Which one do you prefer for custom state management? Is React Context API alone sufficient, or do you prefer additional libraries like Redux Toolkit/RTK Query? Why do you prefer that direction? Which one makes more sense for beginners? Share your brief experiences.
Which one do you prefer for state management in React?
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In my opinion, beginners should first get a solid grasp of the React Context API, because diving straight into Redux without learning the fundamentals just confuses you. For example, in my early projects I tried to manage state using only Context, struggled a lot, and eventually realized that Context can cause performance issues in larger projects. So you shouldn’t treat CTX like a magic bullet; when needed, switching to RTK Query makes sense.
Speaking of RTK Query, honestly it’s a real lifesaver. It saves you from manually updating the state of data coming from the backend and also provides automatic caching. In my latest project I built a dashboard using Redux Toolkit together with RTK Query—it turned out super clean and I didn’t have to keep wrestling with state management. Of course, it all depends on the size of the project; for a tiny app you don’t need Redux at all.