Redux.js VS react-context

Redux.js

Predictable state container for JavaScript apps

react-context

Context provides a way to pass data through the component tree without having to pass props down manually at every level.

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2022-07-17

Landing page //
2023-05-27

Redux.js

Website: redux.js.org
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react-context

Website: legacy.reactjs.org
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Redux.js features and specs

Predictable State Management
Redux provides a single source of truth for the state of your application, which makes it easier to manage and debug. The state changes in a predictable way, which helps in maintaining consistency across the application.
Ecosystem and Community
Redux has a large community and a rich ecosystem of middleware, development tools, and libraries. This support can accelerate development and troubleshooting.
Time-Travel Debugging
With tools like Redux DevTools, developers can leverage features such as action logging, hot-reloading, and time-travel debugging, helping to understand and trace state changes effectively.
Middleware Support
Redux supports middleware that lets you intercept actions and perform side effects like API calls, logging, or modifying actions before they reach reducers. This makes handling asynchronous operations more manageable.
Compatibility with React
Although Redux can be used with any front-end library or framework, it pairs particularly well with React. Libraries like React-Redux offer seamless integration, making it easier to bind React components to the Redux store.

Possible disadvantages of Redux.js

Boilerplate Code
Redux often requires a significant amount of boilerplate code, including actions, reducers, and store configuration. This may result in more verbose code, especially for simple applications.
Learning Curve
Understanding the principles of Redux, such as actions, reducers, and the store, along with concepts like immutability and pure functions, can be challenging for beginners.
Performance Overhead
Due to its strict immutability principles and the frequent creation of new state objects, Redux can introduce performance overhead, especially in large applications with complex state management needs.
Rigid Structure
While the rigid structure of Redux can enforce good practices, it can also be restrictive and inflexible for certain types of applications. Developers might find it cumbersome to work within the boilerplate constraints.
Not Always Necessary
For simple or small applications, the complexity that Redux introduces can be overkill. In such cases, alternatives like the Context API in React or simpler state management solutions might be more appropriate.

react-context features and specs

State Management
React context provides a way to manage state globally across the application, eliminating the need for prop drilling.
Seamless Integration
Integrates seamlessly with React hooks like `useContext`, making it easier to consume context values within functional components.
Component Decoupling
Allows components to be decoupled from their ancestors, reducing the need for intermediate components to pass down props.
Reusability
Enhances reusability as multiple components can subscribe to the same context values without modifying each other.
Boilerplate Reduction
Helps reduce boilerplate code required for passing props through multiple levels of the component tree.

Possible disadvantages of react-context

Performance Overhead
Re-rendering can be an issue if not managed properly, as any change to the context value will re-render all consuming components.
Debugging Difficulty
Context can make it harder to trace where state changes originate, making debugging more challenging.
Limited Scope
Not a full-fledged state management solution like Redux, lacking features like middleware, dev tools, and more complex state handling.
Scoped Updates
Requires deeper understanding of how to scope context updates and use contexts efficiently to avoid unnecessary re-renders.
Setup Complexity
Initial setup can be complex and may require careful planning to structure contexts in a way that prevents overuse or misuse.

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Redux.js and react-context)

react-context

Javascript UI Libraries

65 65%

Javascript UI Libraries

35% 35

JS Library

72 72%

JS Library

28% 28

Front-End Frameworks

60 60%

Front-End Frameworks

40% 40

Developer Tools

61 61%

Developer Tools

39% 39

User comments

Share your experience with using Redux.js and react-context. For example, how are they different and which one is better?

Social recommendations and mentions

react-context might be a bit more popular than Redux.js. We know about 209 links to it since March 2021 and only 188 links to Redux.js. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Redux.js mentions (188)

Architecture and Design Patterns in Front-End
In frontend, the most probably well-known approach is Flux and its most common implementation, Redux. This is an example of unidirectional data flow. - Source: dev.to / 6 days ago
Organisation of Data Flows
The best known example of an architecture with unidirectional data flow is Flux and, as its implementation, Redux. - Source: dev.to / 18 days ago
Valentine’s Day Breakup: React Dumps Create React App
CRA makes integrating libraries like Redux and React Router easy without requiring complex Webpack and Babel configurations. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
UmiJS: the Shaolin of web frameworks
Dva. A plugin-based state management solution (Redux + Sagas). Also quite popular in narrow communities outside of the Umi world. - Source: dev.to / about 1 month ago
Arrays: Reduce - Make Something
If you use Redux or the useReducer() hook, the idea is almost the same. Instead of reducing data, we are reducing actions. What we've referred to as the accumulator is accumulating the state, and the value is whatever action is being performed to update the state. We can take a group of actions and allow each one to make changes. - Source: dev.to / 3 months ago

react-context mentions (209)

A mid-career retrospective of stores for state management
React's hooks (useState, useEffect, useContext) allow for easy encapsulation of reactive business logic. The Context API reduces prop drilling by making state accessible at any component level. - Source: dev.to / 4 months ago
ReactJS Best Practices for Developers
Use context wherever possible: For application-wide state that needs to be accessed by many components, use the Context API to avoid prop drilling. Here’s where to learn more about the context API. - Source: dev.to / 11 months ago
How to manage user authentication With React JS
The context API is generally used for managing states that will be needed across an application. For example, we need our user data or tokens that are returned as part of the login response in the dashboard components. Also, some parts of our application need user data as well, so making use of the context API is more than solving the problem for us. - Source: dev.to / over 1 year ago
My 5 favourite updates from the new React documentation
Previously, in the legacy docs, the Context API was just one of the topics within the Advanced guides. Unless you went digging, you wouldn't have been introduced to it as one of the core ways to handle deep passing of data. I really like that, in the new docs, Context is recommended as a way to manage state as its one of the best ways to avoid prop drilling. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago
Learn Context in React in simple steps
You can read more about the Context at https://reactjs.org/docs/context.html. - Source: dev.to / about 2 years ago