Do You Need State Management in 2025? React Context vs Zustand vs Jotai vs Redux

Source: Dev.to

🎯 The Problem

The Context

• Portfolio site: Personal brand, blog, project showcase
• UI library: 25+ reusable React components
• State requirements: Theme, navigation, forms, analytics
• Team size: Solo developer (need fast iteration)
• Constraints: No over‑engineering, clear upgrade path
• Future: E‑commerce features, user accounts, complex data

The Challenge

Choosing the wrong state solution would hurt:

• 🐌 Over‑engineering: Redux for 3 pieces of state = overkill
• 🔄 Under‑engineering: Context for real‑time feeds = performance issues
• 📚 Learning curve: New devs need to understand the pattern
• 🔧 Migration pain: Wrong choice = 2–3 days to refactor later
• 💰 Bundle size: Some solutions add 15 KB+ to bundle

Why This Decision Mattered

• ⏱️ Developer velocity: Simple state = faster feature development
• 🚀 Performance: Right tool prevents re‑render issues
• 🔄 Scalability: Need clear upgrade path as complexity grows
• 🤝 Team onboarding: Future team needs to understand it quickly
• 📦 Bundle size: Every KB matters for performance

✅ Evaluation Criteria

Must‑Have Requirements

• TypeScript support – Full type safety for state
• Simple API – Easy to understand and teach
• Performance – No unnecessary re‑renders
• DevTools – Ability to debug state changes
• React 19 compatible – Works with latest React

Nice‑to‑Have Features

• Time‑travel debugging (Redux DevTools)
• Middleware support (logging, persistence)
• Async action handling
• Optimistic updates
• State persistence (localStorage)
• Server state integration

Deal Breakers

• ❌ Requires massive boilerplate for simple state
• ❌ Poor TypeScript support
• ❌ Large bundle size (10 KB+ for basic features)
• ❌ Steep learning curve (2+ days to understand)
• ❌ Forces specific architecture patterns

Scoring Framework

🥊 The Contenders

React Context + useState – Built‑In Solution

• Best For: Simple to moderate state needs
• Key Strength: Zero dependencies, native React
• Key Weakness: No built‑in devtools, can cause re‑renders
• Bundle Size: 0 KB (included in React)
• First Release: React 16.3 (2018), improved in 19
• Maintained By: Meta (React team)
• Current Status: Stable, actively improved

Zustand – Minimalist State Management

• Best For: Medium complexity apps needing global state
• Key Strength: Simple API, tiny size, great DX
• Key Weakness: Less structured than Redux
• Bundle Size: 1.2 KB gzipped
• GitHub Stars: 50.5k ⭐
• NPM Downloads: 5 M/week
• First Release: 2019
• Maintained By: Poimandres (pmndrs) team
• Current Version: 4.5.x (stable, mature)

Jotai – Atomic State Management

• Best For: Complex state with lots of derived values
• Key Strength: Atomic updates, bottom‑up approach
• Key Weakness: Different mental model than Redux/Context
• Bundle Size: 3 KB gzipped
• GitHub Stars: 18.8k ⭐
• NPM Downloads: 1.5 M/week
• First Release: 2020
• Maintained By: Poimandres (pmndrs) team
• Current Version: 2.x (stable, actively developed)

Redux Toolkit – Enterprise Solution

• Best For: Large apps, teams needing strict structure
• Key Strength: Powerful devtools, middleware, structured
• Key Weakness: Verbose, learning curve, boilerplate
• Bundle Size: 15 KB gzipped
• GitHub Stars: 47k ⭐ (Redux) + 10.8k ⭐ (RTK)
• NPM Downloads: 10 M/week
• First Release: 2015 (Redux), 2019 (RTK)
• Maintained By: Redux team (Mark Erikson)
• Current Version: 2.x (stable, mature)

TanStack Query – Server State Specialist

• Best For: Apps with lots of API calls and caching
• Key Strength: Best‑in‑class server state management
• Key Weakness: Not for client state (different purpose)
• Bundle Size: 13 KB gzipped
• GitHub Stars: 43k ⭐
• NPM Downloads: 5 M/week
• First Release: 2019 (as React Query)
• Maintained By: Tanner Linsley
• Note: Different category – handles API/server state, not UI state

📊 Head‑to‑Head Comparison

Quick Feature Matrix

Performance Benchmarks

I tested 1 000 state updates with 10 subscribed components:

Key insight: Optimized Context is nearly as fast as Zustand, but requires more manual optimization work.

The State Management Landscape in 2025

• React Context + useState/useReducer – Built into React, zero dependencies, perfect for moderate state needs.
• Zustand – Minimalist (≈1 KB), simple API, hooks‑based, great developer experience.
• Jotai – Atomic state, bottom‑up approach, recoil‑inspired but simpler.
• Redux Toolkit – Industry standard, powerful devtools, structured but verbose.
• TanStack Query – Server‑state specialist (different category, often confused with UI state tools).

The real question isn’t “which is best?” but rather “what level of complexity does my app actually have?”

Why I Started With React Context

My portfolio site has only a handful of state slices:

• Theme preferences (light/dark mode)
• Navigation state (mobile menu open/closed)
• Form state (contact form, newsletter signup)
• Analytics tracking (user interactions)

No complex data flows, no deeply nested component trees needing the same state, and no global cache synchronization. React Context handles this beautifully:

// contexts/ThemeContext.tsx
import { createContext, useContext, useState, ReactNode } from 'react';

type Theme = 'light' | 'dark';

interface ThemeContextType {
  theme: Theme;
  toggleTheme: () => void;
}

const ThemeContext = createContext<ThemeContextType | undefined>(undefined);

export const ThemeProvider = ({ children }: { children: ReactNode }) => {
  const [theme, setTheme] = useState<Theme>('light');

  const toggleTheme = () => setTheme(prev => (prev === 'light' ? 'dark' : 'light'));

  return (
    <ThemeContext.Provider value={{ theme, toggleTheme }}>
      {children}
    </ThemeContext.Provider>
  );
};

export const useTheme = () => {
  const ctx = useContext(ThemeContext);
  if (!ctx) throw new Error('useTheme must be used within ThemeProvider');
  return ctx;
};