diff --git a/lib/6to5/transformation/file.js b/lib/6to5/transformation/file.js
index 8ee4b9d312..03265bea7b 100644
--- a/lib/6to5/transformation/file.js
+++ b/lib/6to5/transformation/file.js
@@ -163,6 +163,12 @@ File.prototype.normalizeOptions = function (opts) {
   opts.optional  = transform._ensureTransformerNames("optional", opts.optional);
   opts.loose     = transform._ensureTransformerNames("loose", opts.loose);
 
+  if (opts.reactCompat) {
+    opts.optional.push("reactCompat");
+    console.error("The reactCompat option has been moved into the optional transformer " +
+                  "`reactCompat` - backwards compatibility will be removed in v4.0.0");
+  }
+
   return opts;
 };
 
diff --git a/lib/6to5/transformation/helpers/build-react-transformer.js b/lib/6to5/transformation/helpers/build-react-transformer.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..414358ad79
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/6to5/transformation/helpers/build-react-transformer.js
@@ -0,0 +1,278 @@
+"use strict";
+
+// Based upon the excellent jsx-transpiler by Ingvar Stepanyan (RReverser)
+// https://github.com/RReverser/jsx-transpiler
+
+// jsx
+
+var isString = require("lodash/lang/isString");
+var esutils  = require("esutils");
+var react    = require("./react");
+var t        = require("../../types");
+
+module.exports = function (exports, opts) {
+  exports.check = function (node) {
+    if (t.isJSX(node)) return true;
+    if (react.isCreateClass(node)) return true;
+    return false;
+  };
+
+  exports.JSXIdentifier = function (node, parent) {
+    if (node.name === "this" && t.isReferenced(node, parent)) {
+      return t.thisExpression();
+    } else if (esutils.keyword.isIdentifierName(node.name)) {
+      node.type = "Identifier";
+    } else {
+      return t.literal(node.name);
+    }
+  };
+
+  exports.JSXNamespacedName = function (node, parent, scope, file) {
+    throw file.errorWithNode(node, "Namespace tags are not supported. ReactJSX is not XML.");
+  };
+
+  exports.JSXMemberExpression = {
+    exit: function (node) {
+      node.computed = t.isLiteral(node.property);
+      node.type = "MemberExpression";
+    }
+  };
+
+  exports.JSXExpressionContainer = function (node) {
+    return node.expression;
+  };
+
+  exports.JSXAttribute = {
+    exit: function (node) {
+      var value = node.value || t.literal(true);
+      return t.inherits(t.property("init", node.name, value), node);
+    }
+  };
+  exports.JSXOpeningElement = {
+    exit: function (node, parent, scope, file) {
+      var tagExpr = node.name;
+      var args = [];
+
+      var tagName;
+      if (t.isIdentifier(tagExpr)) {
+        tagName = tagExpr.name;
+      } else if (t.isLiteral(tagExpr)) {
+        tagName = tagExpr.value;
+      }
+
+      var state = {
+        tagExpr: tagExpr,
+        tagName: tagName,
+        args:    args
+      };
+
+      if (opts.pre) {
+        opts.pre(state);
+      }
+
+      var attribs = node.attributes;
+      if (attribs.length) {
+        attribs = buildJSXOpeningElementAttributes(attribs, file);
+      } else {
+        attribs = t.literal(null);
+      }
+
+      args.push(attribs);
+
+      if (opts.post) {
+        opts.post(state);
+      }
+
+      return state.call || t.callExpression(state.callee, args);
+    }
+  };
+
+  /**
+   * The logic for this is quite terse. It's because we need to
+   * support spread elements. We loop over all attributes,
+   * breaking on spreads, we then push a new object containg
+   * all prior attributes to an array for later processing.
