zustand vs redux vs jotai vs xstate vs mobx vs valtio vs react-query vs recoil
State Management Libraries for React
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State Management Libraries for React

State management libraries are essential tools in React development, enabling developers to manage application state in a predictable and efficient manner. These libraries provide various methodologies for handling state, allowing for better organization, scalability, and maintainability of applications. They help in managing local and global state, asynchronous data fetching, and side effects, which are crucial for building complex user interfaces. Each library has its unique approach, catering to different needs and preferences, making it essential to understand their features and use cases for optimal selection.

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Package
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zustand37,735,38958,86296 kB42 days agoMIT
redux27,136,70261,446290 kB153 years agoMIT
jotai3,777,01921,297113 kB224 days agoMIT
xstate3,016,15230,3482.31 MB1226 days agoMIT
mobx2,018,95028,2124.88 MB213 days agoMIT
valtio1,330,29810,243101 kB66 months agoMIT
react-query911,72650,4682.26 MB1654 years agoMIT
recoil244,33019,4102.21 MB3204 years agoMIT

Feature Comparison: zustand vs redux vs jotai vs xstate vs mobx vs valtio vs react-query vs recoil

State Management Approach

  • zustand:

    Zustand is a minimalistic state management library that uses hooks for managing state. It allows for a simple API and encourages the use of React's built-in features, making it lightweight and easy to integrate.

  • redux:

    Redux uses a centralized store and a unidirectional data flow to manage application state. It emphasizes immutability and pure functions, making state changes predictable and easier to debug, but can introduce boilerplate code.

  • jotai:

    Jotai uses an atomic state management model, where each piece of state is an atom. This allows for granular updates and reactivity, ensuring that only the components that depend on a specific atom re-render when that atom's state changes.

  • xstate:

    XState is a state management library based on finite state machines and statecharts. It provides a robust way to manage complex state transitions and side effects, making it ideal for applications with intricate workflows and states.

  • mobx:

    MobX employs an observable-based state management approach, allowing for automatic tracking of state changes and reactivity. It simplifies state management by allowing you to define observable state and reactions that automatically update when the state changes.

  • valtio:

    Valtio offers a proxy-based state management approach, allowing for mutable state while keeping reactivity intact. It simplifies state management by enabling direct manipulation of state objects without the need for reducers or actions.

  • react-query:

    React Query focuses on server state management, providing tools for fetching, caching, and synchronizing server data with the client. It abstracts the complexities of data fetching and caching, making it easier to manage asynchronous data in React applications.

  • recoil:

    Recoil introduces a state management model that combines the benefits of both atomic and derived state. It allows for fine-grained control over state and enables derived state calculations, making it suitable for complex applications with interdependent state.

Learning Curve

  • zustand:

    Zustand is straightforward and easy to learn, with a minimal API that is intuitive for React developers. Its simplicity allows for quick onboarding.

  • redux:

    Redux has a steeper learning curve due to its concepts of actions, reducers, and middleware. It requires a good understanding of functional programming principles, which may be challenging for some developers.

  • jotai:

    Jotai has a low learning curve, especially for developers familiar with React hooks. Its API is straightforward and easy to grasp, making it accessible for newcomers to state management.

  • xstate:

    XState has a higher learning curve, as it introduces state machines and statecharts, which may be unfamiliar to many developers. However, it provides a powerful model for managing complex states.

  • mobx:

    MobX is relatively easy to learn, particularly for those with a background in object-oriented programming. Its observable pattern is intuitive, but understanding the reactivity model may take some time for beginners.

  • valtio:

    Valtio is easy to learn, especially for those familiar with JavaScript proxies. Its API is simple and intuitive, allowing developers to quickly grasp its usage.

  • react-query:

    React Query has a moderate learning curve, as it introduces concepts like caching and server state management. However, its documentation is comprehensive, aiding in the learning process.

