Top 10+ React Libraries to Try in 2024

Introduction

Whether you are a developer or an IT team leader, you want to keep up-to-date with the latest trends and news concerning your core technology.

No wonder the ability to constantly learn and adjust to the ever-changing environment is the key characteristic of every top developer.

If your core technology is JavaScript, you’ve come to the right place.

In this article, we’ll be talking about top 14 React libraries that all React developers should know.

Without any further ado, let’s jump right in to it.

React libraries recommended by developers

Let's start with real-life recommendations. In this video, tech experts share the React libraries and tools they actually use in their everyday work:

Mentioned libraries:

• React Context
• Redux
• Mobx
• React Window
• React Virtualized
• React Query
• Zod

Top React libraries categorized

Setup and configuration

• Create React App: Simplifies the setup of a new React project.

UI components

• Material UI: Implements Material Design components.
• Styled Components: Allows for CSS-in-JS styling.

State management

• MobX: Makes state management simple and scalable.
• Redux: Predictable state container for JavaScript apps.

Testing

• Enzyme: Facilitates testing of React components.

Performance

• React Virtualized: Efficiently renders large lists and tables.
• React Window: Optimizes the rendering of large lists.

Forms

• Redux Form: Simplifies form handling with Redux.

Drag and drop

• React DnD: Builds drag-and-drop interfaces.

Internationalization

• React Intl: Simplifies internationalization.

Data fetching and caching

• React Query: Manages data fetching and caching.

Context management

• React Context: Shares data across components without props drilling.

Validation

• Zod: Provides TypeScript-first schema validation.

Now let's analyze the details.

Top 14 React libraries you should know

<h3 id="create">1. Create React App</h3>

Create React App is a command line interface created by Facebook developers that enables you to easily create a React.js project. It builds structures of catalogs and files, includes tools needed at the start and helps you build, test and launch your application.

It’s an absolute must-have for every React project as it saves you plenty of time otherwise spent on overwhelming manual setup and configuration of your app. You just need to run one simple command and Create React App does that all for you.

Find Create React App on Github.

<h3 id="material">2. Material UI</h3>

Material UI is a set of components created by Google, that implements their famous Material Design. With over 36k stars on Github, it’s the most popular UI package of all React libraries. It’s simple, eye-catching, light and user-friendly. It’s already been around for a couple of years, but thanks to constant updates, it hasn’t lost its popularity.

Find Material UI on Github.

<h3 id="styled">3. Styled Components</h3>

Styled Components is a CSS tool that helps you organize your React project (TIP: it works with React Native too). This library helps you build small, reusable components responsible for the look of your app. With traditional CSS you may face the problem of accidentally overwriting selectors used in other places of the site, but thanks to Style Components you can avoid this issue by using a CSS syntax directly inside your components.

Find Styled Components on Github.

<h3 id="mobx">4. MobX</h3>

This state management solution was created to make it impossible to build a messy state and thus create a bug-packed app. While other libraries focus on restricting developers from modifying the state, MobX makes sure that everything can be easily and automatically extracted.

Find MobX on Github.

<h3 id="enzyme">5. Enzyme</h3>

Enzyme is a JavaScript library created to test React components. It was created by the AirBnB engineering team and released as an open source in 2015. The tool is meant to be intuitive in use and make it easier to assert, manipulate, and traverse your React components’ output.

Find Enzyme on Github.

<h3 id="redux">6. Redux</h3>

Redux, similarly to MobX, is a state management solution for JavaScript applications. It’s most often used in combination with React, but it works with other React-like frameworks, too. Redux makes it possible to connect every component directly to the entire state and thus eliminates the need to use props or callbacks.

Find Redux on Github.

<h3 id="virtualized">7. React Virtualized</h3>

React Virtualized library helps you improve the efficiency of the large list and tabular data rendering. It helps to restrict the number of requests and DOM elements and enhances the overall performance of React apps. There are many tools similar to React Virtualized, which makes it better than the competition is the number of functionalities and very good maintenance.

Find React Virtualized on Github.

<h3 id="reduxform">8. Redux Form</h3>

Redux Form is a set of reducer and action creators that makes it easier to implement customized complex forms. It was especially designed to work with Redux (no surprise there). It’s a relatively simple and well-performing solution when compared to other similar tools. You still write forms and components by yourself so it does not take the flexibility away.

Find Redux Form on Github.

<h3 id="dnd">9. React DnD</h3>

React DnD is a library used to build complex drag and drop interfaces. There are plenty of great drag and drop libraries, but React DnD is unlike most of them as it’s built on top of the modern HTML5 drag and drop API. However, it has one major downside – it doesn’t support touchscreens.

Find React DnD on Github.

