Which Architecture Is Best for React JS?

Building a scalable React application isn’t only about choosing the right libraries—it’s about selecting an architectural pattern that helps manage complexity, supports collaboration, and allows the codebase to evolve without breaking. As the app grows, poorly organized architecture quickly reveals its limitations. The real challenge is deciding which architecture fits the needs of the project and offers long-term sustainability while still allowing short-term speed.

Component-Based Structure

At the heart of every React project is the component model. However, relying on a flat component folder becomes chaotic over time. A well-structured component-based architecture involves grouping related components together by feature, not by type. This means combining the UI, logic, styles, and tests of a single feature in one place.

Consider the difference:

By type (not scalable):

components/
  Button/
  Modal/
  Navbar/
pages/
  Home/
  Product/

By feature (scalable):

features/
  cart/
    Cart.tsx
    cartSlice.ts
    Cart.test.tsx
    Cart.styles.ts
  auth/
    Login.tsx
    authService.ts
    useLogin.ts

This folder structure creates clear boundaries, improves reusability, and simplifies onboarding for new developers. It naturally aligns with domain-driven design, where each feature owns its logic and doesn’t depend on global folders.

Layered Architecture

Separating the app into layers helps reduce coupling between concerns. React itself only handles the view, so everything else—state management, API integration, data transformation—must be layered intentionally. The typical layers include:

• Presentation Layer: UI components (dumb or stateless components)
• Container Layer: Hooks, logic, and data fetching
• Domain Layer: Business rules and models
• Infrastructure Layer: Services and API interaction

For example, instead of fetching data directly inside a component, the flow looks like:

Product.tsx → useProduct() → productService → fetchProduct()

This design improves testability, separates responsibilities, and allows developers to swap layers without breaking the app. When the backend changes, only the service layer is updated. When business logic evolves, the domain layer adjusts without touching UI.

Feature-Sliced Design

An emerging pattern that aligns well with React’s flexibility is feature-sliced design. This architecture introduces concepts like entities, features, shared, and pages. Each layer has a clear responsibility, and components access only what they need.

Example folder structure:

src/
  app/
  pages/
  features/
    add-to-cart/
    login/
  entities/
    user/
    product/
  shared/
    ui/
    hooks/
    utils/

This approach improves code ownership, makes dependency rules clear, and prevents cross-layer leakage. It also reduces merge conflicts in teams by enforcing local scopes for each domain.

The strength of this model is how it guides boundaries. UI libraries stay in shared, API logic remains within entities, and no component directly reaches across features or pages without passing through a clearly defined hook or interface.

Context-Driven Architecture

Context becomes a powerful architectural element when scoped properly. In larger apps, managing state globally without Redux or Zustand is feasible by dividing the app into multiple providers. But the key is designing contexts around domains, not components.

A well-structured context architecture includes:

• Custom hooks like useAuth, useCart, useTheme
• Context value objects that encapsulate both state and methods
• Separation of concerns between read and write operations

This pattern works best when combined with a modular design and is suitable for apps where business logic doesn’t require normalized data or complex caching strategies. Several apps built with context-first design have proven stable and maintainable when the logic is scoped correctly.

For instance, the entire modal behavior of a multi-feature app can be centralized under one modal context without cluttering individual components with useState.

API Layer Isolation

Creating a dedicated API layer helps abstract third-party or backend logic from the rest of the app. Instead of calling fetch or axios directly inside hooks, a clean API service isolates that concern.

// productService.ts
export async function fetchProduct(id: string) {
  const res = await api.get(`/products/${id}`);
  return res.data;
}

This means:

• Swapping out axios or adding auth headers happens in one place
• Errors and retries are handled centrally
• Testing the UI doesn’t require real API calls

Libraries like React Query further enhance this architecture with built-in caching, invalidation, and request deduplication, all of which align well with the isolated service pattern.

State Management Layer

When the app grows beyond local state and simple context, introducing a state layer becomes necessary. This can be handled through:

• Redux Toolkit for predictable, structured state
• Zustand for minimal, reactive global state
• React Query for asynchronous, cache-first server state

Mixing these layers carefully often yields the best results. For example:

• Use Zustand for local global state like UI preferences
• Use React Query for API state and remote caching
• Avoid Redux unless advanced middleware or dev tooling is necessary

Having this clarity from the start prevents state chaos and enforces the principle of using the right tool for the right job.

Routing Strategy

Routing defines how users move through the app, and structuring it poorly leads to tangled logic. A good architectural choice is colocating route files with the page they render. If using frameworks like Next.js or Remix, this is enforced. But in client-side apps using React Router, this needs to be done intentionally.

An effective pattern includes:

• A top-level routes.ts config for defining paths
• Page components located in pages/ folder
• Lazy-loading pages using React.lazy or loadable()

When building internal tools or admin dashboards, consider nested routing patterns to allow layout reuse and scoped navigation logic.

Testing Architecture

A great architecture is incomplete without a testing strategy that fits naturally. Writing tests becomes easier when business logic is isolated from UI and each layer can be tested independently.

Recommended approach:

• Unit Tests for services and hooks
• Component Tests for isolated UI
• Integration Tests for context or feature slices
• E2E Tests for full app flows

This layered testing design reflects the app’s architecture. A well-structured app should allow any feature to be tested without bootstrapping unrelated logic.

Conclusion

The best architecture for React JS depends on the scale, team size, and long-term goals of the project. However, common threads emerge across successful applications: feature-based organization, separation of concerns, scoped context, isolated API layers, and intentional state boundaries. Combining these patterns leads to clarity, maintainability, and flexibility. The architecture should serve the team—not the other way around—and evolve alongside the needs of the application.