Well, useRef is a hook in React for functional components. It has function that provides a mutable reference to a DOM element. Creating a ref without useRef just uses the React.createRef() method. The typical difference between them is that we normal use useRef hook for the functional component and the Creating a ref without useRef for the class component. And the second difference is that createRef method creates a new ref object each time the component re-renders but the useRef hook only returns the same ref object through the component's lifecycle so doesn't need the re-render. I think the benefit of useRef is that it can have any mutable value without causing a re-renders unlike the createRef method.