Which is Better State Management Libraries?
redux vs mobx vs vuex vs flux vs alt
1 Year
reduxmobxvuexfluxaltSimilar Packages:
What's State Management Libraries?

State management libraries are essential tools in modern web development, particularly for applications with complex state interactions. They provide a structured way to manage the state of an application, ensuring that data flows in a predictable manner and that the UI reflects the current state accurately. These libraries help in maintaining a single source of truth for the application state, making debugging and testing more manageable. Each library has its unique approach to state management, catering to different needs and preferences of developers, from unidirectional data flow to reactive programming paradigms.

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redux10,404,71960,912290 kB40a year agoMIT
mobx1,677,75927,5574.33 MB63a month agoMIT
vuex1,563,74328,417271 kB144-MIT
flux737,37517,471260 kB62 years agoBSD-3-Clause
alt12,8443,449-1288 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: redux vs mobx vs vuex vs flux vs alt

Data Flow

  • redux: Redux enforces a strict unidirectional data flow, where actions are dispatched to reducers that produce a new state. This makes it easier to understand how state changes occur and facilitates debugging and testing.
  • mobx: MobX employs a reactive data flow where state changes automatically trigger updates in the UI. This allows for a more intuitive approach to managing state, as developers can focus on the state and let MobX handle the reactivity.
  • vuex: Vuex follows a similar unidirectional data flow as Redux, where state is managed in a centralized store, and mutations are made through actions, ensuring that state changes are predictable and traceable.
  • flux: Flux implements a unidirectional data flow where actions are dispatched to a central dispatcher, which then updates stores. This ensures that data flows in a single direction, making state changes predictable and easier to debug.
  • alt: Alt uses a simple and straightforward data flow model where actions are dispatched to stores, and stores update the state based on those actions, allowing for easy tracking of state changes.

Learning Curve

  • redux: Redux has a steeper learning curve due to its emphasis on immutability and functional programming concepts. Understanding the concepts of reducers, actions, and middleware can take time, but the payoff is a predictable state management system.
  • mobx: MobX is known for its low learning curve, especially for developers familiar with reactive programming. Its intuitive API and automatic state updates make it easy to pick up and use effectively.
  • vuex: Vuex is relatively easy to learn for those already familiar with Vue.js. Its integration with Vue components and straightforward API helps developers quickly adapt to managing state in Vue applications.
  • flux: Flux has a moderate learning curve due to its architectural principles. While the concepts of actions, stores, and the dispatcher are clear, understanding how to implement them effectively can take some time.
  • alt: Alt has a gentle learning curve, making it accessible for beginners. Its simple API and straightforward concepts allow developers to quickly grasp state management without overwhelming complexity.

Boilerplate Code

  • redux: Redux is known for its boilerplate code, as it requires defining actions, reducers, and store configurations. While this can be cumbersome, it provides a clear structure for managing state in large applications.
  • mobx: MobX minimizes boilerplate code by allowing developers to define observable state directly within components. This leads to cleaner and more concise code, making it easier to manage state.
  • vuex: Vuex has a moderate amount of boilerplate code, requiring the definition of state, mutations, actions, and getters. However, this structure helps maintain clarity in larger applications.
  • flux: Flux involves some boilerplate code due to its architectural structure, but it is manageable. Developers need to set up actions, stores, and a dispatcher, which can add some initial overhead.
  • alt: Alt requires minimal boilerplate code, allowing developers to focus on building features rather than setting up complex configurations. This makes it a good choice for smaller projects.

Performance

  • redux: Redux can experience performance issues if not optimized, particularly with large state trees. However, using techniques like memoization and selective rendering can mitigate these issues and improve performance.
  • mobx: MobX excels in performance, as it automatically tracks dependencies and only updates components that are affected by state changes. This fine-grained reactivity leads to efficient rendering and minimal performance overhead.
  • vuex: Vuex performs well within the Vue ecosystem, leveraging Vue's reactivity system. It efficiently updates the UI when state changes, ensuring a smooth user experience even in larger applications.
  • flux: Flux can handle large applications effectively due to its unidirectional data flow, which simplifies debugging and enhances performance by reducing the complexity of state changes.
  • alt: Alt performs well for smaller applications but may face challenges with scalability as the application grows. Its simplicity can lead to performance bottlenecks if not managed properly.

Ecosystem and Community

  • redux: Redux has a large and active community, with extensive documentation, tutorials, and middleware available. Its popularity ensures a wealth of resources and third-party libraries to enhance functionality.
  • mobx: MobX has a growing community and is increasingly popular among developers who prefer reactive programming. Its documentation and resources are comprehensive, making it easy to find help and examples.
  • vuex: Vuex benefits from the strong Vue.js community, providing excellent documentation and resources. Its integration with Vue makes it a go-to choice for Vue developers, ensuring ongoing support and updates.
  • flux: Flux has a solid community and is well-documented, providing ample resources for developers. Its principles have influenced many other libraries, contributing to a broader understanding of state management.
  • alt: Alt has a smaller community compared to the other libraries, which may limit the availability of resources and third-party integrations. However, it is still supported by a dedicated group of developers.
How to Choose: redux vs mobx vs vuex vs flux vs alt
  • redux: Choose Redux if you need a predictable state container with a strict unidirectional data flow, making it easier to manage complex state logic and enabling powerful debugging tools, especially for large-scale applications.
  • mobx: Choose MobX if you favor a reactive programming model that allows for automatic state updates and a more intuitive way to manage state with less boilerplate code, ideal for applications that require fine-grained reactivity.
  • vuex: Choose Vuex if you are working within the Vue.js ecosystem and need a state management solution that integrates seamlessly with Vue components, providing a centralized store for all your application state.
  • flux: Choose Flux if you want a unidirectional data flow architecture that emphasizes the separation of concerns, making it suitable for larger applications that require a clear structure and predictable state changes.
  • alt: Choose Alt if you prefer a simple and straightforward approach to state management with a focus on actions and stores, making it easy to understand and implement for smaller applications.
README for redux

Redux Logo

Redux is a predictable state container for JavaScript apps.

