The way I'm integrating Backbone and React that is very simple and has been working well is something like this: MyComponent = React.createClass({

The way I'm integrating Backbone and React that is very simple and has been working well is something like this: MyComponent = React.createClass({ componentDidMount: function(){ this.props.collection.on('request', function(){ this.setState({loading: true}); }.bind(this)); this.props.collection.on('sync', function(){ this.setState({loading: false}); }.bind(this)); this.props.collection.fetch(); }, }); Now you just write handlers to modify the collection and sync. setState takes care of triggering a render when your collection changes. As a bonus, you might want to render something different while in "loading" state. If you don't want the component to own the collection (if you want to share a collection between multiple components), just pass it as a prop from a parent component; otherwise you can instantiate a new collection on getDefaultProps.