Best React State Management Libraries in 2024

Managing application state in React is critical for performance and user experience. As one recent guide notes, “state management is a critical aspect of React application development, playing a vital role in delivering seamless user experiences and maintaining application performance” ( (Source: medium.com)). React itself provides basic state tools – the useState and useReducer hooks for local component state, and the Context API for sharing data across components – which are often sufficient for simple needs ( (Source: medium.com)) ( (Source: medium.com)). For example, React’s hooks handle “local state directly within a single component” using useState/useReducer ( (Source: medium.com)), and Context lets you avoid prop-drilling when multiple components need the same data. However, as apps grow in size or complexity, developers turn to dedicated libraries that offer global stores, advanced caching, or other patterns to simplify state handling.

React’s Built-in State and Context

Before choosing a full library, remember that React’s own tools may suffice for many cases. For component-specific state, hooks like useState (simple values) and useReducer (for more complex update logic) work out of the box ( (Source: medium.com)) ( (Source: medium.com)). For cross-component state, Context API is built into React; it lets you share values globally without external dependencies ( (Source: medium.com)). These built-in options are lightweight and have no extra setup. In practice, many small or medium apps rely entirely on useState/useReducer plus Context. As one author notes, these tools are ideal “for simple, self-contained pieces of state” and avoid any boilerplate beyond React itself ( (Source: medium.com)) ( (Source: medium.com)).

Redux

Redux is the classic React state library with a centralized store and action/reducer updates. It provides a single global state tree and requires dispatching actions to update that state. This makes state transitions very explicit and predictable. For example, Redux is praised as “one of the most popular state management libraries in the React ecosystem” that “provides a predictable state container” for application data ( (Source: medium.com)). Its structured approach also enables powerful development tools: by using explicit actions and immutability, Redux DevTools can track exactly “what, when and how the state changes,” like a Git commit log of your app ( (Source: dev.to)).

Developers must write boilerplate (action types, reducers, etc.), so Redux has a steeper learning curve than simpler hooks. This is mitigated today by Redux Toolkit (RTK), which streamlines setup. Redux’s strengths are a strong ecosystem (middleware, extensive docs) and time-travel debugging. In summary, Redux is best for large or complex apps needing rigorous structure: it offers highly structured global state and excellent tooling ( (Source: medium.com)) ( (Source: dev.to)), but at the cost of some verbosity.

MobX and Valtio

MobX and Valtio take a reactive/mutable approach: you declare observable state and mutate it directly, and the libraries automatically propagate those changes to your UI. MobX, for example, uses observables and reactions so that any component using an observable value re-renders automatically. As one summary puts it, “MobX is a reactive state management library with automatic tracking of state changes” ( (Source: medium.com)). There are no explicit actions or reducers – you simply update your data (often using ES6 Proxies), and MobX handles the rest. This leads to very little boilerplate and concise code, but it can feel like “magic” because updates are implicit. MobX shines in quick prototyping or dynamic UIs, but developers should be mindful that the update flow is less transparent than Redux’s.

Valtio is a more recent library in the same category (ornamentally grouped as “mutable-based” along with MobX ( (Source: dev.to))). It, too, uses Proxy under the hood. You create a proxy object for your state and use a hook (e.g. useSnapshot) in components to subscribe. Valtio is very small and offers a minimal API. In practice, it behaves similarly to MobX: any mutation of the proxy is reflected in the UI. Both MobX and Valtio aim for simplicity and performance by minimizing re-renders, but trade off some predictability. They avoid the rigid structure of Redux at the expense of making change-tracking more implicit.

Zustand

Zustand (German for “state”) has surged in popularity. It is a tiny, hook-based state library that provides a global store without the ceremony of Redux. In practice, you define one or more stores (plain objects) and use hooks to read/write state. Zustand specifically “is a small, fast, and scalable state management library that uses a store-based approach” ( (Source: medium.com)). Components that subscribe to parts of the store only re-render when those specific parts change, thanks to selector-based updates.

According to the State of React 2024 survey, Zustand was a top favorite: it “confirms its lead in terms of positivity” and grew in usage from 28% to 41% over the past year ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com)). Developers praise Zustand for its minimal API and no-boilerplate design: there are no actions or reducers, just plain functions that modify state. This makes it excellent for medium-sized apps where a simple global store (via hooks) is desired. It works great for scenarios that don’t need the full overhead of Redux. In short, Zustand offers global state with a concise syntax ( (Source: medium.com)) and is widely adopted for its simplicity and performance ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com)).

Atomic Libraries (Jotai & Recoil)

Another modern pattern is atom-based state, where state is split into independent “atoms” rather than one big store. Recoil (by Facebook) and Jotai exemplify this approach ( (Source: dev.to)). Each piece of state is an atom, and components subscribe to those atoms. Derived or asynchronous state can be created via selectors.

