React, a popular JavaScript library for building user interfaces continues to thrive in the dynamic world of web development. This open-source JavaScript library is popular due to its component-based approach and efficient rendering capabilities.
As technology progresses, React libraries play an important role in extending React's functionality by providing developers with built-on top integration for seamless performance in React ecosystems. ready-to-use components, tools, and utilities.
These React component libraries can enhance productivity by simplifying complex tasks and offering solutions tailored to specific requirements, making them some of the best React libraries to try.
React component libraries provide a modular approach to building user interfaces, offering reusable components and streamlined development workflows for creating scalable and maintainable React applications.
In this edition, we present you with the top 21 React libraries that are set to revolutionize the way we build web applications in 2024, including the best react state management libraries.
Top 21 React Libraries to Choose in 2024
1) Material UI
Material UI is a trusted UI framework inspired by Google's Material Design. Packed with carefully crafted components, it simplifies the creation of good-looking and responsive UIs.
Its popularity and strong community backing make Material UI a top pick for React developers. It has 3.6 million weekly downloads on NPM and 91.5k GitHub stars.
Features
- Ready-to-go components to create apps faster.
- Easier customisation for buttons, forms, and toggling themes.
- SX prop and emotion styling for fine-tuning components.
- Maintains text styling by following typography guidelines.
- MUI supports responsive design.
- Have a friendly community always ready to help.
2) Ant Design
Ant Design is a widely used UI library known for its stylish and user-friendly components. Its versatility and ease of customisation contribute to a seamless development experience, allowing developers to create visually appealing applications effortlessly.
Ant Design has 1.3 million weekly downloads on NPM and 90.1k Github Stars.
Features
- Fit for building enterprise-level applications.
- Supports user-friendly responsive design, crucial for every react native app.
- Easy customization for theme, elements, forms, tables, and navigation components.
- Language-friendly supports lots of languages.
- Provides a range of graphical elements, including icons.
- Support for locale-specific features.
- Able to create interactive data visualizations for a richer user experience.
3) React Bootstrap
React Bootstrap is a duo of React and Bootstrap that helps to simplify the process of creating responsive websites. It provides a set of Bootstrap components for React that help build mobile-friendly and well-designed UIs.
React Bootstrap, built on top of the best React framework, has 1.3 million NPM downloads weekly and 22.2k Github stars.
Features
- React Bootstrap is lightweight with no external dependencies.
- Provide a wide range of React Bootstrap components.
- Enables theming by utilizing the variables in Bootstrap SASS.
- Every component is designed for accessibility.
- Provides form components that facilitate form validations.
- Integrate with React hooks.
- React Bootstrap is designed to be mobile-friendly.
4) React Hook Form
React Hook Form is a tool that helps developers easily manage and handle forms in React. Instead of writing lots of complicated code, you can use simple "hooks" to make your forms work smoothly.
It's like having a friendly assistant that takes care of all the form stuff for you, making it simple and stress-free for developers. It has 4.9 million weekly NPM downloads and 39.5k Github stars.
Features
- Lightweight with no external dependencies.
- Providing seamless form validation.
- Minimizes unnecessary re-rendering.
- Easier form-building process with minimized boilerplate code.
- Offers a robust typing system to boost code quality.
- Easily integrates with other UI libraries.
- Supports field-level validation to enhance customization.
- Easily handles dynamic form fields.
5) React DnD
React DnD, which stands for React Drag-and-Drop, is a library designed to integrate drag-and-drop functionality into React applications.
React DnD is capable for rearranging items, handling file uploads, or creating interactive user interfaces, this library simplifies the complexities of drag-and-drop interactions. React DnD has 1.8 million weekly NPM downloads with 20.5k Github stars.
Features
- Provides flexibility in implementing drag-and-drop functionality.
- Provides customised drag previews.
- Supports complex drag scenarios.
- Follows decoupled architecture to enhance code maintainability.
- Comes with a built-in HTML5 backend.
- Well-documented and provides resources and examples for implementation, making it a top choice for creating React app.
- Easier integration with other React libraries and components.
6) React Query
React Query is a React library that simplifies the handling of data fetching and caching, making it a top pick among react libraries to try. It simplifies the management of remote data in React applications by handling complex tasks like network requests, caching, and state management.
React Query has 39.6k Github stars and 1.4 million weekly NPM downloads.
Features
- Automatically manages caching, optimizing data retrieval and storage.
- Enables background data fetching without blocking the UI during data updates.
- Supports a Stale-While-Revalidate strategy, allowing the display of cached data while fetching updated information.
- Simplifies data mutations and provides support updates.
- SSR (Server-Side Rendering) friendly.
- Automatically deduplicates identical queries, reducing redundant network requests.
- Easily integrates with React DevTools.
- Simplifying debugging and providing insights into the library's internal workings.
