title: Use external REST API with ReactJS and NodeJS
body: <p>I am still learning about ReactJS and NodeJS.</p>
  
  <p>My devs have created a boilerplate with create-react-app 
  We have an External REST API service , and we want to make calls (GET, PUT ...) to their APIs and retrieve and put data.</p>
  
  <p>My question is, ReactJS can also consume REST APIs (external ones, from another web site). Why do I need NodeJS then? I think ideal would be that NodeJS makes those calls for ReactJS and makes server side rendering. </p>
  
  <p>What is the best practice here with this stack. I do not need (or maybe do I?) to buld internal APIs with ExpressJS, since I have external ones from another web service provider which retrieves data for me out of their data store.</p>
  
  <p>Can someone elaborate on the best practice here ?</p>
  
  <p>Thanks in advance. </p>