react-beautiful-dnd vs react-sortable-hoc vs react-sortable-tree vs react-easy-sort

Package	Downloads	Stars	Size	Issues	Publish	License

react-beautiful-dnd	1,777,536	33,703	1.39 MB	643	-	Apache-2.0
react-sortable-hoc	497,017	10,852	-	294	4 years ago	MIT
react-sortable-tree	54,496	4,938	-	342	5 years ago	MIT
react-easy-sort	46,166	186	324 kB	11	a year ago	MIT

Package

Downloads

Stars

Size

Issues

Publish

License

react-beautiful-dnd

1,777,536

33,703

1.39 MB

643

Apache-2.0

react-sortable-hoc

497,017

10,852

294

4 years ago

MIT

react-sortable-tree

54,496

4,938

342

5 years ago

MIT

react-easy-sort

46,166

186

324 kB

a year ago

MIT

Complexity and Use Case

react-beautiful-dnd:
react-beautiful-dnd is designed for complex drag-and-drop interfaces, supporting nested lists and multiple draggable items. It provides a rich API that allows for advanced use cases, such as drag-and-drop between different lists, making it suitable for applications like Kanban boards. However, as it is deprecated, developers are encouraged to look for alternatives like react-easy-sort or react-sortable-hoc for ongoing projects.
react-sortable-hoc:
react-sortable-hoc offers a balance between simplicity and flexibility, allowing developers to create sortable lists and grids with ease. It is well-suited for applications that require custom drag-and-drop behavior without the complexity of a full-fledged solution.
react-sortable-tree:
react-sortable-tree specializes in tree structures, providing built-in support for hierarchical data manipulation. It is perfect for applications that need to visualize and manage nested data, such as file explorers or organizational charts.
react-easy-sort:
react-easy-sort is focused on simplicity and ease of use, making it ideal for basic sortable lists. It is less feature-rich compared to others but excels in scenarios where minimal configuration and quick setup are required.

Customization and Extensibility

react-beautiful-dnd:
react-beautiful-dnd allows for extensive customization of drag-and-drop interactions, including animations and styling. It supports custom drag previews and drop effects, enabling developers to create a unique user experience tailored to their application's needs. However, as it is deprecated, developers should transition to supported libraries like react-sortable-hoc or react-sortable-tree for future use.
react-sortable-hoc:
react-sortable-hoc provides a flexible API that allows for significant customization of the drag-and-drop experience. Developers can easily override default behaviors and styles, making it adaptable to various design requirements.
react-sortable-tree:
react-sortable-tree offers customization options for tree nodes and drag-and-drop behaviors. Developers can define how nodes are rendered and how interactions are handled, making it suitable for applications with specific design needs.
react-easy-sort:
react-easy-sort is straightforward but offers limited customization options. It is best for developers who prioritize simplicity over extensive customization, making it less suitable for complex interfaces that require unique behaviors.

Performance

react-beautiful-dnd:
react-beautiful-dnd is optimized for performance, utilizing a virtualized rendering approach to minimize re-renders during drag-and-drop operations. This ensures a smooth user experience even with large lists or complex interactions. However, given that it is deprecated, developers should consider react-sortable-hoc or react-sortable-tree for long-term performance optimizations.
react-sortable-hoc:
react-sortable-hoc is designed to handle performance efficiently, especially in sortable lists. It minimizes re-renders by only updating the necessary components during drag-and-drop actions, ensuring a responsive interface.
react-sortable-tree:
react-sortable-tree is built to manage performance in tree structures, but it can become less efficient with very large trees. Developers may need to implement optimizations, such as virtualization, for better performance in extensive datasets.
react-easy-sort:
react-easy-sort is lightweight and performs well for basic use cases. However, it may not be suitable for applications with extensive data sets or complex interactions due to its simplicity and lack of advanced optimizations.

