework. This article separates those two kinds of evidence, sets out the decision axes that matter, and gives a method for testing whether React should stay in a given codebase.
What the survey numbers establish
Two figures from the JetBrains Developer Ecosystem Survey 2025 describe how common AI tools have become among developers:
- 85% of developers regularly use AI tools for coding and development (JetBrains Research, 2025).
- 62% rely on at least one AI coding assistant, agent, or code editor (JetBrains Research, 2025).
These figures measure adoption. They do not measure whether AI tools influenced framework selection, and they should not be read as evidence that any team switched frameworks because of them. The full survey is published at https://blog.jetbrains.com/research/2025/10/state-of-developer-ecosystem-2025/.
Two framework-ecosystem figures also come from 2025 surveys, and each has a narrow scope:
#1 Best Overall
- 2.9 is the average number of selected items in the back-end and infrastructure category of the State of React 2025 survey. It describes how many tools respondents picked in that category, not how many frameworks they use or which framework is best. Source: https://2025.stateofreact.com/en-US/libraries/back-end-infrastructure/.
- 2.6 is the average number of different front-end frameworks that State of JavaScript 2025 respondents had used over their careers. This is a career-level measure from a different population and question, so it should not be set beside the 2.9 figure as if the two measured the same thing. Source: https://2025.stateofjs.com/en-US/libraries/front-end-frameworks/.
Taken together, the surveys support one modest point: developers work across several frameworks and tools, and the choice is plural rather than settled. They do not rank frameworks on performance, cost, or maintainability.
Three axes for choosing a framework
When AI assistance is part of the workflow, a framework decision has three axes that are worth separating. Each one has a different kind of evidence behind it.
| Axis | Question to answer | What the available evidence supports | Limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI assistance fit | Do the framework’s conventions, documentation, and established patterns make AI-assisted work easier for your team? | Not independently measured in the sources cited here. Treat it as an observation to verify in your own project. | No cross-project benchmark is available; results depend on the tool, the model, and the codebase. |
| Deployment platform | Is the framework supported on the platform you plan to deploy to? | Vercel documents support for Next.js, Astro, React Router, and other frameworks, and describes its list as representative rather than exhaustive (page last updated July 31, 2025, per the search result). Source: https://vercel.com/docs/frameworks/more-frameworks. | Support on one platform does not settle fit for every project or for other hosts. Not stated for other platforms in these sources. |
| Project requirements | What rendering model, team skills, existing code, and integrations does the project need? | Specific to each project. No general ranking applies. | Requires your own project facts to assess. |
Checking deployment support before you commit
Deployment support is the one axis where a documented, checkable fact is available. Use this sequence before you decide:
- Write down the platform the project will run on, including any hosting requirement such as server-side rendering or edge functions.
- If the target is Vercel, open https://vercel.com/docs/frameworks/more-frameworks and confirm the exact framework and version you plan to use appears in the list.
- If the target is another host, check that host’s own framework documentation. The Vercel list does not cover it.
- Run a preview or staging deployment of a small slice of the real application before committing to the framework.
Where React usually stays
React does not sit alone in its ecosystem. The State of React 2025 survey discusses Next.js, TanStack Start, and React Router framework mode as options within the React world, which means “keep React” and “keep a particular React framework” are separate decisions. Keeping React usually refers to the component model and the surrounding libraries, while the meta-framework is a second choice.
The survey data cannot say which specific projects kept React or why. A React choice tends to survive when some of the following conditions hold, and each one should be checked against your own facts rather than assumed:
- A large existing React component library or design system would be costly to rewrite.
- The deployment target has a documented, working path for a React framework, as checked above.
- The team already has deep React experience, and the alternatives would require retraining on the same project timeline.
- A required third-party library or integration is built for React and has no equal in other frameworks you are considering.
If several of these hold together, React is usually the lower-risk choice. If none holds, the case for keeping it is weak, regardless of how an AI assistant performs with it.
What to record before you decide
A framework decision is easier to revisit when the reasons are written down. Record the following for each candidate:
- The project requirements that rule a framework in or out.
- The deployment check result, with the date and the source you used.
- Your team’s observed experience with AI-assisted work in that framework, labeled as an observation from your own project.
- The reason a rejected option lost, stated as a project fact rather than a general preference.
Limits of this comparison
The statistics above come from 2025 surveys, and the Vercel page was last updated July 31, 2025. Framework support lists and survey results change, so check current pages before relying on them. This article does not quote individual developers or framework maintainers, and it does not claim that AI tools improve productivity or maintainability in any framework.
Best Value
Use the survey figures as background, the deployment check as a fact to verify, and the project-specific criteria as the basis for the decision.
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