  • recoil:

    Recoil's learning curve is gentle for those familiar with React, as it integrates seamlessly with React's mental model. However, understanding its advanced features may require additional time.

Performance

  • zustand:

    Zustand is lightweight and performant, as it allows for direct state manipulation without unnecessary re-renders. Its simplicity contributes to efficient state management.

  • redux:

    Redux can introduce performance bottlenecks if not managed correctly, particularly with large state trees. However, using techniques like memoization and selectors can mitigate these issues.

  • jotai:

    Jotai is optimized for performance, as it only re-renders components that depend on changed atoms. This fine-grained reactivity minimizes unnecessary renders and enhances application performance.

  • xstate:

    XState can be performant for complex state management, but the overhead of managing state machines may introduce some latency. Properly designed statecharts can optimize performance for intricate workflows.

  • mobx:

    MobX is highly performant due to its automatic dependency tracking and fine-grained reactivity. It minimizes re-renders by only updating components that directly depend on the changed observable state.

  • valtio:

    Valtio provides excellent performance by allowing mutable state while maintaining reactivity. Its proxy-based approach ensures efficient updates and minimal re-renders.

  • react-query:

    React Query excels in performance by caching server data and minimizing network requests. It intelligently refetches data only when necessary, improving the overall responsiveness of applications.

  • recoil:

    Recoil offers good performance through its atomic state model, ensuring that only components subscribed to changed atoms re-render. This selective rendering helps maintain application efficiency.

Extensibility

  • zustand:

    Zustand is designed to be extensible with custom hooks and middleware, allowing developers to enhance its functionality and integrate it with other libraries.

  • redux:

    Redux is highly extensible, with a rich ecosystem of middleware and libraries that enhance its functionality. Developers can create custom reducers and actions to fit their application needs.

  • jotai:

    Jotai is highly extensible, allowing developers to create custom atoms and hooks, making it adaptable to various application needs and architectures.

  • xstate:

    XState is extensible through the use of custom state machines and transitions, allowing developers to define complex workflows and behaviors tailored to their applications.

  • mobx:

    MobX is extensible through decorators and custom observable structures, enabling developers to tailor the state management to their specific requirements.

  • valtio:

    Valtio is extensible by allowing developers to create custom proxies and state structures, making it flexible for various use cases and architectures.

  • react-query:

    React Query is extensible with custom hooks and query functions, allowing developers to integrate it seamlessly with other libraries and APIs, enhancing its capabilities.

  • recoil:

    Recoil supports extensibility through its atom and selector model, enabling developers to create complex state relationships and derived state calculations easily.

How to Choose: zustand vs redux vs jotai vs xstate vs mobx vs valtio vs react-query vs recoil

  • jotai:

    Choose Jotai if you prefer a minimalistic and atomic state management approach that allows for fine-grained control over state updates and is easy to integrate with existing React applications.

README for zustand

Build Status Build Size Version Downloads Discord Shield

A small, fast and scalable bearbones state-management solution using simplified flux principles. Has a comfy API based on hooks, isn't boilerplatey or opinionated.

Don't disregard it because it's cute. It has quite the claws, lots of time was spent dealing with common pitfalls, like the dreaded zombie child problem, react concurrency, and context loss between mixed renderers. It may be the one state-manager in the React space that gets all of these right.

You can try a live demo and read the docs.

npm install zustand

:warning: This readme is written for JavaScript users. If you are a TypeScript user, be sure to check out our TypeScript Usage section.

First create a store

Your store is a hook! You can put anything in it: primitives, objects, functions. State has to be updated immutably and the set function merges state to help it.

import { create } from 'zustand'

const useBearStore = create((set) => ({
  bears: 0,
  increasePopulation: () => set((state) => ({ bears: state.bears + 1 })),
  removeAllBears: () => set({ bears: 0 }),
}))

Then bind your components, and that's it!

