redux vs mobx vs vuex vs mobx-state-tree
State Management Libraries Comparison
1 Year
reduxmobxvuexmobx-state-treeSimilar Packages:
What's State Management Libraries?

State management libraries are essential tools in modern web development, particularly for managing application state in complex user interfaces. They provide a structured way to handle data flow and state changes, ensuring that the UI remains in sync with the underlying data model. Each library has its own approach to state management, catering to different architectural needs and developer preferences. Understanding the nuances of these libraries can help developers choose the right tool for their specific use case, enhancing maintainability, scalability, and performance of applications.

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redux11,438,49261,073290 kB39a year agoMIT
mobx1,758,63527,7384.33 MB66a month agoMIT
vuex1,600,47228,462271 kB144-MIT
mobx-state-tree105,1997,0131.29 MB958 days agoMIT
Feature Comparison: redux vs mobx vs vuex vs mobx-state-tree

State Management Approach

  • redux:

    Redux follows a strict unidirectional data flow and uses a single store to hold the entire application state. State changes are made through pure functions called reducers, ensuring that state mutations are predictable and traceable, which is crucial for debugging and testing.

  • mobx:

    MobX uses observable state and reactions to automatically update the UI when the state changes. It allows for a more intuitive and less verbose way of managing state, focusing on the 'what' rather than the 'how' of state changes.

  • vuex:

    Vuex adopts a centralized store pattern for managing state in Vue applications. It utilizes a single source of truth, allowing components to access and modify state in a consistent manner, which is particularly useful for larger Vue applications.

  • mobx-state-tree:

    MobX-State-Tree introduces a more structured approach by defining models and actions. It combines the reactivity of MobX with a tree-like state structure, enabling developers to manage state in a more predictable manner with clear relationships between data.

Learning Curve

  • redux:

    Redux has a steeper learning curve, particularly for newcomers. Its concepts of actions, reducers, and middleware can be challenging to grasp initially, but understanding these principles leads to a robust and scalable state management solution.

  • mobx:

    MobX has a gentle learning curve, especially for those familiar with JavaScript. Its reactive programming model is intuitive, allowing developers to quickly grasp the concepts of observables and reactions without extensive boilerplate code.

  • vuex:

    Vuex is relatively easy to learn for developers already familiar with Vue.js. Its integration with Vue's reactivity system makes it straightforward to implement, although understanding its store structure and mutation patterns is essential.

  • mobx-state-tree:

    MobX-State-Tree has a moderate learning curve due to its structured approach. Developers need to understand the concepts of models, actions, and snapshots, which may require some initial investment in learning but pays off in maintainability.

Performance

  • redux:

    Redux can experience performance bottlenecks if not optimized, particularly with large state trees and frequent updates. Techniques like memoization and using selectors can help mitigate these issues, ensuring efficient state updates and rendering.

  • mobx:

    MobX is highly performant due to its fine-grained reactivity, which only updates components that directly depend on changed state. This minimizes unnecessary re-renders and optimizes rendering performance, making it suitable for applications with dynamic UIs.

  • vuex:

    Vuex is designed to be performant within the Vue ecosystem, leveraging Vue's reactivity system. However, performance can degrade with large state objects or excessive mutations, so careful state management is necessary.

  • mobx-state-tree:

    MobX-State-Tree maintains good performance through its tree structure and efficient state updates. However, performance can be impacted if not managed correctly, especially with large state trees or complex actions that trigger many updates.

Extensibility

  • redux:

    Redux is known for its extensibility, particularly through middleware. Libraries like Redux Thunk and Redux Saga allow developers to handle asynchronous actions and side effects, making it adaptable to various application needs.

  • mobx:

    MobX is highly extensible, allowing developers to create custom decorators and utilities to enhance functionality. Its reactive nature makes it easy to integrate with other libraries and frameworks, providing flexibility in application architecture.

  • vuex:

    Vuex provides extensibility through plugins that can augment its functionality. Developers can create custom plugins to handle specific needs, although its extensibility is primarily focused within the Vue ecosystem.

  • mobx-state-tree:

    MobX-State-Tree offers extensibility through its model definitions and middleware capabilities. Developers can create complex state trees and extend functionality with custom actions and views, making it suitable for large applications.

Debugging and Tooling

  • redux:

    Redux has a rich ecosystem of developer tools, including the Redux DevTools extension, which allows for time-travel debugging, action logging, and state inspection. This makes it one of the most powerful options for debugging state management.

  • mobx:

    MobX provides excellent debugging capabilities through its developer tools, allowing developers to inspect observable states and reactions. This makes tracking down issues in state management straightforward and efficient.

  • vuex:

    Vuex integrates well with Vue DevTools, providing a clear view of state changes, mutations, and actions. This makes it easy to debug Vue applications and understand how state flows through the application.

  • mobx-state-tree:

    MobX-State-Tree includes built-in support for time-travel debugging and state snapshots, enabling developers to easily track changes and revert to previous states, which is invaluable for debugging complex applications.

How to Choose: redux vs mobx vs vuex vs mobx-state-tree
  • redux:

    Select Redux for a predictable state container that follows a unidirectional data flow. It is best suited for larger applications where you need to manage complex state interactions and want to leverage middleware for side effects, logging, and asynchronous actions.

  • mobx:

    Choose MobX for a simple, reactive state management solution that emphasizes minimal boilerplate and automatic dependency tracking. It is ideal for smaller applications or when you want to keep things straightforward without enforcing strict architectural patterns.

  • vuex:

    Use Vuex if you are working within the Vue.js ecosystem and require a centralized state management solution that integrates seamlessly with Vue components. It is designed specifically for Vue applications and provides a clear structure for managing state and mutations.

  • mobx-state-tree:

    Opt for MobX-State-Tree if you need a more structured state management solution that combines the reactivity of MobX with a clear model definition and state tree. It's suitable for applications that require a more predictable state management approach with built-in support for snapshots and state restoration.

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