<h3 id="intl">10. React Intl</h3>

Every language has different rules and conventions. Adapting those differences in international projects isn’t easy and that’s why React Intl was built. This open-source child of Yahoo was designed to make internationalization as easy and straightforward as possible. It includes ready-to-go components and an API to format strings, dates, numbers and handle pluralization.

Find React Intl on Github.

<h3 id="context">11. React Context</h3>

React Context allows data to be passed down through the component tree without explicitly passing it as props between each component. The feature provides a way to share data and state between components that are not directly connected through parent-child relationships.

With React Context, components can access shared data without passing it explicitly through intermediate components. This can be useful for scenarios where multiple components need access to the same data or when prop drilling becomes cumbersome.

It's important to use React Context judiciously and consider its impact on component reusability and maintainability. Excessive use of context can make it harder to understand and reason about the flow of data in the application.

<h3 id="window">12. React Window</h3>

React Window is a library for React that provides virtualized rendering of large lists or grids, optimizing performance by rendering only the visible items instead of rendering the entire list. It helps developers to address performance issues that can arise when rendering a large number of items in a React application.

When dealing with long lists or grids, rendering all the items at once can lead to performance problems, especially on devices with limited resources. React Window tackles this issue by rendering only the visible items within the viewport, dynamically replacing items as the user scrolls or interacts with the list.

By implementing virtualized rendering, React Window optimizes the performance of long lists or grids, making it an excellent choice when working with large amounts of data in React applications.

Find React Window on GitHub.

<h3 id="query">13. React Query</h3>

React Query is a library for React that provides data fetching and caching capabilities. It simplifies the management of remote data in React applications by abstracting away the complexities of network requests, caching, and state management.

React Query is really nice in case of validation, catching, and standardizing the way you are querying your API. - Benedict Dryl, Head of Engineering at Brainhub

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<h3 id="zod">14. Zod</h3>

Zod is a TypeScript-first schema validation library that allows you to define and validate data structures. It provides a concise and expressive syntax for defining schemas, and it seamlessly integrates with TypeScript, leveraging its static type checking capabilities.

Zod works very well with TypeScript. It’s very performant and intuitive and it’s our winner in case of validation libraries. - Benedict Dryl, Head of Engineering at Brainhub

FAQ: React libraries

What is the most popular form library in React?

The most popular form library in React is React Hook Form. It is widely used due to its performance, simplicity, and ease of integration with other libraries. React Hook Form leverages React hooks to manage form state and validation, making it a lightweight and efficient solution compared to other form libraries.

Here are some reasons for its popularity:

1. Performance: React Hook Form minimizes re-renders, improving form performance.
2. Simplicity: The API is straightforward and easy to understand.
3. Integration: It works well with other UI libraries and components.
4. Validation: Supports both synchronous and asynchronous validation.
5. Typescript support: Provides excellent TypeScript support, which is beneficial for type safety and autocomplete.

Other popular form libraries include Formik and Redux Form, but React Hook Form has gained significant traction in the React community in recent years.

What is the most popular CSS library for React?

The most popular CSS library for React is Styled Components. It’s loved by developers because it allows you to write CSS directly within your JavaScript files, making styling more dynamic and scoped to individual components.

Here’s why it’s a favorite:

1. Component-based: Styles are tied to specific components, making it easy to manage and reuse.
2. Dynamic styling: You can use JavaScript to create dynamic styles based on props or state.
3. Automatic critical CSS: Only the styles that are needed for the components on the screen are loaded.
4. Theming: Easy to set up and use themes across your application.
5. CSS syntax: You write actual CSS, which makes it easy to pick up if you're already familiar with CSS.

While other CSS-in-JS libraries like Emotion and traditional CSS frameworks like Bootstrap are also popular, Styled Components stands out for its seamless integration with React and modern styling capabilities.

What is the most popular React UI library?

The most popular React UI library is Material-UI (now known as MUI). It’s a comprehensive library that provides a wide range of pre-built components following Google’s Material Design guidelines.

Here’s why it’s so popular:

1. Comprehensive: Offers a vast array of components that are ready to use, covering most of the needs for building user interfaces.
2. Customizable: You can easily customize components to fit your design needs, including theming support.
3. Consistent design: Follows Material Design principles, ensuring a consistent and modern look across your application.
4. Active community: Has a large and active community, meaning plenty of resources, support, and regular updates.
5. Ease of use: The API is well-documented and easy to use, making it accessible for both beginners and experienced developers.

Other popular React UI libraries include Ant Design and Chakra UI, but MUI stands out due to its comprehensive feature set and adherence to Material Design.

Found your favorite React libraries?

We hope you liked this short list of the most popular React Libraries. If you found it valuable, please share it with your colleagues and team members so that they can read about these React development gems as well.

Plus, you may also find it interesting to learn which tools to use to expand your React app or how to deal with common React JS problems.