styled-components vs @mui/material vs react-bootstrap vs react-virtualized vs react-grid-layout vs react-grid-system vs react-flexbox-grid
React UI Component Libraries Comparison
1 Year
styled-components@mui/materialreact-bootstrapreact-virtualizedreact-grid-layoutreact-grid-systemreact-flexbox-gridSimilar Packages:
What's React UI Component Libraries?

These libraries provide pre-built components and styling solutions for React applications, enabling developers to create responsive and visually appealing user interfaces efficiently. They each offer unique features and design philosophies that cater to different project needs, from grid layouts to styling methodologies, enhancing the development experience and user interaction.

Package Weekly Downloads Trend
Github Stars Ranking
Stat Detail
Package
Downloads
Stars
Size
Issues
Publish
License
styled-components6,019,25740,6771.66 MB31219 days agoMIT
@mui/material4,804,39794,8326.42 MB1,8376 days agoMIT
react-bootstrap1,156,38222,4901.48 MB209a month agoMIT
react-virtualized1,018,98126,6132.24 MB5a month agoMIT
react-grid-layout711,90620,858526 kB2295 months agoMIT
react-grid-system44,28882288.9 kB395 months agoMIT
react-flexbox-grid20,0202,935-617 years agoMIT
Feature Comparison: styled-components vs @mui/material vs react-bootstrap vs react-virtualized vs react-grid-layout vs react-grid-system vs react-flexbox-grid

Design Philosophy

  • styled-components:

    styled-components promotes a component-centric approach to styling, allowing developers to encapsulate styles within components. This philosophy enhances maintainability and readability of styles in large applications.

  • @mui/material:

    @mui/material is built around Material Design, providing a consistent and modern aesthetic across components. It emphasizes usability and accessibility, ensuring that applications are visually appealing and user-friendly.

  • react-bootstrap:

    react-bootstrap adheres to Bootstrap's design principles, focusing on simplicity and responsiveness. It allows developers to create visually consistent applications quickly by utilizing Bootstrap's established styles and components.

  • react-virtualized:

    react-virtualized is optimized for performance with large datasets, focusing on rendering efficiency and user experience. It provides tools for virtual scrolling and windowing, ensuring smooth interactions even with extensive data.

  • react-grid-layout:

    react-grid-layout is designed for dynamic and interactive layouts, enabling users to customize their UI by dragging and resizing components. It focuses on user experience and flexibility in layout management.

  • react-grid-system:

    react-grid-system provides a straightforward grid system that allows for responsive design without complexity. Its focus is on simplicity and ease of use, making it accessible for developers of all skill levels.

  • react-flexbox-grid:

    react-flexbox-grid leverages Flexbox for layout, promoting a flexible and responsive design approach. It is lightweight and minimalistic, making it easy to integrate without imposing a specific design language.

Component Variety

  • styled-components:

    styled-components allows for the creation of styled components, enabling developers to design custom UI elements while maintaining a clean separation of styles.

  • @mui/material:

    @mui/material offers a wide range of components, from basic UI elements to complex data display components, making it suitable for diverse application needs.

  • react-bootstrap:

    react-bootstrap provides a comprehensive set of Bootstrap components, covering most UI requirements, including forms, buttons, modals, and navigation elements.

  • react-virtualized:

    react-virtualized focuses on performance-oriented components for lists and tables, providing specialized components for efficient data handling rather than a broad range of UI elements.

  • react-grid-layout:

    react-grid-layout specializes in grid-based layouts, offering components that support drag-and-drop functionality and customizable layouts for dashboards.

  • react-grid-system:

    react-grid-system provides a robust grid system but fewer UI components, making it ideal for projects that need layout management without additional UI complexity.

  • react-flexbox-grid:

    react-flexbox-grid focuses primarily on layout components, providing a lightweight solution for responsive design without extensive UI elements.

Performance Optimization

  • styled-components:

    styled-components can impact performance if not used carefully, but it allows for dynamic styling and scoped styles, which can enhance maintainability and reduce CSS conflicts.

