When building a React application, the term “grid” can mean several different things.
Sometimes you need a grid to organize the page. Other times, you need users to drag and resize dashboard panels. And for data-heavy applications, you may actually need a data grid with sorting, filtering, editing, pagination, and virtualization.
These are different problems, and choosing the wrong type of grid can make an application unnecessarily complicated.
CSS Grid vs React Grid Layout vs Data Grids
For basic page structure, CSS Grid is usually enough. It works well for layouts such as:
- Headers and sidebars
- Responsive content sections
- Card layouts
- Dashboard containers
- Rows and columns
You don't necessarily need a JavaScript library for these cases.
The situation changes when you want users to customize a dashboard.
React Grid Layout for interactive dashboards
React Grid Layout is useful when dashboard widgets need to be dragged, resized, or rearranged.
For example, imagine an analytics dashboard containing:
- Revenue charts
- User statistics
- Activity feeds
- Tables
- Notifications
A user might want to move the revenue chart to the top or resize a table to show more information.
React Grid Layout is designed for this type of panel-based interface. It provides a grid system where layouts can also be serialized and persisted.
One important distinction, though: React Grid Layout isn't a data grid.
It manages the layout of components rather than the data displayed inside those components.
Where data grids fit
A data grid solves a different problem.
If you're displaying thousands of records and users need to sort, filter, edit, paginate, or interact with the data, a dedicated JavaScript data grid is generally more appropriate.
For example:
Dashboard
├── KPI Card
├── Sales Chart
├── React Grid Layout
│ ├── Data Grid
│ ├── Activity Feed
│ └── Chart
└── Notifications
Here, React Grid Layout controls where the components appear.
The data grid handles the actual tabular data.
This separation makes the architecture easier to reason about.
Can React Grid Layout and a data grid be used together?
Yes.
In fact, this can be a useful approach for enterprise dashboards.
The outer layer can manage the dashboard layout, while individual panels contain specialized components for data visualization and interaction.
For applications that need a broader collection of enterprise UI components, another option is ReExt, which brings Sencha Ext JS components into React. The article describes it as providing data grids, charts, forms, layout components, and a shared data-store system within React.
Choosing the right approach
I'd think about it this way:
Need page structure?
Start with CSS Grid.
Need draggable and resizable dashboard panels?
Consider React Grid Layout.
Need a powerful table for large datasets?
Use a dedicated data-grid library.
Need a complete enterprise UI component ecosystem inside React?
Look at solutions such as ReExt.
The important part is not finding one library that does everything. It's understanding which layer of the UI you're actually trying to solve.
A practical example
Suppose you're building an operations dashboard.
You might have:
- A responsive CSS Grid for the overall page
- React Grid Layout for customizable dashboard panels
- A data grid for shipment records
- Charts for performance metrics
- Forms for updating records
Trying to make one tool responsible for all of these concerns can create unnecessary complexity.
Keeping layout, data presentation, and application data as separate concerns usually makes the application easier to maintain.
Final thought
When someone says they need a “React grid,” I'd first ask:
What kind of grid?
A page layout, a draggable dashboard layout, or a data grid?
That one distinction can significantly change which technology makes sense for the project.
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