Will React Hooks Replace Classes?

Question

Now that React finally has hooks, will this eventually be the new standard for creating components or will the need to create class components still exist?

I understand that at the moment hooks can not accomplish everything a class can. Such as, providing hooks to lifecycle methods for getSnapshotBeforeUpdate and componentDidCatch. However, the React team has said they plan on adding this functionality soon. They also mention that there are no plans to remove classes from React.

So when all lifecycle methods are supported is there any reason to create class components? Do classes still handle certain situations better than a functional component at this point?

Answer 1

I'm going to politely disagree with the comments above. Hooks are 100% the future of React. I'd highly recommend reading the Medium article that Dan Abramov wrote in October 2018. There is also a video at the top of the article of Dan Abramov delivering the keynote address at the last React Conf. In his address he introduces hooks for the first time. He adds towards the end of address that he does not recommend refactoring your old components immediately, but he does recommend using hooks moving forward (and this is when hooks were still an alpha release):

I ask you not to rewrite your whole apps in hooks...because personally I find that it takes a bit of a mind shift to start thinking in hooks, and it might be a bit confusing if you just try to take a class Component and convert it, but I do encourage you to try using hooks in some of the newer code that you're writing and let us know what you think.

He follows that with:

So, in our view hooks represent our vision of the future of React. But, they also represent the way we move React forward, and that is that we don't do big re-writes. And, that is that we want the new patterns that we like better to co-exist with the old patterns.

He discusses this in greater detail if you watch the whole thing. I believe the take away from this is that Facebook and Dan Abramov see hooks as the future of React (so do I, but my opinion doesn't matter). They see the patterns that emerge from hooks as significantly better than the patterns established by class Components. They also indicate that the reason they intend to maintain class Components is because they don't intend to re-write React or introduce breaking changes.

There is also less code bloat due to the use of stateful functions as opposed to extending classes. Hooks hook directly into the global application state maintained by the React framework, as opposed to maintaining it locally through an abstraction (which is why they're called hooks). Hooks promote code re-usability through custom hooks. Hooks allow us to monitor individual state without lifecycle methods and conditionals through useEffect. There are plenty of other benefits to using hooks over class Components, but I don't want to write a book here.

In addition to the benefits listed, and the praise from the Facebook team, I'd point to all of the third-party libraries that are adding support for hooks. The FAQ page you shared indicates that both Redux and React Router are planning on releasing support for hooks. In fact, the Redux maintainers have been excitedly discussing hooks since they were introduced to the public. And, Ryan Florence (the creator of React Router) spoke after Dan Abrimov at React Conf. He actually gave a greater endorsement for hooks:

Dan just said "don't re-write your apps in hooks". I think you should.

In addition to those, Material-UI version 4-alpha is out, and they have introduced hooks as well.

In summary, hooks are the future of React, and we should be using them. They are in stable release since React v16.8.0, and there is no reason not to predominantly use them moving forward.