Use the hook anywhere, no providers are needed. Select your state and the component will re-render on changes.

function BearCounter() {
  const bears = useBearStore((state) => state.bears)
  return <h1>{bears} around here ...</h1>
}

function Controls() {
  const increasePopulation = useBearStore((state) => state.increasePopulation)
  return <button onClick={increasePopulation}>one up</button>
}

Why zustand over redux?

Why zustand over context?

  • Less boilerplate
  • Renders components only on changes
  • Centralized, action-based state management

Recipes

Fetching everything

You can, but bear in mind that it will cause the component to update on every state change!

const state = useBearStore()

Selecting multiple state slices

It detects changes with strict-equality (old === new) by default, this is efficient for atomic state picks.

const nuts = useBearStore((state) => state.nuts)
const honey = useBearStore((state) => state.honey)

If you want to construct a single object with multiple state-picks inside, similar to redux's mapStateToProps, you can use useShallow to prevent unnecessary rerenders when the selector output does not change according to shallow equal.

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { useShallow } from 'zustand/react/shallow'

const useBearStore = create((set) => ({
  nuts: 0,
  honey: 0,
  treats: {},
  // ...
}))

// Object pick, re-renders the component when either state.nuts or state.honey change
const { nuts, honey } = useBearStore(
  useShallow((state) => ({ nuts: state.nuts, honey: state.honey })),
)

// Array pick, re-renders the component when either state.nuts or state.honey change
const [nuts, honey] = useBearStore(
  useShallow((state) => [state.nuts, state.honey]),
)

// Mapped picks, re-renders the component when state.treats changes in order, count or keys
const treats = useBearStore(useShallow((state) => Object.keys(state.treats)))

For more control over re-rendering, you may provide any custom equality function (this example requires the use of createWithEqualityFn).

const treats = useBearStore(
  (state) => state.treats,
  (oldTreats, newTreats) => compare(oldTreats, newTreats),
)

Overwriting state

The set function has a second argument, false by default. Instead of merging, it will replace the state model. Be careful not to wipe out parts you rely on, like actions.

const useFishStore = create((set) => ({
  salmon: 1,
  tuna: 2,
  deleteEverything: () => set({}, true), // clears the entire store, actions included
  deleteTuna: () => set(({ tuna, ...rest }) => rest, true),
}))

Async actions

Just call set when you're ready, zustand doesn't care if your actions are async or not.

const useFishStore = create((set) => ({
  fishies: {},
  fetch: async (pond) => {
    const response = await fetch(pond)
    set({ fishies: await response.json() })
  },
}))

Read from state in actions

set allows fn-updates set(state => result), but you still have access to state outside of it through get.

const useSoundStore = create((set, get) => ({
  sound: 'grunt',
  action: () => {
    const sound = get().sound
    ...

Reading/writing state and reacting to changes outside of components

Sometimes you need to access state in a non-reactive way or act upon the store. For these cases, the resulting hook has utility functions attached to its prototype.

:warning: This technique is not recommended for adding state in React Server Components (typically in Next.js 13 and above). It can lead to unexpected bugs and privacy issues for your users. For more details, see #2200.

const useDogStore = create(() => ({ paw: true, snout: true, fur: true }))

// Getting non-reactive fresh state
const paw = useDogStore.getState().paw
// Listening to all changes, fires synchronously on every change
const unsub1 = useDogStore.subscribe(console.log)
// Updating state, will trigger listeners
useDogStore.setState({ paw: false })
// Unsubscribe listeners
unsub1()

// You can of course use the hook as you always would
function Component() {
  const paw = useDogStore((state) => state.paw)
  ...

Using subscribe with selector

If you need to subscribe with a selector, subscribeWithSelector middleware will help.

