React UI for Everyone (Plus: New DEV.to Challenge with $5,000 in Prizes)

We’re sharing our love for the React ecosystem—say hello to KendoReact Free. With free professional React UI components, developers can build compelling web experiences—and challenge themselves to win big prizes.

React has grown to be a popular and dominant frontend framework—yet it is evolving fast, and a passionate developer ecosystem is fueling further growth. Recent React framework improvements and tooling updates inspire confidence, but React developer productivity is best augmented by a rich ecosystem.

Progress KendoReact is a leading React component library—an arsenal of 120+ enterprise-grade UI components and tools that simplify design and UI customization. While KendoReact has always served developers well, we felt we could lower the barrier to entry and contribute to make React developers more successful.

KendoReact Free

Say hello to KendoReact Free—a collection of 50+ customizable, enterprise-grade KendoReact UI components for free. The point is to make it easier for developers to get started with polished UI components. All KendoReact Free components are available for free on npm, with no signups or license needed. The new free tier of KendoReact, the most comprehensive React UI library for business app development, also includes four professionally designed themes, four Figma UI Kits and an easy upgrade option.

The 50+ KendoReact Free components are available to use in production apps and include everything from a powerful React datagrid to essential dropdowns, layout and input UI components. For each free React UI component, developers will enjoy extensive features, ease of customization, accessibility, localization, consistent APIs and comprehensive documentation.

What can developers build with free KendoReact components? Polished modern web apps could include a practical dashboard with the free KendoReact datagrid or a flexible interface for collecting user inputs with the date picker, dropdown list and auto-complete components or nice layout containers with animations—the world is your oyster. Developers with design chops can quickly prototype a new app page with the Figma UI Kits and customize the UI as needed. Alternatively, developers could use one of the prebuilt themes to create beautiful React apps with minimal design effort.

To show an example project, the Progress team built a Project Tracker sample app with a free corresponding page template using only the free KendoReact components. It’s available in our Visual Studio Code Extension as a starter template.

KendoReact Free is for every React developer. There should be peace of mind knowing free React components are part of the stable well-engineered and lovingly maintained KendoReact library. Read more in yesterday’s announcement blog post.

DEV Challenge

We want React developers to feel the love with KendoReact Free. Anybody can get off to a great starting point with polished UI without friction. But let’s sweeten the deal. We are so delighted to partner with DEV.to folks to bring the React community a brand-new DEV challenge.

Say hello to the KendoReact Free Components Challenge—with $5,000 USD to be won in prizes. Running through March 23, 2025, the KendoReact Free Components Challenge is all about showcasing what developers can build with KendoReact’s powerful free UI. With 50+ components available, developers should have everything needed to build impressive app experiences. DEV is offering one simple prompt and three ways to win.

For this DEV challenge, your mandate is to build a React app of your choice that utilizes at least 10 KendoReact Free components. You are free to build any type of React app that showcases KendoReact Free components. Whether it’s a dashboard, a productivity app, a personal portfolio or something completely unique—we want to see what you can create with KendoReact.

For those of you who prefer some structure, we have two additional prize categories for you to consider:

• Aim to Impress: Awarded to a top submission that integrates Generative AI technology in the React app.
• Delightfully Designed: Awarded to a submission with an especially good UI design that used either the Kendo UI Figma Kits and/or Progress ThemeBuilder during app creation.

What’s in it for you? Some big monetary prizes! The best React app gets $3,000 USD and the GenAI/Design categories get $1,000 USD each. Additionally, prize winners get an exclusive DEV Badge, 6-month DEV++ membership and unlimited bragging rights!

In order to participate, you will need to publish a DEV post using the submission template provided. And all participants with a valid submission will receive a completion badge on their DEV profile. We can’t wait to see what you build—and give away some serious cash prizes!

JSWorld Conference

Excited with the KendoReact Free announcement? Come join us this week at JSWorld Conference, touted to be the #1 JavaScript conference on the planet. Happening March 12-14, 2025, at Theater Amsterdam, JSWorld Conference is attracting more than 2,000 JS developers from all around the world. It should be good times.

Want to meet the Progress teams that build KendoReact and Kendo UI for Vue? Come hang with us at JSWorld. You’ll meet React/Vue Engineering team, Product Managers and Developer Advocates. Progress’ own Elena Popova is the emcee at JSWorld conference and will be joined on stage by Kathryn Grayson Nanz. We launch KendoReact Free with a bang. Come meet Progress folks at our booth at JSWorld Conference—and walk away with some cool swag.