zustand vs recoil vs react-sweet-state
State Management Libraries for React Comparison
3 Years
zustandrecoilreact-sweet-stateSimilar Packages:
What's State Management Libraries for React?

State management libraries for React help manage and share state across components in a React application. They provide a way to centralize state, making it easier to manage complex state logic, share state between components, and keep the UI in sync with the underlying data. These libraries offer various approaches to state management, including global state, local state, and derived state, each with its own trade-offs in terms of performance, complexity, and ease of use. Choosing the right state management library depends on the specific needs of your application, such as its size, complexity, and the team's familiarity with the library.

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zustand10,465,024
54,53792.4 kB720 days agoMIT
recoil493,152
19,5832.21 MB3233 years agoMIT
react-sweet-state17,749
-131 kB-a year agoMIT
Feature Comparison: zustand vs recoil vs react-sweet-state

API Simplicity

  • zustand:

    zustand features a straightforward and minimalistic API that is easy to use. It allows developers to create stores with just a few lines of code, making it quick to set up and integrate. The simplicity of the API encourages best practices and reduces the likelihood of misuse.

  • recoil:

    recoil provides a more complex API that offers fine-grained control over state management. It introduces concepts like atoms and selectors, which can take some time to master. However, the added complexity allows for more powerful and flexible state management, making it worth the investment for larger applications.

  • react-sweet-state:

    react-sweet-state offers a simple and intuitive API for managing state. It uses a hook-based approach that is easy to understand and integrate into existing React applications. The API is designed to be minimalistic, reducing the learning curve for new users.

Performance

  • zustand:

    zustand is known for its high performance and low re-rendering costs. It uses a subscription-based model that ensures only the components that need to re-render will do so when the state changes. This makes it an excellent choice for performance-sensitive applications, as it minimizes unnecessary updates and keeps the UI responsive.

  • recoil:

    recoil is designed with performance in mind, especially for applications that require fine-grained control over re-renders. Its use of atoms and selectors allows for more efficient updates, as only the components that depend on a specific piece of state will re-render when that state changes. This can lead to significant performance improvements in large applications.

  • react-sweet-state:

    react-sweet-state is optimized for performance, but it may not be as efficient as some other libraries for very large applications with complex state. It is designed to minimize re-renders and improve performance, but developers need to be mindful of how they structure their state to avoid unnecessary updates.

State Persistence

  • zustand:

    zustand supports state persistence out of the box with a simple middleware. It allows developers to persist state to local storage or any other storage mechanism with minimal effort. This feature makes zustand a great choice for applications that require state to be saved across sessions without needing additional libraries or complex implementations.

  • recoil:

    recoil does not include built-in state persistence, but it supports custom persistence solutions. Developers can create their own persistence logic using Recoil's atoms and selectors, allowing them to save and restore state as needed. This flexibility makes it easy to integrate with external storage solutions like local storage or databases.

  • react-sweet-state:

    react-sweet-state does not provide built-in state persistence, but it can be easily integrated with external libraries or custom solutions to persist state across sessions. Developers can implement their own persistence logic using local storage, session storage, or any other storage mechanism as needed.

Community and Ecosystem

  • zustand:

    zustand has a vibrant and active community, with increasing adoption among React developers. The library is well-documented, and its simplicity encourages contributions and collaboration. The community is supportive, making it easy for new users to find resources and get help.

  • recoil:

    recoil is developed by Facebook and has a rapidly growing community. It is well-documented and has strong support from the React team, which helps ensure its reliability and ongoing development. The ecosystem around Recoil is also expanding, with third-party libraries and tools being created to enhance its functionality.

  • react-sweet-state:

    react-sweet-state has a smaller community compared to some other state management libraries, but it is actively maintained and has a growing user base. The documentation is clear and provides examples, making it easy for developers to get started and find help when needed.

Ease of Use: Code Examples

  • zustand:

    Simple State Management with zustand

    import create from 'zustand';
    import React from 'react';
    
    // Create a store
    const useStore = create((set) => ({
      count: 0,
      increment: () => set((state) => ({ count: state.count + 1 })),
    }));
    
    const Counter = () => {
      const { count, increment } = useStore();
    
      return (
        <div>
          <h1>Count: {count}</h1>
          <button onClick={increment}>Increment</button>
        </div>
      );
    };
    
    const App = () => <Counter />;
    
    export default App;
    
  • recoil:

    Simple State Management with recoil

    import React from 'react';
    import { atom, selector, useRecoilState, RecoilRoot } from 'recoil';
    
    // Create an atom
    const countState = atom({
      key: 'countState', // unique ID (with respect to other atoms/selectors)
      default: 0, // default value (aka initial value)
    });
    
    const Counter = () => {
      const [count, setCount] = useRecoilState(countState);
    
      return (
        <div>
          <h1>Count: {count}</h1>
          <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
        </div>
      );
    };
    
    const App = () => (
      <RecoilRoot>
        <Counter />
      </RecoilRoot>
    );
    
    export default App;
    