7) React Cookie
React Cookie is a small library that manages cookies in React applications. It offers an API that makes it easy to work with cookies in React, streamlining state management in a react app.
It includes functions for setting, getting, and deleting cookies, as well as utility functions for checking the existence of cookies and getting all cookies. The library has 567k NPM weekly downloads.
Features
- Easy-to-use API for handling cookies in React.
- Utilized on both the client and server sides.
- Provides functions for essential CRUD (Create, Read, Update, Delete) operations on cookies.
- Provide utility functions to check the existence of cookies and retrieve the cookie list.
- Offering strong typing support using TypeScript.
- Easily integrated with other React applications.
- Designed to be lightweight.
- Actively maintained with updates and bug fixes.
8) React Motion
React-Motion is a library dedicated to building smooth and interactive animations within React applications.
With React Motion, you can effortlessly achieve interactive animations, boosting the user experience and making it an essential choice for projects. It has 462k weekly NPM downloads and 21.6k Github stars.
Features
- Offers physics-based animations and provides realistic motion effects.
- Lightweight library with no external dependencies.
- Utilizes spring physics to create smooth animations, giving control over motion behaviour.
- Adopts a component-centric approach to animation.
- Offers an easy-to-use API and fine-grained control over animation parameters.
- Facilitates smooth transitions between different states.
9) React Virtualized
React Virtualized is responsible for handling large lists and tabular data in React applications. By utilizing techniques such as windowing and virtualization, it optimizes performance when dealing with massive data sets. In short, it supports dynamic loading of content. Loads data as needed.
This library becomes invaluable for developers engaged with extensive tables or lists, where the efficiency of rendering is important. React Virtualized have 1.2 million weekly NPM downloads and 25.9k starts on Github.
Features
- Efficiently handles the rendering of large lists and tabular data using a React UI component.
- Uses windowing techniques to render only the visible portion of the data, reducing the rendering load and enhancing speed.
- Implements virtualization, creating a virtual representation of the list or table, resulting in minimized DOM elements.
- Supports dynamic loading of content, Loads data as needed.
- Provides smooth scrolling experiences when navigating large lists or tables.
- Developers can implement column resizing, allows users to adjust column widths.
- Supports cell range selection, enabling users to select multiple cells.
- Supports seamless integration with various data sources.
10) React Spinner
React Spinner is a library that effortlessly integrates loading spinners and animations into React-based JavaScript applications.
With React Spinner, you can enhance the visuals of web applications, ensuring users stay engaged during loading intervals. Spinner has more than 321k weekly npm downloads.
Features
- Easier the process of adding loading spinners and animations to React applications.
- The library is lightweight.
- Provide a variety of customizable spinners using a React UI component.
- Ensures compatibility across different browsers.
- Adaptable to various scenarios.
11) React Intl
React Intl is a library for internationalization and localization within React applications. Equipped with a set of tools for formatting dates, numbers, and strings, as well as managing pluralization and translations.
React Intl ensures a seamless and inclusive experience for diverse audiences worldwide. Intl has 1.5 million weekly NPM downloads.
Features
- Provides a set of tools for formatting dates, numbers, and strings.
- Expert in handling pluralization and different grammatical rules.
- Enables seamless translation of content.
- Supports locale-specific formatting in react projects.
- Offers rich options for formatting messages.
- Follows a pluggable architecture making it adaptable to different project needs.
- Comes with an intuitive accessible API.
- Supports content extraction.
12) React Redux
React Redux library is like a helpful link between React and Redux, making it easy for them to work together. It ensures that communication and data flow between React components and the Redux store is smooth.
This library simplifies the process of managing and organizing data. React Redux has 7.2 million weekly npm downloads and 23.2k Github Stars.
Features
- Easier integration with React and Redux.
- Enables the maintenance of an organized approach to data handling.
- Ensures smooth communication and data flow between React components and the Redux store.
- Promotes predictability in state management.
- Developers can create declarative components that simplify the process of maintaining the UI.
- Supports middleware that allows developers to extend and customize the Redux behaviour.
- Easily integrates with Redux DevTools.
- Providing powerful debugging capabilities and insights into the application's state changes.
- Remains compatible with various versions of React and Redux.
13) Redux Saga
Redux Saga is a middleware library for managing side effects in Redux applications. It allows developers to handle complex asynchronous operations, such as making API calls or managing tasks like debouncing, in a more organized manner.
With Redux Saga, these side effects are managed separately from the main application logic, enhancing code maintainability. Saga has 1 million weekly NPM downloads and 22.5k Github stars.
Features
- Uses declarative syntax for managing side effects.
- Leverages JavaScript generator functions to handle asynchronous operations in a synchronous style.
- Provides a task management system.
- Developers can easily cancel and clean up asynchronous operations.