It helps you write applications that behave consistently, run in different environments (client, server, and native), and are easy to test. On top of that, it provides a great developer experience, such as live code editing combined with a time traveling debugger.

You can use Redux together with React, or with any other view library. The Redux core is tiny (2kB, including dependencies), and has a rich ecosystem of addons.

Redux Toolkit is our official recommended approach for writing Redux logic. It wraps around the Redux core, and contains packages and functions that we think are essential for building a Redux app. Redux Toolkit builds in our suggested best practices, simplifies most Redux tasks, prevents common mistakes, and makes it easier to write Redux applications.

GitHub Workflow Status npm version npm downloads redux channel on discord

Installation

Create a React Redux App

The recommended way to start new apps with React and Redux Toolkit is by using our official Redux Toolkit + TS template for Vite, or by creating a new Next.js project using Next's with-redux template.

Both of these already have Redux Toolkit and React-Redux configured appropriately for that build tool, and come with a small example app that demonstrates how to use several of Redux Toolkit's features.

# Vite with our Redux+TS template
# (using the `degit` tool to clone and extract the template)
npx degit reduxjs/redux-templates/packages/vite-template-redux my-app

# Next.js using the `with-redux` template
npx create-next-app --example with-redux my-app

We do not currently have official React Native templates, but recommend these templates for standard React Native and for Expo:

  • https://github.com/rahsheen/react-native-template-redux-typescript
  • https://github.com/rahsheen/expo-template-redux-typescript
npm install @reduxjs/toolkit react-redux

For the Redux core library by itself:

npm install redux

For more details, see the Installation docs page.

Documentation

The Redux core docs are located at https://redux.js.org, and include the full Redux tutorials, as well usage guides on general Redux patterns:

The Redux Toolkit docs are available at https://redux-toolkit.js.org, including API references and usage guides for all of the APIs included in Redux Toolkit.

Learn Redux

Redux Essentials Tutorial

The Redux Essentials tutorial is a "top-down" tutorial that teaches "how to use Redux the right way", using our latest recommended APIs and best practices. We recommend starting there.

Redux Fundamentals Tutorial

The Redux Fundamentals tutorial is a "bottom-up" tutorial that teaches "how Redux works" from first principles and without any abstractions, and why standard Redux usage patterns exist.

Help and Discussion

The #redux channel of the Reactiflux Discord community is our official resource for all questions related to learning and using Redux. Reactiflux is a great place to hang out, ask questions, and learn - please come and join us there!

Before Proceeding Further

Redux is a valuable tool for organizing your state, but you should also consider whether it's appropriate for your situation. Please don't use Redux just because someone said you should - instead, please take some time to understand the potential benefits and tradeoffs of using it.

Here are some suggestions on when it makes sense to use Redux:

  • You have reasonable amounts of data changing over time
  • You need a single source of truth for your state
  • You find that keeping all your state in a top-level component is no longer sufficient

Yes, these guidelines are subjective and vague, but this is for a good reason. The point at which you should integrate Redux into your application is different for every user and different for every application.

For more thoughts on how Redux is meant to be used, please see:

Basic Example

The whole global state of your app is stored in an object tree inside a single store. The only way to change the state tree is to create an action, an object describing what happened, and dispatch it to the store. To specify how state gets updated in response to an action, you write pure reducer functions that calculate a new state based on the old state and the action.

Redux Toolkit simplifies the process of writing Redux logic and setting up the store. With Redux Toolkit, the basic app logic looks like:

import { createSlice, configureStore } from '@reduxjs/toolkit'

const counterSlice = createSlice({
  name: 'counter',
  initialState: {
    value: 0
  },
  reducers: {
    incremented: state => {
      // Redux Toolkit allows us to write "mutating" logic in reducers. It
      // doesn't actually mutate the state because it uses the Immer library,
      // which detects changes to a "draft state" and produces a brand new
      // immutable state based off those changes
      state.value += 1
    },
    decremented: state => {
      state.value -= 1
    }
  }
})

export const { incremented, decremented } = counterSlice.actions

const store = configureStore({
  reducer: counterSlice.reducer
})

// Can still subscribe to the store
store.subscribe(() => console.log(store.getState()))

// Still pass action objects to `dispatch`, but they're created for us
store.dispatch(incremented())
// {value: 1}
store.dispatch(incremented())
// {value: 2}
store.dispatch(decremented())
// {value: 1}

Redux Toolkit allows us to write shorter logic that's easier to read, while still following the original core Redux behavior and data flow.

Logo

You can find the official logo on GitHub.

Change Log

This project adheres to Semantic Versioning. Every release, along with the migration instructions, is documented on the GitHub Releases page.

License

MIT