Introduction
The React ecosystem is packed with thousands of libraries, but only a handful actually make a meaningful difference in your day-to-day development. Below you’ll find the list of libraries, mentioned by the React community, that consistently boost productivity and solve common development challenges.
This article covers the essential tools that can streamline your workflow. For the complete version with developer feedback for each library, check out the full article on SVAR’s blog.
TanStack Query
TanStack Query (formerly React Query) manages asynchronous server state management and caching with automatic background updates. It simplifies fetching, caching, synchronizing and updating server state in your React app. You can use it out-of-the-box and customize while your app scales.
When to use: Use TanStack Query in any app that needs to fetch and manage server data. It handles fetching, caching, and syncing server state, often replacing the need for global state management.
Zustand
Zustand is a lightweight state management library for React that uses hooks to manage state with minimal boilerplate. Unlike Redux, it doesn’t require reducers, actions, or wrapping your app in providers. You define your store using a simple function and consume it directly in components via custom hooks. It’s un-opinionated, works with both JavaScript and TypeScript, and supports advanced use cases like selective subscriptions and transient updates.
When to use: Small to medium apps, when you want simple global state without Redux complexity, or when building framework-agnostic code.
Jotai
Jotai is a minimalistic state management library for React that uses atoms — small units of state — to build predictable and scalable global state. Each atom can be used independently or combined with others, and React automatically optimizes re-renders based on which atoms a component depends on.
Unlike React context, Jotai avoids unnecessary re-renders without requiring memoization. It feels similar to signals but keeps a declarative model, making it easy to reason about. Jotai is used in production by teams at Meta, Adobe, and TikTok.
When to use: When you prefer bottom-up state composition, need fine-grained reactivity, or want to avoid prop drilling without global state.
Axios
Axios is a popular promise-based HTTP client used in React applications to handle API requests. It works in both the browser and Node.js, offering a consistent API across environments. Axios simplifies tasks like sending GET/POST requests, handling responses, and managing errors. It also supports XSRF protection and convenient data serialization, making it a reliable choice for handling API communication.
When to use: When you need interceptors for auth tokens, request/response transformation, or centralized error handling. Otherwise, native fetch is sufficient.
React Hook Form
React Hook Form (RHF) helps you create performant forms with minimal re-renders and built-in validation. It works with standard HTML form elements, enabling developers to build forms quickly without unnecessary boilerplate. Unlike controlled components, RHF uses uncontrolled components by default, which minimizes re-renders and validation overhead, resulting in faster form rendering.
When to use: Ideal for complex forms with validation needs. RHF improves performance over controlled components by reducing unnecessary renders.
Zod
Zod is a TypeScript-first schema declaration and validation library that brings runtime safety to your application. It lets you define the shape of your data using a concise, fluent API and then validate at runtime, catching invalid API responses, form inputs, or internal state before they cause bugs. Unlike JSON Schema or Yup, Zod works seamlessly with TypeScript without needing extra code for type inference.
When to use: Use Zod in TypeScript projects when you need both compile-time types and runtime validation: for form inputs, API responses, or strict component props. It helps eliminate type mismatches and reduces defensive code.
React Testing Library
React Testing Library (RTL) provides lightweight utilities built on top of react-dom and react-dom/test-utils, designed to promote testing through user interactions rather than component internals. Instead of working with component instances, RTL encourages querying and asserting against actual DOM nodes, just like real users would. This approach improves test reliability and pushes developers toward writing more accessible, behavior-focused components.
When to use: Unit testing React components, when you prefer testing behavior over implementation details.
Vitest
Vitest is a fast unit testing framework built on top of Vite, with native ESM support and a Jest-compatible API. It supports TypeScript, JSX, mocking, snapshots, and code coverage out of the box, and integrates directly with your Vite config for a streamlined setup. Developers appreciate its instant watch mode and dev experience that feels more like HMR than traditional test runners.
When to use: Modern TypeScript/Vite projects where speed and ESM support matter. Great replacement for Jest in new apps.
Playwright
Playwright is an end-to-end testing library for reliable, cross-browser automation. It supports Chromium, Firefox, and WebKit, and allows mocking network responses and testing real user workflows. It offers auto-waiting, resilient web-first assertions, and built-in tracing to eliminate flaky tests.
When to use: Integration testing, when you need to test actual user workflows, or want reliable cross-browser testing.
Bonus: UI Components
A solid component library can save weeks of work.These options can speed up your UI development and help you get started quickly:
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Shadcn/ui – Use Shadcn/ui when you want flexible, accessible UI components with full control over styling and logic.
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MUI (Material UI) – Use it if you need a mature, well-documented component library with a consistent design system and broad community support.
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Mantine – Use it when you want a modern React components library with native dark theme support, built-in hooks, and comprehensive form management capabilities.
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SVAR React Gantt & DataGrid – Use these components when you need a project management application, need a visual timeline, or feature-rich data table that effectively handles large datasets.
Final Thoughts
I hope you found some useful tools that will help you develop and test your React apps smarter. Whether you’re building small side projects or enterprise-scale applications, the right libraries can save time, reduce bugs, and improve your developer experience.