  • react-sweet-state:

    Simple State Management with react-sweet-state

    import React from 'react';
    import { createStore, StoreProvider, useStore } from 'react-sweet-state';
    
    // Create a store
    const counterStore = createStore({
      initialState: { count: 0 },
      actions: {
        increment: () => ({ setState }) => {
          setState((prevState) => ({ count: prevState.count + 1 }));
        },
      },
      name: 'counterStore',
    });
    
    const Counter = () => {
      const [{ count }] = useStore(counterStore);
      const increment = counterStore.actions.increment;
    
      return (
        <div>
          <h1>Count: {count}</h1>
          <button onClick={increment}>Increment</button>
        </div>
      );
    };
    
    const App = () => (
      <StoreProvider store={counterStore}>
        <Counter />
      </StoreProvider>
    );
    
    export default App;
    
How to Choose: zustand vs recoil vs react-sweet-state
  • zustand:

    Choose zustand if you want a lightweight and highly performant state management solution with a minimalistic API. It is great for applications of all sizes, especially those that prioritize simplicity and performance without sacrificing functionality.

  • recoil:

    Choose recoil if you need a more powerful and flexible state management solution that integrates seamlessly with React's concurrent features. It is suitable for medium to large applications that require fine-grained control over state and performance optimizations.

  • react-sweet-state:

    Choose react-sweet-state if you prefer a simple and intuitive API for managing global state with minimal boilerplate. It is ideal for small to medium-sized applications where you want to avoid the complexity of more feature-rich libraries.

README for zustand

Build Status Build Size Version Downloads Discord Shield

A small, fast and scalable bearbones state-management solution using simplified flux principles. Has a comfy API based on hooks, isn't boilerplatey or opinionated.

Don't disregard it because it's cute. It has quite the claws, lots of time was spent dealing with common pitfalls, like the dreaded zombie child problem, react concurrency, and context loss between mixed renderers. It may be the one state-manager in the React space that gets all of these right.

You can try a live demo and read the docs.

npm install zustand

:warning: This readme is written for JavaScript users. If you are a TypeScript user, be sure to check out our TypeScript Usage section.

First create a store

Your store is a hook! You can put anything in it: primitives, objects, functions. State has to be updated immutably and the set function merges state to help it.

import { create } from 'zustand'

const useBearStore = create((set) => ({
  bears: 0,
  increasePopulation: () => set((state) => ({ bears: state.bears + 1 })),
  removeAllBears: () => set({ bears: 0 }),
}))

Then bind your components, and that's it!

Use the hook anywhere, no providers are needed. Select your state and the component will re-render on changes.

function BearCounter() {
  const bears = useBearStore((state) => state.bears)
  return <h1>{bears} around here ...</h1>
}

function Controls() {
  const increasePopulation = useBearStore((state) => state.increasePopulation)
  return <button onClick={increasePopulation}>one up</button>
}

Why zustand over redux?

Why zustand over context?

  • Less boilerplate
  • Renders components only on changes
  • Centralized, action-based state management

Recipes

Fetching everything

You can, but bear in mind that it will cause the component to update on every state change!

const state = useBearStore()

Selecting multiple state slices

It detects changes with strict-equality (old === new) by default, this is efficient for atomic state picks.

const nuts = useBearStore((state) => state.nuts)
const honey = useBearStore((state) => state.honey)

If you want to construct a single object with multiple state-picks inside, similar to redux's mapStateToProps, you can use useShallow to prevent unnecessary rerenders when the selector output does not change according to shallow equal.

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { useShallow } from 'zustand/react/shallow'

const useBearStore = create((set) => ({
  nuts: 0,
  honey: 0,
  treats: {},
  // ...
}))

// Object pick, re-renders the component when either state.nuts or state.honey change
const { nuts, honey } = useBearStore(
  useShallow((state) => ({ nuts: state.nuts, honey: state.honey })),
)

// Array pick, re-renders the component when either state.nuts or state.honey change
const [nuts, honey] = useBearStore(
  useShallow((state) => [state.nuts, state.honey]),
)

// Mapped picks, re-renders the component when state.treats changes in order, count or keys
const treats = useBearStore(useShallow((state) => Object.keys(state.treats)))

For more control over re-rendering, you may provide any custom equality function (this example requires the use of createWithEqualityFn).

const treats = useBearStore(
  (state) => state.treats,
  (oldTreats, newTreats) => compare(oldTreats, newTreats),
)

Overwriting state

The set function has a second argument, false by default. Instead of merging, it will replace the state model. Be careful not to wipe out parts you rely on, like actions.

const useFishStore = create((set) => ({
  salmon: 1,
  tuna: 2,
  deleteEverything: () => set({}, true), // clears the entire store, actions included
  deleteTuna: () => set(({ tuna, ...rest }) => rest, true),
}))

Async actions

Just call set when you're ready, zustand doesn't care if your actions are async or not.

const useFishStore = create((set) => ({
  fishies: {},
  fetch: async (pond) => {
    const response = await fetch(pond)
    set({ fishies: await response.json() })
  },
}))

Read from state in actions

set allows fn-updates set(state => result), but you still have access to state outside of it through get.

const useSoundStore = create((set, get) => ({
  sound: 'grunt',
  action: () => {
    const sound = get().sound
    ...