+   */
+
+  var buildJSXOpeningElementAttributes = function (attribs, file) {
+    var _props = [];
+    var objs = [];
+
+    var pushProps = function () {
+      if (!_props.length) return;
+
+      objs.push(t.objectExpression(_props));
+      _props = [];
+    };
+
+    while (attribs.length) {
+      var prop = attribs.shift();
+      if (t.isJSXSpreadAttribute(prop)) {
+        pushProps();
+        objs.push(prop.argument);
+      } else {
+        _props.push(prop);
+      }
+    }
+
+    pushProps();
+
+    if (objs.length === 1) {
+      // only one object
+      attribs = objs[0];
+    } else {
+      // looks like we have multiple objects
+      if (!t.isObjectExpression(objs[0])) {
+        objs.unshift(t.objectExpression([]));
+      }
+
+      // spread it
+      attribs = t.callExpression(
+        file.addHelper("extends"),
+        objs
+      );
+    }
+
+    return attribs;
+  };
+
+  exports.JSXElement = {
+    exit: function (node) {
+      var callExpr = node.openingElement;
+
+      for (var i = 0; i < node.children.length; i++) {
+        var child = node.children[i];
+
+        if (t.isLiteral(child) && typeof child.value === "string") {
+          cleanJSXElementLiteralChild(child, callExpr.arguments);
+          continue;
+        } else if (t.isJSXEmptyExpression(child)) {
+          continue;
+        }
+
+        callExpr.arguments.push(child);
+      }
+
+      callExpr.arguments = flatten(callExpr.arguments);
+
+      if (callExpr.arguments.length >= 3) {
+        callExpr._prettyCall = true;
+      }
+
+      return t.inherits(callExpr, node);
+    }
+  };
+
+  var isStringLiteral = function (node) {
+    return t.isLiteral(node) && isString(node.value);
+  };
+
+  var flatten = function (args) {
+    var flattened = [];
+    var last;
+
+    for (var i = 0; i < args.length; i++) {
+      var arg = args[i];
+      if (isStringLiteral(arg) && isStringLiteral(last)) {
+        last.value += arg.value;
+      } else {
+        last = arg;
+        flattened.push(arg);
+      }
+    }
+
+    return flattened;
+  };
+
+  var cleanJSXElementLiteralChild = function (child, args) {
+    var lines = child.value.split(/\r\n|\n|\r/);
+
+    var lastNonEmptyLine = 0;
+    var i;
+
+    for (i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
+      if (lines[i].match(/[^ \t]/)) {
+        lastNonEmptyLine = i;
+      }
+    }
+
+    for (i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
+      var line = lines[i];
+
+      var isFirstLine = i === 0;
+      var isLastLine = i === lines.length - 1;
+      var isLastNonEmptyLine = i === lastNonEmptyLine;
+
+      // replace rendered whitespace tabs with spaces
+      var trimmedLine = line.replace(/\t/g, " ");
+
+      // trim whitespace touching a newline
+      if (!isFirstLine) {
+        trimmedLine = trimmedLine.replace(/^[ ]+/, "");
+      }
+
+      // trim whitespace touching an endline
+      if (!isLastLine) {
+        trimmedLine = trimmedLine.replace(/[ ]+$/, "");
+      }
+
+      if (trimmedLine) {
+        if (!isLastNonEmptyLine) {
+          trimmedLine += " ";
+        }
+
+        args.push(t.literal(trimmedLine));
+      }
+    }
+  };
+
+  // display names
+
+  var addDisplayName = function (id, call) {
+    var props = call.arguments[0].properties;
+    var safe = true;
+
+    for (var i = 0; i < props.length; i++) {
+      var prop = props[i];
+      if (t.isIdentifier(prop.key, { name: "displayName" })) {
+        safe = false;
+        break;
+      }
+    }
+
+    if (safe) {
+      props.unshift(t.property("init", t.identifier("displayName"), t.literal(id)));
+    }
+  };
+
+  exports.ExportDeclaration = function (node, parent, scope, file) {
+    if (node.default && react.isCreateClass(node.declaration)) {
+      addDisplayName(file.opts.basename, node.declaration);
+    }
+  };
+
+  exports.AssignmentExpression =
+  exports.Property =
+  exports.VariableDeclarator = function (node) {
+    var left, right;
+
+    if (t.isAssignmentExpression(node)) {
+      left = node.left;
+      right = node.right;
+    } else if (t.isProperty(node)) {
+      left = node.key;
+      right = node.value;
+    } else if (t.isVariableDeclarator(node)) {
+      left = node.id;
+      right = node.init;
+    }
+
+    if (t.isMemberExpression(left)) {