With this middleware subscribe accepts an additional signature:

subscribe(selector, callback, options?: { equalityFn, fireImmediately }): Unsubscribe
import { subscribeWithSelector } from 'zustand/middleware'
const useDogStore = create(
  subscribeWithSelector(() => ({ paw: true, snout: true, fur: true })),
)

// Listening to selected changes, in this case when "paw" changes
const unsub2 = useDogStore.subscribe((state) => state.paw, console.log)
// Subscribe also exposes the previous value
const unsub3 = useDogStore.subscribe(
  (state) => state.paw,
  (paw, previousPaw) => console.log(paw, previousPaw),
)
// Subscribe also supports an optional equality function
const unsub4 = useDogStore.subscribe(
  (state) => [state.paw, state.fur],
  console.log,
  { equalityFn: shallow },
)
// Subscribe and fire immediately
const unsub5 = useDogStore.subscribe((state) => state.paw, console.log, {
  fireImmediately: true,
})

Using zustand without React

Zustand core can be imported and used without the React dependency. The only difference is that the create function does not return a hook, but the API utilities.

import { createStore } from 'zustand/vanilla'

const store = createStore((set) => ...)
const { getState, setState, subscribe, getInitialState } = store

export default store

You can use a vanilla store with useStore hook available since v4.

import { useStore } from 'zustand'
import { vanillaStore } from './vanillaStore'

const useBoundStore = (selector) => useStore(vanillaStore, selector)

:warning: Note that middlewares that modify set or get are not applied to getState and setState.

Transient updates (for often occurring state-changes)

The subscribe function allows components to bind to a state-portion without forcing re-render on changes. Best combine it with useEffect for automatic unsubscribe on unmount. This can make a drastic performance impact when you are allowed to mutate the view directly.

const useScratchStore = create((set) => ({ scratches: 0, ... }))

const Component = () => {
  // Fetch initial state
  const scratchRef = useRef(useScratchStore.getState().scratches)
  // Connect to the store on mount, disconnect on unmount, catch state-changes in a reference
  useEffect(() => useScratchStore.subscribe(
    state => (scratchRef.current = state.scratches)
  ), [])
  ...

Sick of reducers and changing nested states? Use Immer!

Reducing nested structures is tiresome. Have you tried immer?

import { produce } from 'immer'

const useLushStore = create((set) => ({
  lush: { forest: { contains: { a: 'bear' } } },
  clearForest: () =>
    set(
      produce((state) => {
        state.lush.forest.contains = null
      }),
    ),
}))

const clearForest = useLushStore((state) => state.clearForest)
clearForest()

Alternatively, there are some other solutions.

Persist middleware

You can persist your store's data using any kind of storage.

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { persist, createJSONStorage } from 'zustand/middleware'

const useFishStore = create(
  persist(
    (set, get) => ({
      fishes: 0,
      addAFish: () => set({ fishes: get().fishes + 1 }),
    }),
    {
      name: 'food-storage', // name of the item in the storage (must be unique)
      storage: createJSONStorage(() => sessionStorage), // (optional) by default, 'localStorage' is used
    },
  ),
)

See the full documentation for this middleware.

Immer middleware

Immer is available as middleware too.

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { immer } from 'zustand/middleware/immer'

const useBeeStore = create(
  immer((set) => ({
    bees: 0,
    addBees: (by) =>
      set((state) => {
        state.bees += by
      }),
  })),
)

Can't live without redux-like reducers and action types?

const types = { increase: 'INCREASE', decrease: 'DECREASE' }

const reducer = (state, { type, by = 1 }) => {
  switch (type) {
    case types.increase:
      return { grumpiness: state.grumpiness + by }
    case types.decrease:
      return { grumpiness: state.grumpiness - by }
  }
}

const useGrumpyStore = create((set) => ({
  grumpiness: 0,
  dispatch: (args) => set((state) => reducer(state, args)),
}))

const dispatch = useGrumpyStore((state) => state.dispatch)
dispatch({ type: types.increase, by: 2 })

Or, just use our redux-middleware. It wires up your main-reducer, sets the initial state, and adds a dispatch function to the state itself and the vanilla API.

