Jotai and nanostores are both atomic state management libraries that break state into small, independent units rather than maintaining a single global store. Jotai is a React-focused library inspired by Recoil, offering 2kb of composable primitives with advanced features like async atoms and derived state. Nanostores is an ultra-minimal (286 bytes) framework-agnostic solution designed to work across React, Vue, Svelte, and Preact with a simpler API surface.
This comparison matters because choosing between them affects your bundle size, developer experience, and architectural flexibility. Jotai targets React developers who want a powerful, flexible state solution with strong community support and don't mind a slightly larger footprint. Nanostores appeals to developers working in multi-framework environments (especially meta-frameworks like Astro), or those building size-critical applications where every byte counts.
Choose Jotai if you're building a React application where you need sophisticated state management with async support, complex derived state, or intricate state dependencies. The 2kb cost is justified by its composability, excellent React integration, strong community support, and developer experience. Jotai is the better choice for applications that will grow in complexity or need advanced features like Suspense integration and write-only atoms. Its larger ecosystem and active development make it a safer long-term bet for React projects.
Choose nanostores if bundle size is critical, you're working in a multi-framework environment, or your state management needs are straightforward. The 286-byte footprint makes it ideal for performance-critical applications, micro-frontends, or Astro projects where you need to share state between React and Vue components. Nanostores is also the right choice when you want something simple that doesn't require learning React-specific patterns or when you're building a library that needs framework-agnostic state. However, for React-only projects with moderate complexity, Jotai's additional 1.7kb provides significantly more value.