pure-react-carousel, react-multi-carousel, react-responsive-carousel, react-slick, slick-carousel, and swiper are all libraries that enable developers to implement carousel or slider UI components in React applications. These packages vary significantly in their underlying architecture, feature sets, responsiveness models, customization capabilities, and dependency requirements. Some wrap legacy jQuery-based solutions (like Slick), while others are built from the ground up using modern React patterns. Understanding these differences is crucial when choosing a carousel solution that aligns with your project’s performance goals, accessibility requirements, and long-term maintainability.
React Carousel Libraries: Architecture, Features, and Trade-offs
When you need a carousel in a React app, the choice isn’t just about looks—it’s about how the library fits into your architecture, performance budget, and accessibility strategy. The six packages under review fall into three categories: pure React implementations (pure-react-carousel, react-multi-carousel, react-responsive-carousel), jQuery wrappers (react-slick + slick-carousel), and modern multi-platform frameworks (swiper). Let’s compare them head-to-head.
🧱 Core Architecture: React-First vs Legacy Wrappers
pure-react-carousel, react-multi-carousel, and react-responsive-carousel are written entirely in React. They manage state internally or expose props for external control, avoid direct DOM manipulation, and work seamlessly with SSR.
// pure-react-carousel: fully controlled via React state
import { CarouselProvider, Slider, Slide, ButtonBack, ButtonNext } from 'pure-react-carousel';
function MyCarousel() {
return (
<CarouselProvider naturalSlideWidth={100} naturalSlideHeight={50} totalSlides={3}>
<Slider>
<Slide index={0}>Slide 1</Slide>
<Slide index={1}>Slide 2</Slide>
<Slide index={2}>Slide 3</Slide>
</Slider>
<ButtonBack>‹</ButtonBack>
<ButtonNext>›</ButtonNext>
</CarouselProvider>
);
}
react-slick is a React wrapper around slick-carousel, which is a jQuery plugin. This means it uses refs and useEffect to initialize a non-React widget after mount, leading to potential issues with SSR, strict mode, and concurrent rendering.
// react-slick: wraps a jQuery-based engine
import Slider from 'react-slick';
function MyCarousel() {
const settings = {
dots: true,
infinite: true,
speed: 500,
slidesToShow: 1,
slidesToScroll: 1
};
return (
<Slider {...settings}>
<div>Slide 1</div>
<div>Slide 2</div>
<div>Slide 3</div>
</Slider>
);
}
⚠️ Note:
slick-carouselitself is not a React package—it’s the underlying jQuery dependency. Never import or use it directly in React components.
swiper provides official React components that are thin wrappers over its core JavaScript library. Despite being framework-agnostic at its base, its React bindings are idiomatic, support SSR, and avoid imperative anti-patterns.
// swiper: React components with declarative props
import { Swiper, SwiperSlide } from 'swiper/react';
import { Navigation, Pagination } from 'swiper/modules';
function MyCarousel() {
return (
<Swiper modules={[Navigation, Pagination]} navigation pagination>
<SwiperSlide>Slide 1</SwiperSlide>
<SwiperSlide>Slide 2</SwiperSlide>
<SwiperSlide>Slide 3</SwiperSlide>
</Swiper>
);
}
📱 Responsiveness: Breakpoints and Slide Count
How each library handles responsive behavior varies widely.
react-multi-carousel shines here with a clean breakpoint API that changes visible slides per screen size:
import Carousel from 'react-multi-carousel';
const responsive = {
desktop: { breakpoint: { max: 3000, min: 1024 }, items: 3 },
tablet: { breakpoint: { max: 1024, min: 464 }, items: 2 },
mobile: { breakpoint: { max: 464, min: 0 }, items: 1 }
};
<Carousel responsive={responsive}>
<div>Item 1</div>
<div>Item 2</div>
<div>Item 3</div>
</Carousel>
swiper also supports responsive breakpoints natively:
<Swiper
breakpoints={{
640: { slidesPerView: 2 },
1024: { slidesPerView: 3 }
}}
>
{/* slides */}
</Swiper>
pure-react-carousel does not include responsive logic—you must compute visibleSlides yourself based on window size and pass it as a prop.
react-responsive-carousel automatically adjusts to container width but doesn’t let you change the number of visible slides by breakpoint—it always shows one slide at a time.
react-slick supports responsive settings via the responsive prop, similar to react-multi-carousel, but the configuration is more verbose.
♿ Accessibility and Keyboard Support
swiper leads in accessibility: it ships with full ARIA roles, keyboard navigation (arrow keys, home/end), focus management, and screen reader announcements out of the box when you enable modules like Keyboard and A11y.
import { Keyboard, A11y } from 'swiper/modules';
<Swiper modules={[Keyboard, A11y]} keyboard a11y>
{/* slides */}
</Swiper>
pure-react-carousel provides basic keyboard support (left/right arrows) but requires manual ARIA labeling.
react-multi-carousel includes arrow key navigation and focusable buttons, but lacks comprehensive ARIA attributes unless added manually.
react-responsive-carousel supports keyboard arrows and adds role="region" with aria-roledescription="carousel", meeting basic WCAG expectations.
react-slick includes some ARIA attributes but has known gaps in screen reader compatibility due to its DOM mutation approach.
