State Management Libraries for React Comparison
redux vs zustand vs react-query vs mobx-react-lite vs jotai vs recoil
1 Year
reduxzustandreact-querymobx-react-litejotairecoilSimilar Packages:
What's State Management Libraries for React?

State management libraries provide a structured way to manage and share state across components in React applications. They help in maintaining a predictable state, improving performance, and enhancing the developer experience. Each library has its unique approach to managing state, catering to different use cases and developer preferences. Understanding the core features and design philosophies of these libraries is essential for choosing the right one for your project.

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redux10,876,18060,938290 kB40a year agoMIT
zustand4,891,72948,65788.8 kB412 days agoMIT
react-query1,419,82142,9542.26 MB1032 years agoMIT
mobx-react-lite1,408,58127,621423 kB645 days agoMIT
jotai1,109,24918,966438 kB9a month agoMIT
recoil524,86119,6292.21 MB3252 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: redux vs zustand vs react-query vs mobx-react-lite vs jotai vs recoil

State Management Approach

  • redux:

    Redux follows a strict unidirectional data flow with a centralized store. State is immutable, and changes are made through actions and reducers, which makes the state predictable and easier to debug, especially in large applications.

  • zustand:

    Zustand provides a simple and minimalistic API for state management, allowing you to create stores that can be accessed from any component. It supports both local and global state management without the boilerplate typically associated with Redux.

  • react-query:

    React Query focuses on managing server state, providing a robust system for fetching, caching, and synchronizing data from APIs. It abstracts away the complexities of data fetching and offers built-in support for background updates and stale data management.

  • mobx-react-lite:

    MobX employs an observable state management approach, where state changes are automatically tracked and components re-render in response to those changes. This leads to a more intuitive way of managing state without the need for manual subscriptions.

  • jotai:

    Jotai uses atomic state management, allowing you to create independent pieces of state that can be shared across components. This promotes better performance and reactivity since only the components that depend on a specific atom will re-render when that atom changes.

  • recoil:

    Recoil introduces a more flexible state management model that allows for both local and global state management. It uses atoms and selectors to manage state and derive new state, making it easy to compose state logic in a React-friendly way.

Learning Curve

  • redux:

    Redux has a steeper learning curve due to its more complex architecture and concepts like middleware and reducers. However, once mastered, it provides powerful tools for managing application state.

  • zustand:

    Zustand is designed to be simple and easy to learn, making it accessible for developers of all skill levels. Its API is minimal and straightforward, allowing for quick adoption.

  • react-query:

    React Query has a moderate learning curve, particularly for those new to asynchronous data fetching. However, its documentation is comprehensive, making it easier to grasp its concepts and features quickly.

  • mobx-react-lite:

    MobX React Lite is relatively easy to learn for those who understand the concept of observables. Its reactive programming model can be intuitive, but it may require a shift in mindset for developers used to traditional state management patterns.

  • jotai:

    Jotai has a gentle learning curve, especially for developers familiar with React Hooks. Its API is straightforward, making it easy to adopt for small to medium-sized applications.

  • recoil:

    Recoil's learning curve is moderate as well, but it aligns closely with React's paradigms. Developers familiar with React will find it easier to understand its concepts of atoms and selectors.

Performance

  • redux:

    Redux can face performance challenges if not implemented correctly, especially with large state trees. However, using techniques like memoization and selectors can significantly improve performance and reduce re-renders.

  • zustand:

    Zustand is lightweight and performs well due to its minimalistic design. It allows for direct state manipulation, which can lead to efficient updates and reduced overhead.

  • react-query:

    React Query excels in performance for server state management by caching data and reducing the number of network requests. It intelligently refetches data in the background, ensuring the UI is always up-to-date without blocking the main thread.

  • mobx-react-lite:

    MobX is known for its high performance due to its fine-grained reactivity. It only re-renders components that are affected by state changes, leading to efficient updates and a smooth user experience.

  • jotai:

    Jotai is optimized for performance by allowing components to subscribe only to the atoms they use. This minimizes unnecessary re-renders and enhances the overall efficiency of the application.

  • recoil:

    Recoil offers good performance by allowing components to subscribe to specific pieces of state. Its derived state capabilities can also help optimize performance by reducing unnecessary calculations and re-renders.

Ecosystem and Community

  • redux:

    Redux has a large and established ecosystem with many middleware and tools available. Its community is extensive, providing a wealth of resources, tutorials, and libraries to extend its functionality.

  • zustand:

    Zustand is gaining popularity due to its simplicity and ease of use. While its ecosystem is smaller compared to others, it is growing and has a supportive community.

  • react-query:

    React Query has a robust ecosystem with a strong community backing. It is widely adopted for data fetching and has excellent documentation, making it a go-to choice for server state management.

  • mobx-react-lite:

    MobX has a mature ecosystem with a strong community. It offers various tools and extensions that enhance its capabilities, making it suitable for complex applications.

  • jotai:

    Jotai is relatively new but has gained traction quickly, with a growing community and ecosystem. Its simplicity and integration with React Hooks make it appealing for modern React applications.

  • recoil:

    Recoil is backed by Facebook and has a growing community. It is designed to work seamlessly with React's features, and its ecosystem is expanding as more developers adopt it.

Debugging and DevTools

  • redux:

    Redux has a powerful set of DevTools that allow for time-travel debugging, state inspection, and action logging, making it one of the best libraries for debugging complex state management scenarios.

  • zustand:

    Zustand does not have dedicated DevTools, but its straightforward API allows for easy debugging using standard React tools.

  • react-query:

    React Query has built-in DevTools that provide insights into the state of queries, mutations, and cache, making it easy to debug data-fetching issues and optimize performance.

  • mobx-react-lite:

    MobX provides excellent debugging capabilities with MobX DevTools, allowing developers to inspect observable state and track changes in real-time, enhancing the debugging experience.

  • jotai:

    Jotai does not have dedicated dev tools yet, but its simplicity allows for straightforward debugging using React's built-in tools and logging.

  • recoil:

    Recoil offers a simple debugging experience through React DevTools, allowing developers to inspect atoms and their values, although it lacks dedicated dev tools at this time.

How to Choose: redux vs zustand vs react-query vs mobx-react-lite vs jotai vs recoil
  • redux:

    Choose Redux for large-scale applications that require a predictable state container with a strict unidirectional data flow. It is beneficial for complex state management scenarios, especially when debugging and testing are priorities.

  • zustand:

    Choose Zustand for a lightweight and minimalistic state management solution that is easy to set up. It is ideal for small to medium-sized applications where you want to avoid the complexity of larger libraries.

  • react-query:

    Choose React Query for server state management, particularly when dealing with asynchronous data fetching and caching. It simplifies data synchronization and provides powerful features like automatic refetching and pagination.

  • mobx-react-lite:

    Choose MobX React Lite if you prefer an observable-based approach and need to manage complex state with less boilerplate. It is great for applications that require fine-grained reactivity and performance optimization.

  • jotai:

    Choose Jotai for its simplicity and atomic state management, especially if you prefer a minimalistic approach with React Hooks. It is ideal for projects where you want to manage state in a granular way without boilerplate code.

  • recoil:

    Choose Recoil if you want a flexible state management solution that integrates seamlessly with React's Concurrent Mode. It offers a simple API for managing both local and global state with derived state capabilities.

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