Zustand vs Redux Toolkit: Which Do You Actually Need?

Zustand just passed Redux in weekly npm downloads. Not Redux Toolkit — the original redux package. The library that defined React state management for nearly a decade now has fewer weekly installs than a 1KB store with no providers. That's not a fluke. It's a signal. We put Zustand and Redux Toolkit head-to-head using real-time npm data from PkgPulse to figure out which one you actually need in 2026. Here's what the data says. At a Glance: The Numbers Metric Zustand Redux Toolkit Weekly Downloads ~20M ~10M Bundle Size (min+gzip) ~1.2KB (core) ~14KB (+react-redux) GitHub Stars 50K+ 11K (RTK) / 61K (Redux core) First Release 2019 2019 Current Version 5.x 2.x TypeScript Built-in Built-in License MIT MIT See the full live comparison — health scores, download trends, and more — at pkgpulse.com/compare/redux-vs-zustand The headline stat: Zustand's core is 12x smaller than Redux Toolkit. On a throttled 3G connection, that 13KB difference adds roughly 100ms to your initial load. For most apps,