Simplest possible starting point for using universal/isomorphic/shared React.js + Node.js + Express.js

Use Git to clone this app, then:

npm install

Start the server with all the code transpiled and bundled in a single command:

npm run start

Transpile all the ES6/ES2015 JavaScript to ES5 for Node and browsers

npm run build

Bundle all the client-side JavaScript into a single file (public/js/bundle.js)

npm run bundle

After spending some time searching for universal/isomorphic starter projects to learn from, nearly every one of them:

• Had a list of NPM dependencies longer than my screen viewport.
• Included more dotfiles than source files.
• Made other technology decisions for me, like SASS/Less, Mocha/Jasmine, Webpack/Gulp/Grunt, which implementation of Flux to use, etc.
• Had too much code and/or too many concepts to learn at once.

This project:

• Is NOT opinionated
• Does NOT make any tech choices for you beyond Express.js + React.js
• Does NOT include any CSS pre-processor or framework
• Does NOT include any testing framework
• Does NOT include any specific build tool config (Gulpfile, Gruntfile, etc.)
• Uses ES6/ES2015 for all JavaScript you write
• Uses React.js on both the client AND server (Universal JavaScript) so you can pre-render your initial React.js components for faster initial page load speed and better SEO.

So in essense, this project is a good example starter project for learning how to render React.js components on both the client and server side, and then lets you take it from there.