Us React developers, we often find ourselves grappling with the age-old question:

React offers a variety of state management solutions, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and the choice ultimately depends on the specific requirements of your project. To help navigate this decision, I follow this self-made flow chart which serves as an excellent guide, taking into account various factors such as data sharing requirements, data fetching needs, and whether you’re dealing with forms or multiple components.

Plain State 📃

If your application has simple state management needs and doesn’t require data sharing across multiple components, the built-in useState or useReducer hooks, along with component state (useState used within a functional component), can suffice. These hooks provide a straightforward way to manage component-level state without the overhead of additional libraries or abstractions.

Form State 📝

When dealing with forms, dedicated form state management libraries like useReducer, Formik, React Hook Form, Tanstack Form, or XState can be extremely helpful. These libraries offer robust form handling capabilities, including validation, error handling, and performance optimizations specific to form data management.

Shared State 🌐

If your application requires sharing state across multiple components, you have several options:

Prop Drilling or Global State 🌎

For simple shared state scenarios, you can leverage prop drilling (passing data down the component tree via props) or global state management solutions like localStorage, cookie, IndexedDB, Redux, Zustand, Recoil, Jotai, Valtio, or XState. These solutions allow you to store and access shared state across your application.

Route State 📚

If the shared state is specific to a particular route or set of routes, you can leverage the built-in state management capabilities of React Router, such as the React Router loader or Tanstack Router loader. These solutions are particularly useful when working with data that needs to be fetched and shared across multiple components within a specific route.

Remote State 📧

For applications that require fetching and sharing data from remote sources, you can use libraries like Tanstack Query, SWR, RTK Query, or Apollo (for GraphQL). These libraries provide efficient data fetching, caching, and state management for remote data, reducing the need for manual cache invalidation and improving overall performance.

Sharable via URL? 🔗

One important consideration when choosing a state management approach is whether the state needs to be shareable via URL. If so, solutions like URL state management or the built-in capabilities of React Router become more relevant.

By following this flowchart, you can systematically evaluate your application’s state management needs and choose the most appropriate solution. Remember, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach, and you may need to combine multiple strategies to meet your application’s requirements effectively.