• Jotai is very minimalistic: you create atoms and use hooks (useAtom) to read/write them. It has very little boilerplate, and updates re-render only the components that use that atom. This fine-grained control makes performance predictable. Jotai also has modern TypeScript support and works well with React’s concurrent mode. It’s often chosen for complex apps that need many small bits of state without a global monolith.

• Recoil pioneered the atoms/selectors model. It integrates natively with React (including Suspense for async selectors). However, keep in mind that Recoil is no longer actively maintained by Meta as of 2024 ( (Source: medium.com)). (Meta officially archived the Recoil repo at the start of 2025.) Because of this, many teams are shifting from Recoil to alternatives like Jotai.

In brief, atomic libraries like Jotai (and formerly Recoil) offer very flexible state partitioning ( (Source: dev.to)). They excel when you need many small, independent state pieces (for example, forms, filters, etc.). Jotai in particular is recommended by some developers as a lightweight default choice, while Recoil’s legacy features (like async selectors) are less critical for new projects given its maintenance status ( (Source: dev.to)) ( (Source: medium.com)).

Server-State Libraries (TanStack Query / SWR)

React state management often distinguishes between client (UI) state and server (remote) state. Libraries like TanStack Query (formerly React Query) and SWR are not general-purpose UI state stores, but they handle server data very well. They simplify fetching, caching, and syncing data from APIs. For example, TanStack Query is “best known as a data loading library” but “does a great job of managing the resulting state as well” ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com)). In practice, you define queries to fetch data, and the library stores that data in a cache and keeps it fresh. This means your components can read server data as if it were state, without dealing with loading flags and manual updates. React Query’s built-in features (background refetch, cache invalidation, pagination) essentially manage the data cache state for you.

SWR (by Vercel) is a similar API that implements the “stale-while-revalidate” strategy. It provides a hook-based interface to fetch data and keeps a lightweight cache. Both TanStack Query and SWR are widely used: many teams prefer them for any API-driven data, since they free you from boilerplate state updates. These libraries complement client-state libs; they do not replace tools like Redux or Zustand, but instead focus on server-state. Using them, your remote data “just becomes state” without writing custom cache logic ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com)).

GraphQL Clients (Apollo)

For applications using GraphQL, the Apollo Client is a major state-management tool. Apollo includes a normalized in-memory cache for query results. Any data fetched via GraphQL queries is stored in that cache, which effectively acts as a global state store. Apollo even allows defining local-only fields and reactive variables to manage purely client-side state. In a sense, if your app is powered by GraphQL with Apollo, much of your global data needs are met implicitly. In surveys of React developers, Apollo Client still shows up as a popular solution: for example, about 19 respondents specifically mentioned using Apollo Client for state ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com)). (Relay is another GraphQL option, though less common in surveys.) In summary, Apollo Client doubles as both a data-fetching tool and a state manager for GraphQL applications.

Other Libraries

Beyond the ones above, there are dozens of niche or emerging libraries. Some notable mentions:

• Hookstate: A simple, high-performance state library with built-in immutability and plugins.
• Rematch: A lightweight Redux wrapper that removes boilerplate config, making Redux simpler.
• Nano Stores and Legend State: Ultra-lightweight stores (roughly a few hundred bytes) that provide observable state. These showed up in community polls (each mentioned by ~19 developers ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com))) as cutting-edge alternatives.
• XState: Technically a state machine library, it is used by some teams to manage component state in a very structured way.
• Others: There are many others like Overmind, Effector, etc.

One roundup of 2024 ranked Hookstate and Rematch among the top React state libraries ( (Source: medium.com)). For example, the list of “Top 7” libraries included Redux, Hookstate, Recoil, Jotai, Rematch, Zustand, and MobX ( (Source: medium.com)). The key takeaway is that many specialized libraries exist, but they all follow the main patterns described above (global store, atomic, proxy, etc.). Your choice should be driven by project needs.

In the end, the “best” library depends on context. Small apps often need little beyond React’s defaults, while large apps might use Redux or a combination of tools. Data-heavy apps lean on TanStack Query or Apollo. New projects often try Zustand or Jotai for simplicity. As one community author cautions, don’t pick purely on buzzwords; pick on fit and developer familiarity. Each library has trade-offs in ease of use, performance, and ecosystem, so evaluate them with your team’s goals in mind.

Sources: We referenced recent community surveys and articles on React state management trends ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com)) ( (Source: 2024.stateofreact.com)) ( (Source: medium.com)) ( (Source: medium.com)), as well as documentation and reviews of each library ( (Source: dev.to)) ( (Source: medium.com)) ( (Source: medium.com)). These provide the details above about popularity, design, and use cases.