react-router vs react-router-dom: What are the differences?

Introduction

When working with React applications that involve routing, developers often come across two popular libraries: react-router and react-router-dom. While both these libraries serve the same purpose of handling routing in React applications, there are subtle differences between them that can impact how you structure your routes and components.

1. Importing: One key difference between react-router and react-router-dom is how they are imported in your project. The react-router package is the core routing library and should be used in your application logic, while react-router-dom provides DOM bindings for React Router and should be used in your components.

2. BrowserRouter vs. HashRouter: In react-router, the BrowserRouter is used for handling routing with the browser's history API, while in react-router-dom, the HashRouter is utilized for routes that use the hash portion of the URL. This can affect how your routes are rendered and accessed based on the browser's capabilities.

3. Route components: Another difference lies in how you define your routes using Route components. With react-router, you have access to more low-level route components such as Route, Switch, and Redirect. In contrast, react-router-dom provides higher-level components like Route and Switch that are more tailored for browser applications.

4. Link component: The Link component in react-router-dom is used to navigate to different routes in your application. This is a key difference from react-router, where the Link component is not present, making it necessary to use the NavLink component for navigation functionality.

5. MemoryRouter: react-router-dom includes the MemoryRouter component, which is not present in react-router. This component allows you to keep the history of your routes in memory without affecting the browser's URL. It can be useful for testing and scenarios where you don't want to change the actual URL.

6. Installation: A significant difference between react-router and react-router-dom is how you install them in your project. While react-router-dom is typically installed along with react-router, you only need to install react-router-dom to use its functionalities, as it includes everything from the react-router package.

In Summary, react-router and react-router-dom offer similar functionalities for routing in React applications, but differ in aspects such as import methods, route components, navigation mechanisms, and additional features like MemoryRouter. Understanding these differences can help you choose the right library based on your project requirements.