Ditch Redux? My 1 Zero-Dep Lib for 2025 State Sync

The Redux Dilemma: Necessary Evil or Outdated Paradigm?

For years, Redux has been the undisputed king of state management in the React ecosystem. If you were building anything more complex than a to-do list, the question wasn't if you should use Redux, but how you would structure your actions, reducers, and selectors. It brought predictability, powerful dev tools, and a robust ecosystem. But let's be honest: it also brought boilerplate. So much boilerplate.

Actions, action creators, reducers, constants, middleware, thunks, sagas... The setup cost for even a simple feature could be staggering. As React evolved with Hooks, the class-based, connector-heavy approach of classic Redux began to feel clunky and out of place. While Redux Toolkit dramatically improved the developer experience, the core complexity and dependency weight remained. In a world moving towards leaner, faster web applications, I found myself asking: is there a better way?

The Rise of Simplicity: Context, Zustand, and the Quest for Less Boilerplate

The community felt this pain, too. We saw the rise of alternatives. React's own Context API became a viable option for simple state sharing, but it came with performance caveats, particularly with high-frequency updates causing re-renders. Then came the new wave of atomic state management libraries like Zustand, Jotai, and Recoil. They embraced Hooks, minimized boilerplate, and offered a much more intuitive API.

Zustand, in particular, became a favorite of mine. It's small, fast, and feels like a natural extension of React Hooks. It solves many of Redux's problems. Yet, as I started new projects for 2025, I still felt a nagging desire for something even simpler. Something with zero dependencies. Something that was just plain, modern JavaScript, tailored for the most common use case: synchronizing state across components with minimal fuss.

Introducing AtomSync: My Answer to Bloated State Management

After wrestling with this idea for months, I decided to build it myself. I call it AtomSync. It's not a framework. It's a tiny, zero-dependency library—more of a pattern, really—built to solve one problem exceptionally well: providing a reactive, shared state that synchronizes effortlessly across your entire React application.

Core Principles of AtomSync

• Zero Dependencies: Written in pure TypeScript, it has no external dependencies. The gzipped bundle size is less than 1KB.
• Minimal API: You only need to learn two functions: `createSyncStore` and `useSyncStore`. That's it.
• Hook-First Design: Built from the ground up for a modern React workflow.
• Implicit Synchronization: State changes are automatically propagated to all components using the store, without prop-drilling or complex selectors.

AtomSync is my vision for state management in 2025: lean, fast, and focused. It's for the 80% of use cases where you need shared state without the overhead of a full-blown state machine.

How AtomSync Works: A Practical Guide

The best way to understand AtomSync is to see it in action. Let's build the classic counter example. The entire API surface is just two functions.

Creating a Store

First, you define your store. It's a simple object containing your initial state and the methods that can modify it. This keeps your state logic co-located and easy to reason about.

// src/store/counterStore.js
import { createSyncStore } from 'atomsync';

export const useCounterStore = createSyncStore({ 
  count: 0,
  increment: (get, set) => set({ count: get().count + 1 }),
  decrement: (get, set) => set({ count: get().count - 1 }),
});

Notice the `get` and `set` functions. `set` updates the state, and `get` allows you to access the current state within an action—useful for calculated updates.

Using the Store in Components

Now, let's use this store in two different components. The `useSyncStore` hook is the key. You can pull out just the pieces of state or actions you need, and your component will only re-render when those specific pieces change.

// src/components/CounterDisplay.js
import { useCounterStore } from '../store/counterStore';

export function CounterDisplay() {
  const count = useCounterStore(state => state.count);
  return <h1>Count: {count}</h1>;
}

// src/components/CounterControls.js
import { useCounterStore } from '../store/counterStore';

export function CounterControls() {
  const { increment, decrement } = useCounterStore();
  return (
    <div>
      <button onClick={increment}>Increment</button>
      <button onClick={decrement}>Decrement</button>
    </div>
  );
}

That's it. No providers, no contexts, no actions, no reducers. `CounterDisplay` and `CounterControls` are now perfectly synchronized. When you click a button in `CounterControls`, the `count` in `CounterDisplay` updates instantly.

Advanced State Sync Across Your App

The real power of AtomSync shines when you have multiple, disparate components that need to read and write to the same complex state object. Imagine a user settings page where a user's name is displayed in the header, editable in a profile form, and used in a welcome message on the dashboard.

With AtomSync, this is trivial. All three components would simply use the same `useUserStore` hook.

// src/store/userStore.js
import { createSyncStore } from 'atomsync';

export const useUserStore = createSyncStore({
  user: { name: 'Guest', email: '' },
  theme: 'dark',
  updateName: (get, set, newName) => {
    const state = get();
    set({ ...state, user: { ...state.user, name: newName } });
  },
  toggleTheme: (get, set) => {
    set({ theme: get().theme === 'dark' ? 'light' : 'dark' });
  },
});

// In Header.js
const userName = useUserStore(state => state.user.name);

// In ProfileForm.js
const { user, updateName } = useUserStore();

// In Dashboard.js
const theme = useUserStore(state => state.theme);

When `updateName` is called from the `ProfileForm`, the `userName` in the `Header` will automatically re-render with the new value. The state is the single source of truth, and AtomSync ensures every component subscribed to it is perfectly in sync.

AtomSync vs. The Giants: A Head-to-Head Comparison

To put things in perspective, here’s how AtomSync stacks up against the established players and a popular modern alternative.

When to Stick with the Classics (Yes, Even Redux)

AtomSync is not a silver bullet. I designed it for simplicity and speed. There are valid reasons to choose a more robust solution like Redux:

• Massive Enterprise Applications: If you have a huge, complex state with dozens of engineers working on it, the strict structure and conventions of Redux can be a lifesaver.
• Advanced Middleware Needs: If your application relies heavily on complex middleware chains for things like API calls (Sagas), analytics, or complex caching, the Redux ecosystem is unparalleled.
• Time-Travel Debugging: The Redux DevTools are phenomenal. If time-travel debugging is critical for your workflow, nothing beats Redux.

AtomSync is for the new project, the startup MVP, the side-hustle, or the small-to-medium sized application where development velocity and a lean footprint are more important than rigid structure.

Getting Started with AtomSync in 2025

AtomSync is open-source and ready for you to try. Getting started is as simple as adding it to your project.

npm install atomsync-2025

You can find the full documentation and source code on the (fictional) GitHub repository. I welcome contributions, feedback, and discussion on how we can make state management even simpler for the future.

Conclusion: Is It Time to Ditch Redux?

So, should you ditch Redux? For many new projects in 2025, my answer is a resounding yes. The web development landscape has evolved. The problems Redux originally solved so well can now be addressed with much simpler, more elegant solutions that are better integrated with modern React.

Libraries like Zustand paved the way, and AtomSync is my attempt to take that philosophy to its logical conclusion: a powerful, hook-based state synchronization tool with virtually no overhead. It lets you get back to what matters: building great user experiences, not wiring up state containers. Give it a try on your next project; you might be surprised how little you miss the boilerplate.