January 23, 2023
September 22nd, 2025
Front-end developers fear one thing when it comes to React application development: state management. It becomes inevitable for the developers to know the when, why, and how of its state for better control of dynamic components and their contexts of the React application. Here is where these pre-built code bundles, known as state management libraries, come into play. Developers use these libraries to manage the ever-changing state of React applications.
One of the most popular and chosen state management libraries is Redux. Though it has been the top choice of developers, it comes with attributes that contribute to the complexity rather than solve it. For this reason, developers seek alternative state management libraries for React development.
Before exploring alternative state management libraries to Redux, let us first gain insight into the Redux state management library and its features.
Redux is a Predictable State Container for JS Apps.
Dan Abramov and Andrew Clark developed this standalone JavaScript library in 2015 with the intention of supporting time-travel debugging, hot reloading, and additional features, including enhanced developer tools support. That also without losing the predictability, a feature of Facebook’s Flux, a data flow architecture. This is the reason why Redux makes state mutations predictable.
Redux’s unidirectional data flow is made possible by its three pillars or core components: Store, Action, and Reducers.
In a nutshell, Redux is inspired by Flux Architecture and functional programming concepts, albeit with its own complexities. This means no Dispatcher concept, absence of multiple stores, and handling the Action object directly by the Store.
The usage of Redux makes your application debuggable, predictable, centralized, and flexible.
Features of the Redux state management library:
The companies that have incorporated Redux in their tech stack are:
Though Redux is the most widely used library, it does not have everything a developer is looking for in a state management library. We have compiled a list of some of the popular alternatives to Redux that offer valuable features.
Let us explore these Redux competitors in detail.
It is a simple, scalable, boilerplate-free, and powerful state management library. It is a standalone library created using TFRP (transparently applying functional reactive programming). MobX derives inspiration from the model–view–viewmodel (MVVM) frameworks, such as Vue.js, MeteorJS’s Tracker, and Knockout. MobX is an unopinionated library, as it enables developers to manage state outside any framework, resulting in decoupled, easy-to-test, and portable code. Unlike Redu,x, which uses the Flux pattern, MobX uses a proxy pattern.
Features of the MobX state management library:
As MobX is considered the best alternative to Redux, we have already compared MobX and Redux in depth. You can refer to our comparison guide, MobX vs Redux, to gain insights into the details of these two state management libraries.
Vuex is a state management pattern + library for Vue.js applications.
It is the library implementation tailored specifically for Vue.js. As it derives its inspiration from Flux, Redux, and Elm architecture, it serves as a centralized repository for application components and has a Single Source of Truth, unlike Redux, its strong coupling with Vue.js results in less boilerplate code.
The core components of Vuex are States, Getters, Mutations, Actions, and Modules.
Features of the Vuex State management tool:
According to the official website, the default state management library for Vue.js is Pinia. The website also mentions that Vuex may not receive any updates and has recommended developers switch to Pinia instead for new Vue.js development projects.
“Zustand” means “state” in German.
It is a small, fast, flexible, and scalable state management solution built by the developers of Jotai and React Spring using simplified flux principles. Just like Redux, it also uses the Flux pattern. It provides centralized and action-based state management. Zustand provides an API based on hooks. The developer uses this API to create global State Stores or subscribe to these Stores via Selectors. Hooks remain the primary way to consume state.
Features of Zustand state management API:
GraphQL is a query language for your API.
It is not a replacement for any other state management library, as it is a query language. But by integrating it with the client library, you won’t need any state management. It is used to get less data or exact data that developers need. Developers still receive data on the client side; hence, they need a library to manage the state. Developers use a client-side library with built-in caching, like Apollo Client. It is a library created by the developers of Meteor that operates both local and remotely fetched states.
The application of GraphQL is not limited to the front end. Some of the best examples of GraphQL backends are Apollo Server, PostGraphile, Hasura, dgraph.io (SaaS), Prisma, and FaunaDB (SaaS).
Features of GraphQL query language:
Jotai means “State” in Japanese!