+      left = left.property;
+    }
+
+    if (t.isIdentifier(left) && react.isCreateClass(right)) {
+      addDisplayName(left.name, right);
+    }
+  };
+};
diff --git a/lib/6to5/transformation/helpers/react.js b/lib/6to5/transformation/helpers/react.js
index 6c0f2ad99e..663ab51095 100644
--- a/lib/6to5/transformation/helpers/react.js
+++ b/lib/6to5/transformation/helpers/react.js
@@ -20,3 +20,7 @@ exports.isCreateClass = function (node) {
 };
 
 exports.isReactComponent = t.buildMatchMemberExpression("React.Component");
+
+exports.isCompatTag = function (tagName) {
+  return tagName && /^[a-z]|\-/.test(tagName);
+};
diff --git a/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/index.js b/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/index.js
index f778ae0c8e..106297f7c3 100644
--- a/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/index.js
+++ b/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/index.js
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ module.exports = {
   "playground.memoizationOperator":        require("./playground/memoization-operator"),
   "playground.objectGetterMemoization":    require("./playground/object-getter-memoization"),
 
+  reactCompat:                             require("./other/react-compat"),
   react:                                   require("./other/react"),
 
   _modules:                                require("./internal/modules"),
diff --git a/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/other/react-compat.js b/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/other/react-compat.js
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b8771eae35
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/other/react-compat.js
@@ -0,0 +1,29 @@
+"use strict";
+
+var react = require("../../helpers/react");
+var t     = require("../../../types");
+
+exports.manipulateOptions = function (opts) {
+  opts.blacklist.push("react");
+};
+
+exports.optional = true;
+
+require("../../helpers/build-react-transformer")(exports, {
+  pre: function (state) {
+    state.callee = state.tagExpr;
+  },
+
+  post: function (state) {
+    if (react.isCompatTag(state.tagName)) {
+      state.call = t.callExpression(
+        t.memberExpression(
+          t.memberExpression(t.identifier("React"), t.identifier("DOM")),
+          state.tagExpr,
+          t.isLiteral(state.tagExpr)
+        ),
+        state.args
+      );
+    }
+  }
+});
diff --git a/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/other/react.js b/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/other/react.js
index e20a4fc85d..fcfc7168b7 100644
--- a/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/other/react.js
+++ b/lib/6to5/transformation/transformers/other/react.js
@@ -1,291 +1,20 @@
 "use strict";
 
-// Based upon the excellent jsx-transpiler by Ingvar Stepanyan (RReverser)
-// https://github.com/RReverser/jsx-transpiler
+var react = require("../../helpers/react");
+var t     = require("../../../types");
 
-// jsx
-
-var isString = require("lodash/lang/isString");
-var esutils  = require("esutils");
-var react    = require("../../helpers/react");
-var t        = require("../../../types");
-
-exports.check = function (node) {
-  if (t.isJSX(node)) return true;
-  if (react.isCreateClass(node)) return true;
-  return false;
-};
-
-exports.JSXIdentifier = function (node, parent) {
-  if (node.name === "this" && t.isReferenced(node, parent)) {
-    return t.thisExpression();
-  } else if (esutils.keyword.isIdentifierName(node.name)) {
-    node.type = "Identifier";
-  } else {
-    return t.literal(node.name);
-  }
-};
-
-exports.JSXNamespacedName = function (node, parent, scope, file) {
-  throw file.errorWithNode(node, "Namespace tags are not supported. ReactJSX is not XML.");
-};
-
-exports.JSXMemberExpression = {
-  exit: function (node) {
-    node.computed = t.isLiteral(node.property);
-    node.type = "MemberExpression";
-  }
-};
-
-exports.JSXExpressionContainer = function (node) {
-  return node.expression;
-};
-
-exports.JSXAttribute = {
-  exit: function (node) {
-    var value = node.value || t.literal(true);
-    return t.inherits(t.property("init", node.name, value), node);
-  }
-};
-
-var isCompatTag = function (tagName) {
-  return /^[a-z]|\-/.test(tagName);
-};
-
-exports.JSXOpeningElement = {
