react-router vs react-router-dom, when to use one or the other?

If you've worked with routing in React, you've probably come across both react-router and react-router-dom. They might seem interchangeable at first, but they serve different purposes in the React ecosystem.

 1. react-router – The Core Library

• This is the base package that provides the core routing logic and components like Routes, Route, Navigate, etc.
  
• It’s not tied to any specific platform (like the web or mobile).
  
• You usually don’t install or import this directly in a typical web app—react-router-dom depends on it.
  

 2. react-router-dom – For Web Applications

• This package extends react-router and adds DOM-specific features like BrowserRouter, Link, and useNavigate.
  
• It’s what you should install and use for building web-based React apps.

  npm install react-router-dom

 3. What about mobile or native?

If you're building a React Native app, you'd use react-router-native instead of react-router-dom.

 When to Use What

• Web app? Use react-router-dom.
  
• Custom or shared routing logic (like in a library)? You might depend only on react-router.
  
• React Native app? Use react-router-native.
  

So in short, think of react-router as the brains of the routing system, and react-router-dom as the web-specific interface. Most web projects only need to interact with react-router-dom.