Is Redux Still a Viable Option in 2024? (2024)

FAQs

Is Redux Still a Viable Option in 2024? ›

Yes, Redux is still relevant for modern React applications. Although there are many state management tools available, Redux provides a consistent and predictable pattern for managing state, especially in larger applications where state needs to be shared across many components.

Redux, with its structured approach and powerful ecosystem, remains a solid choice for large and complex applications. However, alternatives like Recoil, Zustand, and others offer compelling features that might be more suitable for specific scenarios.

You Might Not Need Redux

In the end, Redux is just a tool. It's a great tool, and there are some great reasons to use it, but there are also reasons you might not want to use it. Make informed decisions about your tools, and understand the tradeoffs involved in each decision.

Redux is a state management library that has been widely used in React applications. One of the core functions of Redux is the createStore function, which is used to create a store that holds the state of the application. However, with the release of Redux 4.0, the createStore function has been deprecated.

If you are writing any Redux logic today, you should be using Redux Toolkit to write that code! RTK includes utilities that help simplify many common use cases, including store setup, creating reducers and writing immutable update logic, and even creating entire "slices" of state at once.

Yes, Redux is still relevant for modern React applications. Although there are many state management tools available, Redux provides a consistent and predictable pattern for managing state, especially in larger applications where state needs to be shared across many components.

Another excellent redux alternative is Zustand. It is a fast, convenient, and minimalist API, preferred for Redux-like functionality minus the Redux code bulk.

In 2024, both React Hooks and Redux remain powerful tools for managing state in React applications.

One of the main drawbacks of using Redux is the added complexity it brings to an application. In order to use Redux, developers must become familiar with concepts such as actions, action creators, and reducers, which can be difficult to understand and can add a learning curve to the development process.

Knowing which data needs refreshing and how often to do it is also helpful. Typically, we choose Redux for global state management if we work on a larger, complex project. If the project is smaller, or we focus on encapsulating modules, it is worth using the Context API.

What replaces Redux in React? ›

With React Query, we not only eliminate the need for Redux Slice, but we also gain automatic management of loading, error handling, and data retrieval — all in just a few lines of code.

The biggest drawback of Redux is the amount of boilerplate code that gets added to an application. Redux's reducers are responsible for the great influx of boilerplate code. The additional code can cause coding errors and lead to greater application complexity.

As opposed to React, Redux depends on such pure functions. It takes a given state (object) and passes it to each reducer in a loop. In case of any data changes, a new object is returned from the reducer (re-rendering takes place). However, the old object is returned if there are no changes (no re-rendering).

Now fast forward several years, the React ecosystem has grown so much, and the question arises, do we still need Redux? The answer for most cases is: No! You don't have to go to Redux as the default way to manage your React application's state anymore, and there are other alternatives that you can consider instead.

Redux involves manually configuring middleware, reducers, and sometimes enhancers, whereas the Redux Toolkit uses configureStore to set up the store and manages reducers with createSlice. That makes Redux Toolkit the more appealing and efficient approach.

Who uses Redux? 2372 companies reportedly use Redux in their tech stacks, including Instagram, Amazon, and Robinhood.

Redux-Saga, a Redux side effect manager, is said to be deprecated, and no longer being maintained.

One potential disadvantage of Redux is that it can lead to performance issues if not implemented correctly. This is because Redux stores the entire application state in a single, immutable data structure, which means that the entire state must be re-rendered whenever a change is made.

That said, you should not be using Redux Saga for data fetching, and really shouldn't be using it at all today except in very rare use cases. If you're using Redux, you should be using Redux Toolkit's RTK Query data fetching layer for data fetching. If you're not using Redux, use React Query for data fetching.