  • @mui/material:

    @mui/material components are optimized for performance with built-in accessibility features, ensuring that applications run smoothly while adhering to best practices.

  • react-bootstrap:

    react-bootstrap is lightweight and leverages Bootstrap's efficient CSS, ensuring fast load times and responsive behavior without compromising on design.

  • react-virtualized:

    react-virtualized excels in performance by only rendering visible items, significantly improving rendering times for large lists and tables, making it ideal for data-heavy applications.

  • react-grid-layout:

    react-grid-layout is designed for performance with dynamic layouts, efficiently managing the rendering of components based on user interactions and visibility.

  • react-grid-system:

    react-grid-system is lightweight and straightforward, ensuring that performance remains high while providing responsive layout capabilities.

  • react-flexbox-grid:

    react-flexbox-grid is minimalistic and focuses on Flexbox, resulting in a lightweight library that enhances performance without unnecessary bloat.

Learning Curve

  • styled-components:

    styled-components is relatively easy to learn for developers familiar with CSS, allowing for a smooth transition to CSS-in-JS styling.

  • @mui/material:

    @mui/material has a moderate learning curve, especially for developers unfamiliar with Material Design principles, but its documentation is comprehensive and helpful.

  • react-bootstrap:

    react-bootstrap is easy to learn for those already familiar with Bootstrap, making it accessible for developers looking to integrate Bootstrap into React applications quickly.

  • react-virtualized:

    react-virtualized has a steeper learning curve due to its performance-oriented features and API, but it is invaluable for applications dealing with large datasets.

  • react-grid-layout:

    react-grid-layout may require some learning to fully utilize its drag-and-drop features, but its API is intuitive for developers familiar with grid layouts.

  • react-grid-system:

    react-grid-system is straightforward to learn, focusing on grid layouts without complex components or configurations, making it ideal for beginners.

  • react-flexbox-grid:

    react-flexbox-grid has a gentle learning curve, especially for those familiar with Flexbox, making it easy to adopt for responsive layouts.

Customization and Theming

  • styled-components:

    styled-components excels in customization, allowing developers to create dynamic styles based on props and themes, making it highly flexible for various design needs.

  • @mui/material:

    @mui/material provides extensive theming capabilities, allowing developers to customize the look and feel of components easily, ensuring brand consistency across applications.

  • react-bootstrap:

    react-bootstrap allows for customization through Bootstrap's theming capabilities, enabling developers to adjust styles globally or per component, but may require additional CSS for deeper customization.

  • react-virtualized:

    react-virtualized is focused on performance rather than styling, offering limited customization options, making it less ideal for applications that require extensive theming.

  • react-grid-layout:

    react-grid-layout allows for customization of grid items, but theming is more limited compared to other libraries, focusing on layout rather than style.

  • react-grid-system:

    react-grid-system provides basic customization options for grid layouts but does not focus on theming, making it less suitable for projects requiring extensive design changes.

  • react-flexbox-grid:

    react-flexbox-grid offers limited customization options, focusing primarily on layout rather than extensive theming, making it less flexible for design changes.

How to Choose: styled-components vs @mui/material vs react-bootstrap vs react-virtualized vs react-grid-layout vs react-grid-system vs react-flexbox-grid
  • styled-components:

    Opt for styled-components if you prefer a CSS-in-JS approach, allowing you to write actual CSS code to style your components. This is beneficial for projects that require scoped styles and dynamic styling capabilities.

  • @mui/material:

    Choose @mui/material if you need a comprehensive set of components that follow Material Design principles, offering a modern and consistent look and feel. It is ideal for applications that require a polished UI with accessibility features.

  • react-bootstrap:

    Select react-bootstrap if you prefer a straightforward integration of Bootstrap components into your React application, leveraging Bootstrap's responsive grid system and pre-styled components for rapid development.

  • react-virtualized:

    Select react-virtualized if your application handles large datasets and requires efficient rendering of lists or tables. It optimizes performance by only rendering visible items, making it suitable for data-heavy applications.

