State Management Showdown – Redux Toolkit vs Zustand vs React Query

✍️ Intro:

Not all state is created equal — and neither are the tools that manage it.

If you’re building a scalable React/Next.js app, choosing the right state manager can make or break your performance, DX, and sanity.

In this post, we’ll compare Redux Toolkit, Zustand, and React Query, not just by theory — but how they behave in real-world frontend apps I’ve worked on.

Let’s simplify the confusion.

🧠 What Type of State Are We Talking About?

Before choosing a library, always ask:

“Is this state local, shared, or remote?”

🔴 Redux Toolkit

✅ Pros:

• Time-tested, robust ecosystem
• DevTools, middleware, type-safe with TS
• Powerful for large apps with complex shared state

❌ Cons:

• Boilerplate-heavy (actions, reducers)
• Verbose for simple cases
• Can be overkill for modern SPAs

🔍 Use it when:

• You need full control and structure
• You’re building a multi-feature enterprise dashboard
• Your team is already aligned on Redux patterns

🟢 Zustand

✅ Pros:

• Minimal API, zero boilerplate
• React-friendly — hooks, selectors, built-in immutability
• Great for small/medium apps or modular features

❌ Cons:

• Less structure (can get messy in large teams)
• Lacks built-in devtools (need plugins)
• Doesn’t handle server state out of the box

🔍 Use it when:

• You need shared state without Redux ceremony
• You’re working solo or on a fast-moving feature
• You want React-like simplicity in global state

🔵 React Query (TanStack Query)

✅ Pros:

• Built-in caching, deduping, pagination
• Handles retries, loading states, background fetches
• Plug-and-play for REST or GraphQL

❌ Cons:

• Not meant for app-wide state (like auth/theme)
• Requires mindset shift (think: server cache, not “global store”)

🔍 Use it when:

• You’re fetching data from API
• You want automatic performance boosts
• You need pagination, caching, stale-while-revalidate behavior

🛠️ Real World: How I Use Them

In projects like:

• Kreate Energy (Next.js + GraphQL) → used React Query + lazy loading
• GENAI Doc Analyzer (React + Zustand) → shared config via Zustand
• P9 Internal Platform → used AngularJS, but Redux-like patterns

What I’ve learned:

Don’t marry a tool. Marry the problem you’re solving.

🔚 Conclusion:

👉 Combine them when needed.
👉 Avoid premature abstraction.
👉 Keep it lean until it hurts.

🔖 Tags:

#react #nextjs #redux #zustand #reactquery #webdev #frontend #performance