React Data Fetching: Best Practices with TanStack, SWR & RTK Query

Fetching data in React is something every developer does, but the approach you take dramatically affects maintainability, performance, and developer experience.
Classic Approach: useEffect with Async/Await
A common pattern is using useEffect with async/await. It’s simple but quickly becomes limiting:
1import { useState, useEffect } from "react"; 2 3interface User { 4 id: number; 5 name:
Why This Becomes Problematic
- No caching: Every mount triggers a fetch.
- No automatic refetch: Changes on the server require manual updates.
- Error and loading states must be implemented repeatedly.
- Race conditions and memory leaks can occur if the component unmounts during a fetch.
- No built-in invalidation or synchronization across components.
For small demos this is fine. For production apps, it quickly becomes unmanageable.
Dedicated Libraries: The Better Approach
Dedicated libraries abstract away repetitive fetching logic and add caching, invalidation, background updates, and mutation support. Here’s a rundown of the main options.
1. TanStack Query (formerly React Query)
TanStack Query is a feature-rich solution for server state management:
1import { useQuery, useMutation, useQueryClient } from "@tanstack/react-query"; 2 3interface User { 4 id
Advanced Features:
- Cache invalidation: Automatically or manually invalidate queries after mutations.
- Background refetching: Keeps stale data fresh without blocking UI.
- Pagination & infinite scrolling: Out-of-the-box support.
- Optimistic updates: Update the UI before server confirmation.
- Stale-while-revalidate: Data is instantly available from cache, then updated in background.
2. SWR (Stale-While-Revalidate)
SWR is lightweight and focuses on simplicity:
1import useSWR from "swr"; 2 3interface User { 4 id: number; 5
Key SWR Features:
- Automatic caching and revalidation.
- Optimistic UI with
mutate(). - Focus tracking: refetches when the tab/window comes into focus.
- Lightweight compared to TanStack Query.
3. RTK Query (Redux Toolkit Query)
RTK Query is perfect if your project already uses Redux:
1// apiSlice.ts 2import { createApi, fetchBaseQuery } from "@reduxjs/toolkit/query/react"; 3 4interface User {
Why RTK Query is powerful:
- Generates hooks automatically from endpoints.
- Integrates directly with Redux store.
- Automatic cache invalidation with
invalidatesTags. - Built-in support for optimistic updates and polling.
Takeaways
useEffect+fetchworks for small apps but doesn’t scale.- Dedicated libraries handle caching, background refetching, invalidation, optimistic updates, and mutations.
- Choice of library depends on your project:
- TanStack Query: Full-featured, framework-agnostic.
- SWR: Lightweight, simple, excellent for Next.js.
- RTK Query: Best for projects already using Redux.
Switching from useEffect to a dedicated solution reduces boilerplate, makes your components simpler, and gives your users a faster, more consistent experience.
