From Classes to Functions — The Right Way

✍️ Introduction

Hi there! 👋
I'm Daniel, and together with my friend Alberto, we’re the team behind a project called Unclass.

We’ve been working in React for years — and we’ve experienced the frustration firsthand:
migrating from class components to function components isn’t just tedious... it can be a complete nightmare.

If you've ever dealt with this, binding event handlers, or digging through outdated lifecycle methods, you know what we mean.

💡 Why we’re building Unclass

Unclass is a CLI tool designed to help you automate the process of migrating your React class components into modern, functional ones — using hooks, clean syntax, and up-to-date best practices.

But here’s the thing: before we offer you automation, we want to do something different.

We want to show you everything that goes into this migration — manually, step by step, from scratch.
Because we believe the best tools don’t just work — they make you smarter and more confident about what’s happening under the hood.

That’s why we’re launching this blog series.

🔍 What you’ll learn in this series

Each week, I’ll publish a new article walking you through:

✅ The real reasons to migrate (and when you shouldn’t)
✅ How class components work internally
✅ How functional components work with hooks
✅ Manual migration steps — useState, useEffect, useRef, useContext, and more
✅ Advanced edge cases and how to handle them
✅ Tools and strategies to support large-scale migrations
✅ Behind the scenes of how Unclass works and why we designed it that way

By the end of the series, you'll be able to migrate components manually with confidence — and you’ll be ready to decide when to let a tool like Unclass take over.

🚀 Try the Free Analyzer

As part of our open approach, we will also build a free online analyzer that lets you inspect any class component and see what it would take to migrate it.

You’ll get:

• A breakdown of what your component uses (state, lifecycle, refs, etc.)

• A list of hooks you'd need to use

• A summary of migration complexity

• No code changes, just visibility and insight

👉 This tool will be available soon — and totally free.

🧭 What is Unclass, really?

Unclass is a CLI tool built with TypeScript, Project Builder, and Schematics under the hood. It works in three stages:

1. Analyze: Scan your component and understand what’s going on

2. Migrate: Generate a side-by-side functional version

3. Apply: Replace the original when you’re ready — safely

You get control, visibility, and speed — without breaking your code.

And we’re building it with care, transparency, and real-world developer pain in mind.

📬 Join Us on This Journey

If you’re currently working with legacy class components — or if you’re part of a team thinking about upgrading — this series is for you.

We’d love for you to:

• Follow the blog to get weekly insights

• Try the analyzer once it’s live

• Join the waitlist to be part of the first group to try Unclass CLI

• Help shape the tool by sharing your challenges and needs

Let’s make React migration less painful, and a lot more empowering.

Thanks for being here 🙌
— Daniel & Alberto