Ecosystem
Hi there, so we're looking for libraries and tools that can do the following:
- useful things for 3d rendering / graphics / video-gaming in browsers
- edge cases / difficult things to do in frontend apps
- niche libraries that just REALLY fill out their use-cases
React boasts a vast ecosystem of open-source libraries, plugins, and features that can help your team rapidly develop UIs and applications.
Generally, to make our list below, the library in question needs to have support and active development/maintenance. The rules are not strict, something like 100K+ weekly downloads on npm and a release within the last 6-12 months.
Recommended Baseline (Most Teams)
If you want a practical default stack in 2026:
- Build: vite
- Lint/format: biome or oxlint + oxfmt
- Data fetching/cache: @tanstack/react-query
- Forms: react-hook-form + zod
- Tables/virtualization: @tanstack/react-table + @tanstack/react-virtual
Premade Hooks
Utility Libraries
Utility libraries typically bring an array of functions at your disposal, either all around a single domain (such as dates/timezones) or more generic (array sorting, object cloning, deep comparisons, etc.)
- date-fns
- use-local-storage-state
- react-cookie
- lodash
- zod - schema validation, parsing, and type-safe contracts between UI/forms/API responses
- valibot - lightweight schema validation alternative
Data Fetching and Caching
- @tanstack/react-query - default recommendation for server state
- swr - simple and effective cache-first data fetching
- RTK Query - strong option for Redux-heavy codebases
Build Tooling, Linting, and Formatting
If your team wants a modern, high-performance toolchain, these are worth evaluating together:
- vite - fast dev server and build tool for React projects
- rolldown - Rust-powered bundler option in the modern Vite ecosystem direction
- biome - all-in-one formatter + linter (and more) with strong performance
- oxlint - very fast linting focused on large codebases
- oxfmt - fast formatting companion from the same ecosystem
Suggested adoption path
- Start with vite for project scaffolding and dev/build performance.
- Use zod for runtime-safe schemas in forms and API boundaries.
- Choose one formatting/linting stack:
- Evaluate rolldown as your bundling strategy matures.
Forms & Inputs
The form libraries below can help you build complex forms, and the input components can bring non-standard browser input types (such as datepickers, multi-select dropdowns, etc.) into your application.
- react-hook-form
- formik - still used in legacy teams, but less common in new projects
- We recommend zod (or yup) for validation schemas
Form UI & Inputs
For basic form elements like dropdowns, radio groups, checkboxes, we recommend headless UI libraries (read about them on our UI / Styling page).
Input masking
Select / Multi-Select
Datepickers
Animations / Loading States
Drag & Drop / Resizing Elements
- dnd-kit - recommended modern drag-and-drop toolkit
- react-dnd - Drag and Drop for React
- react-draggable - React draggable component
- react-resizable - A simple React component that is resizable with a handle
- react-grid-layout - A draggable and resizable grid layout with responsive breakpoints
- react-advanced-cropper - An advanced React component for image cropping
- react-archer - Draw arrows between React elements
Charts & Data Visualization
- visx - Visualization components
- victory - A collection of composable React components for building interactive data visualizations
- recharts - Redefined chart library built with React and D3
- nivo - Provides a rich set of data visualization components, built on top of the D3 and React libraries
Tables / Data-Grids / Spreadsheets
- react-table - A lightweight, fast and extendable datagrid for React
- react-data-grid - Excel-like grid component built with React
Toasts / Notifications
Spotlight / File Viewers / Carousels
- react-joyride - Create guided tours for your apps
- react-pdf-viewer - A PDF viewer made for React
- swiper - modern mobile touch slider