- Integrate seamlessly with Redux middleware to keep the codebase organized.
- Redux Saga supports the parallel execution of tasks.
- Offers robust error-handling mechanisms.
- Allows the composition of multiple sagas that enable developers to organize complex logic into modular units.
14) Chakra UI
Chakra UI is a modular and accessible React component library designed for building user interfaces with speed and simplicity. It provides a set of pre-styled and customizable components that follow design system principles.
Chakra UI has 36.5k Github stars and 547k weekly NPM downloads.
Features
- Follows design system principles.
- Offers robust theming capabilities.
- Supports responsive design.
- Leverages styled-components.
- Offering flexibility in styling and functionality for different use cases, ideal for any react project.
- Provides comprehensive and accessible documentation.
15) PrimeReact
PrimeReact is a set of open-source UI components for React created specifically for the PrimeNG ecosystem. The best thing about PrimeReact is the abundance of features it brings without the hassle of extra installations.
It is a versatile React UI library with over 126k weekly NPM downloads and 5.7k GitHub stars.
Features
- Easily integrates with the broader PrimeNG environment.
- Provides features in a ready state without the need for additional installations.
- PrimeReact supports responsive design.
- Accommodating various design preferences and allowing for flexibility in application styling.
- Optimized for performance, delivering smooth and efficient user interfaces in React using the best React framework.
- Comes with comprehensive documentation.
- Provides easier customization capabilities.
16) Styled Components
Styled Components is a library allows developers to embed CSS directly within their JavaScript components. It promotes styling at the component level, enhancing code maintainability and reducing styling conflicts.
With Styled Components, the developers can build dynamic and responsive designs, all while maintaining organized styles within their React components. Styled-Components have 5.3 million weekly NPM downloads with 40.2k Github stars.
Features
- Enables dynamic styling, allowing developers to create responsive designs.
- Styled components ensure styles are scoped to the respective components, which prevents global styling issues.
- Supports theming, providing a convenient way to manage and apply styles across an entire application.
- Offers an expressive syntax for defining styles directly in the component files.
- Provides support for server-side rendering.
- Ensuring consistent styling for both server-rendered and client-rendered components.
- Supports smooth and customizable animations.
17) Semantic UI React
Semantic UI React seamlessly integrates the clean and intuitive design language of the Semantic UI framework into React applications. It offers a wide range of pre-designed components following semantic HTML conventions.
This library simplifies the creation of modern and visually appealing web interfaces. Semantic UI has 13.2k Github stars and 260k weekly NPM downloads.
Features
- Promotes a semantic and intuitive design language.
- Offers an extensive collection of pre-designed components covering a wide range of UI elements.
- The library adheres to semantic HTML conventions that make SEO optimization easier.
- Provides robust theming support.
- Prioritizes accessibility by offering components that adhere to accessibility standards.
- Ensures compatibility and seamless integration with React applications.
- Components are optimized for performance and reliability.
18) Grommet
Grommet, a React UI component library is known for its accessibility and simplicity. Offering a suite of readily available components, it places a strong focus on responsiveness and accessibility.
Grommet has become a go-to choice for JavaScript developers committed to creating user-friendly web applications with a strong foundation in accessibility principles. Grommet has 8.3k Github stars and over 23k weekly NPM downloads.
Features
- Prioritizes accessibility.
- Built with responsiveness at its core.
- The library provides extensive theming capabilities.
- Designed with simplicity in mind, offering a straightforward and intuitive API for developers.
- Suitable for building enterprise-ready applications.
- Includes a diverse and comprehensive set of rich components.
19) Tailwind CSS
Tailwind CSS is a utility-first CSS framework designed for creating efficient and customizable web interfaces. Unlike traditional CSS frameworks, Tailwind doesn't provide pre-designed components but instead offers an extensive set of utility classes.
Developers can apply these classes directly in the HTML to style elements. This approach allows for flexibility and quick styling without needing to write custom CSS. Tailwind CSS is known for its simplicity, scalability, and efficiency in modern web development workflows.
Tailwind CSS has 78.1k Github stars and 8 million weekly NPM downloads.
Features
- Follows a utility-first approach.
- Developers can apply utility-first classes directly in the HTML to style elements.
- Provides extensive customization and flexibility options.
- Comes with a comprehensive set of default styles for typography using a React UI component.
- Built-in responsive design utilities simplify the process of creating layouts for different screen sizes.
- Integrates with PurgeCSS to automatically remove unused styles, optimizing react apps.
- Enables rapid prototyping by allowing the developers to experiment quickly with different styles and layouts using the utility classes.
- Comes with developer-friendly syntax.
- Has a minimal learning curve.
20) Rebass
Rebass is a React component library that streamlines the building of responsive user interfaces. With a focus on design principles and minimalism, Rebass provides a collection of highly customizable and themeable UI components.
