Comparing
Primitive and flexible state management for React based on atomic state units.
🐻 Bear necessities for state management in React
| Metric | jotai | zustand |
|---|---|---|
| Ecosystem | npm | npm |
| Difficulty | Beginner ✓ | Intermediate |
| Weekly downloads | 900K | 30.7M↑ |
| Latest version | v2.9.3 | v5.0.12 |
| Recipes | 2 | 7↑ |
jotai only
Shared
zustand only
React apps needing shared state without prop drilling, derived/computed state that updates automatically, fine-grained re-render control, per-route or per-feature isolated state.
Use Zustand for global UI state that multiple components need to read and write: auth status, theme preferences, shopping cart, modal state, or any data too complex for prop drilling but not complex enough to justify Redux.
Non-React environments (Jotai is React-only). Complex state machines (use XState). Apps already committed to Redux with large middleware ecosystems.
Zustand is not designed for server state — use React Query for that. For very large applications with complex state machines or time-travel debugging requirements, Redux Toolkit's tooling is more mature.
jotai
zustand
+3 more