redux vs mobx vs recoil vs react-sweet-state
State Management Libraries for React Comparison
1 Year
reduxmobxrecoilreact-sweet-stateSimilar Packages:
What's State Management Libraries for React?

State management libraries are essential tools in modern web development, particularly in React applications, as they help manage the state of an application in a predictable and efficient manner. These libraries provide various approaches to handling state, enabling developers to choose the best fit for their application's architecture and complexity. Effective state management enhances performance, maintainability, and scalability of applications, allowing for a smoother user experience and easier debugging.

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redux11,647,68061,090290 kB39a year agoMIT
mobx1,828,01427,7454.33 MB67a month agoMIT
recoil553,56819,6372.21 MB3242 years agoMIT
react-sweet-state17,220-131 kB-6 months agoMIT
Feature Comparison: redux vs mobx vs recoil vs react-sweet-state

State Management Approach

  • redux:

    Redux follows a unidirectional data flow and uses a centralized store to manage application state. It relies on actions and reducers to update the state, making it predictable and easy to debug, but it can introduce more boilerplate code.

  • mobx:

    MobX uses a reactive programming model, where state changes automatically trigger updates in the UI. It allows for direct manipulation of state and automatically tracks dependencies, making it intuitive for developers to manage state without boilerplate code.

  • recoil:

    Recoil introduces atoms and selectors, enabling a fine-grained state management approach. Atoms represent pieces of state, while selectors allow derived state to be computed from atoms, promoting better performance and modular state management.

  • react-sweet-state:

    React Sweet State adopts a simpler approach by providing a hook-based API for managing state. It allows you to create stores with minimal configuration and integrates well with React's functional components, making it easy to use and understand.

Learning Curve

  • redux:

    Redux has a steeper learning curve due to its concepts of actions, reducers, and middleware. Developers need to understand the principles of functional programming and the Redux architecture, which can be challenging for newcomers.

  • mobx:

    MobX has a gentle learning curve, especially for developers familiar with reactive programming concepts. Its straightforward API and minimal boilerplate make it accessible for beginners, while still powerful enough for advanced use cases.

  • recoil:

    Recoil has a moderate learning curve, especially for those unfamiliar with its concepts of atoms and selectors. However, once understood, it provides a powerful way to manage state in a React application without much complexity.

  • react-sweet-state:

    React Sweet State is designed to be easy to learn and integrate into existing React applications. Its simplicity and hook-based API make it approachable for developers of all skill levels, requiring little time to get started.

Performance

  • redux:

    Redux can face performance challenges in large applications due to its centralized store. However, using techniques like memoization and selective rendering can mitigate these issues, ensuring efficient updates.

  • mobx:

    MobX excels in performance due to its fine-grained reactivity, allowing only the components that depend on changed state to re-render. This minimizes unnecessary updates and enhances the responsiveness of applications.

  • recoil:

    Recoil is designed with performance in mind, allowing components to subscribe to specific pieces of state. This selective rendering reduces the number of re-renders and improves the overall performance of the application.

  • react-sweet-state:

    React Sweet State offers good performance for small to medium applications, as it avoids unnecessary re-renders by only updating components that consume the specific state being modified.

Ecosystem and Community Support

  • redux:

    Redux has a mature ecosystem with extensive community support, a wide range of middleware, and tools like Redux DevTools. It is well-documented and widely adopted, making it a safe choice for large applications.

  • mobx:

    MobX has a growing community and a solid ecosystem of tools and libraries. While not as extensive as Redux, it offers sufficient resources and documentation to support developers in their projects.

  • recoil:

    Recoil, developed by Facebook, benefits from strong community support and integration with React's latest features. Its ecosystem is expanding, with growing resources and tools available for developers.

  • react-sweet-state:

    React Sweet State is relatively new and has a smaller community compared to others. However, it is gaining traction for its simplicity and ease of use, with adequate documentation to assist developers.

Debugging and Testing

  • redux:

    Redux has robust debugging capabilities, especially with Redux DevTools, which allows developers to inspect state changes and actions. Its predictable state management model simplifies testing, as actions and reducers can be tested in isolation.

  • mobx:

    MobX provides built-in tools for debugging, allowing developers to track state changes and dependencies easily. Its reactive nature simplifies testing, as state changes are automatically reflected in the UI.

  • recoil:

    Recoil's modular approach allows for effective testing of individual atoms and selectors. Its design promotes separation of concerns, making it easier to isolate and test state management logic.

  • react-sweet-state:

    React Sweet State offers a straightforward API that makes testing easier. Its simplicity allows for quick setup and teardown in tests, facilitating effective state management during testing.

How to Choose: redux vs mobx vs recoil vs react-sweet-state
  • redux:

    Choose Redux for large-scale applications that require a predictable state container. It is best suited for complex state management scenarios where you need a centralized store, middleware support, and a robust ecosystem of tools.

  • mobx:

    Choose MobX if you prefer a reactive programming model with minimal boilerplate. It is ideal for applications that require fine-grained reactivity and automatic dependency tracking, making it easier to manage complex state without much overhead.

  • recoil:

    Select Recoil if you need a modern state management solution that works well with React's concurrent features. It provides a more granular approach to state management, allowing for better performance and easier state sharing across components.

  • react-sweet-state:

    Opt for React Sweet State if you want a simple and lightweight solution that integrates seamlessly with React. It is suitable for small to medium-sized applications where you want to manage state with less complexity and a straightforward API.

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