  • react-grid-layout:

    Use react-grid-layout when you need a draggable and resizable grid layout for complex dashboards or applications that require dynamic positioning of components. It excels in scenarios where user customization is a priority.

  • react-grid-system:

    Choose react-grid-system for a simple yet powerful grid layout system that allows for easy customization and responsive design. It is ideal for projects that need a flexible grid without additional complexity.

  • react-flexbox-grid:

    Opt for react-flexbox-grid if you want a lightweight solution focused on Flexbox for layout management. It is suitable for projects that prioritize flexibility and responsiveness without the overhead of a full UI framework.

README for styled-components

Visual primitives for the component age. Use the best bits of ES6 and CSS to style your apps without stress 💅

downloads: 600k/month Discord gzip size module formats: umd, cjs, esm Code Coverage

Upgrading from v5? See the migration guide.

Utilizing tagged template literals (a recent addition to JavaScript) and the power of CSS, styled-components allow you to write actual CSS code to style your components. It also removes the mapping between components and styles – using components as a low-level styling construct could not be easier!

const Button = styled.button`
  color: grey;
`;

Alternatively, you may use style objects. This allows for easy porting of CSS from inline styles, while still supporting the more advanced styled-components capabilities like component selectors and media queries.

const Button = styled.button({
  color: 'grey',
});

Equivalent to:

const Button = styled.button`
  color: grey;
`;

styled-components is compatible with both React (for web) and React Native – meaning it's the perfect choice even for truly universal apps! See the documentation about React Native for more information.

Supported by Front End Center. Thank you for making this possible!


Docs

See the documentation at styled-components.com/docs for more information about using styled-components!

Quicklinks to some of the most-visited pages:


Example

import React from 'react';

import styled from 'styled-components';

// Create a <Title> react component that renders an <h1> which is
// centered, palevioletred and sized at 1.5em
const Title = styled.h1`
  font-size: 1.5em;
  text-align: center;
  color: palevioletred;
`;

// Create a <Wrapper> react component that renders a <section> with
// some padding and a papayawhip background
const Wrapper = styled.section`
  padding: 4em;
  background: papayawhip;
`;

function MyUI() {
  return (
    // Use them like any other React component – except they're styled!
    <Wrapper>
      <Title>Hello World, this is my first styled component!</Title>
    </Wrapper>
  );
}

This is what you'll see in your browser:


Looking for v5?

The main branch is for the most-current version of styled-components, currently v6. For changes targeting v5, please point your PRs at the legacy-v5 branch.


Built with styled-components

A lot of hard work goes into community libraries, projects, and guides. A lot of them make it easier to get started or help you with your next project! There are also a whole lot of interesting apps and sites that people have built using styled-components.

Make sure to head over to awesome-styled-components to see them all! And please contribute and add your own work to the list so others can find it.


Contributing

If you want to contribute to styled-components please see our contributing and community guidelines, they'll help you get set up locally and explain the whole process.

Please also note that all repositories under the styled-components organization follow our Code of Conduct, make sure to review and follow it.


Badge

Let everyone know you're using styled-componentsstyle: styled-components

[![style: styled-components](https://img.shields.io/badge/style-%F0%9F%92%85%20styled--components-orange.svg?colorB=daa357&colorA=db748e)](https://github.com/styled-components/styled-components)

Contributors

This project exists thanks to all the people who contribute. [Contribute].


Backers

Thank you to all our backers! 🙏 [Become a backer]


Sponsors

Support this project by becoming a sponsor. Your logo will show up here with a link to your website. [Become a sponsor]


License

Licensed under the MIT License, Copyright © 2016-present Glen Maddern and Maximilian Stoiber.

See LICENSE for more information.


Acknowledgements

This project builds on a long line of earlier work by clever folks all around the world. We'd like to thank Charlie Somerville, Nik Graf, Sunil Pai, Michael Chan, Andrey Popp, Jed Watson & Andrey Sitnik who contributed ideas, code or inspiration.

Special thanks to @okonet for the fantastic logo.