npm install -D babel-loader @babel/core @babel/preset-env @babel/preset-es2015 --save-dev More on github.com

Node actually has pretty good support for ES2015 now, so depending on which version of Node you're targeting, and which ES2015 features you're looking to use, you might not even need to use babel. That being said: babel-cli This gives you two scripts to use on the command line: babel: compiles your code babel-node: like the normal node command, only everything gets run through babel first You don't really need this, but babel-node can be handy for debugging. Do not use babel-node in production. babel-preset-es2015 Babel works by running your code through a bunch of plugins, each of which is responsible for performing one or more transformations on your code. On npm, babel plugins are almost always prefixed with babel-plugin-, e.g. babel-plugin-transform-es2015-arrow-functions, which converts arrow functions to normal functions. Presets are just bundles of plugins. For example, babel-preset-es2015 contains every plugin you need to transform code from the ES2015 spec to es5 spec. You could require each plugin separately, but that would be tedious. What happens if you don't include any plugins or presets? Nothing. Babel will run just fine, but it won't transform your code in any way, because it doesn't have any plugins to tell it what to transform. You should probably use either babel-preset-es2015 or babel-preset-es2015-node , which only includes plugins for ES2015 features that are not yet natively supported by Node. babel-register If you put this in a module, any subsequent file loaded using require will be automatically transpiled by babel. A common pattern is to set up a transpilation entry point for your app that looks something like this: // set up the `require`-hook require('babel-register'); // load your actual app, which will // now be transpiled by babel require('./path/to/main/app.js'); Then instead of calling your main app file (e.g. node app.js), you call this transpiling one (e.g. node app.babel.js), and ta-da! you to get the benefits of babel without having to run a build step every time you change your code. NB: The file containing require('babel-register') will not be transpiled. Code required by the file will be transpiled, but not the code in the file itself. You probably want to use this. It will make your life much easier. babel-core This is needed if you plan to require the babel transpiling engine directly in your own code. You probably don't need this More on reddit.com

In your presets you have es2015 but it's not installed in your devDependencies. You need to install babel-preset-es2015. But... as we're here. You should use the new libraries that are prefixed with the @babel namespace. You should also use @babel/env as it maps your babel config to the browsers you specify. Install @babel/preset-env and @babel/preset-react Change your .babelrc presets to ['@babel/preset-env', '@babel/preset-env'] It should work from then on, but you should look at configuring your browserslist file as found here: https://babeljs.io/docs/en/babel-preset-env.html#browserslist-integration More on reddit.com

you don't have babel-preset-es2015in your package.json, but you're referencing it on line 4.

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