React is just the foundation - it's the libraries that make it a powerful tool for creating modern web applications. In this guide, you'll learn about the 2025 up-to-date libraries and tools that will streamline your workflow, help you scale your projects, and improve the experience of working with React - regardless of your level of expertise.
React is a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces, based on components and virtual DOM. It enables the creation of dynamic, high-performance web applications. React is minimalist by design – it does not provide built-in routing, state management or validation tools. Therefore, external libraries that extend its capabilities play a huge role.
Why is it important to know React libraries? Knowledge of the libraries in the React ecosystem is the key to effective work. They significantly reduce development time, eliminating the need to write your own solutions from scratch. They also make it easier to scale applications – they help keep the code organized when the project starts to grow. What’s more, many of them were created with the best possible developer experience in mind – they offer intuitive APIs, good documentation and integration with popular tools, which makes working with React faster and more enjoyable.
Before you start using React libraries, it’s a good idea to make sure your project has a solid foundation. The right choice of starter tools and a well-thought-out directory structure are the keys to a productive and scalable working environment. In 2025, React is not used “alone.” – it is most often accompanied by tools for bundling, building and serving applications.
Vite is currently the most recommended way to start a React project. It has replaced Create React App as the modern alternative – offering instant developer server startup (thanks to ESModules), instant HMR (hot module replacement), and TypeScript and JSX support without any configuration.
Running example:
npm create vite@latest my-app — –template react
Advantages of Vite:
If you are building an application that requires routing, server-side rendering (SSR), dynamic data or SEO optimization, it is worth reaching for Next.js. This framework is based on React and extends it with features such as:
app/ or pages/)In 2025, Next.js version 14+ also supports Server Actions, which allow for typed, secure execution of server logic without having to write a backend.
Astro is an interesting alternative if your goal is a fast static or hybrid site (e.g. marketing, blogging). It allows you to use React components, but generates HTML at build time, and includes JavaScript only where it is needed (“islands architecture”).
For more advanced needs, consider:
Although React does not impose a specific directory structure, in larger projects it is worth adopting one of the popular organization models:
src/
features/
auth/
components/
hooks/
api.ts
dashboard/
shared/
ui/
lib/
This approach groups code by functionality, which makes it easier to scale and divide work within a team.
Similar to feature-based, but more strongly tied to domain logic (e.g. orders, payments, users). Works well in applications with complex business logic.
In the case of Next.js, the new app/ structure imposes a certain order:
app/
dashboard/
page.tsx
layout.tsx
api/
route.ts
It’s worth sticking to it to get the most out of SSR and Server Actions.
State management is one of the most important aspects of working with React. While native hookups (useState, useReducer) are sufficient for small projects, larger applications require a more thoughtful approach. In 2025, we have a lot of lightweight, ergonomic and typable solutions at our disposal – and choosing the right one depends on the complexity of the project and the team.
React offers built-in ways to manage local state: useState works great for simple values within a single component, and useReducer is worth using where state update logic becomes more complex.
Many novice developers also reach for useContext, to move state “higher up” and make it available throughout the application. However, the Context API is not optimized for dynamic data – context changes cause all components in the tree to be re-rendered, which can lead to performance issues. Therefore, it should be used mainly for passing static settings (e.g. theme, language), and not for managing the application state.
Zustand is one of the most popular libraries for global state in React. It offers a very simple interface, fast performance and full support for TypeScript. Unlike Context API or Redux, Zustand does not cause unnecessary renders – components refresh only when they really need to.
The state code in Zustand resembles a simple function from set, and the use of data in components is done through the hook useStore. In addition, the library supports middleware such as persist for storing data in localStorage or subscribeWithSelector for precise response to changes. This solution combines minimalism with great flexibility.
Although Redux is sometimes perceived as too complex, its modern version – Redux Toolkit – significantly simplifies the use of this library. Thanks to functions such as createSlice or createAsyncThunk, writing reducers and asynchronous logic becomes intuitive. Built-in support for TypeScript and Immer allows you to write safe and readable code.
Redux Toolkit works especially well in large projects with extensive business logic. An additional advantage is RTK Query – a module for managing data from the API, about which more in a moment.
TanStack Query (formerly React Query) is a library that changed the approach to working with asynchronous data in React. While it doesn’t manage UI state, it is responsible for the entire layer of remote data – fetching, caching, updating and synchronizing it.
With TanStack Query, issues such as data loading, query error, auto-refresh, pagination, optimized updates and even offline availability can be easily handled. It’s a standard library in most React applications using the API today.
