MobX-State-Tree is a state management library for React applications that combines the simplicity and ease of MobX with a structured, transactional, and strongly typed approach to managing application state. It provides a powerful and flexible way to define and manipulate complex application state trees, making it easier to manage and reason about the state of your application.
Valtio is a minimal and standalone state management library for React applications. It provides a simple API for creating and managing reactive global state without the need for complex setup or boilerplate code. Valtio leverages ES6 Proxies to automatically track state changes and trigger re-renders in components that depend on the state.
Mobx-state-tree (MST) has been around for longer and has a larger user base and community support compared to Valtio. MST is widely used in the React ecosystem and has gained popularity for managing complex state in applications. Valtio, on the other hand, is a relatively newer library but has been gaining attention for its simplicity and lightweight nature.
Scalability
MST is designed to handle complex state management scenarios and provides a rich set of features like snapshots, actions, and middleware. It is well-suited for large-scale applications with complex state requirements. Valtio, on the other hand, is a lightweight state management library that is more suitable for smaller to medium-sized applications with simpler state needs.
Performance
Both MST and Valtio are performant libraries. MST leverages MobX's reactivity system, which provides efficient updates and ensures that only the necessary components are re-rendered. Valtio also uses a similar reactivity model and is optimized for performance. However, since Valtio is a smaller library, it may have a slight edge in terms of performance.
Developer Experience
MST provides a powerful and expressive API for defining and manipulating state trees. It has good TypeScript support and offers advanced features like type-safe actions and middleware. Valtio, on the other hand, takes a simpler approach and provides a minimalistic API that is easy to understand and use. It also has good TypeScript support and integrates well with React.
Community and Documentation
MST has a larger and more established community with extensive documentation, tutorials, and examples available. It has been widely adopted and has a strong ecosystem of plugins and extensions. Valtio, being a newer library, has a smaller community but is growing steadily. It has good documentation and examples to get started with.