Accessibility

react-beautiful-dnd:
react-beautiful-dnd prioritizes accessibility by following WAI-ARIA standards, ensuring that drag-and-drop interactions are usable by all users, including those relying on assistive technologies. It provides keyboard navigation support and screen reader compatibility. However, as it is deprecated, developers should explore alternatives like react-sortable-hoc for long-term accessibility support.
react-sortable-hoc:
react-sortable-hoc does not inherently focus on accessibility, so developers may need to implement additional features to ensure compliance with accessibility standards. It is suitable for applications where accessibility is a secondary consideration.
react-sortable-tree:
react-sortable-tree includes some accessibility features, but like react-sortable-hoc, it may require additional work to meet comprehensive accessibility standards. It is important for developers to consider accessibility when implementing tree structures.
react-easy-sort:
react-easy-sort has basic accessibility features but may not fully comply with WAI-ARIA standards. It is best for applications where accessibility is not a primary concern, given its simplicity.

Learning Curve

react-beautiful-dnd:
react-beautiful-dnd has a moderate learning curve due to its comprehensive API and advanced features. Developers may need time to fully understand its capabilities and best practices for implementation. As it is deprecated, it is recommended to explore alternatives like react-sortable-hoc for new projects.
react-sortable-hoc:
react-sortable-hoc has a moderate learning curve, offering a balance between ease of use and flexibility. Developers familiar with higher-order components in React will find it straightforward to integrate.
react-sortable-tree:
react-sortable-tree may have a steeper learning curve due to its focus on tree structures and hierarchical data. Developers need to understand how to manage nested data effectively to utilize its full potential.
react-easy-sort:
react-easy-sort is very easy to learn and implement, making it ideal for beginners or those looking for a quick solution to add sortable functionality without much overhead.

⚠️ Maintenance & support

This library continues to be relied upon heavily by Atlassian products, but we are focused on other priorities right now and have no current plans for further feature development or improvements.

It will continue to be here on GitHub and we will still make critical updates (e.g. security fixes, if any) as required, but will not be actively monitoring or replying to issues and pull requests.

We recommend that you don’t raise issues or pull requests, as they will not be reviewed or actioned until further notice.

Core characteristics

Beautiful and natural movement of items 💐

Accessible: powerful keyboard and screen reader support ♿️

Extremely performant 🚀

Clean and powerful api which is simple to get started with

Plays extremely well with standard browser interactions

Unopinionated styling

No creation of additional wrapper dom nodes - flexbox and focus management friendly!

Currently supported feature set ✅

Vertical lists ↕

Horizontal lists ↔

Movement between lists (▤ ↔ ▤)

Virtual list support 👾 - unlocking 10,000 items @ 60fps

Combining items

Mouse 🐭, keyboard 🎹♿️ and touch 👉📱 (mobile, tablet and so on) support

Multi drag support

Incredible screen reader support ♿️ - we provide an amazing experience for english screen readers out of the box 📦. We also provide complete customisation control and internationalisation support for those who need it 💖

Conditional dragging and conditional dropping

Multiple independent lists on the one page

Flexible item sizes - the draggable items can have different heights (vertical lists) or widths (horizontal lists)

Add and remove items during a drag

Compatible with semantic <table> reordering - table pattern

Auto scrolling - automatically scroll containers and the window as required during a drag (even with keyboard 🔥)

Custom drag handles - you can drag a whole item by just a part of it

Able to move the dragging item to another element while dragging (clone, portal) - Reparenting your <Draggable />

Create scripted drag and drop experiences 🎮

Allows extensions to support for any input type you like 🕹

🌲 Tree support through the @atlaskit/tree package

A <Droppable /> list can be a scroll container (without a scrollable parent) or be the child of a scroll container (that also does not have a scrollable parent)

Independent nested lists - a list can be a child of another list, but you cannot drag items from the parent list into a child list

Server side rendering (SSR) compatible - see resetServerContext()

Plays well with nested interactive elements by default

Motivation 🤔

react-beautiful-dnd exists to create beautiful drag and drop for lists that anyone can use - even people who cannot see. For a good overview of the history and motivations of the project you can take a look at these external resources:

Not for everyone ✌️

There are a lot of libraries out there that allow for drag and drop interactions within React. Most notable of these is the amazing react-dnd. It does an incredible job at providing a great set of drag and drop primitives which work especially well with the wildly inconsistent html5 drag and drop feature. react-beautiful-dnd is a higher level abstraction specifically built for lists (vertical, horizontal, movement between lists, nested lists and so on). Within that subset of functionality react-beautiful-dnd offers a powerful, natural and beautiful drag and drop experience. However, it does not provide the breadth of functionality offered by react-dnd. So react-beautiful-dnd might not be for you depending on what your use case is.