The addition of the useActionState hook in React 18.2 introduced a more streamlined way to manage form submissions. It enables developers to build cleaner forms with native form behaviors, integrated async logic, and fewer manual event handlers. While it’s powerful and aligns well with modern frameworks like Next.js App Router, it is not the right tool for every scenario.
In this blog, we’ll explore when useActionState is not the best choice for your application. Knowing when to avoid it is just as important as knowing when to use it. Understanding its trade-offs will help you write more maintainable and efficient React code.
You Need Real-Time Input Control
One of the biggest limitations of useActionState is that it only handles state updates after a form is submitted. If your form requires live feedback, inline validation, auto-complete, or any interaction that depends on immediate changes to input values, you’re better off using useState or useReducer.
For example, if you want to disable a button as a user types until the input is valid, or show suggestions as a user types in a search bar, useActionState won’t be useful. It doesn’t help with onChange handlers or real-time state updates.
You Are Building Multi-Step Forms
Multi-step forms often rely on persistent state across multiple steps. You need to store and transition between different stages, track completion of steps, and possibly allow users to navigate back and forth. These transitions happen independent of form submissions, and useActionState doesn’t offer a natural way to manage that kind of interaction.
While it’s possible to keep step-related state inside the same reducer passed to useActionState, the form-based submission model becomes cumbersome. Managing step logic with useReducer or a finite state machine is a much better choice for this pattern.
Your Form Has Complex Controlled Inputs
In many real-world applications, forms include inputs like dynamic dropdowns, toggles, grouped checkboxes, conditional rendering based on values, or dependent fields. Managing these scenarios often requires fine-grained control over each field’s value and interdependencies.
Controlled components with immediate feedback become difficult to manage when using useActionState, since this hook only reacts to the final submission, not to intermediate state changes. It becomes less ergonomic when every field needs to update independently.
You Need Access to Form Values Outside Submissions
Sometimes you need to use form values before the form is submitted. For example, you might use the values to fetch related data, validate across inputs in real-time, or change UI based on what the user has typed. In such cases, you must rely on state hooks or form libraries that expose form values reactively. useActionState doesn’t store form field values until a form is submitted, so it can’t be used to observe value changes as they happen.
You Want Custom Validation on Blur or Change
Many form UX patterns involve validation on blur (when a user leaves an input) or on change (as the user types). This is useful for showing field-specific errors without requiring the user to submit the entire form. useActionState only executes when the form is submitted, so any validation tied to onBlur or onChange needs to be handled separately. This creates an awkward split in form logic, with some in useActionState and some handled manually, which undermines the simplicity that the hook is supposed to provide.
You Need Precise Control Over Submission Triggers
In some applications, form submissions don’t follow the native HTML pattern. Maybe a button outside the form triggers submission, or you want to submit a section of the form without refreshing or rerendering others. These advanced patterns often require programmatic submission or non-standard triggers. Since useActionState depends on the native form action behavior, it restricts how flexibly you can trigger submissions.
You Are Not Using Server Actions or Form-Based Routing
useActionState shines in projects that align with React’s future direction—like server actions in Next.js. If your project doesn’t use server actions or you aren’t leveraging native forms, the advantages of useActionState may be minimal. For purely client-side forms where everything stays on the frontend, traditional state management patterns are usually simpler and more explicit.
Your App Requires Optimistic UI Updates
If you’re building an application that updates the UI immediately while waiting for the server response, such as a todo app that shows the new item before confirmation, useActionState doesn’t support optimistic updates easily. With useReducer or custom logic using useState, you can push updates to the UI instantly and roll them back on error. useActionState follows a synchronous pattern and returns state after submission, making optimistic updates harder to implement.
You Want to Reuse Logic Outside of Forms
If your reducer logic is meant to be shared across different parts of your application, like updating global state or triggering multiple side effects unrelated to form submissions, embedding that logic inside a useActionState reducer might not be ideal. Instead, you can use useReducer or context-based state management that allows reuse and abstraction of logic in a cleaner and more composable way.
The Developer Team Is More Comfortable with Established Patterns
Introducing a new hook like useActionState requires alignment within the team. If your teammates are more familiar with useState, useReducer, or a library like React Hook Form, then introducing a new form pattern may cause confusion or inconsistency. If your project is already heavily reliant on other form management systems, replacing them just to use a new hook might not be justified.
You Need to Support Older Browsers or React Versions
Since useActionState was introduced in React 18.2, using it in older projects not yet updated to this version is not possible. Similarly, if you aim to support legacy environments where native form behavior or server action support is limited, sticking with more established and compatible patterns is the safer path.
Final Thoughts
useActionState is a powerful addition to the React ecosystem, especially for declarative, server-friendly forms in modern applications. But like any tool, it has its limits. It’s not suitable for every use case, especially those involving real-time input handling, controlled components, non-standard submission flows, or complex state outside of form context.
Before choosing it, evaluate the specific needs of your form. If your form’s logic revolves around submission only, and you’re working within an environment that supports server actions, useActionState can simplify your code. But for everything else—from instant validations to dynamic fields and real-time updates—traditional state management approaches might still be the better option.
