Top 7 React State Management Libraries of 2022

React State management is one of the most critical aspects of an online web or mobile application. The growth of interactive application development has, in turn, triggered an unprecedented rise in the number of React state management libraries. Selecting the correct state management library for your React app wins you half the battle. The course of your app development depends significantly on it. 

But it is easier said than done. You must know which React state management library will suit your app development requirements the best. Selecting a random library can increase your investment in terms of cost and time and lengthen the app code size unnecessarily. We will help you walk through some of the best React state management libraries you must look out for in 2022. Let us begin with understanding the benefits of using a state management library for React apps.

• Benefits of using trusted React State Management Libraries
• The Top 7 React State Management Libraries for 2022
• Redux
• MobX / MobX-State-Tree
• XState
• Recoil
• Zustand
• Hookstate
• Akita
• Add on: React Context
• The Takeaway

Apps that support advanced features rely on more advanced React state management libraries. Apart from facilitating data records for the endless state transitions, these libraries also offer many other benefits. Some of the most important of these are:

• Security of data
• Visualization
• Community support
• Enhanced performance

Here’s a list of some of the most widely used React state management libraries that can ease your life. Thank us later!

Any conversation about React state management libraries is incomplete without mentioning Redux. Its importance is undeniable, with more than 32M downloads per month from Github. It offers a functional programming approach to global state management in web applications. 

Redux helps make the application's logic predictable and easier to understand by creating a unidirectional data flow. It also offers powerful state management capabilities such as undo/redo, state persistence, and more by centralizing application state and logic. Identifying and tracking bugs is also easier with Redux as it allows “time-travel debugging.” 

Redux transforms React app development as it allows for flexibility to work with any UI layer. Thunk and Saga are the most popular among its multiple middleware options based on the application's requirements. For instance, Thunk is preferred for small projects or where state management requirements are small. The code here is more readable, and even newbies can interpret it. At the same time, Saga is suitable for managing complex data for complex code. It also offers higher readability for complex code.

The next React state management library we have is MobX which offers an Object-Oriented Programming approach to state management. It has quite the opposite of the functional state management approach of Redux but is equally efficient. This is one of the reasons behind MobX being considered a reliable alternative to Redux by companies worldwide.

MobX decouples code and makes an application portable and easily testable by allowing state application management outside any UI framework. It has optimal rendering capabilities that discard deficient techniques like memoization and selectors. MobX eases the application development process by allowing developers to write minimalistic code.

MobX-State-Tree, often known as MST, is a state container system built on MobX. MST can provide many out-of-the-box features that MobX does not support, including taking snapshots of the whole state, restoring the state from the snapshot, time-traveling or hot reloading, etc. MST can be a tad slower than MobX, so developers prefer using only pure MobX where such advanced features are not required.

Xstate library offers a wide range of options to decide how particular states are managed and state transition can be modeled. It helps separate the logic from the view to make the code more readable. It was made for creating, interpreting, and running state machines and state charts. Xstate can be implemented for managing global app data along with Context APIs.

When used with React, Xstate coordinates the local state, manages the global state performantly, and consumes data from other hooks. It works well with bringing finite state machine patterns into React applications. Finite state machines help address state transitions in a simplified and sorted way. Our developers have successfully utilized Xstate with React for building a production app.

Recoil is a relatively new state management library for React. Many companies are just starting to experiment with it. But since its announcement in 2020 by Facebook, it has already begun making its mark in the React community. Its core components are atoms and selectors. An atom is a single instance of state property. While a selector is a function that derives state from the values of atoms or using other selectors.

Recoil works well with React due to its operational and behavioral similarities with the framework despite some of its initial limitations. It offers a quick and adaptable shared state. It uses atoms and selectors to provide advanced tools for state management in coding and testing. Recoil also provides enhanced readability, making it easy to understand for beginners and powerful features for advanced users.

Zustand is another state management library that is simple in terms of use because it works on similar criteria as React. It is one of the smallest in size, being around 1kB. The requirement of boilerplate code differentiates Zustand from Redux. Unlike Redux, Zustand can manage with minimum boilerplate code. It relies more on hooks than its core components of actions or selectors. 

With Zustand, there is no need to wrap the app states in Context Providers. It also allows React to optimize performance in concurrent mode by using memoizing selectors and React’s Callback API function. Supporting middleware also becomes more accessible with Zustand to reduce code. 

As the name suggests, it is one of the hook-centric state management libraries for React. It helps to deliver an excellent development experience and performance using React hooks. Hookstate can work well with both global and local states. It also has advanced features of managing partial state changes and asynchronous loaded states without any performance loss.

It is an optimal solution for large states with frequent updates. It helps customize or extend your app state hooks through various standard plugins, including touched fields tracking, updated fields tracking, state validation, etc. It is relatively easier to understand, along with being practical and adaptable.

Akita is another React state management library based on Object-Oriented Programming concepts. If Zustand helped decrease the need for boilerplate code, Akita helped eliminate that need altogether. It provides other robust tools to help beginners and advanced developers keep things simple for better understanding. 

It offers a simple to learn state management approach which follows a zero bug policy in its production environment. Akita is also an extensively documented React state management library for providing relevant information to all users.

Using a dedicated React state management library has its own advantages. However, it should be considered that not all React apps need these libraries. Small and medium-scale apps with limited functionalities do not require a library to manage data states. 

React offers State and Context APIs when relying on third-party libraries is not the call of the hour. If your app states can be managed by keeping the code simple and the bundle size to a minimum, why not go for it!

React state management libraries do not just help you manage your app data. They allow you to create a better experience for users eventually. Dynamic and interactive web or mobile apps would be difficult to build and maintain without integrating the state management methods. 

With growing business requirements, we need to expand our use of modern technologies. Our development team at GeekyAnts has been making the most of these leading React state management libraries. Let us join hands to create the best React app to suit your business requirements.