Managing state has long been a challenge in React applications. Over the years we have seen dozens of libraries promising to simplify the problem. As we approach 2025, state management is shifting again. In this article we explore why you might not need heavy solutions like Redux or Zustand anymore and what modern alternatives look like.

Table of Contents

• 1. The State Management Landscape
• 2. Local vs Global vs Remote State
• 3. Signals, Context and Light Libraries
• 4. When to Use Redux or Zustand
• 5. Conclusion

1. The State Management Landscape

In the early days of React, global state libraries like Redux gained popularity because React provided only simple state primitives. Today, React’s built‑in hooks—useState, useReducerand useContext—cover many cases that used to require a library. At the same time, improvements to React’s rendering engine and concurrency reduce the need for elaborate caches and selectors.

2. Local vs Global vs Remote State

Before choosing a tool, classify your state. Local statelives in a single component or a small subtree—think form inputs or toggles. Use useState or useReducer for this.Global state is shared across different parts of the app, such as user authentication. Remote state comes from a server and often benefits from libraries like SWR or React Query, which handle caching and synchronization for you.

Misclassifying state leads to unnecessary complexity. Ask yourself whether a piece of state truly needs to be global or if it can be kept local and passed down via props. Many apps become simpler when you minimize global state.

3. Signals, Context and Light Libraries

New primitives like signals (discussed earlier) provide fine‑grained reactivity. Context remains a powerful way to share values across a component tree without prop drilling. For situations requiring a simple store, tiny libraries like Jotai or Zustand offer minimal APIs. They work well with React Server Components and don’t impose rigid patterns.

Example using Zustand:

import create from 'zustand';

const useStore = create(set => ({
  count: 0,
  increment: () => set(state => ({ count: state.count + 1 })),
}));

function Counter() {
  const { count, increment } = useStore();
  return (
    <button onClick={increment}>Clicked {count} times</button>
  );
}

4. When to Use Redux or Zustand

You might still choose a state management library if your app has complex business logic, requires time travel debugging or has multiple independent slices of global state. Redux Toolkit simplifies the boilerplate of Redux, and Zustand provides a very small API. Evaluate your requirements and pick the smallest tool that solves your problem.

Conversely, using Redux for small projects can be overkill. The extra abstraction can slow down new contributors and create unnecessary indirection. Always start with React’s built‑in tools and reach for libraries only when you encounter real pain points.

5. Conclusion

State management in 2025 is simpler than ever. With improved React primitives, signals, context and lightweight stores, you often don’t need heavy libraries like Redux. Classify your state carefully, prefer local state where possible and choose the minimal tool to share state when needed. Less boilerplate means fewer bugs and a happier team.