It’s worth noting that TanStack Query does not replace Zustand or Redux, but complements them – each has a different role. Zustand works well with UI state (e.g., modal openness), while TanStack Query works well with backend data (e.g., product list).
In larger applications, it is useful to think of state as layers:
useState, useReducerSuch separation not only increases the readability of the code, but also allows it to be tested and developed more easily.
In addition to the most commonly used tools, there are other approaches to state management:
Although these solutions have their advantages, they are not yet as widely used as Zustand or Redux. They are worth looking into if you need very specific capabilities or care about an experimental style of work.
Modern React applications rarely work in isolation from data from external sources – REST backends, GraphQL, BaaS or directly from the server. Fetching, caching, refreshing and error handling are not only a technical necessity today, but also a key aspect of the user experience. In 2025, we have at our disposal a set of tools that significantly simplify this process and eliminate the need to write boilerplate.
For simple cases you can still use fetch or the Axios library . Both ways allow you to make an HTTP request and handle the result in the hookup useEffect. However, this approach quickly becomes inconvenient when it comes to the need to manage loading status, errors, retry or cache.
Example using fetch:
useEffect(() => {
fetch('/api/users')
.then(res => res.json())
.then(setUsers)
.catch(setError);
}, []);
It works, but doesn’t scale well in larger applications.
TanStack Query (formerly known as React Query) is currently the most recommended library for managing data from APIs in React applications. Instead of managing data “manually”, this library offers:
isLoading, isError, data statesExample:
const { data, isLoading, isError } = useQuery(['users'], fetchUsers);
TanStack Query relieves the developer of the burden of query lifecycle management, and is highly configurable. It works with both REST and GraphQL, and works well with libraries like Zustand or React Hook Form.
RTK Query is an alternative to TanStack Query, but based on the Redux Toolkit ecosystem. If you are using RTK anyway, this option is worth considering because:
createSliceHowever, it is tightly coupled with Redux and less flexible if you want to use other state libraries (e.g. Zustand).
If you want full type security between frontend and backend, tRPC is an excellent solution. It allows you to write an API in TypeScript (e.g. Next.js) that automatically generates a client with full typing – without GraphQL or OpenAPI schemas.
Advantages of tRPC:
tRPC works best in a fullstack React + TypeScript environment, where you have control over the frontend and backend (e.g. Next.js, Vite + Express).
Apollo Client is one of the best known tools for integrating with GraphQL APIs. It offers advanced capabilities like normalized cache, integration with DevTools, local state management and subscription support.
Apollo’s disadvantage can be its extensibility – for simple queries, TanStack Query or even urql, which is a lighter alternative, is often enough.
If you’re developing an application without a backend of your own, it’s worth looking at Supabase – a Backend-as-a-Service that offers: REST and GraphQL API, authentication, PostgreSQL database, real-time support. Supabase can be integrated with fetch, as well as with TanStack Query or tRPC.
In modern React applications, data is fetched not just “asynchronously”, but intelligently. In 2025, the most commonly used approach is TanStack Query – scalable, fast, typable and based on good practices. For Redux users, a suitable alternative is RTK Query. If you are developing a fullstack application with TypeScript, consider tRPC. And for GraphQL-based projects, Apollo or urql.
The right choice of data retrieval tool can have a huge impact on performance, user experience and developer comfort. It’s worth approaching it consciously – don’t choose a library just because it’s “trendy”, but because it solves a specific problem in your application.
Without routing, it is difficult to talk about any web application. Navigation between views, dynamic routes, data preloads or error fallbacks – all of these make up the full user experience. Today React does not impose any built-in solution, so choosing the right library is of paramount importance. And the options are several – and very different.
For many developers, React Router is the first tool they reach for. And no wonder – it’s a library with a long history, huge community support and extensive use in classic SPAs. The latest versions (6+) brought a lot of freshness: routing based on the <Route> component , nested routes, hooks (useNavigate, useParams) and a loader system for preloading data. All this means that React Router is no longer just a simple URL-based mechanism for changing components. It’s getting closer and closer to a “mini-framework” – especially if you add support for forms and server-side actions.
If you need server-side rendering (SSR), static page generation (SSG) or SEO optimization, Next.js is a natural choice. Its routing system is file-based – you create an app/ or pages/ folder, and the framework itself recognizes which path corresponds to which view.
