Redux vs Context API: State Management for Large-Scale Apps

There are many libraries that facilitate state management, however, the most popular one is Redux. The main idea behind Redux is to have a single store for data that can be changed only through actions. The store sits at the top of the application and is accessible from anywhere. To illustrate what a typical application would look like, the example from the previous paragraph could be used.

Main pros of Redux

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Context provides a way to pass data through the component tree without passing props down manually at each nesting level. In 2022 we added the Listener Middleware to the official Redux Toolkit for “reactive Redux logic”. It can do most things that sagas can (the exception being channels) without requiring generator syntax and with better TypeScript support. It  acts as a central store that holds the application’s entire state.

When an action is dispatched, it can be hard to see what is happening behind the scenes and how the action is affecting the state of your app. When deciding which tools and techniques to use for handling async tasks in a program, it is important to consider the specific requirements and constraints of the program. Redux Thunk is a middleware that allows you to dispatch actions that contain async logic. It is particularly useful for making API calls and performing other async tasks. In a Redux application, middleware is a function that sits between the action and the reducer.

Benefits of using Redux

There must also be a way of saving the data to the localStorage. A lifecycle method or a hook that persists its data would suffice. The second principle dictates that the state should be read-only and can be changed by dispatching an action. The state being read-only could be achieved by switching to more restrictive setter functions. To borrow from Redux, a reducer could be used, which is achieved by using the useReducer hook. The last principle states that changes are made with pure functions.

Main pros of Redux

Not only would these two elements have to be moved, but also the state, state setters, the fetching function, and the submit function too. First of all, a state has to be defined to keep the input text, and the data to be fetched. This is a local state that is accessible only by this component since neither its current state nor update functions get passed by props anywhere. The above snippet illustrates a toggle that flips its boolean value after the button is clicked. At first glance, it does not seem to be anything wrong with this approach, and for the most part, it is true.

Pros of Using Redux in Your Application

Redux often requires writing verbose asynchronous action creators and middleware to manage data fetching and updating. React Query simplifies this process by providing a clean and straightforward way to handle asynchronous data fetching. With React Query, you can easily define queries and mutations, abstracting what is redux used for away much of the complexity that Redux typically involves. This flexibility makes it easy to maintain and change our code when needed. We can use the store and Provider imports to update our application. As the official binding library for React and Redux, React Redux has a large community of users.

Main pros of Redux

Additionally, context API can be more efficient and lightweight than Redux, as it only re-renders the components that consume the context. 💡 Reducers take the previous state of the app and return a new state based on the action passed to it. As pure functions, they do not change the data in the object passed to them or perform any side effect in the application. Given the same object, they should always produce the same result. Redux requires you to write a lot of boilerplate code to set up the store, actions, and reducers. This can be time-consuming and tedious, especially if you are just getting started with Redux.

The Cons of Using Redux with React

By using reducers with the help of the hook mentioned in the previous paragraph, this rule can be fulfilled. The exact same reducers used in Redux can be used with the useReducer hook for the Context. Redux Thunk and Redux Saga are both middlewares for Redux that can be used to handle async tasks and perform side effects in Redux applications.

Main pros of Redux

It is however incorrectly used for the sole purpose of preventing passing props through multiple components (prop drilling). Reducer is a function that decides how to process incoming data. Each reducer must not directly modify its state and instead return a new, fresh version of it in order to comply with the principle of immutability. The below snippet returns an object depending on an action that was dispatched. The above code is a fragment of the parent component that renders two siblings, passing similar props to both, preserving the principle in which the data flows down.

An action can be literally anything, but if you’re following best practices, an action is a plain javascript object with a type field, and optional payload, meta, and error fields. But still, redux-saga provides some unique features such as racing effect and parallel requests. Therefore, if you need these special functionalities, redux-saga is still a good choice. Thunks are called by the action creator on each new action (e.g. LOGIN_REQUEST).

Main pros of Redux

With various middleware options available, you can choose the best fit for your application and leverage its features to build more powerful and efficient apps. One of the main drawbacks of using Redux is that it can add a lot of boilerplate and complexity to your code. You have to write and maintain actions, reducers, selectors, and connect functions for every piece of state you want to manage.

The Pros and Cons of Using Redux with React

While action has certain restrictions on its structure, the state could be of any data type. In the above example, a state is an object containing two key-value pairs. Finally, the code to render the necessary elements will be added to allow for interaction with the above functions.

  • With it, you can handle the initial render of the app by sending the state of an app to the server along with its response to the server request.
  • Upon entering the query and submitting the form, the data is fetched and displayed in an unordered list.
  • While Redux has many helpful features, that does not mean you should add Redux to all of your apps.
  • There is a lot of talk about the latest kid in redux town right now, redux-saga/redux-saga.
  • During the last 16 months, maybe the most notable change in the React community is React hooks.