diff --git a/.changes/cta-react-disable-open-browser.md b/.changes/cta-react-disable-open-browser.md
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9103cf6fa
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changes/cta-react-disable-open-browser.md
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+---
+"create-tauri-app": patch
+---
+
+Stop react recipe from opening in browser by default.
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/helpers/update-package-json.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/helpers/update-package-json.ts
index a76a2a415..a4ae5ea63 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/helpers/update-package-json.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/helpers/update-package-json.ts
@@ -7,10 +7,14 @@ import { join } from 'path'
 
 interface Package {
   name?: string
-  scripts?: {}
+  scripts?: Record<string, string>
 }
 
-export function updatePackageJson(appDirectory: string, appName: string): void {
+export function updatePackageJson(
+  appDirectory: string,
+  appName: string,
+  recipeShortName: string
+): void {
   const pkgPath = join(appDirectory, 'package.json')
   const pkgString = readFileSync(pkgPath, 'utf8')
   const pkg = JSON.parse(pkgString) as Package
@@ -19,6 +23,9 @@ export function updatePackageJson(appDirectory: string, appName: string): void {
     name: appName,
     scripts: {
       ...pkg.scripts,
+      start: `${recipeShortName === 'cra' ? 'cross-env BROWSER=none ' : ''}${
+        pkg.scripts?.start as string
+      }`,
       tauri: 'tauri'
     }
   }
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts
index 70d9e0c48..e12695502 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/index.ts
@@ -370,7 +370,7 @@ const runInit = async (argv: Argv): Promise<void> => {
     })
 
     logStep(`Updating ${reset(yellow('"package.json"'))}`)
-    updatePackageJson(appDirectory, appName)
+    updatePackageJson(appDirectory, appName, recipe.shortName)
 
     logStep(`Running ${reset(yellow('"tauri init"'))}`)
     const binary = !argv.b ? packageManager : resolve(appDirectory, argv.b)
diff --git a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts
index 418fe85dd..b26711997 100644
--- a/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts
+++ b/tooling/create-tauri-app/src/recipes/react.ts
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ export const cra: Recipe = {
       packageManager === 'npm' ? 'npm run' : packageManager
     } build`
   }),
-  extraNpmDevDependencies: [],
+  extraNpmDevDependencies: ['cross-env'],
   extraNpmDependencies: [],
   extraQuestions: ({ ci }) => {
     return [