-  exit: function (node, parent, scope, file) {
-    var reactCompat = file.opts.reactCompat;
-    var tagExpr = node.name;
-    var args = [];
-
-    var tagName;
-    if (t.isIdentifier(tagExpr)) {
-      tagName = tagExpr.name;
-    } else if (t.isLiteral(tagExpr)) {
-      tagName = tagExpr.value;
-    }
-
-    if (!reactCompat) {
-      if (tagName && isCompatTag(tagName)) {
-        args.push(t.literal(tagName));
-      } else {
-        args.push(tagExpr);
-      }
-    }
-
-    var attribs = node.attributes;
-    if (attribs.length) {
-      attribs = buildJSXOpeningElementAttributes(attribs, file);
+require("../../helpers/build-react-transformer")(exports, {
+  pre: function (state) {
+    var tagName = state.tagName;
+    var args    = state.args;
+    if (react.isCompatTag(tagName)) {
+      args.push(t.literal(tagName));
     } else {
-      attribs = t.literal(null);
+      args.push(state.tagExpr);
     }
+  },
 
-    args.push(attribs);
-
-    if (reactCompat) {
-      if (tagName && isCompatTag(tagName)) {
-        return t.callExpression(
-          t.memberExpression(
-            t.memberExpression(t.identifier("React"), t.identifier("DOM")),
-            tagExpr,
-            t.isLiteral(tagExpr)
-          ),
-          args
-        );
-      }
-    } else {
-      tagExpr = t.memberExpression(t.identifier("React"), t.identifier("createElement"));
-    }
-
-    return t.callExpression(tagExpr, args);
+  post: function (state) {
+    state.callee = t.memberExpression(t.identifier("React"), t.identifier("createElement"));
   }
-};
-
-/**
- * The logic for this is quite terse. It's because we need to
- * support spread elements. We loop over all attributes,
- * breaking on spreads, we then push a new object containg
- * all prior attributes to an array for later processing.
- */
-
-var buildJSXOpeningElementAttributes = function (attribs, file) {
-  var _props = [];
-  var objs = [];
-
-  var pushProps = function () {
-    if (!_props.length) return;
-
-    objs.push(t.objectExpression(_props));
-    _props = [];
-  };
-
-  while (attribs.length) {
-    var prop = attribs.shift();
-    if (t.isJSXSpreadAttribute(prop)) {
-      pushProps();
-      objs.push(prop.argument);
-    } else {
-      _props.push(prop);
-    }
-  }
-
-  pushProps();
-
-  if (objs.length === 1) {
-    // only one object
-    attribs = objs[0];
-  } else {
-    // looks like we have multiple objects
-    if (!t.isObjectExpression(objs[0])) {
-      objs.unshift(t.objectExpression([]));
-    }
-
-    // spread it
-    attribs = t.callExpression(
-      file.addHelper("extends"),
-      objs
-    );
-  }
-
-  return attribs;
-};
-
-exports.JSXElement = {
-  exit: function (node) {
-    var callExpr = node.openingElement;
-
-    for (var i = 0; i < node.children.length; i++) {
-      var child = node.children[i];
-
-      if (t.isLiteral(child) && typeof child.value === "string") {
-        cleanJSXElementLiteralChild(child, callExpr.arguments);
-        continue;
-      } else if (t.isJSXEmptyExpression(child)) {
-        continue;
-      }
-
-      callExpr.arguments.push(child);
-    }
-
-    callExpr.arguments = flatten(callExpr.arguments);
-
-    if (callExpr.arguments.length >= 3) {
-      callExpr._prettyCall = true;
-    }
-
-    return t.inherits(callExpr, node);
-  }
-};
-
-var isStringLiteral = function (node) {
-  return t.isLiteral(node) && isString(node.value);
-};
-
-var flatten = function (args) {
-  var flattened = [];
-  var last;
-
-  for (var i = 0; i < args.length; i++) {
-    var arg = args[i];
-    if (isStringLiteral(arg) && isStringLiteral(last)) {
-      last.value += arg.value;
-    } else {
-      last = arg;
-      flattened.push(arg);
-    }
-  }
-
-  return flattened;
-};
-
-var cleanJSXElementLiteralChild = function (child, args) {
-  var lines = child.value.split(/\r\n|\n|\r/);
-
-  var lastNonEmptyLine = 0;
-  var i;
-
-  for (i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
-    if (lines[i].match(/[^ \t]/)) {
-      lastNonEmptyLine = i;
-    }
-  }
-
-  for (i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
-    var line = lines[i];
-
-    var isFirstLine = i === 0;
-    var isLastLine = i === lines.length - 1;
-    var isLastNonEmptyLine = i === lastNonEmptyLine;
-