Reading/writing state and reacting to changes outside of components

Sometimes you need to access state in a non-reactive way or act upon the store. For these cases, the resulting hook has utility functions attached to its prototype.

:warning: This technique is not recommended for adding state in React Server Components (typically in Next.js 13 and above). It can lead to unexpected bugs and privacy issues for your users. For more details, see #2200.

const useDogStore = create(() => ({ paw: true, snout: true, fur: true }))

// Getting non-reactive fresh state
const paw = useDogStore.getState().paw
// Listening to all changes, fires synchronously on every change
const unsub1 = useDogStore.subscribe(console.log)
// Updating state, will trigger listeners
useDogStore.setState({ paw: false })
// Unsubscribe listeners
unsub1()

// You can of course use the hook as you always would
function Component() {
  const paw = useDogStore((state) => state.paw)
  ...

Using subscribe with selector

If you need to subscribe with a selector, subscribeWithSelector middleware will help.

With this middleware subscribe accepts an additional signature:

subscribe(selector, callback, options?: { equalityFn, fireImmediately }): Unsubscribe
import { subscribeWithSelector } from 'zustand/middleware'
const useDogStore = create(
  subscribeWithSelector(() => ({ paw: true, snout: true, fur: true })),
)

// Listening to selected changes, in this case when "paw" changes
const unsub2 = useDogStore.subscribe((state) => state.paw, console.log)
// Subscribe also exposes the previous value
const unsub3 = useDogStore.subscribe(
  (state) => state.paw,
  (paw, previousPaw) => console.log(paw, previousPaw),
)
// Subscribe also supports an optional equality function
const unsub4 = useDogStore.subscribe(
  (state) => [state.paw, state.fur],
  console.log,
  { equalityFn: shallow },
)
// Subscribe and fire immediately
const unsub5 = useDogStore.subscribe((state) => state.paw, console.log, {
  fireImmediately: true,
})

Using zustand without React

Zustand core can be imported and used without the React dependency. The only difference is that the create function does not return a hook, but the API utilities.

import { createStore } from 'zustand/vanilla'

const store = createStore((set) => ...)
const { getState, setState, subscribe, getInitialState } = store

export default store

You can use a vanilla store with useStore hook available since v4.

import { useStore } from 'zustand'
import { vanillaStore } from './vanillaStore'

const useBoundStore = (selector) => useStore(vanillaStore, selector)

:warning: Note that middlewares that modify set or get are not applied to getState and setState.

Transient updates (for often occurring state-changes)

The subscribe function allows components to bind to a state-portion without forcing re-render on changes. Best combine it with useEffect for automatic unsubscribe on unmount. This can make a drastic performance impact when you are allowed to mutate the view directly.

const useScratchStore = create((set) => ({ scratches: 0, ... }))

const Component = () => {
  // Fetch initial state
  const scratchRef = useRef(useScratchStore.getState().scratches)
  // Connect to the store on mount, disconnect on unmount, catch state-changes in a reference
  useEffect(() => useScratchStore.subscribe(
    state => (scratchRef.current = state.scratches)
  ), [])
  ...

Sick of reducers and changing nested states? Use Immer!

Reducing nested structures is tiresome. Have you tried immer?

import { produce } from 'immer'

const useLushStore = create((set) => ({
  lush: { forest: { contains: { a: 'bear' } } },
  clearForest: () =>
    set(
      produce((state) => {
        state.lush.forest.contains = null
      }),
    ),
}))

const clearForest = useLushStore((state) => state.clearForest)
clearForest()

Alternatively, there are some other solutions.

Persist middleware

You can persist your store's data using any kind of storage.

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { persist, createJSONStorage } from 'zustand/middleware'

const useFishStore = create(
  persist(
    (set, get) => ({
      fishes: 0,
      addAFish: () => set({ fishes: get().fishes + 1 }),
    }),
    {
      name: 'food-storage', // name of the item in the storage (must be unique)
      storage: createJSONStorage(() => sessionStorage), // (optional) by default, 'localStorage' is used
    },
  ),
)

See the full documentation for this middleware.

Immer middleware

Immer is available as middleware too.

