State Management in 2024: Redux vs Context vs Zustand
Deovrat Tiwari
Software Engineer
Redux, Context, Zustand... helping you pick the right tool without over-engineering your app.
State management is the eternal debate in React land. Every year there's a new "best way." Here is my honest take on the landscape right now.
Zustand: My Personal Go-To I love Zustand. It's tiny, has almost no boilerplate, and just works. It feels like what global state should be—simple. For 90% of my side projects and medium-sized apps, this is what I pick.
Redux Toolkit (RTK): The Enterprise Heavyweight Redux used to be a pain, but Redux Toolkit fixed most of that. If I'm working on a massive app with complex data flows and a large team, I still reach for RTK. The debugging tools are unbeatable, and it forces a structure that helps large teams stay organized.
Context API: Good for "Slow" State Context is built-in, which is great. It's perfect for things that don't change often—like the current User, Theme (Light/Dark), or Language. But for rapidly changing data? It can cause too many re-renders if you aren't careful.
TanStack Query: The Real MVP Here's the secret: You probably don't need much global state. You need *Server State*. TanStack Query (React Query) handles fetching, caching, and updating server data so well that it eliminates half the code I used to write in Redux.
My Advice? Use TanStack Query for anything that comes from an API. Use Zustand for the little bit of UI state left over (like "isSidebarOpen"). Keep it simple.
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