Co ważne, od wersji 13+ Next.js promuje tzw. App Router, który wprowadza dziedziczone layouty, predefiniowane pliki (loading.tsx, error.tsx, not-found.tsx) oraz pełną integrację z React Server Components. To podejście nie tylko upraszcza zarządzanie trasami, ale też sprzyja logicznemu podziałowi aplikacji.
Although lesser known, TanStack Router deserves your attention, especially if you are building an application in TypeScript. It’s a tool with a strong focus on full typing of routes, parameters and data. Configuration is declarative, which allows a lot of flexibility without imposing a folder structure.
If you are using TanStack Query – this router is a great fit with it. However, it is still a solution for more knowledgeable teams, ready to spend some time to learn an unusual API. For projects that require very precise architecture control, it can be a hit.
The choice of a router should not be random. React Router is a good solution if you are developing a classic SPA without server-side rendering. Next.js – when you care about SEO, scaling and performance (especially with App Router). And TanStack Router? Great for advanced projects with strong typing and the need for a consistent architecture.
It’s not about what’s “better overall.” It’s about what best fits your application.
It’s important that the routing fits well with the overall structure of the code. In Next.js, it’s a good idea to stick to the app/ folder convention and use its mechanisms: layouts, error boundaries, dynamic segments. In projects with React Router – it works well to divide routes by application domains, not just views (features/dashboard/routes.tsx, features/auth/routes.tsx).
This approach gives better separation of responsibilities and makes testing and refactoring easier.
Routing in React today is much more than swapping a component when changing a URL. It’s a system that can load data, manage errors, inherit layouts and even integrate with the backend. It’s up to you to choose a tool that is familiar and stable, or one that is modern and fully typable. The most important thing is not to treat routing as a “detail” – because its choice affects the entire application architecture.
Styling in React has been one of the more open topics from the beginning. The library doesn’t dictate how to manage CSS, so there have been many different approaches over the years: from global style sheets, to BEM, to CSS Modules, CSS-in-JS and Tailwind. Each of them solved a different set of problems: class collisions, dynamic styles, separation of logic and presentation. Today, in 2025, we have mature and proven methods at our disposal – it is worth choosing them consciously.
Tailwind CSS dominates styling in React projects by its speed and simplicity. It’s a utility-first approach, where you don’t write classic CSS, but assemble the look of a component from ready-made classes such as bg-blue-500, text-sm, rounded-md.
Tailwind works especially well where you want to create consistent UIs quickly – with full control. It’s also efficient: the final CSS is generated during the build and contains only the classes you use. Combined with tools like shadcn/uiand Radix UI, it also allows you to build high-availability applications without writing everything from scratch.
For teams that prefer a more classic approach, CSS Modules remain a great option. Each component has its own local .module.css sheet that generates unique classes after compilation. This eliminates the risk of name collisions while maintaining structure and layer separation.
This solution works naturally with bundlers like Vite or Next.js and does not introduce runtime overhead, making it well suited for larger projects where performance and control are key.
Styled Components is one of the most popular CSS-in-JS solutions. It allows you to define styles directly in components using the styled function , which allows you to write CSS in the context of a specific component. This makes it easy to create dynamic styles based on props or states.
This approach works great for complex interfaces, but you should be aware that the generation of styles is done at runtime, which in some cases can affect performance. For very large projects, Tailwind or CSS Modules may be a more scalable choice.
An alternative to Styled Components is Emotion – a very similar library, often slightly faster, offering more flexibility in approach: you can use styled, but also the pure css() function.
Shadcn/ui is a modern library of ready-made UI components, based on Tailwind CSS and Radix UI. Its biggest advantage is that it doesn’t work like a classic “design system” from an NPM package – instead, you import the source code of only the components you actually need, and can modify them as you wish.
The components are accessible, flexible and elegantly integrated with Tailwind. This is great for teams that want to quickly build applications with a consistent structure, but without giving up full control of the code.
When choosing a styling method, it’s also worth paying attention to accessibility (a11y) and performance issues. Tailwind and shadcn/ui, based on Radix UI, offer solid support for semantic and interactive components with built-in keyboard or ARIA support. CSS-in-JS, on the other hand, offers freedom, but requires manual a11y care – such as when composing custom buttons, dialogs or dropdowns.
On the performance side, Tailwind and CSS Modules run mostly at compile time, which means minimal impact on runtime. In the case of Styled Components or Emotion, styles are generated dynamically – this can make a difference in applications with a large number of renders or components.
A common mistake in React projects is mixing different styling methods without clear rules. For example, using Tailwind and introducing CSS-in-JS at the same time can lead to clutter and difficulty in maintaining consistency. The key is to choose one dominant method and apply it consistently – or create clear team conventions if you need to use more than one.