It's an excellent choice for effortlessly building attractive and user-friendly React applications using a React UI component. Rebass has 7.9k Github stars and 51k Weekly NPM downloads.
Features
- Rebass is a lightweight library.
- Integrates seamlessly with React applications.
- Adopts a minimalistic design philosophy, providing a focused set of essential UI components for streamlined development.
- Offers flexibility in styling and theming, allowing developers to customize components to match specific design requirements.
- Focuses on adhering to design procedure principles.
- Provides responsive components out of the box.
- Offers API that makes it easy for developers to integrate and utilize components.
- Ensures that UI components are developed with accessibility.
21) Zustand
Zustand is a lightweight and flexible state management library for React applications. It simplifies state management by offering a minimalistic API for creating stores and hooks.
Zustand has 3.2 million weekly NPM downloads and 42.4k Github stars.
Features
- Provides an efficient state management solution without introducing unnecessary bloat to the application.
- Seamlessly integrates with React Hooks.
- Introduces a createStore function, allowing developers to create stores for managing state in a structured manner easily.
- Provides hooks like useStore for interacting with state.
- Ensures automatic re-rendering of components when state changes.
- Optimizes state updates for performance.
- Avoids the use of a global event bus.
- Allows flexibility in defining the structure of the state.
How to choose an open-source library for your React app?
Selecting an open-source library for your React application involves a series of steps. Here's a guide on how to make the right choice:
- Define Your Needs: Start by clearly outlining what functionalities you require for your application.
- Research and Explore: Look into various open-source libraries that match your requirements. You can explore repositories on GitHub, npm packages, and seek recommendations from developer communities.
- Assess Popularity and Support: Check the popularity and community support of the libraries you're considering. This includes factors like GitHub stars, forks, and recent activity.
- Review Documentation: Evaluate the quality and completeness of the library's documentation. Good documentation is crucial for understanding and integrating the library into your project.
- Engage with the Community: Gauge the responsiveness and engagement of the library's community. An active community often indicates ongoing support and development.
- Ensure Compatibility and Stability: Make sure the library is compatible with your React version and other dependencies. Additionally, assess its stability through versioning and release frequency.
- Consider Performance: Assess the library's impact on your application's performance. Look for performance benchmarks and optimizations.
- Evaluate Customization Options: Determine whether the library offers customization options to fit your project's specific needs.
- Check Licensing and Legal Considerations: Review the library's license to ensure it aligns with your project's requirements.
- Assess Security: Look into the library's security track record and how it addresses vulnerabilities.
- Seek Feedback and Reviews: Consider user feedback and reviews from developers who have used the library in real-world projects.
- Experiment and Test: Finally, experiment with the library in a small test project to evaluate its integration and compatibility with your application.
FAQs
Q: What are some popular react component libraries to try in 2024?
A: Some popular react component libraries to try in 2024 include Fabric React, Headless UI, and UI Toolkit.
Q: How do I choose the right react library for my project?
A: When choosing the right react library for your project, consider factors such as the specific components you need, the level of customization required, and the popularity and support of the library within the community.
Q: What are some top React animation libraries available in 2024?
A: Some top React animation libraries to explore in 2024 are React Spring, Framer Motion, and React Transition Group.
Q: Which React libraries are best for state management in 2024?
A: For state management in React in 2024, Redux, MobX, and Recoil are popular choices among developers.
Q: How can I enhance my React app with UI frameworks?
A: You can enhance your React app with UI frameworks by integrating pre-built components, like React Bootstrap, Material-UI, or Ant Design, into your project.
Q: What are the benefits of using React UI component libraries?
A: Using React UI component libraries can help in speeding up development, ensuring consistency in design, and providing a set of high-quality components for building user interfaces.
Q: What are some criteria to consider when evaluating React libraries for a project?
A: When evaluating React libraries for a project, consider factors such as the library's documentation, community support, performance, flexibility, and whether it aligns with the project's requirements and goals.
Q: How can I effectively manage forms in my React project?
A: To effectively manage forms in a React project, you can utilize form libraries like Formik, React Hook Form, or Final Form, which provide convenient utilities for handling form inputs and validation.
Q: What are some popular React component libraries with customizable UI components?
A: Popular React component libraries with customizable UI components include Chakra UI, Blueprint, and Semantic UI React, offering a wide range of styling options for building interfaces.
Conclusion
React JS continues to be an essential force in web development, driving an ecosystem filled with dynamic libraries and frameworks.
The diverse set of tools discussed in this article caters to various needs, aiding developers in crafting engaging and responsive web applications.
These tools empower developers to streamline their workflows, elevating the overall quality of web applications.
As you embark on creating innovative and user-friendly applications in 2024 using React JS, consider exploring these tools to leverage their distinctive capabilities, ensuring not only procedural alignment but also delivering a captivating user interface.