Building Dynamic Multi-Step Forms in Next.js

Multi-step forms are notoriously difficult to build in React. Managing state across steps, validating before proceeding, and keeping the UI fast requires careful architecture.

In this tutorial, we explore how to use React Hook Form alongside Zustand to manage multi-step wizard state, and how to seamlessly post the final payload to a headless backend.

State Management Strategy

Avoid keeping all state in the parent component. By using a lightweight store like Zustand, each step component can independently read and write its specific fields. When the final step is reached, the store is flushed to the FormsIntel submission API.

Zod Validation on the Edge

By defining your schema in Zod, you can run identical validation on both the client side (before the step advances) and on the server side (via Next.js Server Actions) to ensure absolute data integrity.