Building React Architecture and State Management the Right Way

React has become one of the most popular JavaScript libraries for modern web apps. Stack Overflow’s 2024 survey showed React to be the top web framework for 45% of users. Its component-based architecture and flexible state management options make it ideal for developing dynamic, user-friendly interfaces. 

However, as React applications grow, challenges like managing complex state and organizing the codebase arise, impacting maintainability and performance.

Today, we’ll look into React architecture best practices and state management strategies to help you build scalable, maintainable React applications. 

Whether you’re working on a small project or enterprise-grade software, keeping these guidelines in mind will be vital for structuring your next app and managing state efficiently.

What is React Architecture, and How Does it Help in Web Development?

Unlike some frameworks, React itself does not enforce a strict architecture pattern. It focuses solely on the view layer (the UI) and leaves the rest to developers. At the core, a React app is composed of a tree of components, ranging from simple buttons or input fields to complex forms and user profiles.

Each component can hold its own state, which is the data necessary to render the UI and react to user interactions. This local state updates dynamically as users interact with the app. While React provides built-in state mechanisms like useState for local state management, these often fall short for larger applications with complex data flow. 

That’s where you need state management solutions such as Redux, Context API, or other libraries.

React’s flexibility allows you to architect your app in many ways. However, to scale effectively, it’s crucial to follow best practices that keep your code organized, maintainable, and performant.

React Architecture Best Practices

Scaling a React app requires a well-thought-out architecture that addresses challenges like component sprawl, code reuse, and performance optimization. Here are some of the best practices for structuring your React app.

Organize Your Folder and File Structure

A clear directory structure is foundational for maintainability. Group files and components logically, so developers can quickly locate relevant code.

• Feature-based folders: Organize by feature or domain, not by file type.
• Separate reusable components: Place shared components in a /components folder.
• Custom hooks in /hooks: Group reusable hooks to manage side effects or shared logic.
• Utilities in /utils: Store helper functions and constants here.

Example structure:

/src
 ├── /components
 ├── /hooks
 ├── /pages
 ├── /utils
 ├── /services

This approach prevents component sprawl and simplifies onboarding new team members.

Focus on Common Modules and Reusability

React is a non-opinionated framework. This means you decide how to modularize your app. Prioritizing reusable modules reduces duplication and makes future updates faster and safer.

Some reusable modules include:

Custom Components  

Components are the building blocks of any React application. Adding custom components in folders, separates them from standard components, making them reusable, accessible, and maintainable, and enhancing scalability. This is a great way to keep projects organized and easy to navigate.

Custom Hooks 

A custom hook is a function that starts with “use” and may invoke other Hooks. Applying custom hooks for pages, share logic like form validation or toggling features, will help to reduce code complexity and enforce reusability.

Utility Functions

Utility or helper files contain common JavaScript logic that can be used throughout an application. Utility functions abstract repetitive logic, making it easy to reuse code and reduce errors caused by duplicating the same logic across files.

Use Absolute Imports for Cleaner Code

By default, React projects use relative imports, which can become confusing with deeply nested folders:

import Button from '../../components/Button';

Using absolute imports improves readability:

import Button from 'components/Button';

To enable this, configure jsconfig.json:

{
  "compilerOptions": {
    "baseUrl": "src"
  },
  "include": ["src"]
}

This small change simplifies navigation and refactoring.

Avoid a Single Context for Everything

React’s Context API helps avoid prop drilling by sharing data across components. But placing all state in one context leads to a single point of failure and unnecessary re-renders. Keeping it modular will improve performance and maintainability.

Use multiple contexts for logically separate concerns:

• Theme context
• Authentication context
• Localization context

Separate Business Logic from UI

Keep your UI components focused on rendering. Extract business logic into custom hooks or service files. Separating concerns leads to cleaner, more testable code.

For example:

• UI components live in /pages or /views.
• Data fetching logic can use hooks like useFetchData or libraries like React Query.

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[Also check out: A Guide to Custom Software Development]

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State Management in React: Strategies and Best Practices

As your React application grows, managing state across components becomes a key challenge that you’ll need to face. Let’s take a look at the top React state management solutions, their use cases, and how to get the one you need. 

Local State with useState

The simplest form of state management is React’s built-in useState hook, ideal for local, isolated state inside a component.

import { useState } from 'react';

function Counter() {
  const [count, setCount] = useState(0);

  return (
    <>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <button onClick={() => setCount(count + 1)}>Increment</button>
    </>
  );
}

When to use:

• Small, self-contained components
• UI toggles like modals or dropdowns
• Simple form inputs

Global State with React Context API

When multiple components need shared data, the Context API allows you to avoid passing props through many layers.

