However, I encourage you to checkout nvm. In order to install and manage Node.js on your MacOS machine, you can install it from their official website. You will see later on how this works out on the command line for MacOS users installing libraries for React. The underlying node package manager (NPM) is used to install frameworks and libraries, such as React.js, to your project on the command line. Node.js is a JavaScript runtime which makes it possible to run JavaScript outside of the browser. Since you are going to use JavaScript for your React development on MacOS, there is no way around Node.js and NPM. Nevertheless, if you just want to find a way for getting started with React on Mac OS quickly, follow the guide below. However, if you like to compose your development environment with lightweight tools rather than with an full-blown IDE, checkout my personal recommendations for such a setup. That's how you can focus on your task at hand as a developer. It follows the philosophy of having one IDE to manage most of your web development tasks. In this article, you will find a concise step by step guide on how to install React on MacOS.