React Hook Form vs Others: Who Wins?

Why is React Hook Form better than other forms?

Quick Summary: React hook form has become developers’ preferred choice for form management due to its innovative approach and unique advantages. This article explores why React hook form stands out from other form libraries, presenting a fresh perspective on form-building. Whether you’re a seasoned React developer or new to form management, understanding the key features and benefits of React hook form can optimize your form-building process and streamline your web applications. This article will answer many questions that might be found for a long time!

Introduction

Many online applications require forms as an important part. They allow users to enter data, submit and send requests to the server, and get answers. However, managing forms can be complex, especially for large or complicated forms. Hence, you need a form that is easy to operate. And that’s where you need to choose React Hook Form.

In addition, numerous libraries are available for React, but React Hook Form is one of the best. It is lightweight, easy to use, and has a robust API.

So, are you also tired of writing boilerplate code for your forms? And thinking that React Hook Forms can reduce your burden? If so, then you must go through with this piece of writing.

In this article, we delve into the world of form libraries, exploring why React hook form has emerged as a preferred choice among developers over its counterparts. While established libraries have played crucial roles in simplifying form handling, React hook form brings a fresh approach, presenting a range of compelling advantages that elevate the form-building experience to new heights.

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What Are React hooks?

I hope you know the Basic Of ReactJS Hooks, but if not, then read on…

So, React Hooks are a new addition to React that can enable state usage and other React capabilities without the need to design a class. Additionally, it makes React Code more concise and easy to understand and opens up new possibilities for code reuse.

Furthermore, one of the most significant benefits of React Hooks is that they make managing the state simple. With Hooks, you can declare state variables and update them directly without using a class component’s lifecycle methods.

In addition, Hooks also make it easy to perform side effects, such as making API calls or subscribing to events. You can do these things with Hooks without writing a class component’s render method. It can help you to avoid performance problems and increase predictability in your code.

Moreover, to state and side effects, React Hooks also provide access to other React features, such as context and refs. It implies that you may utilize Hooks to build modular components that can be included in any React application.

If you are a React developer, I encourage you to learn about React Hooks. They may be a vital instrument for your benefit to write better, more maintainable code.

It has the following features:

  • Optimized for performance, UX, and DX.
  • React Hook Supports native form validation.
  • It integrates out of the box with UI libraries.
  • It’s small and requires no dependencies.
  • Based on the HTML standard for form validation.
  • You can use Yup, Zod, Superstruct, Joi, Vest, class-validator, IO-TS, NOPE, or a custom validation.

Analyzing the performance of React Hook Form:

Creating this library was primarily motivated by performance. In this way, you can reduce the amount of re-rendering that occurs when the root values of a form or application change due to user input or other changes. Due to the reduced overhead, components mount faster than controlled components. You can refer to the link below for a quick comparison test. Click here.

React Hook Form is more efficient than other libraries because it simplifies the handling of form events. Below are a few other benefits.

  1. Re-render isolated components:With react hook forms vs formik, you can isolate a component and avoid having other components re-render. Using this feature, other child components won’t be rendered in an unwanted manner which will improve performance. However, libraries like Formik and Redux-Form also re-render the other child components along with the form component.
  2. Reducing rendering:Besides isolating the component, it restricts its form rendering to events like onChange,onBlur, etc.
  3. Faster mounting process:It is approximately 13% quicker than Formik and 25% faster than Redux-Form mount. Other libraries are slower at inserting the DOM elements into the form’s tree, so this library will render faster than other libraries.
  4. Enter Subscription Changes:It allows you to subscribe to each input component without going through the there-rendering of each component inside the form component.
  5. Typescript Compatibility:It is constructed with TypeScript and can define a FormData type to support form values.
  6. Less Code to Maintain:There are fewer bugs when there is less code! The useForm() hook is provided by the React Hook Form and consists of the handle submit, register, and error methods and props. They’d take care of the submitted events, register the input via refs, and display any mistakes. However, you must create your custom handlers for events and validations in the other two libraries.

React hook Forms vs Formik vs Redux Form?

The basic concept of all three libs is to make the building of forms as easy as possible, but there are some important differences between the three. Designed for uncontrolled inputs, react-hook-form strives to provide you with the best performance and smallest amount of re-rendering. Furthermore, react-hook-form is built with React Hooks and utilized as a hook, which means you do not have to import any components. These are some of the detailed differences:

React Hook FormFormikRedux Form
Componentuncontrolled & controlledcontrolledcontrolled
Renderingminimum re-renderre-render according to local state changes which means as you type in the input.re-render according to state management lib (Redux) changes which means as you type in the input.
APIHooksComponent (RenderProps, Form, Field) + HooksComponent (RenderProps, Form, Field)
Package sizeSmall [email protected] 8KBMedium [email protected] 15KBLarge [email protected] 26.4KB
ValidationBuilt-in, Yup, Zod, Joi, Superstruct and build your own.Build yourself or YupBuild yourself or Plugins
Learning curveLow to MediumMediumMedium
No. of mountsOnly requires mounting the formIt mounts the form, some additional components, and uses a special component for fieldsIt mounts the form, some additional components, and uses a special component for fields
No. of committing changes1617
Total mounting times1800ms2070ms2380ms
  • Installation:-

    • npm install react-hook-form

Basic Form Creation Using react-hook-form:-

A useForm hook is provided by the react-hook-form library, which allows us to work with forms.