It depends on your project and team. Tailwind is a great choice for fast, modern development. CSS Modules will work well where predictability and classic structure are important. Styled Components and Emotion provide maximum flexibility, but with some performance cost. shadcn/ui gives a fast start with full control – especially valuable for teams that want to build their own design systems without compromise.
Styling in React is a well-solved problem today – choose a tool that fits your workflow, architecture and team philosophy. And then stick to it consistently.
Forms are a critical component of any application – from simple contact forms to complex registration processes, data editing or multi-step configurators. And while React offers mechanisms to handle forms “manually” (useState, onChange), problems quickly arise in practice: error management, validation, type control and backend integration. That’s why today almost every serious React application uses dedicated form handling libraries.
React Hook Form is now the standard for managing forms in React. The library was designed with efficiency and simplicity in mind: it doesn’t force control over every field (as useState does ), but works on references and input registration.
As a result, forms are lightweight, fast, and don’t render unnecessarily with every value change. The code remains readable, and integration with validation and TypeScript – intuitive. Example of use with default HTML validation:
const { register, handleSubmit } = useForm();
<form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
<input {...register('email', { required: true })} />
</form>
React Hook Form also works with third-party validation libraries like Zod or Yup, allowing full field typing and declarative rule description.
Zod is a data validation library based 100% on TypeScript. As a result, the validation scheme not only validates data, but at the same time serves as a source of static types. This is a huge advantage – one definition is used for validation on the front end and for generating types throughout the application. Example:
const schema = z.object({
email: z.string().email(),
});
type FormData = z.infer<typeof schema>;
The alternative remains Yup – an older and very stable library, widely supported in the ecosystem. Its advantage is a huge number of ready-to-use validators and mature integration with React Hook Form. Disadvantage – lack of native typing (types have to be written separately or generated).
Libraries such as React Hook Form solve not only the problem of validation, but also error status management, automatic focus setting, form cleaning or step-by-step validation in multi-step forms.
Example: after submitting a form, you can automatically set the focus to the first field with an error – just one setting in useForm().
All this significantly improves the user experience and allows you to build professional forms without a mass of custom code.
Increasingly, forms in React work in conjunction with systems like tRPC, Supabase or classic REST APIs. In this context, typing (Zod) and schema-based approach (DTO) become even more important – you can validate client-side and server-side data with the same schema.
If you use tools such as tRPC or Next.js Server Actions, you can send data directly to the typed endpoint and be fully confident that the form is not sending erroneous data – either typed or logically.
Forms in React are more than just onChange and onSubmit. Today’s libraries allow you to create robust, typed and maintainable forms that work well with the entire application architecture – backend, validation, and UX. The best set? React Hook Form + Zod. Fast, lightweight, and as secure as possible – just what a good form should look like in 2025.
Testing in the React world has come a long way – from mocking everything and testing the implementation, to focusing on how the application behaves from the user’s perspective. Today, there are modern tools at our disposal that allow us to test applications quickly, efficiently and with great comfort.
It is no longer just a question of whether something works, but whether the user will be able to use it without errors and frustration.
Vitest is a modern alternative to Jesta that integrates well with Vite-based projects. It is very fast, supports snapshots, mocking, async tests and TypeScript – all with a simple and clear API.
If you’re using Vite (and in 2025 it’s the most common choice), Vitest will be a natural partner for unit and integration testing.
import { describe, it, expect } from 'vitest';
describe('sum()', () => {
it('adds numbers', () => {
expect(sum(1, 2)).toBe(3);
});
});
React Testing Library (RTL) is today’s de facto standard for testing React components. Its main philosophy is: test as the user uses the application. Instead of checking specific classes or implementations, you check that text is visible, buttons work and forms submit.
Instead of:
expect(component.find('.active')).toHaveClass('visible')
you write:
expect(screen.getByText('Save')).toBeEnabled();
RTL integrates well with Vitest, IS and CI/CD. Importantly, it does not require a full understanding of the component’s internals – just knowing what the user should see and do is enough.
For end-to-end (E2E) testing, where you check the entire user paths in a running application (login, payment, registration), the best tools at the moment are Playwright and Cypress.
Both run in the browser, support interactions, clicks, drags, URL changes, etc. Playwright is faster, more flexible and supports multiple browsers. Cypress, on the other hand, offers more extensive devtools, but only runs on Chromium.
