What are Reactjs libraries? Libraries used in React are tools in developers’ hands that help them find faster and more efficient solutions to create customized components for their React-based apps. There are different React libraries for different purposes. Using these libraries can help developers truly explore the full potential of Reactjs as a platform and provide the best possible solution to any React.js development roadblocks and improve project development efficiency.
Hence, ensuring you have the right developers aware of the latest React libraries is a must for developing the best React app for your requirements. For this, you should hire Reactjs developers from a trusted IT solutions company that has a credible record in React development.
What is React, and why is it important?
React is one of the oldest and most reliable JavaScript frameworks for web app development. Over the years of its consecutive growth, the community has also strengthened both in numbers and skilled developers. As per Builtwith, React, as of today, powers more than 10,499,785 websites on the internet. In addition, popular companies like Facebook, Behance, The Guardian, and more utilize React to power their websites.
Naturally, there’s an inclination for companies and clients to shift or create their online presence by using React platform to build their web app solutions. React is one of the most preferred web frameworks among developers, clearly shown in the study posted by Statista, where 40.14% (highest) of developers agreed they choose to React over other available options.
Top Reactjs Libraries to boost your project development efficiency
Here we will discuss the best Reactjs libraries that you can use in your Reactjs development project broken down into different categories as per the general requirements in React web app development –
1. Code Formatting Libraries for React
Code formatting is the best practice to follow when writing clean and organized code for any programming language. The same is with code programming for React. The purpose is to make your code easily understandable for other developers, especially when working in teams. It also helps backtrack any code irregularities or issues if the app doesn’t function in the later stages. Here are some of the best React code formatting libraries you can use –
- ES Lint
GitHub – Fork (3.6k) | Star (20.2k) | License (MIT)
ES Lint is an easily configurable linting library for React. It detects any irregularities in the JavaScript code that don’t adhere to React standard guidelines and auto-fixes the code. This helps developers keep the code more organized and bug-free.
- Prettier
GitHub – Fork (3.2k) | Star (42.1k) | License (MIT)
Prettier is an opinionated code formatting library used by companies like Facebook, Dropbox, and other big organizations for keeping their code neat and organized. This helps save considerable development time. Prettier is compatible with most web programming languages, and it works well with React.js as well.
2. React State Management Libraries
React state management is one of the biggest challenges faced by React developers. State management in React aims to ensure the data flows correctly and efficiently from your app to the state and vice versa. It helps you understand exactly where your data is. Such management tools also provide a point-in-time snapshot of the entire data. Knowing where your data is at any given point makes the React app development process faster.
- 1. Redux
GitHub – Fork (15.1k) | Star (57.7k) | License (MIT)
It is inevitable to have Redux in React State Management Libraries list. There are almost 32,828 websites built on react-redux to date. Redux is a predictable state container that helps developers write their JavaScript app in a way that maintains a consistent behavior across client, server, and native environments. It also makes the apps easier to test. Though it is almost every time paired with React, you can use Redux with other programming languages, too, if needed.
- MobX
GitHub – Fork (1.7k) | Star (25k) | License (MIT)
MobX is an ideal, scalable, and proven state management solution. It helps developers write neat, maintainable, and high-performing code. It comes with a fairly easier learning curve than most state management tools out there. MobX is most frequently paired with React through an independent state management library.
3. React Form Libraries
React form libraries are convenient for React developers that need to manage complex data validation, styling, and rendering requirements to dedicate their focus on polishing the business logic. They unlock many feature functionalities without developers needing to build everything from scratch.
- React Hook Form
GitHub – Fork (1.3k) | Star (26.6k) | License (MIT)
React-hook-form is a React form library that helps developers validate forms in Reactjs. It is a minimalistic library that doesn’t require any other dependencies. It is highly performance-oriented and only requires developers to write a few lines of code to integrate it in their React web app project.
- Formik
GitHub – Fork (2.5k) | Star (29.9k) | License (Apache 2.0)
Formik is yet another useful React form library: a small collection of React components and hooks that help build forms in both Reactjs and React Native. It helps developers get the values in and out of state and provides validation and error prompts.
4. React UI Component Libraries
React UI component libraries are essential for dealing with aspects like the design framework and overall user interface of the React app. They are essentially UI components like buttons, dialogs, inputs, and more. Due to their modular nature, they can be utilized in different ways to achieve different results.