🎨 Customization and Extensibility
pure-react-carousel gives you full control: every part (slider, slide, buttons) is a separate component you can style or replace. No hidden markup.
swiper offers deep customization through CSS variables, event hooks (onSlideChange, onReachEnd), and modules (e.g., Thumbs for thumbnail sync).
react-multi-carousel allows custom arrows and dots via render props but hides internal structure, limiting layout tweaks.
react-responsive-carousel lets you override status text and thumbnails but doesn’t expose low-level internals.
react-slick supports custom arrows/dots but relies on class name overrides for styling, which can break during updates.
🚫 What Not to Use
slick-carousel: This is a jQuery plugin. Do not use it directly in React. It will break SSR, cause memory leaks, and fight against React’s rendering model.react-slick: Only consider if you’re migrating a legacy jQuery/Slick implementation and cannot rewrite. For new projects, prefer native React solutions.
✅ Real-World Recommendations
| Use Case | Recommended Package |
|---|---|
| Simple image gallery with thumbnails | react-responsive-carousel |
| Product carousel with responsive slide count | react-multi-carousel |
| Fully controlled, minimal carousel with custom logic | pure-react-carousel |
| Complex, accessible, feature-rich slider (e.g., testimonials, dashboards) | swiper |
| Legacy integration with existing Slick designs | react-slick (with caution) |
| Direct use of jQuery plugins in React | Never use slick-carousel |
💡 Final Thought
Carousels seem simple, but they’re deceptively complex when you account for performance, accessibility, and responsive behavior. swiper offers the most complete, future-proof solution for serious applications. pure-react-carousel is best when you want minimalism and full control. Avoid jQuery-based options unless absolutely necessary—they’re architectural mismatches in modern React apps.
- react-slick:
Choose
react-slickonly if you’re already using or must integrate with the original Slick carousel (e.g., for design consistency with a legacy system). It wraps the jQuery-basedslick-carouseland inherits its DOM manipulation approach, which can conflict with React’s declarative model. While feature-rich, it introduces an extra dependency and may cause hydration mismatches or bundle bloat in modern React apps. - slick-carousel:
Do not use
slick-carouseldirectly in React projects—it’s a jQuery plugin, not a React component. It requires manual DOM initialization and cleanup, breaks React’s component lifecycle, and is incompatible with server-side rendering. If you see this listed as a peer dependency ofreact-slick, understand it’s only there to satisfy that wrapper’s requirements—not for direct use in React codebases. - react-responsive-carousel:
Choose
react-responsive-carouselfor quick integration with minimal setup—especially if you’re displaying image galleries with thumbnails and status indicators. It provides good defaults for common use cases but offers limited control over internal behavior and animation timing. Avoid it if you need complex slide structures or strict accessibility compliance beyond basic keyboard navigation. - react-multi-carousel:
Choose
react-multi-carouselwhen you need responsive breakpoints that change the number of visible slides based on screen size, along with built-in autoplay, infinite scrolling, and touch support. It’s well-suited for marketing sites or e-commerce product galleries where visual polish and mobile UX matter. Be aware that its API is less flexible for deeply custom layouts compared to lower-level alternatives. - pure-react-carousel:
Choose
pure-react-carouselif you need a lightweight, fully controlled carousel built with React best practices and no external dependencies. It’s ideal for teams that value predictable state management, TypeScript support, and fine-grained control over rendering logic. However, it lacks advanced features like lazy loading or autoplay out of the box, so you’ll need to implement them yourself if required. - swiper:
Choose
swiperwhen you need a highly customizable, production-grade carousel with extensive features (like parallax, zoom, virtual slides, keyboard navigation, and full ARIA support) and first-class React bindings. Its modular architecture lets you tree-shake unused features, and it’s actively maintained with strong cross-platform support (web, React Native, etc.). It has a steeper learning curve but pays off in complex or accessibility-critical applications.
react-slick
Carousel component built with React. It is a react port of slick carousel
Documentation
Installation
npm
npm install react-slick --save
yarn
yarn add react-slick
Also install slick-carousel for css and font
npm install slick-carousel
// Import css files
import "slick-carousel/slick/slick.css";
import "slick-carousel/slick/slick-theme.css";
or add cdn link in your html
<link
rel="stylesheet"
type="text/css"
charset="UTF-8"
href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/slick-carousel/1.8.1/slick.min.css"
/>
<link
rel="stylesheet"
type="text/css"
href="https://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/slick-carousel/1.8.1/slick-theme.min.css"
/>
PlayGround
Example
import React from "react";
import Slider from "react-slick";
export default function SimpleSlider() {
var settings = {
dots: true,
infinite: true,
speed: 500,
slidesToShow: 1,
slidesToScroll: 1
};
return (
<Slider {...settings}>
<div>
<h3>1</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h3>2</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h3>3</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h3>4</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h3>5</h3>
</div>
<div>
<h3>6</h3>
</div>
</Slider>
);
}
Props
For all available props, go here.
Methods
For all available methods, go here
Development
Want to run demos locally
git clone https://github.com/akiran/react-slick
cd react-slick
npm install
npm start
open http://localhost:8080
Community
Join our discord channel to discuss react-slick bugs and ask for help
Contributing
Please see the contributing guidelines