Example (Playwright):
test('user can login', async ({ page }) => {
await page.goto('/login');
await page.fill('input[name=email]', 'user@example.com');
await page.click('button[type=submit]');
await expect(page).toHaveURL('/dashboard');
});
Not everything needs to be tested – but some things can’t be left out. In practice, the pyramid approach of testing works best:
– unit tests – logic, auxiliary functions, small components
– component tests – UI behavior, reactions to inputs, display conditions
– E2E tests – the most important user paths (e.g. “login and purchase”).
To this, it’s worth adding smoke tests (whether the application launches) and snapshots (if you use Storybook for component documentation, for example).
A well-configured testing environment has a huge impact on the developer experience. The combination of Vitest + React Testing Library + Playwright allows you to achieve full test coverage (unit, UI, E2E), with high performance and convenience. Adding tools such as Husky (git hookups) and lint-staged allows you to automate tests before commit, and integration with CI/CD gives you security with every deployment.
Choosing libraries in the React ecosystem is more than a matter of taste. A poorly chosen tool can slow down the team, force code refactoring or lead to performance issues. On the other hand – the right choice at the beginning of a project can save dozens of hours and ensure comfort for months.
Therefore, instead of asking “what is popular now?”, it is better to ask: what will support my application in 6 months – and not hinder its development?
The first step is to understand the nature of the application you are building. Is it a simple MVP? A commercial product with ambitions to scale? Or perhaps an internal tool? Different tools will work well in each of these cases.
Before you add another library, check if you don’t already have something in your project that can fulfill the same role. For example: are you using Redux Toolkit? Maybe you don’t need Zustand. Do you have a React Hook Form? You can add validation easily with Zod, without another external package.
Rule of thumb : the fewer dependencies – the easier it is to keep the code in check.
If you are considering using a new tool, ask yourself these four questions:
1. Is this library actively developed and well documented?
Dead projects are a risk, even if they work well today.
2. Is it easy to replace?
If you ever decide to migrate, will it be expensive? Libraries that lock you into their architecture can be problematic.
3. Does it work well with my current stack?
For example, TanStack Router works great with TanStack Query, but it already requires more work with Redux.
4. Does it make life easier or more complicated?
The best tools are those that disappear from sight – they just work and don’t get in the way.
GitHub stars and the number of downloads from NPM can be a guide, but should not determine your choice. Popularity does not mean that a tool is right for your problem. Libraries like Formik still have huge download numbers, although many developers have abandoned them in favor of newer, lighter-weight solutions (e.g. React Hook Form).
React by itself is just a foundation – it’s the libraries you choose for it that determine how fast, fun and effective you’ll build applications. The choice of these tools is not cosmetic, but an architectural decision that affects the quality of the code, the scalability of the project and the comfort of the entire team.
In 2025, we have a huge number of solutions at our disposal – from lightweight and flexible ones (like Zustand or TanStack Query), to off-the-shelf UI systems (shadcn/ui), to complete full-stack approaches with typing (tRPC, Next.js App Router). The key is not to use them all, but to understand the needs of the project and select libraries that realistically support them.
If you are at the beginning of your journey, go for simplicity. If you’re developing a product to grow – invest in tools that will make that possible. And if you already have experience – share it with others: write, open source, talk to your team.With a smart approach to libraries, React doesn’t just work. He gives joy to code.
React is a library that focuses exclusively on the view (UI) layer. Unlike frameworks such as Angular or Vue, it doesn’t include built-in solutions for routing, state management or form handling – you have to choose them separately. This gives you a lot of flexibility, but requires conscious architectural decisions.
Third-party libraries are packages that you add to your project to extend React’s capabilities – for example, for routing (React Router), forms (React Hook Form), data management (TanStack Query) or styling (Tailwind CSS). They are usually installed via npm or yarn, and then integrated into React components via imports and hooks.
Integration depends on the library, but most often it looks like this:
1. Install a package (e. g. install react-hook-form),
2. Import its functions or components,
3. Use them inside your own React components.
It’s important to read the documentation – good libraries have examples, hooks and ready-made components. With more advanced libraries (like Redux Toolkit or TanStack Query), the configuration may also include providers or global context.
React is lighter and more flexible than Angular, but it requires independent tool selection. Compared to Vue, it gives more freedom, but has fewer “out-of-the-box” solutions. This makes React more modular, which is an advantage in large projects, but can be a challenge for beginners.
For graphs in React, great libraries include:
The choice depends on the level of sophistication of the project and the need for visualization types.
