News

Salesforce Opens Beta for React-Based App Development on Its Platform

• By John K. Waters
• April 30, 2026

Salesforce has introduced an open beta that allows developers to build native Salesforce applications with React, a move aimed at giving teams more flexibility in how they create applications on the company’s platform.

The new capability, called Salesforce Multi-Framework, is a framework-agnostic runtime on the Agentforce 360 Platform. Salesforce said the beta initially supports React, with additional frontend frameworks planned. The beta is available for scratch orgs and sandboxes that use English as the default language, but it is not yet available for production orgs.

Until now, developers building on Salesforce have generally had to use Lightning Web Components (LWC) or the older Aura framework. Salesforce said those options provide access to platform features such as base components, declarative tools, Lightning Data Service, and UI APIs, but they limit developers who want to use React libraries, component systems, and other parts of the broader JavaScript ecosystem.

Multi-Framework is intended to reduce that trade-off. According to Salesforce, React applications built with the new runtime can run natively on the Platform while leveraging platform authentication, security, and governance. The company said these apps can retrieve and update records using GraphQL, invoke Apex methods, and use UI APIs to access user information and context.

The announcement is likely to be of interest to development teams that maintain both Salesforce applications and non-Salesforce web applications. React remains a widely used frontend framework, and Salesforce is positioning the new runtime to enable the reuse of skills, components, and tooling across both environments.

Salesforce said developers can generate a React app through the Agentforce Vibes welcome screen or through the Salesforce CLI. The React project template includes the Salesforce Multi-Framework SDK, Vite for bundling, Vitest for testing, shadcn/ui components, and Tailwind CSS for styling.

The company is also tying the new runtime to Agentforce Vibes 2.0, its natural language development environment. Salesforce said Vibes can generate Multi-Framework React apps from prompts that include React code, GraphQL queries, and Salesforce metadata. The toolset includes React and Apex templates, a Salesforce MCP server for retrieving and deploying metadata from the IDE, live preview, and the Einstein Trust Layer, which Salesforce says prevents prompts and responses from being used to train future models.

Salesforce said Multi-Framework is not meant to replace Lightning Web Components. Instead, React and LWC will run side by side. Existing Lightning Web Components will continue to work, and React components can be embedded as micro-frontends in Lightning, with Salesforce providing shared data and permissions. That micro-frontend support is currently in developer preview, while broader support for embedding React components into Lightning pages is in closed pilot for Spring 2027.

The distinction between React and LWC remains important. Salesforce said React may be a better fit when developers need to share components between Salesforce and non-Salesforce applications, or when they want to use the broader React ecosystem. LWC remains the more natural choice for teams that want declarative data access with wire decorators, Lightning Data Service, Salesforce base components, and drag-and-drop support in Lightning App Builder.

There are several beta limitations. Multi-Framework apps cannot be deployed to production orgs, React components do not yet support Lightning App Builder drag-and-drop placement, and some platform APIs are not available in the beta runtime. Salesforce said developers should consult the beta documentation for the full list of known limitations.

For Salesforce, the release reflects a broader effort to make its platform more accessible to developers who prefer mainstream web frameworks and open-source tooling. The company has long emphasized its own component model and design system, but many enterprise teams standardize on React for frontend development.

The practical question is whether Salesforce can provide React developers with sufficient access to platform services without compromising the controls that make it attractive to large companies. Authentication, permissions, governance, accessibility, and data access are central to enterprise application development, and Salesforce is introducing Multi-Framework to bring these features to React without forcing developers to fully adopt the LWC model.

For developers, the beta provides a new option, but not yet a production replacement for existing Salesforce development patterns. Teams can experiment with React-based Salesforce apps in sandboxes and scratch orgs, evaluate integration with GraphQL and Apex, and assess whether component reuse across Salesforce and other web applications justifies adopting the new runtime.

Salesforce’s message is that developers should no longer have to choose between React and the Salesforce platform. The beta will test how far that promise can go before production availability, Lightning App Builder support, and broader framework support arrive.