React vs. Salesforce: How I Rebuilt My “Vibe-Coded” App on the Platform
Summary
The article shows the practical process and insights of rebuilding a React drag-and-drop app within the Salesforce ecosystem using Lightning Web Components, Apex, and declarative tools like Flow. It highlights how Salesforce’s platform streamlines data persistence, security, and automation compared to traditional React development with external backends. Salesforce developers can leverage native platform features such as Custom Objects and declarative Flows to rapidly build interactive, stateful apps without managing infrastructure or complex libraries. The key takeaway is that Salesforce handles much of the heavy lifting, allowing developers to focus on business logic and integrations with less boilerplate. This real-world example is great for those transitioning from modern web development to Salesforce.
Takeaways
- Use Salesforce Custom Objects to replace external databases for persistent storage.
- Leverage @wire service in LWC for declarative, reactive data binding.
- Deploy Apex backend classes before dependent Lightning Web Components to avoid compilation errors.
- Automate business logic like notifications with declarative Record-Triggered Flows.
- Understand platform constraints and config switches, such as enabling Feed Tracking on objects.
I joined Salesforce in early 2026 as a Developer Advocate. At this point in my career, I’ve advocated for a wide array of tools, but I had a confession to make during onboarding: I didn’t actually know what Salesforce did . Beyond “it’s a CRM” and a dizzying array of “Clouds”, I felt like I was learning a whole new language. To avoid boiling the ocean, I went back to basics to answer a simple question: What is the core platform for developers ? To find out, I decided to build something. Not a “Hello World,” but something interactive that requires state management, UI logic, and data persistence. A Drag-and-Drop Tier List for Office Snacks . But here’s the twist: I built it twice. First in React (my comfort zone), and then I rebuilt it entirely in Salesforce using Lightning Web Components (LWC) . Unlike the React version, which I “vibe-coded” with AI in one shot, I approached the Salesforce build differently.