[solardev]

These days in reactland, you can easily get app-wide state using useContext (which is much MUCH simpler to work with than Redux). It's just a global store (well, or you can limit it to a certain part of the tree) that any child or sibling can read/write to at will.

But just like you said, it can be a footgun if you're not careful.

[acemarke]

FWIW, Redux and Context are different tools that solve different problems, with some overlap.

Context is a Dependency Injection tool for a single value, used to avoid prop drilling.

Redux is a tool for predictable global state management, with the state stored outside React.

Note that Context itself isn't the "store", or "managing" anything - it's just a conduit for whatever state _you_ are managing, or whatever other value you're passing through it (event emitter, etc).

I wrote an extensive article specifically to answer this frequently asked question, including details about what the differences are between Context and Redux, and when to consider using either of them - I'd recommend reading through this:

- https://blog.isquaredsoftware.com/2021/01/context-redux-diff...

[solardev]

Thanks for sharing. I think you touch on some of the more powerful features of Redux (middleware, selectors, pass by reference instead of value, etc.)

But IMHO a lot of that is overkill when your only goal is global state. Context solves that problem very nicely (in conjunction with state and reducer, yes, but context is the big piece there). Prop drilling was a major hurdle to global state management. But redux introduces its own overhead (Flux architecture, actions and dispatches, etc.) that are unnecessarily complicated for simple state sharing.

I feel like the article spends a lot of time differentiating the specifics of use Context vs state vs reducers, but it kinda misses the bigger point... that using those is often enough and can remove redux, leaving you with more readable and less overengineered code. Redux might be the right choice for really complex states, but it's a pain to work with day to day. Context makes it super simple by comparison.

[acemarke]

I see people ask on a literal daily basis "does Context replace Redux?". So, I was trying to make a few points in that post, mostly clarifying common misconceptions, because the question itself is rooted in some major misunderstandings about what these tools even _do_ in the first place:

- that Context doesn't "manage" anything by itself, and definitely not "state"

- That there are significant technical differences between the combo of `useReducer` + `useContext` and Redux/React-Redux, in terms of render performance, data access, and usage patterns.

- That this means there are also different use cases for those tools as well.

I wouldn't use Redux to maintain state for a form or isolated chunk of the app, I'd use context + `useReducer`. On the flip side, if I do have "global" state, I would pretty quickly switch over to putting it in Redux instead.

[solardev]

Yeah, except... the technicalities make it seem like no, but in reality use context CAN replace redux a lot of times. The power of redux is often unnecessary (or just gets in the way, really), and context is enough.

Your post makes it seem like they are wildly different when in fact they often meet the same need. Use context is helpful precisely because it can replace redux in many situations.

It doesn't really matter how different they are under the hood. Redux is often used only as a global store of state, and context makes that much easier... even globally.

Maybe redux is good for some edge cases, but otherwise it's just overengineered bloat. Context is much more elegant and intuitive. There's no reason to force yourself to use the Flux pattern if you don't have to. I'd certainly never add redux to a project unless I absolutely needed to, it's such a pain...