- React Semantic UI
GitHub – Fork (3.8k) | Star (12.7k) | License (MIT)
React Semantic UI library can be integrated into your React.js project to help speed up the overall React app development process by utilizing its list of prebuilt UI Components. It comes with many useful features such as declarative API, shorthand props, augmentation, sub-components, and more.
- MUI
GitHub – Fork (26.4k) | Star (76.6k) | License (MIT)
MUI is a customizable React UI components library that follows Google’s Material Design. It is not just any component library; it can be considered as a design system on its own.
5. React Testing Libraries
Testing is important for any web app framework as proper testing ensures app security and corrects any bugs, glitches, or threats that can cause potential harm to the sensitive data of your users and your company. Here are some of the most secure React testing libraries you can use –
- Jest
GitHub – Fork (5.7k) | Star (38.3k) | License (MIT)
Jest is one of the most trusted security frameworks created by Facebook itself. They use it to test all their JavaScript code, including React apps. Many other popular companies like Uber, Airbnb, and others have also used it in their apps at some given point. It has its assertion and test runner functions.
- Chai
GitHub – Fork (685) | Star (7.5k) | License (MIT)
Chai is the best React library for expectations and assertions for browser and node, which can be paired with any JavaScript testing framework. Assertions help declare what can be expected in a test and are integral to testing tools. Mocha is a famous testing tool often used with React, but it doesn’t have built-in assertion libraries. Hence React developers often pair Chai with Mocha for properly testing React apps.
6. Routing & Navigation Libraries for React
Routing is directing a user to a different page as per their request or action. The navigation aspect in React is used for pointing users in the right direction to find what they’re looking for without having to reload the page itself, especially in SPAs built with React. Here are some of the best React routing and navigation libraries you can use –
- React Router
GitHub – Fork (9k) | Star (46.3k) | License (MIT)
React Router essentially is a collection of navigation components that sync the UI components with the browser address. Due to this, developers can easily set up navigation aspects in any React SPA. Along with easier Navigation, React Router is also great for nesting support, server-side rendering, and stable screen-to-screen transitions.
- React Navigation
GitHub – Fork (4.6k) | Star (20.9k) | License (MIT)
React Navigation is a standalone JavaScript library that doesn’t directly use the navigation APIs provided for Android and iOS. It recreates their subsets. This opens up possibilities of third-party JavaScript plugins, flexible customization, and seamless debugging without learning core iOS (Objective-C and Swift) or core Android (Java and Kotlin) programming languages.
7. React Animation Libraries
Animations can add a lot of value to the overall user experience of your app, and strategic animations can also help improve the user flow and enhance the richness of the app. Of course, they need to use in moderation; otherwise, they can distract the users. Here are some of the best animation libraries available for React –
- Lottie by AirBnB
GitHub – Fork (5.2k) | Star (32.5k) | License (Apache)
Lottie is one of the most preferred React animation libraries selected by many developers and designers across the globe. One of the reasons behind its popularity is that it is developed by AirBnB. This React library empowers developers to build richer animations with lesser hassle. They don’t need to recreate the desired animations from scratch.
- React Motion
GitHub – Fork (1.2k) | Star (20.7k) | License (MIT)
React Motion is a popular animation library for React that helps developers create realistic animations easily. It has five main components – spring, StaggeredMotion, presets, Motion, and TransitionMotion. They all serve different purposes that can be repurposed in any React app as per the user’s requirements.
8. React Libraries for AR/VR
Adding AR/VR capabilities is a must for some modern web apps that require extensive functionality or intelligent solutions. React supports AR/VR integration, and there are many popular React AR/VR animation libraries available for the same. Here are the top React AR/VR animation libraries that you should consider –
- React 360
GitHub – Fork (1.3k) | Star (8.6k) | License (BSD)
React 360 is one of the best React libraries for developers to create an immersive 360 experience that can be deployed on web browsers. It pairs modern APIs like WebVR and WebGL with React declarative features. Such React apps can be used on different types of devices and platforms.
- React Spring
GitHub – Fork (986) | Star (22.6k) | License (MIT)
React Spring is a modern animation library based on spring physics. It is extremely flexible and has all the essential animation features you would need for any user interface. It inherits some properties of React Motion.
Final Words
These are the top React libraries you should use to improvising your project development efficiency. Ensure that all the third-party libraries you use don’t conflict with each other.