-    // replace rendered whitespace tabs with spaces
-    var trimmedLine = line.replace(/\t/g, " ");
-
-    // trim whitespace touching a newline
-    if (!isFirstLine) {
-      trimmedLine = trimmedLine.replace(/^[ ]+/, "");
-    }
-
-    // trim whitespace touching an endline
-    if (!isLastLine) {
-      trimmedLine = trimmedLine.replace(/[ ]+$/, "");
-    }
-
-    if (trimmedLine) {
-      if (!isLastNonEmptyLine) {
-        trimmedLine += " ";
-      }
-
-      args.push(t.literal(trimmedLine));
-    }
-  }
-};
-
-// display names
-
-var addDisplayName = function (id, call) {
-  var props = call.arguments[0].properties;
-  var safe = true;
-
-  for (var i = 0; i < props.length; i++) {
-    var prop = props[i];
-    if (t.isIdentifier(prop.key, { name: "displayName" })) {
-      safe = false;
-      break;
-    }
-  }
-
-  if (safe) {
-    props.unshift(t.property("init", t.identifier("displayName"), t.literal(id)));
-  }
-};
-
-exports.ExportDeclaration = function (node, parent, scope, file) {
-  if (node.default && react.isCreateClass(node.declaration)) {
-    addDisplayName(file.opts.basename, node.declaration);
-  }
-};
-
-exports.AssignmentExpression =
-exports.Property =
-exports.VariableDeclarator = function (node) {
-  var left, right;
-
-  if (t.isAssignmentExpression(node)) {
-    left = node.left;
-    right = node.right;
-  } else if (t.isProperty(node)) {
-    left = node.key;
-    right = node.value;
-  } else if (t.isVariableDeclarator(node)) {
-    left = node.id;
-    right = node.init;
-  }
-
-  if (t.isMemberExpression(left)) {
-    left = left.property;
-  }
-
-  if (t.isIdentifier(left) && react.isCreateClass(right)) {
-    addDisplayName(left.name, right);
-  }
-};
+});
diff --git a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-component/actual.js b/test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-component/actual.js
similarity index 100%
rename from test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-component/actual.js
rename to test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-component/actual.js
diff --git a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-component/expected.js b/test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-component/expected.js
similarity index 100%
rename from test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-component/expected.js
rename to test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-component/expected.js
diff --git a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-tags/actual.js b/test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-tags/actual.js
similarity index 100%
rename from test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-tags/actual.js
rename to test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-tags/actual.js
diff --git a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-tags/expected.js b/test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-tags/expected.js
similarity index 100%
rename from test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-tags/expected.js
rename to test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/convert-tags/expected.js
diff --git a/test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/options.json b/test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/options.json
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..061424d050
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/fixtures/transformation/react-compat/options.json
@@ -0,0 +1,4 @@
+{
+  "blacklist": "useStrict",
+  "optional": "reactCompat"
+}
diff --git a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-component/options.json b/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-component/options.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 1f358613e7..0000000000
--- a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-component/options.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "reactCompat": true
-}
diff --git a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-tags/options.json b/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-tags/options.json
deleted file mode 100644
index 1f358613e7..0000000000
--- a/test/fixtures/transformation/react/compat-convert-tags/options.json
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-{
-  "reactCompat": true
-}