Example: Theme switching

import React, { createContext, useState, useContext } from 'react';

const ThemeContext = createContext();

export function ThemeProvider({ children }) {
  const [theme, setTheme] = useState('light');

  return (
    <ThemeContext.Provider value={{ theme, setTheme }}>
      {children}
    </ThemeContext.Provider>
  );
}

function ThemedButton() {
  const { theme, setTheme } = useContext(ThemeContext);
  return (
    <button onClick={() => setTheme(theme === 'light' ? 'dark' : 'light')}>
      Current Theme: {theme}
    </button>
  );
}

When to use:

• App-wide themes
• Authentication state
• Localization preferences

Complex State Management with Redux

For large applications with complex state transitions and deeply nested components, Redux still remains a popular choice. It provides a centralized store and predictable state updates.

Example: Redux Toolkit

npm install @reduxjs/toolkit react-redux

// store.js
import { configureStore, createSlice } from '@reduxjs/toolkit';

const counterSlice = createSlice({
  name: 'counter',
  initialState: { value: 0 },
  reducers: {
    increment: (state) => { state.value += 1; },
    decrement: (state) => { state.value -= 1; },
  },
});

export const { increment, decrement } = counterSlice.actions;

export const store = configureStore({ reducer: { counter: counterSlice.reducer } });

// App.js
import { Provider, useSelector, useDispatch } from 'react-redux';
import { store, increment, decrement } from './store';

function Counter() {
  const count = useSelector((state) => state.counter.value);
  const dispatch = useDispatch();

  return (
    <>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <button onClick={() => dispatch(increment())}>+</button>
      <button onClick={() => dispatch(decrement())}>-</button>
    </>
  );
}

function App() {
  return (
    <Provider store={store}>
      <Counter />
    </Provider>
  );
}

When to use:

• Large apps with complex state logic
• Need for debugging tools (Redux DevTools)
• Predictable and centralized state management

Lightweight Redux Alternatives: Zustand, Recoil, Jotai

Redux can be verbose and complex for medium-sized projects. Libraries like Zustand offer minimalist global state management with less boilerplate.

Example using Zustand:

npm install zustand

import create from 'zustand';

const useStore = create((set) => ({
  count: 0,
  increment: () => set((state) => ({ count: state.count + 1 })),
}));

function Counter() {
  const { count, increment } = useStore();
  return (
    <>
      <p>Count: {count}</p>
      <button onClick={increment}>+</button>
    </>
  );
}

When to use:

• Medium-sized apps
• Preference for simplicity
• Performance-critical apps (Zustand supports lazy slices)

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[Also check out: The Top 5 Web Development Languages]

Additional Tips for Scaling React Apps

If you still want some extra tips besides architecture and state management, here are some other strategies that’ll help maintain performance and code quality.

Optimize Performance with Efficient Rendering

Avoid unnecessary re-renders by:

• Using React.memo to memorize components.
• Splitting components into smaller parts.
• Avoiding anonymous functions in props.
  

Use Lazy Loading and Code Splitting

Implement lazy loading to load components only when needed, improving initial load times.

import React, { lazy, Suspense } from 'react';

const LazyComponent = lazy(() => import('./LazyComponent'));

function App() {
  return (
    <Suspense fallback={<div>Loading...</div>}>
      <LazyComponent />
    </Suspense>
  );
}

Enforce Code Quality

Use tools like ESLint and Prettier to maintain consistent code style and catch errors early.

Prioritize Testing

Write unit, integration, and end-to-end tests to prevent regressions and ensure reliability.

Leverage TypeScript or PropTypes

Static typing improves maintainability and prevents bugs by catching type errors early.

Alternatives to React JS

React provides a powerful foundation for a wide range of apps, but if it’s not the right choice for your project, other frameworks and resources can enhance your large-scale application development. Here are our top alternatives:

Next.js

Next.js is a React framework that offers features like server-side rendering, automatic code splitting, and built-in routing, simplifying complex application development.

Vue.js

For an alternative JavaScript framework, you have Vue.js, with a component-based architecture that provides an excellent developer experience and scales well for large projects.

Angular

Angular is a comprehensive framework well-suited for enterprise-grade applications, with great features like dependency injection and a powerful CLI for streamlined development.

Final Thoughts

Building scalable React applications is no easy task; it demands thoughtful architecture and effective state management strategies. 

Following React architecture best practices like the ones we’ve discussed can be of great help; alternatively, involving professional React developers in your project is sure to give it the boost it deserves. 

If you're ready to take the next step, get in touch with our specialists at Oliant and start working on building a robust, scalable web app that’ll grow gracefully with your business needs.