  • You can import the useForm hook like this:
    • import { useForm } from ‘react-hook-form’;
  • The useForm hook is used as follows:
    • const { register, handleSubmit, errors } = useForm();
      Here,

      • Register fields:-
        • Using the, one of the key concepts is registering your uncontrolled component in the hook. This will make its value available for form validation and submission.
      • Handle Submit:-
        • When the form is submitted, we can call handle to submit.
      • Errors:-
        • If any validation errors occurred, they will be in the errors.
  • Apply validation:
    • It aligns with the existing HTML standard for form validation, making form validation easy.
  • Here is a list of the validation rules that are supported:
    • required
    • min
    • max
    • minLength
    • maxLength
    • pattern
    • validate
  • Code:
  • import React from "react";
                        import ReactDOM from "react-dom";
                        import { useForm } from "react-hook-form";
                        import "./styles.css";
                
                        function App() {
                        const {
                            register,
                            handleSubmit,
                            watch,
                            formState: { errors }
                        } = useForm();
                
                        const onSubmit = (data) => {
                            alert(JSON.stringify(data));
                        }; 
                
                        // your form submit function which will invoke after successful validation
                            console.log(watch("example"));
                
                        // you can watch individual input by pass the name of the input
                        return (
                        <form onSubmit={handleSubmit(onSubmit)}>
                        <label>First Name</label>
                        <input
                        {...register("firstName", {
                            required: true,
                            maxLength: 20,
                            pattern: /^[A-Za-z]+$/i
                        })}
                        />
                        {errors?.firstName?.type === "required" && <p>This field is required</p>}
                        {errors?.firstName?.type === "maxLength" && (
                        <p>First name cannot exceed 20 characters</p>
                        )}
                        {errors?.firstName?.type === "pattern" && (
                        <p>Alphabetical characters only</p>
                        )}
                        <label>Laste Name</label>
                        <input {...register("lastName", { pattern: /^[A-Za-z]+$/i })} />
                        {errors?.lastName?.type === "pattern" && (
                        <p>Alphabetical characters only</p>
                        )}
                        <label>Age</label>a
                        <input {...register("age", { min: 18, max: 99 })} />
                        {errors.age && (
                        <p>You Must be older then 18 and younger then 99 years old</p>
                        )}
                        <input type="submit" />
                        </form>
                        );
                        }
                        const rootElement = document.getElementById("root");
                        ReactDOM.render(<App />, rootElement);

React-hook-form

formik

redux form

Conclusion

In conclusion, React hook form proves itself as a remarkable contender in the world of form libraries, boasting a set of distinct advantages that set it apart from its competitors. Additionally, The library’s lightweight nature, efficient performance, and easy-to-use API make it an attractive option for developers seeking to streamline their form-building process. Furthermore, they will not need to get stuck in the development of complex apps because the process will be simple after considering it.

In addition, by harnessing the power of React hook form, developers can enjoy the convenience of simpler syntax, reduced boilerplate code, and enhanced validation capabilities. The library’s emphasis on reactivity and uncontrolled parts. Further, it boosts its appeal, allowing for easy integration into various projects.

FAQ

React hook form offers the advantage of isolating input components from one another, preventing the entire form from re-rendering when a single input changes. Avoiding unnecessary re-rendering improves performance, distinguishing it from Formik, where every change in any input field triggers an update.

React hook form would be the preferable choice if you seek a lightweight and efficient solution for form validation and management. However, if you require a more comprehensive and flexible solution that includes form rendering and layout support, Formik might be a better fit.

Using Hooks enhances React by enabling more straightforward code implementation to achieve similar functionalities with incredible speed and effectiveness. Furthermore, Hooks allow you to employ React state and lifecycle methods without writing classes.

An RTK Query in Redux Toolkit is a powerful data fetching solution. It simplifies API calls by providing auto-generated, efficient, and normalized Redux slices. It abstracts away many complexities of data management, making it easier to handle remote data in Redux stores, enhancing development productivity.

Hooks present the advantage of using local state and other React features without requiring class-based syntax. These special functions allow you to quickly “hook onto” React state and lifecycle features within functional components, streamlining the development process.