import { redux } from 'zustand/middleware'

const useGrumpyStore = create(redux(reducer, initialState))

Redux devtools

Install the Redux DevTools Chrome extension to use the devtools middleware.

import { devtools } from 'zustand/middleware'

// Usage with a plain action store, it will log actions as "setState"
const usePlainStore = create(devtools((set) => ...))
// Usage with a redux store, it will log full action types
const useReduxStore = create(devtools(redux(reducer, initialState)))

One redux devtools connection for multiple stores

import { devtools } from 'zustand/middleware'

// Usage with a plain action store, it will log actions as "setState"
const usePlainStore1 = create(devtools((set) => ..., { name, store: storeName1 }))
const usePlainStore2 = create(devtools((set) => ..., { name, store: storeName2 }))
// Usage with a redux store, it will log full action types
const useReduxStore1 = create(devtools(redux(reducer, initialState)), { name, store: storeName3 })
const useReduxStore2 = create(devtools(redux(reducer, initialState)), { name, store: storeName4 })

Assigning different connection names will separate stores in redux devtools. This also helps group different stores into separate redux devtools connections.

devtools takes the store function as its first argument, optionally you can name the store or configure serialize options with a second argument.

Name store: devtools(..., {name: "MyStore"}), which will create a separate instance named "MyStore" in the devtools.

Serialize options: devtools(..., { serialize: { options: true } }).

Logging Actions

devtools will only log actions from each separated store unlike in a typical combined reducers redux store. See an approach to combining stores https://github.com/pmndrs/zustand/issues/163

You can log a specific action type for each set function by passing a third parameter:

const useBearStore = create(devtools((set) => ({
  ...
  eatFish: () => set(
    (prev) => ({ fishes: prev.fishes > 1 ? prev.fishes - 1 : 0 }),
    undefined,
    'bear/eatFish'
  ),
  ...

You can also log the action's type along with its payload:

  ...
  addFishes: (count) => set(
    (prev) => ({ fishes: prev.fishes + count }),
    undefined,
    { type: 'bear/addFishes', count, }
  ),
  ...

If an action type is not provided, it is defaulted to "anonymous". You can customize this default value by providing an anonymousActionType parameter:

devtools(..., { anonymousActionType: 'unknown', ... })

If you wish to disable devtools (on production for instance). You can customize this setting by providing the enabled parameter:

devtools(..., { enabled: false, ... })

React context

The store created with create doesn't require context providers. In some cases, you may want to use contexts for dependency injection or if you want to initialize your store with props from a component. Because the normal store is a hook, passing it as a normal context value may violate the rules of hooks.

The recommended method available since v4 is to use the vanilla store.

import { createContext, useContext } from 'react'
import { createStore, useStore } from 'zustand'

const store = createStore(...) // vanilla store without hooks

const StoreContext = createContext()

const App = () => (
  <StoreContext.Provider value={store}>
    ...
  </StoreContext.Provider>
)

const Component = () => {
  const store = useContext(StoreContext)
  const slice = useStore(store, selector)
  ...

TypeScript Usage

Basic typescript usage doesn't require anything special except for writing create<State>()(...) instead of create(...)...

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { devtools, persist } from 'zustand/middleware'
import type {} from '@redux-devtools/extension' // required for devtools typing

interface BearState {
  bears: number
  increase: (by: number) => void
}

const useBearStore = create<BearState>()(
  devtools(
    persist(
      (set) => ({
        bears: 0,
        increase: (by) => set((state) => ({ bears: state.bears + by })),
      }),
      {
        name: 'bear-storage',
      },
    ),
  ),
)

A more detailed TypeScript guide is here and there.

Best practices

Third-Party Libraries

Some users may want to extend Zustand's feature set which can be done using third-party libraries made by the community. For information regarding third-party libraries with Zustand, visit the doc.

Comparison with other libraries