Styling Approach
- tailwindcss:
tailwindcsstakes a utility-first approach, providing a comprehensive set of pre-defined classes for styling. Instead of writing custom CSS, you compose styles using these utility classes directly in your HTML or JSX. - @emotion/styled:
@emotion/styleduses a CSS-in-JS approach, allowing you to write styles directly in your JavaScript files. It supports dynamic styling based on props and provides powerful theming capabilities. - styled-components:
styled-componentsis a popular CSS-in-JS library that enables you to create styled React components with ease. It scopes styles to components, preventing global style conflicts and supports theming and dynamic styles. - @material-ui/styles:
@material-ui/styles(now part of MUI) also follows the CSS-in-JS paradigm, integrating seamlessly with Material Design components. It emphasizes theming and provides a consistent styling solution across your application.
Theming Support
- tailwindcss:
tailwindcsssupports theming through configuration, allowing you to customize colors, spacing, and other design tokens. While it doesn’t have a built-in theming system like CSS-in-JS libraries, you can create themes by extending the default configuration. - @emotion/styled:
@emotion/styledoffers robust theming support, allowing you to define a theme and access it within your styled components. It supports dynamic theming, making it easy to switch themes at runtime. - styled-components:
styled-componentsincludes a powerful theming API that lets you define a theme and use it in your styled components. It supports nested theming and provides aThemeProvidercomponent to make the theme accessible throughout your app. - @material-ui/styles:
@material-ui/stylesprovides built-in theming capabilities that align with Material Design principles. You can create a theme object and use it throughout your application, ensuring consistent styling across all components.
Dynamic Styling
- tailwindcss:
tailwindcssdoes not support dynamic styling out of the box, as it relies on pre-defined utility classes. However, you can achieve dynamic styles by conditionally applying classes or using a library likeclassnamesto manage class names based on component state. - @emotion/styled:
@emotion/styledallows for dynamic styling based on component props, enabling you to change styles conditionally. This feature is particularly useful for creating reusable components with flexible styles. - styled-components:
styled-componentsexcels at dynamic styling, allowing you to pass props to styled components and change their styles accordingly. This feature promotes reusability and makes it easy to create components with varying styles. - @material-ui/styles:
@material-ui/stylessupports dynamic styling by leveraging thestyledAPI andmakeStyleshook. You can create styles that change based on props, providing flexibility while maintaining a consistent design language.
Bundle Size
- tailwindcss:
tailwindcssis highly efficient in terms of bundle size, especially when using PurgeCSS to remove unused styles. The utility-first approach means you only include the styles you use, resulting in a smaller CSS file. - @emotion/styled:
@emotion/styledis designed for performance and tree-shaking, resulting in a relatively small bundle size compared to other CSS-in-JS libraries, especially when used with only the features you need. - styled-components:
styled-componentshas a larger bundle size compared to some other CSS-in-JS libraries due to its feature-rich nature. However, it supports tree-shaking and code splitting, which can help mitigate the impact on performance. - @material-ui/styles:
@material-ui/styleshas a moderate impact on bundle size, but it is optimized for tree-shaking, allowing you to import only the components and styles you need, which helps keep the bundle size manageable.
Ease of Use: Code Examples
- tailwindcss:
Dynamic styling with
tailwindcssimport React from 'react'; const Button = ({ primary }) => ( <button className={` ${primary ? 'bg-blue-500' : 'bg-gray-300'} text-white py-2 px-4 rounded transition duration-300 ease-in-out hover:opacity-80 `} > {primary ? 'Primary Button' : 'Secondary Button'} </button> ); const App = () => { return ( <div className="flex space-x-4"> <Button primary /> <Button /> </div> ); }; export default App; - @emotion/styled:
Dynamic styling with
@emotion/styled/** @jsxImportSource @emotion/react */ import { css } from '@emotion/react'; import styled from '@emotion/styled'; const Button = styled.button` background-color: blue; color: white; padding: 10px; border: none; border-radius: 5px; cursor: pointer; // Dynamic styling based on props background-color: ${props => (props.primary ? 'blue' : 'gray')}; `; const App = () => { return ( <div> <Button primary>Primary Button</Button> <Button>Secondary Button</Button> </div> ); }; export default App; - styled-components:
Dynamic styling with
styled-componentsimport styled from 'styled-components'; const Button = styled.button` background-color: ${props => (props.primary ? 'blue' : 'gray')}; color: white; padding: 10px 20px; border: none; border-radius: 5px; cursor: pointer; `; const App = () => { return ( <div> <Button primary>Primary Button</Button> <Button>Secondary Button</Button> </div> ); }; export default App; - @material-ui/styles:
Dynamic styling with
@material-ui/stylesimport React from 'react'; import { styled } from '@mui/material/styles'; const Button = styled('button')(({ theme, primary }) => ({ backgroundColor: primary ? theme.palette.primary.main : theme.palette.grey[300], color: primary ? theme.palette.primary.contrastText : theme.palette.text.primary, padding: '10px 20px', border: 'none', borderRadius: '5px', cursor: 'pointer', })); const App = () => { return ( <div> <Button primary>Primary Button</Button> <Button>Secondary Button</Button> </div> ); }; export default App;