It is a relatively new, robust, and granular state management library for React. Jotai is a simpler and smaller state management library with no Actions, Reducers, Dispatchers, or Stores! Unlike the above Redux competitors, Jotai uses an atomic pattern.
It uses Atoms, which are objects that contain states. The state management mechanism is similar to Recoil and React Content, except that Jotai is simpler. This is the reason why a React-Jotai application has a straightforward structure.
Features of Jotai state manager:
Minimal and Reactish!
It is an experimental state management library for React apps, invented by Dave McCabe, a software engineer at Facebook. Unlike Redux’s focus on centralizing management, this Redux alternative focuses on diffusional management. It has several stores called “Atoms,” which share each component directly, meaning Recoil does not have a single global state. The absence of actions and reducers in Recoil enables state management in less code. If you are looking to boost performance despite considerable interdependent components, then Recoil is a reasonable consideration.
The core components of Recoil.js are Atoms (shared state) and Selectors (pure functions).
Features Recoil state management:
According to the official Rematch.js docs, Rematch is Redux’s best practices without the boilerplate. As this library is built on Redux, it works on the same paradigm as Redux.
If you choose Rematch, you opt for just one file to handle action types, action creators, switch statements, or thunks. Apart from the official out-of-the-box plugins, it also enables the creation of custom plugins through its API interface. As it is an agnostic framework, it works well with frameworks like Vue, Angular, and more, apart from React.
Features of Redux Rematch:
RxJS is an acronym for Reactive Extensions for JavaScript. As the name suggests, it is a JavaScript library for reactive programming and falls under the category of Concurrency Frameworks.
According to the official website, ReactiveX combines the best ideas from the Observer pattern, the Iterator pattern, and functional programming.
ReactiveJS utilizes concepts such as Observable, Observer, Subscription, Operators, Subject, and Schedulers for managing asynchronous events. These concepts enable this framework to offer predictable operations; however, the strict typing issues can’t be neglected.
Features of Reactive Extensions for JavaScript:
Valtio is a clear, concise, easy-to-use, lightweight, flexible, Unopinionated proxy state management library by the authors of Zustand, React Spring, React Three Fiber, and React Use Gesture. Unlike many state management libraries, it is remarkably agile. Apart from React, this Redux alternative can be used in vanilla JavaScript applications. The Proxy Pattern provides a proxy interface for storing values.
Valtio is compatible with frameworks such as Node.js, Next.js, and React with hooks support, among others. It can also be used without React, using vanilla JS.
Features of the Valtio library:
The React Context API was an experimental feature before it was introduced with the release of React v16.3.
The ideal data passing in a React application uses a top-down (parent to child) approach via props, which means that a prop is required to pass through each nested component (which doesn’t need the data) at all the levels of the component tree from the top down.
Context provides a way to pass data through the component tree without having to pass props down manually at every level.
Source: reactjs.org
It enables avoiding prop drilling problems owing to its dependency injection mechanism.
The core components of the React Context API are the context provider and the context consumer.
Features of Context API React:
The MVC architecture increased complexity in the relationship between components as the application size increased, ultimately becoming a hurdle to the scalability of the applications. Facebook (now Meta) then developed Flux to overcome issues such as instability and complexity with feature-oriented data flow patterns. It is a design pattern rather than a state management library.
It supports front-end frameworks like React, Vue.js, Angular 2, TuxedoJS, Fluxxor, and Polymer.
The four main components of flux methodology are Action, Dispatcher, Store, and View.
Features of Flux Pattern:
• Multiple stores in an application
• Supports client-side framework
• The state is mutable.
• Enables fast debugging
Good Read: Top 15 React Alternatives To Build User Interfaces
The choice of how to manage states in a React application is a crucial decision for the developer. Additionally, it is challenging to find suitable alternatives to Redux that retain its key features.
Therefore, it is inevitable for developers to weigh these state management libraries against various criteria to make a data-driven decision.
Finally, the developer must consider the cost of switching to a new state management library, as it may impact the overall budget of the React application development project.
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