Jotai and Recoil are both atomic state management libraries for React, designed to solve similar problems: fine-grained reactivity, minimal re-renders, and manageable derived state. Jotai emerged from the React community as a minimalist alternative inspired by Recoil's atomic model, prioritizing simplicity and bundle size. Recoil, developed by Facebook, introduced the atomic state concept to React with built-in features for complex scenarios like time-travel debugging and intricate dependency graphs.
This comparison matters because both libraries compete directly in the atomic state space, yet they take fundamentally different approaches to API design, bundle optimization, and developer experience. Jotai targets teams that value simplicity, small bundles, and TypeScript-first development, making it ideal for modern React applications where performance and maintainability are priorities. Recoil appeals to projects already invested in Facebook's ecosystem or those requiring advanced features like built-in persistence and complex async coordination, despite the tradeoff in complexity and size.
Choose Jotai for the majority of modern React applications. Its combination of minimal bundle size, superior performance, simpler API, and excellent TypeScript support makes it the practical choice for teams building production applications in 2025. The 90% smaller bundle and nearly 2x faster re-renders provide measurable improvements without sacrificing capabilities through its modular integration system. Unless you specifically need Recoil's built-in advanced features, Jotai's minimalist approach reduces cognitive load and maintenance burden while delivering better performance.
Choose Recoil only if you have specific requirements for its built-in advanced features like native time-travel debugging or are deeply integrated with Facebook's tooling ecosystem. If your application absolutely requires complex async dependency graphs with built-in coordination that Recoil handles natively, the bundle size tradeoff may be justified. However, for most teams—especially those prioritizing bundle size, performance, or developer experience—Jotai's simpler mental model and superior metrics make it the clear winner in 2025's atomic state landscape.