The best router for React is React Router.

It has been the de facto standard for routing in a React for many years - almost as old as React itself.

It has gone through many evolutions over its lifetime, with its API seeing many breaking changes between major version upgrades, but through it all it has remained the best option when you want to have routing in your React app.

And let's face it, most apps need routing.

What is a router?

A router allows your application to match URLs to components. When a user goes to the /about URL they see your AboutPage component.

Further, a router provides components that makes it easy to link to different parts of your application without refreshing the page.

Vanilla anchor tags will create a full page refresh as your application navigates to a different URL that is ultimately delivered by your server.

However a client-side router will provide tools and components to override that default behavior and ensure that all navigation within your React application remains in the browser and refresh free.

That is one of the key advantages to client-side routing and single-page-apps. No page refreshes. Everything feels fast and instantaneous.

Why are there no other options besides React Router?

Great question! I wish I had a decisive answer for you.

The simple answer is probably the right answer: making a router is hard and react router has been beyond good enough.