Building a Dashboard with React, Recharts, and TanStack Table

Dashboards are a common requirement in modern web applications. They combine data visualization, tabular data, and interactive UI into a single screen. However, many dashboards fail because they mix concerns, re-render too often, or become hard to extend.

A solid React dashboard usually relies on:

• Charts for trends and summaries
• Tables for detailed data exploration
• Clear state boundaries for performance

In this guide, you’ll learn how to build a scalable React dashboard using Recharts for charts and TanStack Table for powerful data tables, while keeping performance and maintainability in mind.

Why This Stack Works Well Together

React, Recharts, and TanStack Table each solve a specific problem.

• React handles UI composition and state
• Recharts focuses on declarative chart rendering
• TanStack Table handles complex table logic without UI lock-in

Because each tool stays focused, the overall architecture remains clean. This separation mirrors the principles discussed in Clean Code in Flutter, where responsibilities are clearly defined.

Dashboard Architecture Overview

Before writing code, decide how data flows.

A common and effective structure looks like this:

• Fetch server data on the server or via a data layer
• Pass normalized data to dashboard widgets
• Keep charts and tables stateless where possible

If your app uses modern React patterns, server-first data loading can simplify dashboards significantly, as explained in React Server Components Explained.

Setting Up the Project

You can use any React setup, but dashboards often benefit from Next.js due to routing and data fetching. If you’re using Next.js, make sure you understand the differences described in Next.js App Router vs Pages Router: Migration Guide.

Install the required libraries:

npm install recharts @tanstack/react-table

Recharts provides chart components, while TanStack Table gives you a headless table engine.

Building Charts with Recharts

Recharts uses a declarative API that maps data directly to visuals.

Basic Line Chart Example

import { LineChart, Line, XAxis, YAxis, Tooltip } from "recharts";

export function RevenueChart({ data }) {
  return (
    <LineChart width={600} height={300} data={data}>
      <XAxis dataKey="date" />
      <YAxis />
      <Tooltip />
      <Line type="monotone" dataKey="revenue" stroke="#4f46e5" />
    </LineChart>
  );
}

This approach keeps charts readable and easy to extend.

The official Recharts documentation emphasizes composability, which makes it simple to add legends, multiple series, or responsive containers.

Performance Tips for Charts

To avoid unnecessary re-renders:

• Memoize chart components when data changes infrequently
• Pre-format data outside render functions
• Avoid inline object creation

These ideas align with the optimization strategies explained in React Performance Optimization: memo, useMemo, useCallback Explained.

Creating Tables with TanStack Table

TanStack Table (formerly React Table) is headless. It gives you logic, not UI.

Defining Columns

import { ColumnDef } from "@tanstack/react-table";

export const columns: ColumnDef<User>[] = [
  {
    accessorKey: "name",
    header: "Name",
  },
  {
    accessorKey: "email",
    header: "Email",
  },
  {
    accessorKey: "role",
    header: "Role",
  },
];

This separation lets you fully control rendering while keeping table behavior consistent.

The TanStack Table docs explain how sorting, filtering, and pagination work internally.

Rendering the Table

import { useReactTable, getCoreRowModel } from "@tanstack/react-table";

export function UsersTable({ data, columns }) {
  const table = useReactTable({
    data,
    columns,
    getCoreRowModel: getCoreRowModel(),
  });

  return (
    <table>
      <thead>
        {table.getHeaderGroups().map(headerGroup => (
          <tr key={headerGroup.id}>
            {headerGroup.headers.map(header => (
              <th key={header.id}>{header.column.columnDef.header}</th>
            ))}
          </tr>
        ))}
      </thead>
      <tbody>
        {table.getRowModel().rows.map(row => (
          <tr key={row.id}>
            {row.getVisibleCells().map(cell => (
              <td key={cell.id}>{cell.renderValue()}</td>
            ))}
          </tr>
        ))}
      </tbody>
    </table>
  );
}

Although verbose, this approach gives you full control over layout and styling.

Managing Dashboard State

Dashboards often include:

• Filters
• Date ranges
• Pagination
• Sorting

Avoid placing all of this in a single global store. Instead:

• Keep local UI state close to components
• Share state only when necessary
• Treat server data separately

This matches the guidance in State Management in React 2026.

Handling Server Data

Dashboards usually display server-driven data. Best practices include:

• Fetching data once per view
• Normalizing data before rendering
• Avoiding duplicate client-side caches

If you’re building a full-stack app, pairing dashboards with server-side data loading simplifies logic, similar to the approach described in Server Actions in Next.js: Full-Stack Without an API.

Layout and Responsiveness

A good dashboard layout:

• Uses grids instead of fixed widths
• Adapts charts to container size
• Keeps tables scrollable without breaking layout

For responsive layouts, CSS Grid or utility-first CSS works well. Many teams combine dashboards with utility frameworks, following ideas similar to those in Tailwind CSS Best Practices for React and Next.js Projects.

Common Mistakes

Avoid these issues:

• Re-fetching data on every interaction
• Rendering charts inside deeply nested components
• Storing derived values in state
• Mixing table logic with UI concerns

These mistakes often cause performance problems and make dashboards hard to extend.

When This Stack Is a Good Fit

React + Recharts + TanStack Table works best when:

• You need interactive analytics
• Data structure is moderately complex
• Custom UI matters
• Performance and control are priorities

For simple dashboards, this stack may feel heavy. However, for long-lived products, the flexibility pays off.

Conclusion

Building a dashboard with React, Recharts, and TanStack Table gives you a powerful and flexible foundation. Each tool focuses on a single responsibility, which keeps your codebase clean and scalable.

By:

• Separating charts and tables
• Managing state intentionally
• Optimizing rendering paths

You can build dashboards that remain fast, readable, and easy to evolve as requirements grow.

This approach aligns well with modern React architecture in 2026 and prepares your application for real-world scale.