Before jumping to state vs props we have to compare a React component with a javascript plain function. Let me define a React component & a plain javascript function side by side. class DummyComponent extends React.Component { render () { return <div>Hey</div> } } const DummyFunction = () => console.log('Hey') We defined a React component named DummyComponent and returned a div containing text Hey similarly, we defined a function named DummyFunction and output Hey to the console. Isn’t they look a lot similar ? they both generate the same output write Hey to the output the only difference between the two is the React component going to render a div with text Hey where the function going to output Hey on the console. So we now Know that React components are very similar to Plain Javascript functions. Let’s take a look at State . React Component State A state in React Component is its own local state, the state cannot be