Yeah, CRA really isn't a "boilerplate". It's a prepackaged build system that can be upgraded. It doesn't come with dozens of app-level dependencies already inst

Yeah, CRA really isn't a "boilerplate". It's a prepackaged build system that can be upgraded. It doesn't come with dozens of app-level dependencies already installed and custom-configured, like most boilerplates do. Dan Abramov commented a while back on how CRA differs from boilerplates: https://www.reddit.com/r/reactjs/comments/5gt2c4/you_dont_need_a_boilerplate/ https://www.reddit.com/r/reactjs/comments/5gt2c4/you_dont_ne... . Also, I commented with some additional thoughts on why CRA is a better choice than "boilerplates" for someone who's trying to learn: https://www.reddit.com/r/reactjs/comments/5oem3g/recommended_reactredux_starter_kits/ https://www.reddit.com/r/reactjs/comments/5oem3g/recommended... . Overall, CRA serves three primary purposes: it allows React learners to set up an environment without having to learn Webpack and Babel first; it allows experienced React devs to spin up a project without having to do all the configuration work (or copy and paste it from somewhere); and it also provides a common starting point for instructions and tutorials. For example, my recent blog post on using the Cesium.js 3D globe library with Webpack and React ( http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/03/declarative-earth-p... http://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2017/03/declarative-earth-p...) was able to start by just saying "Create a CRA project, eject, and modify these two config values".