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { immer } from 'zustand/middleware/immer'

const useBeeStore = create(
  immer((set) => ({
    bees: 0,
    addBees: (by) =>
      set((state) => {
        state.bees += by
      }),
  })),
)

Can't live without redux-like reducers and action types?

const types = { increase: 'INCREASE', decrease: 'DECREASE' }

const reducer = (state, { type, by = 1 }) => {
  switch (type) {
    case types.increase:
      return { grumpiness: state.grumpiness + by }
    case types.decrease:
      return { grumpiness: state.grumpiness - by }
  }
}

const useGrumpyStore = create((set) => ({
  grumpiness: 0,
  dispatch: (args) => set((state) => reducer(state, args)),
}))

const dispatch = useGrumpyStore((state) => state.dispatch)
dispatch({ type: types.increase, by: 2 })

Or, just use our redux-middleware. It wires up your main-reducer, sets the initial state, and adds a dispatch function to the state itself and the vanilla API.

import { redux } from 'zustand/middleware'

const useGrumpyStore = create(redux(reducer, initialState))

Redux devtools

Install the Redux DevTools Chrome extension to use the devtools middleware.

import { devtools } from 'zustand/middleware'

// Usage with a plain action store, it will log actions as "setState"
const usePlainStore = create(devtools((set) => ...))
// Usage with a redux store, it will log full action types
const useReduxStore = create(devtools(redux(reducer, initialState)))

One redux devtools connection for multiple stores

import { devtools } from 'zustand/middleware'

// Usage with a plain action store, it will log actions as "setState"
const usePlainStore1 = create(devtools((set) => ..., { name, store: storeName1 }))
const usePlainStore2 = create(devtools((set) => ..., { name, store: storeName2 }))
// Usage with a redux store, it will log full action types
const useReduxStore1 = create(devtools(redux(reducer, initialState)), { name, store: storeName3 })
const useReduxStore2 = create(devtools(redux(reducer, initialState)), { name, store: storeName4 })

Assigning different connection names will separate stores in redux devtools. This also helps group different stores into separate redux devtools connections.

devtools takes the store function as its first argument, optionally you can name the store or configure serialize options with a second argument.

Name store: devtools(..., {name: "MyStore"}), which will create a separate instance named "MyStore" in the devtools.

Serialize options: devtools(..., { serialize: { options: true } }).

Logging Actions

devtools will only log actions from each separated store unlike in a typical combined reducers redux store. See an approach to combining stores https://github.com/pmndrs/zustand/issues/163

You can log a specific action type for each set function by passing a third parameter:

const useBearStore = create(devtools((set) => ({
  ...
  eatFish: () => set(
    (prev) => ({ fishes: prev.fishes > 1 ? prev.fishes - 1 : 0 }),
    undefined,
    'bear/eatFish'
  ),
  ...

You can also log the action's type along with its payload:

  ...
  addFishes: (count) => set(
    (prev) => ({ fishes: prev.fishes + count }),
    undefined,
    { type: 'bear/addFishes', count, }
  ),
  ...

If an action type is not provided, it is defaulted to "anonymous". You can customize this default value by providing an anonymousActionType parameter:

devtools(..., { anonymousActionType: 'unknown', ... })

If you wish to disable devtools (on production for instance). You can customize this setting by providing the enabled parameter:

devtools(..., { enabled: false, ... })

React context

The store created with create doesn't require context providers. In some cases, you may want to use contexts for dependency injection or if you want to initialize your store with props from a component. Because the normal store is a hook, passing it as a normal context value may violate the rules of hooks.

The recommended method available since v4 is to use the vanilla store.

import { createContext, useContext } from 'react'
import { createStore, useStore } from 'zustand'

const store = createStore(...) // vanilla store without hooks

const StoreContext = createContext()

const App = () => (
  <StoreContext.Provider value={store}>
    ...
  </StoreContext.Provider>
)

const Component = () => {
  const store = useContext(StoreContext)
  const slice = useStore(store, selector)
  ...

TypeScript Usage

Basic typescript usage doesn't require anything special except for writing create<State>()(...) instead of create(...)...

import { create } from 'zustand'
import { devtools, persist } from 'zustand/middleware'
import type {} from '@redux-devtools/extension' // required for devtools typing

interface BearState {
  bears: number
  increase: (by: number) => void
}

const useBearStore = create<BearState>()(
  devtools(
    persist(
      (set) => ({
        bears: 0,
        increase: (by) => set((state) => ({ bears: state.bears + by })),
      }),
      {
        name: 'bear-storage',
      },
    ),
  ),
)

A more complete TypeScript guide is here.

Best practices

Third-Party Libraries

Some users may want to extend Zustand's feature set which can be done using third-party libraries made by the community. For information regarding third-party libraries with Zustand, visit the doc.

Comparison with other libraries